 Bascially good, but no EPG |
| Review Date: January 19, 2010 |
| Reviewer: J. Goodell, Sunnyvale, CA |
I just purchased this and got it opened and installed in the kitchen. It fit the cabinet opening and provides most of basic functions needed to watch TV off the air while preparing and eating meals in the kitchen.
The remote has a button labeled "GUIDE" but pressing it does nothing. Where's my EPG* (Electronic Program Guide)? I want it!! And I choose Toshiba because I expected this company of all of them to get it right and include that basic feature. Sanyo sure didn't, and no store seems to be able to display a working unit, and if they do (Sams Club didn't), they don't use an air signal that would allow the customer to see how well the EPG is formatted and displayed - these vary widely from set to set, some much more useful then others. Further, the stores that do display a working unit, don't seem to let you see the remote control to see if the placement of the buttons is useful to you. But in this case, even seeing the remote would have suggested the there was the EPG feature because the remote included a button to display it. The manual says of this button: "GUIDE Displays the channel guide in the CABLE/SAT mode." Major disappointment!
Buried in the menu/setup is a good signal strength indication with the display of the real vs. virtual channel numbers, the SNR** of the signal, and some info about the channel being tuned. This is especially helpful with aiming the antenna for the best reception. The set seems to equipped with just about every know connector for every signal type that might be found in a home or office. We plan to connect a netbook computer to to the 15 pin VGA socket to display recipes.
The Mute button has a "half" mode, so the first press reduced the volume level to about half, the second press completely mutes it, and the 3rd press returns to full level. If you have a noisy environment or someone using the set is hard of hearing, the maximum audio level may be inadequate.
There is a "feature", DynaLight(tm) Dynamic Back-Light Control, that seems to sometimes cause a "breathing" of the picture brightness - the image goes dim for a few seconds, then back up. I need to study this further, but it was noticeable several times and for no apparent reason.
There is some adjustment of the display's color temperature, but it doesn't give real values in degrees K, just terms like "Warm" with some controls you can tweak to make yourself happier.
Toshiba 26AV52R 26" LCD HDTV
*Electronic Program Guide - this is the feature that shows you what programs are on the channels now and in the immediate future, and usually allows you to select them for viewing, and possibly the set will tune to that program when it begins. This TV Guide info is transmitted over the air by the TV station itself and is available for free to every viewer who's TV will display it, assuming that you are receiving that info and your cable/satellite provider didn't strip it off before it got to your set. It saves you the time to look for the printed guide someplace else, and even makes it easy to directly select that program to watch.
**SNR - Signal to Noise Ratio is an indication of how well the signal is being received from the background noise: given in deciBels (dB) The bigger the number, the better the signal and the fewer artifacts you will see and hear on the program you are watching. |
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US $349.00
