Toshiba 55HT1U?

[mrsfrz]

I have been saving for a 55 inch 240Hz TV. However, I just noticed an ad for the Toshiba 55HT1U for $899 next week at a special Sears event. It also will be at Best Buy for $969 on Black Friday. The price seems too good to pass up even though I'd rather have one of the newer 3-D sets which I can't afford yet. Does anyone know what kind of quality I should expect from this model Toshiba? Is it one of Toshiba's lower quality sets? Until I found this forum, I always thought I should stay away from Plasmas, but now I'm wondering about that decision. Which sets last longer, and which ones are better for viewing off angle? Should I wait until I can afford the 240hz? I'm totally confused, so please help if you're out there! Thanks.

[MrBoylan]

I have been saving for a 55 inch 240Hz TV. However, I just noticed an ad for the Toshiba 55HT1U for $899 next week at a special Sears event. It also will be at Best Buy for $969 on Black Friday. The price seems too good to pass up even though I'd rather have one of the newer 3-D sets which I can't afford yet. Does anyone know what kind of quality I should expect from this model Toshiba? Is it one of Toshiba's lower quality sets? Until I found this forum, I always thought I should stay away from Plasmas, but now I'm wondering about that decision. Which sets last longer, and which ones are better for viewing off angle? Should I wait until I can afford the 240hz? I'm totally confused, so please help if you're out there! Thanks.

Plasma TVs are far superior to LED and LED sets for viewing off angle due to the way the image is formed. With LCD and LED sets, the LCD panel is lit from behind and are generally optimized for a frontal view. With plasma, the pixels are self-emissive (directly illuminated) which makes them look better and retain their color saturation and accuracy off angle. If you read the reviews in Consumer Reports and CNET, you will see that plasmas are generally higher rated than LCD or LED TVs, though that is not to say that ALL plasmas are better than ALL LCD or LED TVs.

The Toshiba sets are pretty good and I'm sure you'd be happy with one, particularly at that price. But if you're looking for a real high performance TV with internet streaming features and excellent performance on sports and movies, then you should consider a Panasonic G25, GT25 or VT25, or a Samsung or LG plasma set. A good plasma still outperforms most LED and LCD sets by most measurements.

If you have your heart set on a 3D-ready set, then the 50-inch Panasonic GT25 series set is available for $1789 with good financing terms on Amazon. The price may seem a little high until you consider the fact that they throw in a Blu-ray 3D player, 2 pairs of glasses and 2 Blu-ray 3D movies for no additional charge. Plus you'll be able to get the Avatar Blu-ray 3D Disc for free as well, by sending in your receipt in a mail-in rebate offer. This amounts to about $600 worth of freebies.

Details are available here:

Panasonic 3D TV: $1789 with free Blu-ray player, glasses and movies including Avatar 3D

Regards,

-Chris