I am starting this new thread in order to consolidate all new comments on these hot Plasmas. It is getting difficult to follow all discussion in several long threads.

I believe that as soon as vendors and buyers alike become familiar with these sets, they will become hot sellers. Toshiba has given us all that the Panasonics lack, a great picture with the Panasonic glass (my opinion), great looks, realistic price and AVAILABILITY.

Needless to say, I just ordered my 50HPX95 from Tweeter yesterday, to be delivered when I choose, as soon as I get the wall mount.

hello. i am new to the forum. i just placed my order for a Toshiba 50HP95 a couple of days ago. i'll be posting when i get it set up as to how it performs and how well i like it.

Why is this thread here, given all the threads that already exist on this topic?

Why is this thread here, given all the threads that already exist on this topic?

Why? Because there is no "official Toshiba 42HP95, 42HPX95, 50HP95 & 50HPX95" thread.

I am starting this new thread in order to consolidate all new comments on these hot Plasmas. It is getting difficult to follow all discussion in several long threads.

I believe that as soon as vendors and buyers alike become familiar with these sets, they will become hot sellers. Toshiba has given us all that the Panasonics lack, a great picture with the Panasonic glass (my opinion), great looks, realistic price and AVAILABILITY.

Needless to say, I just ordered my 50HPX95 from Tweeter yesterday, to be delivered when I choose, as soon as I get the the wall mount.

I would get the set delivered now. It comes with a stand; so you can set it
on a table and get immediate enjoyment.

How does the return policy work at Tweeter. Does the return limit time
start from the day you order or the day it is delivered?

pat

I would get the set delivered now. It comes with a stand; so you can set it
on a table and get immediate enjoyment.

How does the return policy work at Tweeter. Does the return limit time
start from the day you order or the day it is delivered?

pat

The policy is 30 days, from date of delivery. I only placed a deposit, because they only have 12 sets of the 50HPX95, and I felt they may be gone. They have several stores in the South Florida area under the name of "Sound Advice", and this inventory is for all stores.

I am really waiting for the final resolution of my refund for my 50PX500U, which has a tuning circuit flaw for the QAM tuner. Otherwise the Tosh would now be on the wall, as soon as I got it. It is great to hear, "want it tommorow? You got it! :) "

The policy is 30 days, from date of delivery. I only placed a deposit, becuse they only have 12 sets of the 50HPX95, and I felt they may ge gone. They have several stores in the South Florida area under the name of "Sound Advice", and this inventory is for all stores.

I am really waiting for the final resolution of my refund from Panasonic for my 50PX500U, which has a tuning circuit flaw for the QAM tuner. Otherwise the Tosh would now be on my mount.. It is great to hear, "want it tommorow? You got it! :) "

Just curious, I have a 500u. What was wrong with the tuner? Do you remember the build date? I have had some problems with two other 500u's that I returned. Now, with this third one I'm getting a little worried. I still have 30 days to decide. Any info would be helpful, thanks.

Just curious, I have a 500u. What was wrong with the tuner? Do you remember the build date? I have had some problems with two other 500u's that I returned. Now, with this third one I'm getting a little worried. I still have 30 days to decide. Any info would be helpful, thanks.

The build date was June 2005, Tijuana, Mexico. If yours works on QAM, you have nothing to worry about. The problems with the tuner I believe would not existed had I elected to use a cable card. However who knows, as I never had a chance to try it. I have Comcast, no STB, and stubborn to get QAM for which I paid and as advertised by Panasonic.

After scaning for digital channels, the tuner would return "No" under channels 92 and 93 on the matrix of found channels, indicating that there were no digital channels found. Other channels, even though the signal was scrambled, would be indicated, for example, 84-1, 84-2, 85-2, 85-3 etc.. The HD locals that it found, would be 103.3 (CBS) 103-4 Discovery, but it never picked up PBS and Fox on 92-1 & 92-3 and ABC and NBC on 93-1 and 93-3.

I know the signals are there, because 2 LG sets and 3 receivers with QAM tuners picked them up. I found a freaky way to get 92-1 and 93-1 by changing the "No" on the scanned matrix to "Yes", and then tuning to 92 and 93 with the remote.

The screen would try to tune the analog 92 & 93, but of course with no analog signal, the screen would be snovy white for a few seconds. Then it would switch to the digital tuner and receive PBS 92-1 and ABC 93-1, with the screen still showing 92 and 93, same as in analog. Manually tuning the other 92-X and 93-X subchannels, would reward me with "No signal"

I have been trying every scheme, using attenuators, amplifiers, removed the splitters but nothing worked. Panny got me in touch with a service center, who took the set to his shop and experienced the same, with his Comcast service. He ordered a new tuner, but that did not solve the problem either. He still has the set and I am negotiating with the retailer to refund the purchase price and take the set back. There is more to this, I feel, as why would Panny discontinue a popular hot seller?

I really enjoyed the set, the HD channels I was able to see were great. The analog SD was super and I still am reluctant to give it up. I let the 30 days trial go by, as the retailer did not have a replacement. The understanding was, when in stock, he would replace. But he never had stock, at least he never told me so, as he would fill the back orders at my expense.

I like the new Toshiba because the glass and picture is equal to the Panny, however, the guts are Toshiba, and I hope the Panny tuning problems are not an issue. As my mother used to say, "all things happen for the best",. so I will soon see. Will keep all posted.

The build date was June 2005, Tijuana, Mexico. If yours works on QAM, you have nothing to worry about. The problems with the tuner I believe would not existed had I elected to use a cable card. However who knows, as I never had a chance to try it. I have Comcast, no STB, and stubborn to get QAM for which I paid and as advertised by Panasonic.

After scaning for digital channels, the tuner would return "No" under channels 92 and 93 on the matrix of found channels, indicating that there were no digital channels found. Other channels, even though the signal was scrambled, would be indicated, for example, 84-1, 84-2, 85-2, 85-3 etc.. The HD locals that it found, would be 103.3 (CBS) 103-4 Discovery, but it never picked up PBS and Fox on 92-1 & 92-3 and ABC and NBC on 93-1 and 93-3.

I know the signals are there, because 2 LG sets and 3 receivers with QAM tuners picked them up. I found a freaky way to get 92-1 and 93-1 by changing the "No" on the scanned matrix to "Yes", and then tuning to 92 and 93 with the remote.

The screen would try to tune the analog 92 & 93, but of course with no analog signal, the screen would be snovy white for a few seconds. Then it would switch to the digital tuner and receive PBS 92-1 and ABC 93-1, with the screen still showing 92 and 93, same as in analog. Manually tuning the other 92-X and 93-X subchannels, would reward me with "No signal"

I have been trying every scheme, using attenuators, amplifiers, removed the splitters but nothing worked. Panny got me in touch with a service center, who took the set to his shop and experienced the same, with his Comcast service. He ordered a new tuner, but that did not solve the problem either. He still has the set and I am negotiating with the retailer to refund the purchase price and take the set back. There is more to this, I feel, as why would Panny discontinue a popular hot seller?

I really enjoyed the set, the HD channels I was able to see were great. The analog SD was super and I still am reluctant to give it up. I let the 30 days trial go by, as the retailer did not have a replacement. The understanding was, when in stock, he would replace. But he never had stock, at least he never told me so, as he would fill the back orders at my expense.

I like the new Toshiba because the glass and picture is equal to the Panny, however, the guts are Toshiba, and I hope the Panny tuning problems are not an issue. As my mother used to say, "all things happen for the best",. so I will soon see. Will keep all posted.


Thanks for the info. I use a cable card and do not experience any of the problems you mentioned. The build date of my latest TV is December 2005. I'm not sure that Panasonic discontinued this model, rather it was a question of supply and demand. I was able to buy this TV easily via Circuit City (as I mentioned I had three). My concern is do I keep this one after the problems with the first two and the problems I see reported in the forum or send it back. Does anyone know of any recalls, Panasonic says no. I hate to make a decision on what might happen down the road but I don't want to be stuck with a problematic plasma either. Also, sorry for all the Panny talk on the Toshiba Thread but since you have both I thought it was ok.

I think you forgot to mention more features on the Toshiba. Also, if it is not too much trouble, can you post the differences between the normal HP line and HPX line so people interested can see it right away.

I think you forgot to mention more features on the Toshiba. Also, if it is not too much trouble, can you post the differences between the normal HP line and HPX line so people interested can see it right away.

The owner's manuals are available on the Crutchfield website, with some videos and nifty pictures for both models. I copied some of the info, so here it goes:

HPX95 DETAILS


High-Definition TV — receives and decodes digital TV signals from over-the-air broadcasts (antenna required) and cable TV service (CableCARD™ required)
widescreen 16:9 aspect ratio
1366 x 768 pixels
3000:1 contrast ratio
160°(H) x 160°(V) viewing angle
PixelPure™ video processing (upconverts non-HD signals)
CableClear™ video noise reduction
TV Guide On Screen® 8-day program guide
1-tuner Picture-in-Picture (split-screen)
built-in stereo speakers (10 watts x 2)
illuminated multibrand remote control
picture settings memory for each video input
9 A/V inputs, including:
• 3 composite video (2 rear, 1 side)
• 3 S-video (2 rear, 1 side)
• 2 HD-compatible component video (accepts 1080i/720p/480p/480i signals)
• 2 HDMI digital audio/video inputs
• 2 "DTVLink" (IEEE 1394) ports for HD record/play with digital video recorders like Toshiba's Symbio™
PC input: analog RGB (D-Sub 15-pin)
2 RF inputs for antenna/cable signals
THINC™ (Toshiba Home Interactive Network Connection) Ethernet port for accessing music files and digital photos stored on a compatible PC
memory card slot for viewing digital photos and playing MP3 files
detachable stand (depth is 15-1/8")
wall-mountable (bracket not included)
49-5/8"W x 32-3/4"H x 5-3/4"D (34-1/2"H x 15-1/8"D on stand)
weight: 117.3 lbs. (without stand)
warranty: 1 year parts & labor
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


HP95 DETAILS

High-Definition TV — receives and decodes digital TV signals from over-the-air broadcasts (antenna required) and cable TV service (CableCARD™ required)
widescreen 16:9 aspect ratio
1366 x 768 pixels
3000:1 contrast ratio
160°(H) x 160°(V) viewing angle
PixelPure™ video processing (upconverts non-HD signals)
CableClear™ video noise reduction
TV Guide On Screen® 8-day program guide
1-tuner Picture-and-Picture (split-screen)
built-in stereo speakers (10 watts x 2)
lluminated multibrand remote control
picture settings memory for each video input
8 A/V inputs, including:
• 3 composite video (2 rear, 1 front)
• 3 S-video (2 rear, 1 front)
• 2 HD-compatible component video (accepts /720p/480p/480i signals)
• 1 HDMI digital audio/video input
• 2 "DTVLink" (IEEE 1394) ports for HD record/play with digital video recorders like Toshiba's Symbios
PC input: analog RGB (D-Sub 15-pin)
2 RF inputs for antenna/cable signals
memory card slot for viewing digital photos and playing MP3 files
detachable stand (depth is 15-1/8")
wall-mountable (bracket not included)
49-9/16"W x 32-13/16"H x 5-13/16"D (34-9/16"H x 15-1/8"D on stand)
weight: 117.3 lbs. (without stand)
warranty: 1 year parts & labor

Since this is the "official" thread, I feel the need to post my experiences.

1. My panel died with it being 3 weeks old

2. Major hassles with Toshiba's authorized centers - They indicated I needed to help carry the plasma to the truck and back, etc. even though there is in-home service. 8 day lead time on service.

3. I bought from Onecall.com who will not let me return the TV as they have a policy not allowing it. A mistake I will not make in the future, I will buy from a vendor that has a full 30 day return policy.

I have begun a legal fight to return the TV as I don't want to deal with Toshiba's policies and the chance the panel will die again.

Buyer beware. This is my 3rd plasma. Pioneer and Panny have been great with no issues since my first one from fall, 2002. This is my last Toshiba product.

Since this is the "official" thread, I feel the need to post my experiences.

1. My panel died with it being 3 weeks old

2. Major hassles with Toshiba's authorized centers - They indicated I needed to help carry the plasma to the truck and back, etc. even though there is in-home service. 8 day lead time on service.

3. I bought from Onecall.com who will not let me return the TV as they have a policy not allowing it. A mistake I will not make in the future, I will buy from a vendor that has a full 30 day return policy.

I have begun a legal fight to return the TV as I don't want to deal with Toshiba's policies and the chance the panel will die again.

Buyer beware. This is my 3rd plasma. Pioneer and Panny have been great with no issues since my first one from fall, 2002. This is my last Toshiba product.


Sorry to hear about your troubles with Onecall.Com. The service centers are independant from the manufacturers and handle many brands. I would have contacted Toshiba Customer Service and have them put some pressure on the service center to provide 2 men to cart the TV out of your house.

What was wrong with the TV anyway??

How is SD on the Toshiba plasmas? Anyone aware of any magazine or other reviews on any of these models?

Sorry to hear about your troubles with Onecall.Com. The service centers are independant from the manufacturers and handle many brands. I would have contacted Toshiba Customer Service and have them put some pressure on the service center to provide 2 men to cart the TV out of your house.

What was wrong with the TV anyway??

I did contact Toshiba Customer Service and escalated, they finally authorized two people a WEEK later. It took them two days to even call me back. I even put a request in on the website and got a response back from a rep that it's up to the local service center.

The TV has been out of service for two weeks while we fight this out. I have an attorney involved to sort this out as I want to return the TV and be done with Toshiba (never again to return). For good measure I think I will also dispute with MasterCard (MasterCard's suggestion) although not sure how that will go.

Word to the wise - Buy from a vendor with a 30 day full return policy and be sure that in-home service means in-home service that doesn't involve you being there to help carry the TV.

I have not had any problems with the toshiba products I have bought before, and am currently looking into the 42hpx95. As far as the post made by Raj.......... is this a normal procedure from onecall.com?

I've bought from onecall.com before but not a TV. They've got great prices but I probably will not buy a TV from them based on the return policy. It says they do not accept returns on TVs larger than 20 inches.

I have not had any problems with the toshiba products I have bought before, and am currently looking into the 42hpx95. As far as the post made by Raj.......... is this a normal procedure from onecall.com?

It is their standard procedure and they did make it clear to me that TV's over 20" cannot be returned. Based on my prior plasma experiences I didn't see any issue with this.

However, the fact that the TV died at the 3 week point AND the subsequent hassles of getting it fixed has driven me to challenge this with them and Toshiba as they have not been able to properly service.

My fear is that it gets fixed and then breaks again. I don't need the hassle. If they would have been able to quickly fix with two techs I would not be having an issue.

Raj, first off, sorry to hear about your troubles. Next, please keep us updated as to your Onecall return experience. Being an attorney myself, I am curious to see the arguments your attorney is making to rebuff their standard policy of NO RETURNS over 20". More curiosity than anything else but it may help others down the road. Note--their return policy was the only reason I did not order from Onecall because their price was great.
Thanks
Juc

I have a 42HP95 and have had a HDMI inpute issue since the day i bought the monitor in late november and have gotten the run around from Toshiba with regards to the issue:

Monitor is hooked up to a Comcast HDMI DVR Box (this is the only hdmi source i have tried).

In general when viewing programing though the HDMI input the monitor will literally crash- Audio goes dead, screen is still active with what ever the programming is and the red power light starts to blink, none of the buttons will do anyting except for holding down the power button for 5 secconds to reboot the system.

viewing content from the same DVR box using the componet cables is fine and never have an issue but were reconfiguring the set up and would like to use the HDMI input this time like i originally hoped i would.

Called Toshiba Tech Support - kind of a joke i might ad but that is another issue, and they said that its an issue with the HDMI source. So i then had the Cable box switched and same issue happens.

I honestly dont want to have to take it to a service center - risk it breaking in transit and be out of a tv for weeks only to find out that acording to them there isnt a problem.

Any one else experiencing a similar issue?

WOW!!! well, i have had my new 50hp95 up and running for a couple days now. the picture is AWESOME. ran it through the avia disc and calibrated it. no complaints as of yet. the hd picture is unreal. if i am unfortunate enough to have any of the above mentioned problems (which all manufacturers have), my set will go right back to good ole costco. i'll let you know how mine fairs over time.

watch out for inoax, same as onecall...think they are one company....very good prices
but usually say they have item to ship when they dont.....think they are drop shippers

bought my 42hp95 from best buy 11,27, 2005 so far, no problems...love the thing..
i just dont like all of a sudden all networks want to display their logo on the screen
all the time...wont watch these channels as i am afraid of burn-in...

Our screen is on for 3-5 hours a day and i have never seen any image retention of the channel logos. Logos are almost always translucent so their color does shift some with the content. Also the TV does orbit the display over time to help prevent retention.

Just keep the contrast and brightness below 50 and you will not have any trouble. I certainly would not avoid channels.

HDMI problem still may be with the cable box even though you switched it. Try hooking up a DVD player through hdmi and see what happens. I know Brighthouse cable has had issues with hdmi connection. I have had no problems issues with this tv. And if any one could post their calibrated settings it would be appreciated.

I just received my 42hpx95 today and did a few tests and such as well as tweaked the settings (lightly, will properly calibrate later). Overall, it looks great, but I had a few concerns...

First thing I used was an XBOX360, which was extremely nice looking. Very crisp, colorful, and clean. Yellow trails were present, like any plasma, but do not bother me a whole lot (still much better than LCD and DLP ghosting). I only saw it once, but at the main menu of Call of Duty 2, I saw some slight flicker in the dark areas. I had heard about this before, and I'm a bit concerned. Hopefully it will not be a problem. It saw it on no other inputs or instances. Other than that, 360 was perfect.

I then moved to PS2 to take a look at 480i. It actually looks great, overall. The image remains rather sharp and crisp (though the pixels are fairly large) as opposed to an LCD, which blurs the image. What I did notice, however, was general image noise in dark areas. I suppose this could be the fault of my cables, however. 360 was direct to TV via component. PS2 was run through receiver (via component) and input to the TV using (shamefully) some spare composite cables of low quality. So, until I prove otherwise, I'm hoping that the low quality of the cables being used for video are at fault rather than the TV. Even if it isn't fixed, it doesn't seem to be particularly noticible unless you are sitting closer to the TV.

The other issue I have involves gray bars. The 4:3 mode uses gray bars, for screen protection, no doubt, but I would like to be able to set it to black. I'll have to dig through the menus in more detail, but it did not seem to be present. My eyes are a bit too sensitive and having those gray areas causes them to catch brief glances of yellow. It's not a huge deal, but it reminds me of the DLP effect (rainbows and such), which I can't stand to look at.

I just received my 42hpx95 today and did a few tests and such as well as tweaked the settings (lightly, will properly calibrate later). Overall, it looks great, but I had a few concerns...

First thing I used was an XBOX360, which was extremely nice looking. Very crisp, colorful, and clean. Yellow trails were present, like any plasma, but do not bother me a whole lot (still much better than LCD and DLP ghosting). I only saw it once, but at the main menu of Call of Duty 2, I saw some slight flicker in the dark areas. I had heard about this before, and I'm a bit concerned. Hopefully it will not be a problem. It saw it on no other inputs or instances. Other than that, 360 was perfect.

I then moved to PS2 to take a look at 480i. It actually looks great, overall. The image remains rather sharp and crisp (though the pixels are fairly large) as opposed to an LCD, which blurs the image. What I did notice, however, was general image noise in dark areas. I suppose this could be the fault of my cables, however. 360 was direct to TV via component. PS2 was run through receiver (via component) and input to the TV using (shamefully) some spare composite cables of low quality. So, until I prove otherwise, I'm hoping that the low quality of the cables being used for video are at fault rather than the TV. Even if it isn't fixed, it doesn't seem to be particularly noticible unless you are sitting closer to the TV.

The other issue I have involves gray bars. The 4:3 mode uses gray bars, for screen protection, no doubt, but I would like to be able to set it to black. I'll have to dig through the menus in more detail, but it did not seem to be present. My eyes are a bit too sensitive and having those gray areas causes them to catch brief glances of yellow. It's not a huge deal, but it reminds me of the DLP effect (rainbows and such), which I can't stand to look at.

You can set the bars to black by going into the power saving menu.

For the black flickering, turn the brightness down. DVE wanted me to set the brightness WAY too high as to what looks best IMO. DVE wanted it around 60 and I have it at 44-46 depending upon the source. If you have the brightness at a correct level the flickering blacks are a no issue. You don't get as much shadow detail as CRT, but the blacks are BLACK and look great.

As far as the composite cable for the PS2 goes, I ran a VCR into mine with a composite connection and I was surprised actually at how good it looked, maybe I was expecting it to be really bad, but it was easily acceptable.

I think if you bring the brightness down you will have no issues.

Oh I almost forgot... turn the dynamic contrast OFF. That makes the blacks look horrendous in my eyes.

Thanks for the tip. I'll trying bringing down the brightness a bit more tonight and see what happens.

Is it safe to use the black bar setting, by the way? I've heard both sides of this. They say that black isn't going to burn-in, but rather, the sharp contrast between the central frame and those bars will cause the problems. However, gray bars still result in a similar situation. I'm uncertain.

Also, regarding burn-in time, would something as simple as "television fuzz" (when selecting a channel that doesn't exist) work? I'd like to reach the 100 hours as fast as possible, and that would be something I could begin immediately.

As far as the composite cable for the PS2 goes, I ran a VCR into mine with a composite connection and I was surprised actually at how good it looked, maybe I was expecting it to be really bad, but it was easily acceptable.
Well, to clear this one up, I was actually using a component connection. I ran the component video into my receiver and then, using the component video output on the receiver, sent it to the TV. Both 360 and the PS2 were running through component. However, the cables I used for the three video connections were actually just a set of three cables (yellow, white, red). That's all I had handy at the time and didn't bother to replace the thing, cheap cables as they didn't make a difference on the CRT. It seems that they may be making a difference here, however.

Also, are there any other settings/tweaks that you might recommend I take a look at? Could you PM me service codes?

Don't forget that the settings are stored separately for each input. So even if you have turned down the brightness for one input, you will still have to go back and do it again for each ofthe other inputs that you use. As slider pointed out, this is the most likely cause of the black flickering. It may not be the cables, even though you are not using "real" component cables.

Don't forget that the settings are stored separately for each input. So even if you have turned down the brightness for one input, you will still have to go back and do it again for each ofthe other inputs that you use. As slider pointed out, this is the most likely cause of the black flickering. It may not be the cables, even though you are not using "real" component cables.
Well, there was no flickering during my PS2 tests. The problem was a noisy/dirty image when displaying really dark colors. The image was completely clean on the 360 when displaying dark images, however.

Thanks for the tip. I'll trying bringing down the brightness a bit more tonight and see what happens.

Is it safe to use the black bar setting, by the way? I've heard both sides of this. They say that black isn't going to burn-in, but rather, the sharp contrast between the central frame and those bars will cause the problems. However, gray bars still result in a similar situation. I'm uncertain.

Also, regarding burn-in time, would something as simple as "television fuzz" (when selecting a channel that doesn't exist) work? I'd like to reach the 100 hours as fast as possible, and that would be something I could begin immediately.


Well, to clear this one up, I was actually using a component connection. I ran the component video into my receiver and then, using the component video output on the receiver, sent it to the TV. Both 360 and the PS2 were running through component. However, the cables I used for the three video connections were actually just a set of three cables (yellow, white, red). That's all I had handy at the time and didn't bother to replace the thing, cheap cables as they didn't make a difference on the CRT. It seems that they may be making a difference here, however.

Sorry for misunderstanding... I have heard of people doing this with the cables, but have never tried it myself.

I have used the "fuzz" before one time when I had some slight image retention and it worked... anything basically that keeps the pixels active will work. The set has a white wash thing you can do too but I have never tried that one. I would not worry too much about the bars being black, the set uses a pixel shift feature that will move the image very slightly about every 30 seconds. When you are close to the TV and have a still image on there (I notice this playing PGR3 while waiting in a lobby or something) you can actually see it. I watch DVD's with the letterbox all the time and haven't had a problem at all. Of course, I broke the set in first. I have heard of speculation about the "black" pixels in the letterbox wearing at an uneven rate as opposed to the active ones, which makes sense, but I don't think something like this would be noticeable in the usable life (say 8 - 10 years most people will keep a TV) of the set. CRT's have the same "issue" and people never worried about those. If you want to break the set in quickly, loop a DVD and let it run for hours... just be sure to zoom in to rid of the black bars for this time.

dark1x:

Black bars will not "burn-in", but they can cause uneven aging of the phosphors. The area that is black will not age at the same rate as the area that is lit up. If used for a long enough period of time, the area occupied by the black bars would appear brighter with normal material. How long a period of time is that? I could not even venture a guess.

Actual "burn-in" is caused by excessively bright objects that are stationary on the screen for long periods of time. The phospors will actually age more quickly, and fail to light as brightly in that area. Truely burned phospors will probably never be equal to the rest of the screen again.

Image retention can be caused by bright objects also, but is usually a temporary problem.

Under normal video usage, I wouldn't worry about any of the problems. If you do gaming that has a lot of bright stationary outlines, or objects, then keep your contrast turned down to 40 or less. Using DVE you can set brightness using one of the "video black" frames. Adjust 'brightness' to the point that just extinguishes the phospors. There will still be some lightness to the screen, but you will not see any of the individual pixels lighting up.

Duke

One other question...

The manual claims that the HDMI ports should never be used with a computer. Why is this? Is this the result of a technical issue or a licensing one?

I would like to try this, as the VGA port is limited in resolution.

I was able to get one from Sears this week during a pretty good sale (won't mention prices of course, but let's just say that it appears it may have been a misprint or some sort of price mistake).

In any event, I bought the TV sight unseen. It's still in the box, as I don't plan to break it out until we move into our new house mid-March. I had been looking for a decent deal on the big Sony LCOS (SXRD XBR 60") for the family room, but then jumped all over this one, as I had planned to get a 42" for the bedroom as well.

As it turns out, I bought the MBR TV first, and we'll continue to see what makes sense for the FR, but I digress.

Thoughts on this TV? Is it a keeper? Any recommended settings? I expect we'll mostly be watching DTV at night in bed after the boys are asleep. Prolly no DVDs.

If you got it for the 600 off the sale price you got a steal. Most Sears would not honor the mistake in the ad. The unit is definetly a keeper, particularly at that price. It has its own thread. Run a search and you'll find it. Everything you need to know is covered. Setting recommendations also covered although there is likely some variability from unit to unit.

This plasma is definitely a keeper. I own this very model and have been very pleased so far with the PQ especially in HD.

If you got it for the 600 off the sale price you got a steal. Most Sears would not honor the mistake in the ad.

seriously id like to know which idiot employee was stupid enough to sell it to you for that price.. its only $100 over the buying price that sears gets it for apparently

seriously id like to know which idiot employee was stupid enough to sell it to you for that price.. its only $100 over the buying price that sears gets it for apparently

What is the Sear's buying price? I went to my local A/V store and they said they couldn't even match Sear's sales price because it was cost to them. I often can't tell if they are being truthful or if they just don't want to back off full retail. I really wanted the 42HPX95 but they wouldn't budge. Oh well, I get a great plasma and save some coin anyways!

D

Thanks guys. I did in fact get it for that silly price this past week, and based on your comments, I guess I'll keep it (I'm sure it'll be fine).

I did see that thread on the HPX, but didn't think that it was essentially the same box. Guess I'll do a little research to learn the difference between my HP and that HPX, and then read-through the HPX thread to learn about break-in, recommended settings, etc.

Thanks!

I am looking for a stand for my new 50HP95. I want it to be approx. 50 inch wide, have a back cover & prefer glass & silver style. Any ideas?

John in Iowa

The HPX is the same TV only with extra features. Also, keep in mind Sears' return policy if you are not going to open until later. There is always a possibility (with any TV) that you will have a problem and need to return or exchange.

Threads Merged!

Dave

What is the Sear's buying price? I went to my local A/V store and they said they couldn't even match Sear's sales price because it was cost to them. I often can't tell if they are being truthful or if they just don't want to back off full retail. I really wanted the 42HPX95 but they wouldn't budge. Oh well, I get a great plasma and save some coin anyways!

D

Moderator

Folks:

Please do not ask for price, or discuss price. There is only one price as far as AVS is concerned, and that is MSRP.

Thanks all

Moderator

Folks:

Please do not ask for price, or discuss price. There is only one price as far as AVS is concerned, and that is MSRP.

Thanks all


So, discussing "cost" is also out of bounds?

Thanks,

D

So, discussing "cost" is also out of bounds?

Thanks,

D
That would be talking price, and yes, out of bounds.

You can set the bars to black by going into the power saving menu.

For the black flickering, turn the brightness down. DVE wanted me to set the brightness WAY too high as to what looks best IMO. DVE wanted it around 60 and I have it at 44-46 depending upon the source.

Odd, for me DVE has me at 44.

BTW on my set it seems like levels go in blocks of 4 numbers. E.g., 47-50 are all identical then it jumps in brightness at 51-54 and so on. This is true for all the color adjustments. Is this normal?

Odd, for me DVE has me at 44.

BTW on my set it seems like levels go in blocks of 4 numbers. E.g., 47-50 are all identical then it jumps in brightness at 51-54 and so on. This is true for all the color adjustments. Is this normal?


That's the way it is. This does not allow for very fine black level adjustment, and the steps for brightness centering in the service menu are no finer. I'm not sure how other brands are at this. It doesn't appear to hurt video processing though.

The brightness setting will vary depending on your DVD player and how the TV is set up in the service menu. As long as you are set at the point where the pixels just go dark on the DVE "video black" frames, your adjustment should be right. It is easiest to do this in a totally dark room, and note that the sceen will still be lit, but no pixels will be firing.

Duke

Scaling issue: I read some posts in NEC 50XR5A's forum. They claim this model (50XR5A) is the best for scaled pictures. Scaling means that you use HDTV to display ED or lower resolution images. Good scaling indicates a high def device performs equally well for lower resolution movies than a device with native lower resolution. For this model (50HP95), I would assume it is best to display 720p, 480p, but for 480i, the pictures might not be as perfect as for 480p. Can anybody comment on this? thanks!

Scaling issue: I read some posts in NEC 50XR5A's forum. They claim this model (50XR5A) is the best for scaled pictures. Scaling means that you use HDTV to display ED or lower resolution images. Good scaling indicates a high def device performs equally well for lower resolution movies than a device with native lower resolution. For this model (50HP95), I would assume it is best to display 720p, 480p, but for 480i, the pictures might not be as perfect as for 480p. Can anybody comment on this? thanks!

I haven't compared it to the NEC, but the little 480i content I have watched on my set (Green Mile VHS thru composite) it looked much better than I thought it would... Very acceptable IMO.

Thanks for your comments. I'm wondering between 50HP95 NEC PX-50XR5A. I read lot of posts from NEC sites. The general impression I have is that NEC 50xr5a has much better picture quality than any other brands and models (of course, they boasted a little bit). However, their views are still rational. But 50HP95 has lots of features I like, for example, cablecard, lot of card slots which are missing from NEC. Meanwhile some bad experiences from this forum or other toshiba related forum gave me some negative impression. So I have reasons to go back and forth. I just need to read more and hear more till I become totally biased.

I have seen the 50hp95 at 2 different BB's and on both of them the blacks looked washed out next to a Panny and a Pioneer. I played with the Contrast and Brightness but I couldn't get iit that much better without make the image totally too dark.

I don't have the 50" Toshiba but I do own a 42hp95 and could not be happier with the blacks. They are black, they are not grey or gray.

-Jody

One of the BB's had a 42hp95 and blacks were indeed very good it it but the 50hp95 wasn't so good this is with the same HD video feed between the two.

I don't have the 50" Toshiba but I do own a 42hp95 and could not be happier with the blacks. They are black, they are not grey or gray.

-Jody

I second this emotion. I own a 50HP95 and the blacks on my set are outstanding. Always tough to compare when in a store like BB or CC.

Hi All,

I recently got the Toshiba 42hp95 and have been really satisfied with its performance. Like another member that's posted earlier on this thread, I also had some trouble tuning to particular QAM channels from Comcast that I knew existed (because my Fusion5 could tune to them). I eventually got a CableCard from Comcast and now, all the local broadcast channels come in correctly!

One thing that I noticed with using the CC, though, is that there seems to be some sluggish / slow response now when I use the remote on the TV. For example, if I'm watching a channel, and try to adjust the volume or change the channel, nothing will happen for around 2-3 seconds, but then the command will go through. Also, this behavior doesn't happen all the time.

Does anyone else use a CC with a 42hp95 and experience similar behavior?

I pulled the trigger on a 42HPX95 yeterday and it should be here next week. This will be my first plasma. Any advice/recommendations in how I can make sure the tv is in good shape would be extremely appreciated! Thanks.

Since the 50HP95 ha only 1 HDMI input, I'm thinking about buying a switch so I can plug in an HDMI from my DVD player and plug an HDMI from my DirecTV receiver. Anybody have thoughts or experience with this and if you lose any video quality? Thanks

from Sears. I am going to try to get a Cable Card from Cox tomorrow. I will report on how that works out.

The TV did tune in the two local HD channels that are on the cable, and I think a bunch of digital music channels. I am waiting for the download of the TVGuide info tonight.

I appreciate the setup tips in this thread, and will try them out.

Overscan on my set is reasonable at 1080i and 720p input, but 480i/p is a bit too much and a bit off centered. There are no height / width / positioning values in the SM, has anyone found the proper place to adjust this in address mode?

Thanks in advance!

I bought my 42HP95 in December 2005 and it has performed great!! I don't have any complaints what so ever. The picture is great and I love the options it comes with that the Panny didn't have like the POP, able to stretch the screen when watching digital channels and the picture slide show feature using a camera card.

I bought the unit from TVAuthority who delivered as promised. I would never buy from Tweeter, Best Buy or Circuit City again since they mark up the sets by $700 and the shipping was what I would have paid in taxes.

It's a great TV with great sound and I would buy another Toshiba.

Hi All,

My 3 week old 42hp95 seems to have developed a high pitch squeal. This occurs when the set is turned off, but still plugged into the wall. When I unplug the unit from the wall, the squeal goes away entirely. The squeal seems to be loudest in the left-center area of the back of the panel.

Has anyone else experienced anything like this? The Toshiba service center seems to be closed today, but I'll call back tomorrow and post back with my experience.

Hi All,

My 3 week old 42hp95 seems to have developed a high pitch squeal. This occurs when the set is turned off, but still plugged into the wall. When I unplug the unit from the wall, the squeal goes away entirely. The squeal seems to be loudest in the left-center area of the back of the panel.

Has anyone else experienced anything like this? The Toshiba service center seems to be closed today, but I'll call back tomorrow and post back with my experience.

I haven't experienced anything like this but it sounds like a problem with the fan. If so, that should be easily replacable under the warranty.

D

Hi All,

I recently got the Toshiba 42hp95 and have been really satisfied with its performance. Like another member that's posted earlier on this thread, I also had some trouble tuning to particular QAM channels from Comcast that I knew existed (because my Fusion5 could tune to them). I eventually got a CableCard from Comcast and now, all the local broadcast channels come in correctly!

One thing that I noticed with using the CC, though, is that there seems to be some sluggish / slow response now when I use the remote on the TV. For example, if I'm watching a channel, and try to adjust the volume or change the channel, nothing will happen for around 2-3 seconds, but then the command will go through. Also, this behavior doesn't happen all the time.

Does anyone else use a CC with a 42hp95 and experience similar behavior?

i just picked up the 42hp95 after returning a philips because of frequent BS (black screen of death).

i have timewarner and i can confirm that i had the same two issues as you.
1) tv can't seem to tune to channels that the philips found.
2) using the cablecard from the philips, i also noticed extremely slow response on the toshiba. i'm going to get a new cablecard to see if that helps. i'm not sure if i am suppose to use the same cablecard or not.

I haven't experienced anything like this but it sounds like a problem with the fan. If so, that should be easily replacable under the warranty.

D

Hi,

Thanks for the suggestion, but I don't think that it's the fan that's making the sound. I can clearly hear the fan when the unit is powered on, but the fan goes quiet as soon as it is powered off. When the unit is powered off, the high pitched squeal is still there. Nevertheless, I'll call the Toshiba service dept tomorrow to see what repair options are available.

Getting my first HDTV and need some help deciding. In all I have read plus checking them out in person, I have narrowed it to the Toshiba 42HP95 and Panny 42PX60U. Seems both are good but not sure which to get. Anyone have any comparisons or suggestions??

Getting my first HDTV and need some help deciding. In all I have read plus checking them out in person, I have narrowed it to the Toshiba 42HP95 and Panny 42PX60U. Seems both are good but not sure which to get. Anyone have any comparisons or suggestions??

i would say if u can get the panny for the same price as the tosh, get the panny.

panny has better picture quality, tosh has more features.

Getting my first HDTV and need some help deciding. In all I have read plus checking them out in person, I have narrowed it to the Toshiba 42HP95 and Panny 42PX60U. Seems both are good but not sure which to get. Anyone have any comparisons or suggestions??

It does depend upon your needs. If you need all of the connections and gadgets then you should look into the Tosh. Otherwise, I did notice the Panny had a slightly better picture but it wasn't enough for me to fork the extra cash. Now that I have my tv home I can't imagine having a better picture! ;)

Good luck deciding!

D

i just picked up the 42hp95 after returning a philips because of frequent BS (black screen of death).

i have timewarner and i can confirm that i had the same two issues as you.
1) tv can't seem to tune to channels that the philips found.
2) using the cablecard from the philips, i also noticed extremely slow response on the toshiba. i'm going to get a new cablecard to see if that helps. i'm not sure if i am suppose to use the same cablecard or not.

Hi,

My cablecard sluggishness seems to have disappeared! Surfing around on channels goes by quickly now, and the remote seems very responsive now in all cases. It seems to me that this sluggishness disappeared after around 48 hours after installing the cablecard. Maybe the TV just needed some time to adjust to it? (i.e. populate TV-guide info, etc.) Anyways, this particular problem seems to be resolved for me.

Hi,

My cablecard sluggishness seems to have disappeared! Surfing around on channels goes by quickly now, and the remote seems very responsive now in all cases. It seems to me that this sluggishness disappeared after around 48 hours after installing the cablecard. Maybe the TV just needed some time to adjust to it? (i.e. populate TV-guide info, etc.) Anyways, this particular problem seems to be resolved for me.

cool, thnx for the info. something to look forward to when i get the new cablecard.

:D

I called Toshiba support and complained of freeze-ups with my 42HP95 and Symbio AVHD recorder and they're sending me an SD card with the latest firmware. A very knowledgeable and friendly rep named Jeremy was very helpful and patient with me. So much for Toshiba's bad customer support. I only had some issues with the TV and Symbio due to trying to connect it to multiple firewire devices including my Mac running VirtualDVHS and my Pio plasma. The firmware update is mainly for cablecard and TV guide menu issues, but since the Symbio uses the TV Guide, he authorized it. He also said that there aren't any updates for the Symbio yet in case anyone's interested.

I am on my second cable card(Motorola) from Cox Cable. The first time it didn't work, well, I should say it did not pick up the digital channels like ESPNHD, DiscoveryHD, which is why I wanted it in the first place. Toshiba cust. svc. said it was because my software version was old. So, they sent me the newest version on a SD card, I installed it. Cox came back out today with another cable card, inserted it and called the numbers in to Cox, and still not aquiring the channels. Called Toshiba again and they say it is definitely a problem with Cox's signal to the card, not the TV. Toshiba said they turned the case over to their engineering dept., who is to contact Cox's engineering dept. about this.

The Toshiba guy also talked to the Cox guy, and asked him if they had any other cable cards besides the Motorola, which Cox does not.

Is it possible to buy your own cable card that is not a Motorola? Would that be likely to help?

Thanks

Unfortunately you can't buy your own cablecard.

I had used a cablecard in my 42HP95 from November to the beginning of February with no problem. Then the cable company sent out a firmware upgrade to the cablecard and it made it uncompatible with the firmware of the TV. I updated the firmware using the SD card Toshiba sent me and it's been working correctly for a week now.

As was pointed out on the other thread for these TVs, it will stink if this is a normal cycle: cable company updates firmware on card ->card doesn't work in TV -> update firware in TV -> card working then start again. I guess we'll have to see.

-Jody

anybody want to share the picture settings?

:D

i'm still in the break-in period.

I jumped on the 50hp95 today, after months waiting for a Panny at a good price. Fry's put it on sale today, I drove down there and they had 3 in house. I've only used it for a few hours before having to go back to work but here are my initial impressions:

1. This this is really heavy, having had at one time or another 2 42" Pannys and 1 50" Maxent this thing is a rock.

2. A lot of inputs: vga, 2 compenent, 3 composite/s-video, 1 hdmi, 2 coax, and memory card slots to boot. This thing rocks.

3. I love the stretch options, it has a comperable one to Panasonic's "Just" and it even works on 720P and 1080i inputs where the Pannys do not (*don't know for sure if the new 60u series do though)

4. As the Panny it comes from the factory in "tourch" mode known as "sports" in Toshiba land. Didn't have any time yet to play with it so I just changed every thing to "standard"

5. I like the "Auto" feature with the stretch modes. This was something my commercial Panny had but my consumer Panny did not.

6. Speakers are a little better than my Panny 50u.

7. Takes a little longer to power up than my Panny, but not that terrible.

8. The stand is huge compared to the Panny's duck feet model. both front and back stick out much farther than the panny. This makes the set much more stable than the Panny but this might be necessary due to it weighing more.

9. Remote is really wide and not very user friendly. It has a nicer blue backlight compared to the Panny's red. This isn't a huge concern because I was planning to buy a Harmony remote anyway.

10. TV guide looks interesting, jury still out on this one. It can program your VCR for you, but I don't even own a VCR anymore:)

11. I did a quick test of SD and HD and both preformed quite good compared to my Panasonic.

12. My take on it is that it's has the features of Panny's 600u series at a 60u price.

more to come.

5. I like the "Auto" feature with the stretch modes. This was something my commercial Panny had but my consumer Panny did not.


what exactly does the "auto" feature do?

what exactly does the "auto" feature do?


I changes the stretch mode depending on the input feed.

I changes the stretch mode depending on the input feed.

can you site an example?

cause i didn't notice anything when i turned it on and off.

can you site an example?

cause i didn't notice anything when i turned it on and off.


Aspect ratio Automatic aspect size
of signal source (automatically selected
when Auto Aspect is On)

4:3 normal -> Natural (with sidebars)
4:3 letter box -> TheaterWide 2
16:9 full -> Full

*only works with A 480i signal from the VIDEO 1, VIDEO 2, VIDEO 3,
ColorStream HD-1, or ColorStream HD-2 input.
or a 1080i, 480i, 480p, or 720p signal from the HDMI input.

I spent more time last night auditioning the 50HP95.

The Good....
- Outstanding color and clarity every much as good as the Panasonic. Much better than the Maxent 50x3 which the toshiba is replacing using the same video sources. Even my wife noticed right away the picture was much better. For her to even notice says much about this set.
- Speakers sound very good for their size.
- Does everything very well: 480i, 480p, 720p, and 1080i

The Bad...
- there is a very noticable buzz comming from the back of my set. It is very noticeable at 2 feet and annoying in a silent room even at 6 feet. I'm hopeing it will quiet down a little after more hours on the set. I understand that most Plasma will have some electronic buzz but compared to the Maxent this thing is aleast twice if not 3x as loud. don't know if I'm going to return it yet or try to get it serviced, I really like the performance and would like to keep it if I can get this one problem addressed. Anyone else if this problem?

Hi All,

My 3 week old 42hp95 seems to have developed a high pitch squeal. This occurs when the set is turned off, but still plugged into the wall. When I unplug the unit from the wall, the squeal goes away entirely. The squeal seems to be loudest in the left-center area of the back of the panel.

Has anyone else experienced anything like this? The Toshiba service center seems to be closed today, but I'll call back tomorrow and post back with my experience.

ASLIU--I had two Tosh 42HP95's, both of which had to be returned b/c they were defective. The second had a problem that sounds very similar to what you are experiencing. About 2 weeks after I brought it home, I came home from work and immediately noticed a constant, high pitched sound. I finally traced the sound to the back of the new TV. Like your problem, the sound persisted even if the TV was off (and was not fan related b/c it continued even if the TV had been off for hours), however, the sound did disappear when the TV was unplugged.

A service tech came out to look at the problem. When he found out my TV was still within the return policy, he recommended that I take the TV back. He did not do anything to the TV, but his theory was that the sound was a result of a part vibrating at a very high frequency. He said that the vibration may not ever cause any defect in the TV itself, however, he said it may eventually break loose, possibly causing some damage. Once again, the tech never actually looked inside the unit, this was all his theory, but I would recommend that you have someone look at it.

Hi All,

My 3 week old 42hp95 seems to have developed a high pitch squeal. This occurs when the set is turned off, but still plugged into the wall. When I unplug the unit from the wall, the squeal goes away entirely. The squeal seems to be loudest in the left-center area of the back of the panel.

Has anyone else experienced anything like this? The Toshiba service center seems to be closed today, but I'll call back tomorrow and post back with my experience.

I started having the same problem about 2 weeks ago and keep meaning to call toshiba customer support. I unplugged the TV for a few hours and it appeared to go away, but then came back again when it was plugged in for a few hours. I'm curious about what the noise could be.

Do you have your rear cover on? I wondered if that would shield some of the noise.

The fan is a bit loud while the TV is on as well. It would be nice to get a quieter fan, but that will probably wait until after the warranty period is over.

I spent more time last night auditioning the 50HP95.
The Bad...
- there is a very noticable buzz comming from the back of my set. It is very noticeable at 2 feet and annoying in a silent room even at 6 feet. I'm hopeing it will quiet down a little after more hours on the set. I understand that most Plasma will have some electronic buzz but compared to the Maxent this thing is aleast twice if not 3x as loud. don't know if I'm going to return it yet or try to get it serviced, I really like the performance and would like to keep it if I can get this one problem addressed. Anyone else if this problem?

I too replaced a Maxent MX-50X3 with the Toshiba 50HP95 and simply could not be happier. Yes, the Maxent was much quieter as it did not have a cooling fan, but it also ran a lot hotter (it would actually heat up my room by a few degrees, it was that warm). When I first turned on the 50HP95 I noticed the fan hum right away and became concerned that it might bother me. I absolutely loved everything about the Toshiba...picture, features, etc...but the first few days I was worried about this fan hum.

About 2-3 days after I had the Tosh my worries were gone...I didn't even notice the fan hum, and it was basically a non-issue. I'm not sure how many folks out there watch tv with the sound off, but I'm not one of them. If you do watch tv with no sound, well, this fan might be a problem for you. But at normal, even low volume levels, the fan noise is without a doubt a non-issue in my eyes/ears. Give it a few days, a week, and see if you feel the same. Good luck.

I too replaced a Maxent MX-50X3 with the Toshiba 50HP95 and simply could not be happier. Yes, the Maxent was much quieter as it did not have a cooling fan, but it also ran a lot hotter (it would actually heat up my room by a few degrees, it was that warm). When I first turned on the 50HP95 I noticed the fan hum right away and became concerned that it might bother me. I absolutely loved everything about the Toshiba...picture, features, etc...but the first few days I was worried about this fan hum.

About 2-3 days after I had the Tosh my worries were gone...I didn't even notice the fan hum, and it was basically a non-issue. I'm not sure how many folks out there watch tv with the sound off, but I'm not one of them. If you do watch tv with no sound, well, this fan might be a problem for you. But at normal, even low volume levels, the fan noise is without a doubt a non-issue in my eyes/ears. Give it a few days, a week, and see if you feel the same. Good luck.


Cool kgreener! We must think a like

After the second day of use the noise has decreased slightly. One the first day it was about 3 times as loud as the Maxent, if I had to guess it's probably about twice as loud now. It's to a point now that I think I can live with it. I'm hoping that it will get even quieter will more use. Fingers crossed.

Having said that, I watched Episode 3 on it last knight.... :D :D :D

ASLIU--I had two Tosh 42HP95's, both of which had to be returned b/c they were defective. The second had a problem that sounds very similar to what you are experiencing. About 2 weeks after I brought it home, I came home from work and immediately noticed a constant, high pitched sound. I finally traced the sound to the back of the new TV. Like your problem, the sound persisted even if the TV was off (and was not fan related b/c it continued even if the TV had been off for hours), however, the sound did disappear when the TV was unplugged.

A service tech came out to look at the problem. When he found out my TV was still within the return policy, he recommended that I take the TV back. He did not do anything to the TV, but his theory was that the sound was a result of a part vibrating at a very high frequency. He said that the vibration may not ever cause any defect in the TV itself, however, he said it may eventually break loose, possibly causing some damage. Once again, the tech never actually looked inside the unit, this was all his theory, but I would recommend that you have someone look at it.

Hi BillyMc - Thanks for posting your experience with this as well. I had called Toshiba tech support, and they sent out a local repair place to pick up the TV on Monday - I haven't heard back from them yet, but they said that they'd contact me in 5-10 days - I'll post back here with any new information / resolution! Unfortunately, I'm now out of the 30day return policy (bought it locally at Sears), so, hopefully the repair shop will come through!

I started having the same problem about 2 weeks ago and keep meaning to call toshiba customer support. I unplugged the TV for a few hours and it appeared to go away, but then came back again when it was plugged in for a few hours. I'm curious about what the noise could be.

Do you have your rear cover on? I wondered if that would shield some of the noise.

The fan is a bit loud while the TV is on as well. It would be nice to get a quieter fan, but that will probably wait until after the warranty period is over.

Hi Swett - No, actually I had left the rear cover off (still playing around with a lot of connections back there). One thing that I did try was to drape a towel over the back of the TV, and that definitely reduces the noise so that I can't hear it from 8 feet away. But, that solution would probably be no good for overheating, etc. and looks ugly, so definitely would NOT fly with the wife :)

I agree that the fan that spins up when the TV is a bit louder than I'd like, but that has a sound that is a lot more dull, and lower pitched. I find that as soon as some real content is going on the TV, I don't seem to notice it anymore.

I agree. The worst part about the whining is that its always there, even when the TV is off.

I had considered putting some egg carton style foam back there to absorb both types of sound, but first I'll see what Toshiba does for me.

Question regarding firmware...

I've heard that there are firmware updates available for this series. Does anyone have any ideas what it actually fixes? Is there any way to obtain the upgrade from, say, the internet (and simply use a memory card to load it)?

Is it even worth looking at?

Question regarding firmware...

I've heard that there are firmware updates available for this series. Does anyone have any ideas what it actually fixes? Is there any way to obtain the upgrade from, say, the internet (and simply use a memory card to load it)?

Is it even worth looking at?


There was an earlier report of a Cablecard issue which required a firmware update. That's all I heard.

Question regarding firmware...

I've heard that there are firmware updates available for this series. Does anyone have any ideas what it actually fixes? Is there any way to obtain the upgrade from, say, the internet (and simply use a memory card to load it)?

Is it even worth looking at?

toshiba is sending me the firmware upgrade via mail. i heard it will arrive in the form of an sd card. i have an issue with the cablecard and tv guide working together. no loud fan noise though.

Heh, I'm not actually having any real problems...but sometimes, new firmware means new features. I certainly didn't want to miss out on anything like that.

I emailed Toshiba support for a electronic copy of the 50HP95 Manual. This makes it easy to search for something. I thought this might be helpfull for other owners or future owners looking for what feautres the Tosh has.
50HP95.pdf (http://members.cox.net/dumbcomputers/Toshiba/50HP95.pdf)

just a follow up: i just received the firmware update for my 42hp95. i am now running version 1.3.1

Does anyone know how to adjust the horizontal positioning on the 50hp95? I figured out how to get into the service menu but didn't see anything for positioning or overscan. My set is about 2 or 3 pixels too far to the right. It's barely noticeable but it would be nice if I could correct it.

just a follow up: i just received the firmware update for my 42hp95. i am now running version 1.3.1
Same here!

just a follow up: i just received the firmware update for my 42hp95. i am now running version 1.3.1

Same here. Still can't get my cable card to work, though.

After 3 months of the 50HPX95 I still really enjoy the set. However I have found the MP3 and JPEG features to be a complete joke. MP3 is limited to 95-128 kbps (yeah, that sounds great on a $4500 Denon/M&K sound system :rolleyes: ) and viewing JPEGs is ridiculously slow. Unless you are in a pinch you will want to find another option for music and use a PC or direct camera hookup for JPEG.

As I do not use a ADVR, there is no use to me for the network port so that feature is out.

If you are considering the HPX models do it for only the second HDMI and extra color controls. If you're not a color freak (it still looks quite fine using standard color controls) then you're down to the second HDMI port as the only meaningful difference. The HPX can be found for not much more than the HP when you figure the cost of a decent HDMI switcher.

Maybe the 96 models improve on these features but clearly for the 95s they were a silly afterthought.

Brian

Same here. Still can't get my cable card to work, though.

before the firmware update, my toshiba had trouble with the cablecard.

after the update, my toshiba works with the cablecard... but the response of the tv is still very slow. and i can't get the tv guide to work with the cablecard.

i have timewarner.

when i was having trouble with the cablecard, i would go into the installation menu and access the add/delete channels menu. for some reason, doing that seemed to trigger something in the tv that allowed it work with the cablecard... at least for a while. it might be worth a try.

anybody got the tv guide + cablecard to work?

After 3 months of the 50HPX95 I still really enjoy the set. However I have found the MP3 and JPEG features to be a complete joke. MP3 is limited to 95-128 kbps (yeah, that sounds great on a $4500 Denon/M&K sound system :rolleyes: ) and viewing JPEGs is ridiculously slow. Unless you are in a pinch you will want to find another option for music and use a PC or direct camera hookup for JPEG.

As I do not use a ADVR, there is no use to me for the network port so that feature is out.

If you are considering the HPX models do it for only the second HDMI and extra color controls. If you're not a color freak (it still looks quite fine using standard color controls) then you're down to the second HDMI port as the only meaningful difference. The HPX can be found for not much more than the HP when you figure the cost of a decent HDMI switcher.

Maybe the 96 models improve on these features but clearly for the 95s they were a silly afterthought.

Brian
The JPEG feature is slow because it has to read the JPEG files from you memory card. This speed is limited by both the Media type (CF, SD, etc.) and the quality of your media (1x, 2x, 20x, etc.). Try running sideshow from you PC directly from your memory card, it should be roughly the same speed. If you want the images to load quicker, resize the images to something closer to the native resolution of the Plasma. Viewing images with higher resolution than the Plasma wouldn't improve viewing quality anyway. This same issue exists on DVD players which support JPEG. The 5+ Megapixel cameras of today make rather large files.

I just purchased a Toshiba plasma 42HP95 and am using the HDMI inputs.

I would like to automatically program my channels although there are no instructions for programiing channels while using the HDMI input.
When I attempt this (pg 64 pf manual), if I go to Menu-Setup-Installation-Terrestial - the options are grayed out and I cannot choose to program my channels.

Anyone know why this is or if there is a workaround?

I cannot seem to use the TV Guide feature of this television with the HDMI inputs either....

Thanks for your help.

I just purchased a Toshiba plasma 42HP95 and am using the HDMI inputs.

I would like to automatically program my channels although there are no instructions for programiing channels while using the HDMI input.
When I attempt this (pg 64 pf manual), if I go to Menu-Setup-Installation-Terrestial - the options are grayed out and I cannot choose to program my channels.

Anyone know why this is or if there is a workaround?

I cannot seem to use the TV Guide feature of this television with the HDMI inputs either....

Thanks for your help.

if u are using the HDMI input, u must be getting your sat/cable from a set top box. wouldn't u change the channels on the box, not on the tv?

therefore, the tv would not store the channels.

My 42 HP 66 just came in.....going to have to wait until Friday to get it installed/mounted at the house though.....I canNOT wait!


Can we just make my thread about the 66's the 'official' one or do that with this one!?



C

Thanks, Jason. I do go through my cable box however I thought I could still program the stations automatically. I guess I cannot and am stuck with dealing with two remotes.

Thanks, Jason. I do go through my cable box however I thought I could still program the stations automatically. I guess I cannot and am stuck with dealing with two remotes.

Most new cable boxes and DVR cable boxes are able to control (at least: power on/off, input select, and volume control) the host TV. All you have to do is program the right TV code into the cable box remote.

MP3 is limited to 95-128 kbps (yeah, that sounds great on a $4500 Denon/M&K sound system :rolleyes: )
Brian
The audio player in the Toshiba plays my higher bit-rate mp3 files perfectly. I've already tested 160 and 192kbps, both worked fine. The only problem that I noticed is that it only plays through the built-in speakers or the analog output.

226k VBR files play fine also.

I have had this plasma for about a month now, and in the last few days I have noticed that on digital channels including the local ABC and CBS HD channels via Cox cable(no cable card), the picture is breaking up and getting some blocks, and at the same time the audio is cutting off for 5 or 10 seconds at a time. This is happening on all the digital channels. The signal strength meter indicates a full signal.

I know the signal is not the problem, because I reset the TV, and when I did the digital channels came in fine, with no breakups for a while, but within hours started up the same problem. Also, my Mits RPTV in another room get the same channels with no problems at all.

Could this be a heat problem? There is plenty of ventilation behind the set. Has anybody else had this breaking up problem?

Any suggestions?

Bump. Anybody?

Bump. Anybody?I've had the issue you described, but it was signal related. If you think it's heat related, increase the ventilation with a fan blowing at the back of the TV and see if it makes a difference.
It could still be the signal in your case due to faulty cabling or connections to the Toshiba.

I've had the issue you described, but it was signal related. If you think it's heat related, increase the ventilation with a fan blowing at the back of the TV and see if it makes a difference.
It could still be the signal in your case due to faulty cabling or connections to the Toshiba.

Well, I guess I will check the connections, but I doubt it will help. You see, in the process of trying to get a cable card to work, the Cox man did something with the cable from the outside box to the outlet the TV is on. He said it was to increase the signal strength. I think it was to reduce the amount of signal split.

Greetings all,

I created a similar post in the previous 'official' thread but wanted to ask here again in case there are some new people.

My 42HP95 emits a loud buzz when displaying bright or high white content scenes. Other posts (for other plasmas) say this might indicate a problem with the power supply. I think one of the Avia tests also mentions this, although I thought it was limited to CRTs.

Changing brightness and contrast have no effects. Not to mention, I'd rather use the 'ideal' settings. I've had my set for two months and have used it for well over the arbitrary break-in period.

Has anyone experienced this problem and have it resolved by a technician? I'm reluctant to have any service done considering my set works and there might be a chance that 'service' screws up something else on this relatively expensive piece of equipment. Am I just being paranoid? I assume any problems caused by service is their responsibility? Please ease my mind. :o

[edited to actual model]

Why are people so reluctant to get their equipment checked out when it breaks or has a problem?

Thelonious - if the set is emitting a loud buzz when certain video material is displayed, I would get it serviced. If it is a power supply problem, it is not going to magically get better - it is going to get worse as the power supply breaks down further.

My one service experience (for a Sony RPLCD) was very positive. The tech new what he was doing, was very professional, and was very knowledgable about the equipment he services.

I know - YMMV, but I would get it serviced sooner rather than later.

(I also have the 42HP95 and love it.)

Hi All,

I wanted to let you all know that my 42HP95 has been returned to me, and the high pitched squeal/buzz is now gone. According to the repair center, they had to replace the power supply board.

thelonious - I agree with gkinma on getting it checked out by a technician if you can. For me the process was pretty painless (and cost me nothing since it's still under Toshiba's 1year warranty).

I called Toshiba's customer service as soon as I observed the problem - They gave me the number of a local authorized repair center. I called the local repair center, faxed them a copy of my sales receipt (to prove that it's still under warranty), and they came by in a day to pick up the TV. 4 days later, the local repair center called me to tell me that they were waiting for a replacement board to be delivered to them. And, another 4 days later, they showed up at my door with the repaired unit!

YMMV? Your money my voice?

YMMV? Your money my voice?

:D

Well, I was thinking "Your Mileage May Vary", but I think I like yours better.

:D

Well, I was thinking "Your Mileage May Vary", but I think I like yours better.

Yeah, that's it, I just never can remember it. Your money my voice says about the same thing I suppose.

Take care,

D

Has anyone experienced Distortion issues with their 42HP95? I have owned mine since December 05 and Whether Im running Dish Net through my 811 HDTV Receiver hooked into my HDMI port, Xbox 360 through Component Cable, or Over the air Locals through Coax, after several minutes the picture gets distorted. It is as their is interference within the set itself. My local authorized Dealer picked up the TV and Had it for almost a month. They Couldn't get it to screw up but say they still replaced a $500 part. They brought it back and I put it on the wall and Wham, same issue. They sent a service tech out and he replaced the exact same part and it worked for about 20 min. Now it has the same problem. Any Ideas. Could the power source be causing the distortion? When I say distortion, I mean it gets lines through the entire screen. I am lost and wish I could just send it back. :mad:

I am new to AVS forum, I purchased a Toshiba 42hpx95 a couple of weeks ago, so far everything is good, I have a question around the remote, I have a Dish Network (Echostar) receiver and a Phillips DVD with Home theater, I can program the TV remote to work both but not all the buttons work, With the Satellite the power,guide work but no select or enter button. With the DVD I can power it off, but not on.

any comments would be appreciated.

I am new to AVS forum, I purchased a Toshiba 42hpx95 a couple of weeks ago, so far everything is good, I have a question around the remote, I have a Dish Network (Echostar) receiver and a Phillips DVD with Home theater, I can program the TV remote to work both but not all the buttons work, With the Satellite the power,guide work but no select or enter button. With the DVD I can power it off, but not on.

any comments would be appreciated.Page 31 in the owners manual has a chart that shows the functions avialable. Some functions may not work exactly as indicated. For example: My HK receiver will turn on but not off. IMO, the included remote is much better than most out there.

Page 31 in the owners manual has a chart that shows the functions avialable. Some functions may not work exactly as indicated. For example: My HK receiver will turn on but not off. IMO, the included remote is much better than most out there.
thanks, should I purchase one of the universal remotes out on the market, do you think it would work, or would I have the same problem, The owners manual shows the functions available, but still some buttons don't work, I hate having 3 remotes, maybe I need to keep messing with it.

i have a toshiba 42hp95 and after 2 weeks it will not turn on. the red power led light blinks all the time. tried unpluging ,but no results. waiting on service guy to show up. has anyone else had this problem?

thanks, should I purchase one of the universal remotes out on the market, do you think it would work, or would I have the same problem, The owners manual shows the functions available, but still some buttons don't work, I hate having 3 remotes, maybe I need to keep messing with it.
A universal/programmable remote's functions should be more complete. The harmony series is very popular.

i have a toshiba 42hp95 and after 2 weeks it will not turn on. the red power led light blinks all the time. tried unpluging ,but no results. waiting on service guy to show up. has anyone else had this problem?No, but let us know what the tech finds.

I think I may have found the problem. When I was moving wires around I unplugged the power cord then plugged back in and distortion stopped. It will come back periodically, and I wiggle the power cord at the plug in to the TV and it stops. Anyone ever ran into this?

I think I may have found the problem. When I was moving wires around I unplugged the power cord then plugged back in and distortion stopped. It will come back periodically, and I wiggle the power cord at the plug in to the TV and it stops. Anyone ever ran into this?From your description, it's possible that you're getting arcing in the a/c wall voltage from a bad power cord or the receptacle on the TV. The 42HP95 uses a standard detachable power cord, try another one and see if it stops. If not, it still may be just the receptacle, an easy-to-replace part.

Hi Guys,
First post on this forum...glad I found it.

I have been on the market for an HD set for a couple of months now, I went from looking at a Dell 37" LCD to LG 37" to 42", I was ready to settle on the LG 37" (37LP1D) mainly because of the features and inputs. Then, just the other day I was checking to see if the price for that set went up or down and found the Toshiba 42HP95 and I was amazed at the price ($2049 + 6 cent shipping) and the features. I wasn't really looking for a plasma set because of the burn-in issue but then I was told that the technology has gotten better. I as almost ready to buy the set since it was $500 cheaper done the LG and shipping is almost free.

Anyway, just as I was ready to commit to this set I found the Toshiba 42HPX95, has a couple more features and 2 HDMI's instead of 1 on the 42HP95 which I think will come in handy down the line. Price is a couple of hundreds more but i'm not sure if it's really worth it.

Has anyone here tried the two TV's and if so, will it be worth upgrading to the 42HPX95 or should I just buy the 42HP95? Also, for those whom might already own these two sets, what are some of the issue I should be aware of?
Thank you

Hi All,

I'm setting up our PC to output to my 42HP95 via a DVI-HDMI cable. (For reference I'm using the onboard nVidia 6150 on my MSI K8NGM2-FID motherboard with Windows MCE) With a resolution of 1280x720, all the edges of the screen look like they are cut off (is this because the TV is overscanning?). I've been playing around more with lower resolutions and nVidia driver settings to get this to work right. But, I was wondering if somebody has already figured out what the right settings should be?

Thanks.

Hi All,

I'm setting up our PC to output to my 42HP95 via a DVI-HDMI cable. (For reference I'm using the onboard nVidia 6150 on my MSI K8NGM2-FID motherboard with Windows MCE) With a resolution of 1280x720, all the edges of the screen look like they are cut off (is this because the TV is overscanning?). I've been playing around more with lower resolutions and nVidia driver settings to get this to work right. But, I was wondering if somebody has already figured out what the right settings should be?

Thanks.

i connect my pc to the 42hp95 using the pc input. this input allows u to stretch or move the display on the tv.

is there a reason why u are not using the pc input?

I do not know if anyone has tried the two side by side, but...

I have the 42HP95 and love it. The HPX does add a couple of features, like the 2nd HDMI port and some kind of ethernet port. The HPX also has a more complete video adjustment menu, if I remember correctly. Other than that, the two should have the same image quality.

I think you would be happy with either one.

Also, I will be doing some gaming, not a lot but during the weekend. Should I be looking at an LCD or will either of these tv's be fine?

hey guys -

i have always owned toshiba RPTV's and Plasmas and even CRT's. i like their scaling modes in the sets that were 16-9 and i currently own a 42in plasma circa 2004.

i'm quite happy with it, but i've ordered a TOSHIBA HD A1 recently which is coming in the next 1-2 days, and i'm thinking of pairing it with a new 50" plasma television. however, i have read that the 1080i scaling in most televisions first drops the source to 540 and then up to the native resolution.

i would prefer to go from the 1920*1080 source to 1366*768 if possible.
at least i assume i would prefer that. ;-)

optionally im sure i can use the HD-A1 to scale, but i'll assume that isnt the best choice. i read that the 60u panny's have a better scaling system which is what has started this dilemma.

so anyone know if the current Toshiba HP95 or HPx95 strip half the scanlines and then scale up? since i've been happy with Toshiba's scalers/modes i'm hesitant to move to the panny. i will test on my current toshiba, but its a generation or two old, so that will likely be inconclusive.

help! thanks!

chris bond

i connect my pc to the 42hp95 using the pc input. this input allows u to stretch or move the display on the tv.

is there a reason why u are not using the pc input?

I was under the impression that the VGA input on the 42HP95 can only accept 1024x768, 800x600, or 640x480. I take this to mean that when using the VGA input, the 4:3 content would be stretched by the TV. But, if I'm planning to watch HD content from my PC, this situation wouldn't be ideal because the HD content would first be shrunk to fit in a 4:3 window, sent over VGA, then rescaled again by the TV. But, since the original HD content was shrunk to fit in 4:3 resolution, it wouldn't look good.

I thought that the best solution would be to have the PC always output 720p to the TV over DVI (component out is another option that I can try) and let Windows MCE do the appropriate scaling once.

I honestly didn't even try the VGA input out at all yet. Maybe I'll give it a shot and see how it looks.

I only get 2 HD channels as of yet. They are the local ABC and CBS channels on Cox cable, channels 710 and 720. The tuner finds them on setup and the signal strength meter shows a full signal.

Those 2 HD channels were great for the first couple of weeks, but have just gotten worse and worse. All the analog channels are fine, but whenever I tune to one of those HD channels, the picture is breaking up all over the screen, and the audio cuts out and back in, such that the audio is on about half the time.

It's kind of like the "buffering" you often get on a computer when playing a streaming video or audio file on the web. The sound stops for five or ten seconds, then comes back on.

One time I did the reset procedure, and that cured it for a couple of hours, then the problem returned. Tonight, I reset it, but the problem is still there, possibly even worse. The HD is now just unwatchable.

My hunch is that there is a problem with the ATSC tuner. Like it can't keep up with the data, or something similar.

Does anybody else have any experience with such a problem on HD channels?

Any suggestions/recommendations greatly appreciated.

I was under the impression that the VGA input on the 42HP95 can only accept 1024x768, 800x600, or 640x480. I take this to mean that when using the VGA input, the 4:3 content would be stretched by the TV. But, if I'm planning to watch HD content from my PC, this situation wouldn't be ideal because the HD content would first be shrunk to fit in a 4:3 window, sent over VGA, then rescaled again by the TV. But, since the original HD content was shrunk to fit in 4:3 resolution, it wouldn't look good.

I thought that the best solution would be to have the PC always output 720p to the TV over DVI (component out is another option that I can try) and let Windows MCE do the appropriate scaling once.

I honestly didn't even try the VGA input out at all yet. Maybe I'll give it a shot and see how it looks.


Eventhough the manual says it doesn't support it I'm running 1280x768 @60Hz on my 50HP95 throught the VGA port and it looks awesome!!!

How many of you use the IEEE 1394 (firewire) in/outputs? I am leaning towards the toshibas because of these. I like the dea of cable card and a hard drive to record cable hd. Any issues with this?

How many of you use the IEEE 1394 (firewire) in/outputs? I am leaning towards the toshibas because of these. I like the dea of cable card and a hard drive to record cable hd. Any issues with this?

I have still after over a month not been able to get a cable card to pick up digital channels on my 42HP95. Major dissapointment.

I have still after over a month not been able to get a cable card to pick up digital channels on my 42HP95. Major dissapointment.

Because of your cable company or issues with the plasma? If it is issues with the plasma it might be off my list as that was the key feature (with firewire) that I was looking for.

How many of you use the IEEE 1394 (firewire) in/outputs? I am leaning towards the toshibas because of these. I like the dea of cable card and a hard drive to record cable hd. Any issues with this?I use the firewire ports on the 42HP95 and my Pioneer 5040. I have a Toshiba Symbio HD recorder connected to the 42HP95 for recording OTA HD and SD from the TVGOS menu. I can also use my Mac running Virtual DVHS to act like an HD VHS machine for both the Pio and the Tosh. It works very well, and with no monthly charges. The Mac software was free!

I have still after over a month not been able to get a cable card to pick up digital channels on my 42HP95. Major dissapointment.Have you tried an OTA antenna or a cable box?

mtrot

Have you spoken to Toshiba about your cablecard issue? I had problems with a Scientific Atlanta card until Toshiba sent me the latest firmware for the TV. It's been working fine for the past four weeks since the upgrade.

-Jody

Eventhough the manual says it doesn't support it I'm running 1280x768 @60Hz on my 50HP95 throught the VGA port and it looks awesome!!!

I tried running VGA between the PC and the 42hp95 @ 1280x768, but it doesn't work right. It looks like the TV just scales it to fit inside a 1024x768 window.

Anyhow, the resolution that looks the best for me on DVI-HDMI is 1216x692.

I also found that I needed to increase the Horizontal Sync Width to 48. If I didn't do this, the display would be shifted a little bit to the left.

I tried running VGA between the PC and the 42hp95 @ 1280x768, but it doesn't work right. It looks like the TV just scales it to fit inside a 1024x768 window.

Anyhow, the resolution that looks the best for me on DVI-HDMI is 1216x692.

I also found that I needed to increase the Horizontal Sync Width to 48. If I didn't do this, the display would be shifted a little bit to the left.


Make sure you have your pic size set to "Full".

Does anyone know of a link to download the owners manual for the 50HP95? I just bought the set which was a display model and it doesn't have the manual. I tried the Toshiba website but it says the section for manuals is not working right now.
Thanks!

I emailed Toshiba support for a electronic copy of the 50HP95 Manual. This makes it easy to search for something. I thought this might be helpfull for other owners or future owners looking for what feautres the Tosh has.
50HP95.pdf (http://members.cox.net/dumbcomputers/Toshiba/50HP95.pdf)


here.

mtrot

Have you spoken to Toshiba about your cablecard issue? I had problems with a Scientific Atlanta card until Toshiba sent me the latest firmware for the TV. It's been working fine for the past four weeks since the upgrade.

-Jody

hey jody,

does your tv guide work with your cablecard?

thnx,
jason

Make sure you have your pic size set to "Full".

OK - I'll give that a shot tonight to see how it looks compared to the DVI-HDMI setup I have right now.

UPDATE - I confirmed that this does "work" on the 42hp95 as well (i.e. setting 1280x768 on VGA, and letting the TV do the scaling on "FULL"). But, the colors seem to be a little bit duller and it's my subjective opinion that the picture looks slightly grainier/noisier compared to the DVI-HDMI setup. Anyhow, I think there are 2 viable options for connecting a PC to this screen, and individual users can decide which mode works best for them.

How many of you use the IEEE 1394 (firewire) in/outputs? I am leaning towards the toshibas because of these.I'd love to give the IEEE 1394 DTVLink a try, if there was some way to stream video to it from a PC. My searches aren't turning up much info on how to go about this though. Any ideas?

mtrot

Have you spoken to Toshiba about your cablecard issue? I had problems with a Scientific Atlanta card until Toshiba sent me the latest firmware for the TV. It's been working fine for the past four weeks since the upgrade.

-Jody

Yes, after the initial unsucessful attempt with a cable card, I did the software version upgrade that Toshiba sent me. But it still didn't get the digital channels.

Yes, I spoke with Toshiba cust. svc. and even had them speak to the Cox technician that was trying to get the cable card working, to no avail. The Toshiba rep said he was going to have his engineering people talk to the Cox engineering folks, but I don't know if that ever occurred.

Cox doesn't have any of the Scientific Atlanta cards, only Motorola.

Have you tried an OTA antenna or a cable box?

No, but the whole idea was to avoid a cable box via the cable card.

But I do have a OTA antenna I could connect and see if I get the same problems. That is a good idea, although I may have to move the antenna over to that room.

That will only get me the locals; I want to get ESPNHD, DiscoveryHD and the other digital channels.

I'd love to give the IEEE 1394 DTVLink a try, if there was some way to stream video to it from a PC. My searches aren't turning up much info on how to go about this though. Any ideas?
You can stream DVHS files with a program like VirtualDVHS on the Mac. Regular MPEG or AVI... type pc files I'm not sure, but it may be possible with VLC.

Need help from you guys. A friend bought a 42" Toshiba Cinema Plasma. 42HPX95 I believe. It's 2 months old and was working great until last Friday. The remote stopped working. We got lucky and brought the remote over to someone else we know who has a Toshiba plasma and it worked fine. We've even tried other Toshiba remotes and nothing works. The TV works great, just no IR receiver working on the TV we are guessing. He's contacted Toshiba and they know nothing. They referred "local" service centers who are too far away to come to his house so they want him to "just bring it in." Is there anything we can do? Has anyone heard of this? We even tried hard resetting the TV and nothing. Thanks for your help. My friend is the plasma guy and I'm the projector guy but I'm the one who normally wires it all up. So thanks in advance!

here.

Thankyou!

I just set up the tv and noticed something very annoying. There is a very loud buzzing noise coming from the back. It's obviously to do with the power supply but it is loud enough to hear over regular volume levels.
Is this normal, if so the tv has to go back.
Thanks.

It's not normal, but there are a few people on the board that said the sound began to die down after a few days.

-Jody

Thankyou!

I just set up the tv and noticed something very annoying. There is a very loud buzzing noise coming from the back. It's obviously to do with the power supply but it is loud enough to hear over regular volume levels.
Is this normal, if so the tv has to go back.
Thanks.

Hi arkid,

Does the buzzing persist even when the TV is powered off, but still connected to AC line power? If so, it sounds like you are experiencing the same problem that I had - see around page 3 of this thread. The resolution for me was to call Toshiba, and they had a local repair shop come and take the TV in for repair. Total time for repair was around 2 weeks.

Hi arkid,

Does the buzzing persist even when the TV is powered off, but still connected to AC line power? If so, it sounds like you are experiencing the same problem that I had - see around page 3 of this thread. The resolution for me was to call Toshiba, and they had a local repair shop come and take the TV in for repair. Total time for repair was around 2 weeks.


The noise is only there when the tv is on.

The xxHP95s have 3 cooling fans, that's all I hear on mine, but only when I turn the volume way down.

The manual on the 42HPX95 says you can save the picture size by input, I went thru the steps up and set it to theaterwide 1, but every time I power off the TV and return it is set to Natural, I must be doing something wrong, I am going to menu, theater setup and setting it. saying done. (Really though I don't see anything about which input I am on thru this setup). Someone let me know what I am doing wrong. Thanks,

The manual on the 42HPX95 says you can save the picture size by input, I went thru the steps up and set it to theaterwide 1, but every time I power off the TV and return it is set to Natural, I must be doing something wrong, I am going to menu, theater setup and setting it. saying done. (Really though I don't see anything about which input I am on thru this setup). Someone let me know what I am doing wrong. Thanks,


Try turning "auto pic size" to auto.

You can stream DVHS files with a program like VirtualDVHS on the Mac. Regular MPEG or AVI... type pc files I'm not sure, but it may be possible with VLC.Tks DHF,

I looked at VLC, but not quite sure how that would work with the DTVLink on these displays. At the moment, the application which seems to have the most potential for playing video from a PC to the DTVLink appears to be a program called Firebus DTV Recorder. More here (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=669315).

Hello all, I've owned my 50HPX95 for a few months now and I am totally happy with it. I haven't made many adjustments to the set, so it is pretty much as it came out of the box. My question is: Has anyone gone over the set and fine tuned the adjustments? If so, would you mind posting your settings? I'm not that savvy when it comes to setting up these things. My picture is pretty good, but I'm certain that with a little tweaking it can be much better. Also, I am sending away for a DVD that helps adjust picture, which do you fellows recommend?

Treasure Hunter,
Digital Video Essentials (DVE) and the Avia test disc are popular. I have DVE 'cause it's about half the price.
According to popular belief, you should have turned down the Contrast for the first 100 hours to "break it in".

I was told that when looking for a new tv, that if you are goign to be watchign dvd's on it, to look for a 3:2 pulldown. When I was looking a the specs of the 42HP95, it does not mention that, but i see a cinema(film/video) mode listed. Is that cinema mode that same as the 3:2 pulldown?

I was told that when looking for a new tv, that if you are goign to be watchign dvd's on it, to look for a 3:2 pulldown. When I was looking a the specs of the 42HP95, it does not mention that, but i see a cinema(film/video) mode listed. Is that cinema mode that same as the 3:2 pulldown?
You're right about the omission of the term 3:2 pulldown in the specs, but it does a great job with film on DVD or HD sources. Cinema mode is probably the same thing, since the whole point behind 3:2 is presenting 24 fps, film-based content correctly. I'm not even sure how film would look on a 60 hz display without 3:2, or if it's even possible without looking extremely jerky.

Another question, has anyone had any burn in problems with tv channel logos. Almost every channel I watch has a logo in the lower right corner. Some are semi translucent while others are completely white like sci-fi.

No burn-in at all, even on my 1.3 year old Pioneer.
I guess the only way the logo would be an issue is if that was the only channel you ever watched.
It's been established over and over on this forum, that plasma burn-in is something of a myth. It shouldn't happen, except in extremely rare "abusive" situations like static images, or text shown 24/7.

the manual lists the refresh rate @60hz.

anyone know if it can go higher ?

thanks.

the manual lists the refresh rate @60hz.

anyone know if it can go higher ?

thanks.
Yes, I know, no it can't!

The only plasmas that can, as far as I know, are Pioneers with "Advanced Pure Cinema".
In case you're thinking of using it with a computer, APC is not for computer monitor output, but for 3:3 pulldown on film sources.

Hey fellas,

FYI = I'm new to AVS so be gentle. I'm wanting to purchase the New Toshiba 42hp66 Plasma , The specs look great but I cant find many reviews to give me that warm and fuzzy feeling I so disire before purchase. Do you guys have any suggestions? or maybe you can point me in the right direction??? Thanks in advance!

Hey fellas,

FYI = I'm new to AVS so be gentle. I'm wanting to purchase the New Toshiba 42hp66 Plasma , The specs look great but I cant find many reviews to give me that warm and fuzzy feeling I so disire before purchase. Do you guys have any suggestions? or maybe you can point me in the right direction??? Thanks in advance!

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=663754

imo, the 42hp95 is better.

:)

Hey fellas,

FYI = I'm new to AVS so be gentle. I'm wanting to purchase the New Toshiba 42hp66 Plasma , The specs look great but I cant find many reviews to give me that warm and fuzzy feeling I so disire before purchase. Do you guys have any suggestions? or maybe you can point me in the right direction??? Thanks in advance!
I haven't really tested the new Toshiba, but it is well known that the newer sets use LG glass instead of the Panasonic glass featured in last years models. Panasonic is known to be one of the best manufacturers of plasma glass around today while the LGs didn't quite compare.

Personally, I think the newer Tosh seems like a downgrade overall. In addition to switching the glass, the actual design of the unit isn't as attractive as the rather unique HPX95 (which looks awesome, in my opinion).

There are a few owners around here, though, so you might want to track down the HP66 thread instead.

compiled and dark1x, pls see my reply here (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=7548417&&#post7548417), since this is gettin a bit OT.

x

I posted earlier with no reply. I'm guessing no one has problems with their IR on the HPX95? Ours works sometimes.
By the way, the HPX95 does look better than the 42HP66. The set is just more expensive looking. Hence the CINEMA series, which is now gone.

Hi, New guy here. Anyone have any news on the new Toshiba 37LX96. It was listed on their site for a short while and is now not there but is still listed on the registration area. Have emailed them, still no response and local salesman know it's a new model but have no other info. Now have 32HLX84 for about one year and am overall satisfied but would like a bigger size. Any news would be great.

I tried running VGA between the PC and the 42hp95 @ 1280x768, but it doesn't work right. It looks like the TV just scales it to fit inside a 1024x768 window.

Anyhow, the resolution that looks the best for me on DVI-HDMI is 1216x692.

I also found that I needed to increase the Horizontal Sync Width to 48. If I didn't do this, the display would be shifted a little bit to the left.


Do you mind sharing your timings, or can anyone point me to a link or post that has specific timings for the 50HP95? Mine completely loses synch the second I veer off the standard timings and it's been a total crapshoot working with an external scaler trying to get it to synch.... set parameters, apply, lose synch, revert back to original by memorized scaler remote keystroke, rinse and repeat. If someone has already done the grunt work, I would sincerely appreciate the help!!! Thanks so much in advance!

I've been reading through the 42HP66 thread and makes me even happier that I bought the 42HP95 last year. Seems like the bare bones model just isn't up to the quality of the model last year. Pretty poor if you ask me.

-Jody

I agree with Jody. Though I haven't yet seen a new Toshiba HP66, the early reports do not seem as good as would be expected of a new model. With the features that have been dropped, the loss of Panasonic panels, and the reported drop in picture quality I would recommend that if you're going to buy a Toshiba plasma, you should try to find an HP95 model. They should be selling at a discount, since the new models are out.

On a side note, I have owned my 42HP95 since November. No problems so far. I have done a complete gray-scale calibration using the SpyderTV and it's \support mode and radar's spreadsheet from the calibration forum. This TV can be calibrated to track D65 gray-scale and all the other parameters very well. If anyone would like to see the spreadsheet results, I could try to post them here.

Duke

Yes, I would definitely like to see them.

When I calibrated my 42HP95 with DVE, the only thing I was sure of is that the sharpness should be set at 0. The rest of my settings are taken from your previous post, Duke.

I agree with Jody. Though I haven't yet seen a new Toshiba HP66, the early reports do not seem as good as would be expected of a new model. With the features that have been dropped, the loss of Panasonic panels, and the reported drop in picture quality I would recommend that if you're going to buy a Toshiba plasma, you should try to find an HP95 model. They should be selling at a discount, since the new models are out.

On a side note, I have owned my 42HP95 since November. No problems so far. I have done a complete gray-scale calibration using the SpyderTV and it's \support mode and radar's spreadsheet from the calibration forum. This TV can be calibrated to track D65 gray-scale and all the other parameters very well. If anyone would like to see the spreadsheet results, I could try to post them here.

Duke
Yes, please post your Spyder results. I am thinking about getting spyder also.

Happy to see the interest in my calibration. I will get the images put together this weekend and post my calibration results ASAP, hopefully on Monday. Sorry I can't get it done sooner, I actually have a pretty busy weekend ahead.

Duke

Do you mind sharing your timings, or can anyone point me to a link or post that has specific timings for the 50HP95? Mine completely loses synch the second I veer off the standard timings and it's been a total crapshoot working with an external scaler trying to get it to synch.... set parameters, apply, lose synch, revert back to original by memorized scaler remote keystroke, rinse and repeat. If someone has already done the grunt work, I would sincerely appreciate the help!!! Thanks so much in advance!

Hi bsang101,

I actually ended up setting my resolution at 1232x692 for my 42HP95 - this setting works better for watching HD content inside MCE. The 1216x692 resolution results in a small number of rows of black below and above the image (probably has to do with how the decoder is doing the scaling?).

Attached is a screen capture of my nVidia Advanced Timings page.

Toshiba 42HP95 SpyderTV Calibration

This a report of my experience with calibrating my 42HP95 with the SpyderTV calibration tool.

The software that comes with the SpyderTV only helps you do the basic black level, contrast, color and tint calibration, along with telling you which color temperature preset is the closest to the standard of D65. That’s all it instructs you to do, but it also can give you the x,y,Y information needed to do a complete gray-scale calibration, if you use a shortcut to it’s built-in /support mode.

I found that the for the basic calibrations, the SpyderTV produces almost identical results as using a calibration disc. The biggest difference was that the SpyderTV suggests what I feel is an extremely high contrast setting of 75. I rejected that suggestion and set contrast at a more reasonable 45. This setting also gave a good gamma measurement, which is affected by the contrast setting.

The spreadsheet (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=587485&page=1&pp=30) I used is available for download in the calibration forum, and I also referenced URSA’s Calibration Guide (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/attachment.php?attachmentid=45623) in using the spreadsheet. I highly recommend reading it.

Each picture (see attachments below) gives the before and after measurements of the calibration.

The first picture is of the colorimeter measurements and the resulting color temperature and DeltaE calculations for each level of brightness. DeltaE is a measurement of the actual color error with reference to D65. A reading of 4 or lower is considered to be mostly imperceptible. You can see that before calibration the color temperature was above the 6500K standard. This was even with the color temperature set at “warm” in the menu. DeltaE was also way off. Gamma was slightly off.

After adjusting the cuts and drives in the service menu, I was able to get color temperature accurate to within 200K of the standard, and DeltaE to 4 and below. Gamma came up a little, but is still within a very reasonable range. This picture also shows the settings of the cuts and drives in the service menu, along with the brightness and contrast setting.

The next pictures are before and after shots of some of the graphs that this spreadsheet creates. Note that some of the “after” graphs have smaller scales to show more precision. The first is a graph of the gamma curve showing red, green, blue and luminance compared to the standard 2.2 gamma curve. This shows good tracking of the curve after calibration.

The next is a graph of the RGB levels. These should be balanced within 10% from 20 upwards. Before calibration the blue output was way too high, which accounts for the high color temperature. After calibration, all three are within 5%, which is very good.

After calibration the picture is much warmer, and takes a little time to get used to if you have never watched a properly calibrated display before. But I feel the picture is much more natural and film like. Fleshtones from DVD’s are incredibly natural, although I still see some that appear wrong on broadcast and DirecTV feeds. This never happens on DVD, so I feel it must be inherent in the signal. I think this shows that this display can produce very realistic colors and color balance when properly calibrated.

I can’t be entirely sure how accurate the SpyderTV is compared to more expensive colorimeter’s, but it is reported to be pretty good when used properly. The entire calibration took about 2-3 hours. I have repeated it several times, and always come within 1 number in the settings.

I don’t think I would buy the SpyderTV if I just wanted to do the basic adjustments. The calibration DVD’s give almost identical results for a lot less money. But if you have the knowledge and want to do a complete gray-scale calibration on your own it is a great little tool.

Doing this type of calibration requires accessing the service menu. Please be careful if you do so, and write down all the data values before you change anything.

Duke

Thanks for the in-depth report mrduke.
I'm also interested in doing a grayscale calibration as you did, but I don't know where the cuts and drives are in the service menu. Could you kindly tell me how these are labeled in the SM? I can get to the hours of use screen fine, but haven't ventured any further yet.

DidHeFocus,

I sent you a PM about the service menu. Do you have the SpyderTV, or are you using another colorimeter?

Just for reference my settings are:

Contrast = 45
Brightness = 52
Color = 37
Tint = +2
Sharpness = 15
Color Temp = Warm
Dynamic contrast, MPEG, DNR = Off

These are the results using SpyderTV (except for contrast) with a Panasonic DVD-S97S DVD player connected through HDMI at 480p with black level set to "darker". I do know that using component inputs gives different results, especially for color and tint.

I doubt just using my settings will give the correct results for all the 42HP95 displays. Just because of manufacturing tolerances, etc. Also I'm pretty sure that a lot of DVD players will also give different results, just because of design differences.

I should stress that doing a complete gray-sale calibration is not going to be for everyone. I have 25 years of TV service experience (mostly CRT), so I did know what each of the adjustments affected. I had the least experience with the DeltaE results. That's where Bill's (URSA) Calibration Guide really came in handy. You can have a 6500K color temperature but still not be at the D65 standard. That's where DeltaE helps.

Some people will be better served by having an ISF calibrator do the job. And that's just fine, too.

Duke

Hi, New guy here. Anyone have any news on the new Toshiba 37LX96. It was listed on their site for a short while and is now not there but is still listed on the registration area. Have emailed them, still no response and local salesman know it's a new model but have no other info. Now have 32HLX84 for about one year and am overall satisfied but would like a bigger size. Any news would be great.

I have been trying to find more info on this model as well but nothing yet... :(

Hey guys,
I havea Toshiba 42HP95 and have a problem that probably has a very obvious answer, but I've been unable to figure it out after combing through the manual and reading through this thread. A friend was over at my house the other day and apparently hit some buttons on my remote that altered the picture and I can't seem to fix it.

Everything looks normal on the low def channels, but when I go to my HD channels the picture is zoomed in and cropped so that I can't see the edges of the image (particularly annoying when missing the ticker at the bottom of the screen on NFL Draft day). I've tried changing the pic size and that has no effect. I reset the TV to the factory settings and that didn;t help. Any guesses on what's wrong or how I can fix it? Thanks in advance.

Hey guys,
I havea Toshiba 42HP95 and have a problem that probably has a very obvious answer, but I've been unable to figure it out after combing through the manual and reading through this thread. A friend was over at my house the other day and apparently hit some buttons on my remote that altered the picture and I can't seem to fix it.

Everything looks normal on the low def channels, but when I go to my HD channels the picture is zoomed in and cropped so that I can't see the edges of the image (particularly annoying when missing the ticker at the bottom of the screen on NFL Draft day). I've tried changing the pic size and that has no effect. I reset the TV to the factory settings and that didn;t help. Any guesses on what's wrong or how I can fix it? Thanks in advance.Are you using the internal tuners, or an external dish or cable box?

I'm using a cable box/DVR provided by the cable company.

mbindon

I had that problem with my LCD TV as well and found out that it was the setting on the cablebox.

-Jody

mbindon

I had that problem with my LCD TV as well and found out that it was the setting on the cablebox.

-Jody

I played with the cablebox settings and got it fixed. Thanks for the tip!

I've just purchased the 50HP95 -- an open box display item at BestBuy.

Can someone tell me how to clean this plasma screen? I couldn't find this information in the manual. Thanks!

Use a very soft cotton or microfiber cloth with distilled water. If you have greasy fingerprints and smudges, you may need something a little stronger, DON'T use WINDEX! I use a small spray bottle from "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter Spray", with one drop of dishwashing liquid and the rest water for all my sensitive cleaning.

Hi everybody, I have owned a 42HP95 since February and have been enjoying it very much :). Today I was interested in using the POP feature when I ran into a little problem. When I tried to activate the POP window and went to the Input window, I only had one source available. I'll state my setup to see if you can help me spot the problem:

a) Denon 1920 DVD player connected to HDMI input.
b) Motorola 6416 HD/DVR (Cox Cable) connected through component.
c) Onkyo DVD changer connected through component.
d) Marantz receiver connected through Svideo (used exclusively for menu viewing).

The POP Input window offered me the Svideo (Receiver) as the only option and I certainly don't want to use that one. My goal is to watch two different TV channels on the POP windows or one TV channel and a DVD. Will this be possible?

Thanks for your input :D

Hi everybody, I have owned a 42HP95 since February and have been enjoying it very much :). Today I was interested in using the POP feature when I ran into a little problem. When I tried to activate the POP window and went to the Input window, I only had one source available. I'll state my setup to see if you can help me spot the problem:

a) Denon 1920 DVD player connected to HDMI input.
b) Motorola 6416 HD/DVR (Cox Cable) connected through component.
c) Onkyo DVD changer connected through component.
d) Marantz receiver connected through Svideo (used exclusively for menu viewing).

The POP Input window offered me the Svideo (Receiver) as the only option and I certainly don't want to use that one. My goal is to watch two different TV channels on the POP windows or one TV channel and a DVD. Will this be possible?

Thanks for your input :DI own the 42HP95 also, and when I'm watching the internal tuner and select split/input, I get all options except the tuner as a choice. If I'm watching a DVD on input 4, I only get Ant1 and Ant2 as options. Have you "hidden" any inputs, my PC input is there, but says hidden and is grayed out.

Use a very soft cotton or microfiber cloth with distilled water. If you have greasy fingerprints and smudges, you may need something a little stronger, DON'T use WINDEX! I use a small spray bottle from "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter Spray", with one drop of dishwashing liquid and the rest water for all my sensitive cleaning.
Thanks for the info! I cleaned it last night with a microfiber cloth only (no water or anything) and I think it looks great now! Mainly, I just want to make sure there are no scratches or anything since I got the open box floor model. I think I got an excellent deal, though, using the 20% off open box TVs coupon from the BestBuy website (good thru 5/13). I checked prices online and my price came out lower than even the lowest found online. The production date on my is Oct 05, so I figured they had it on for about 2000 hours, ~ 6 months. I'm very happy with it so far.

I do have another question. What all came with the TV? Since I got the open box, I can't tell if I got everything. With my 50HP95, I got the manual, 2 IR cables, power cord, Remote and AA batteries for the remote. Was there anything else that I should have gotten?

Also, I'm thinking about buying the Toshiba Symbio Hard Drive for DVR functions. Any advice on that? I'm currently only getting OTA channels (SD & HD) with an indoor antenna, but I plan on getting Cable soon, with the CableCARD. Actually, I'm not even sure I need the CableCARD or the STB if I don't plan on getting any premium channels -- just digital cable with HD. I never use OnDemand or anything of those features, so can I just go straight from the wall Coax jack into my TV?

Thanks much! :)

I use my 42HP95 with cable going straight to the Antenna 1 input, no cable card. The TV pulls in all of the UNSCRAMBLED digital channels. And if you enable them in the TVGOS, and fix the channel number, then the TVGOS info is available for them as well. Getting the channels in the "right" order n TVGOS is another matter - royal pain!

I'm very happy using the tv this way. I get the local braodcast HD channels. I DO NOT get the non-local HD channels which I get with my HD STB however (the STB is on another tv).

Most of my watching on this tv is still from the analog stations in my basic cable plan. If I am watching something on one of the local stations, I will check the HD channel to see if they are broadcasting an HD verison of the show. Unfortunately, I do not get to watch the Red Sox on NESN-HD this way (as far as I can tell). :(

You might want to check some of the other posts related to cable card usage on this tv. In particular, look for Jodeus' experiences with the cable card and Symbio. He was one of the first to get the HP95, cable card, and the Symbio. He did have some issues when his cable company pushed out a firmware update to the card, which made it incompatible with the tv. Once he got a firmware update from Toshiba, all was well again. If you use the advanced search feature of the forum, and search for posts by him (Jodeus), you'll find them.

As far as box contents, what you listed sounds about right. I'm not at home so I cannot check.

I hope you enjoy your new tv as much as I enjoy mine!

Thanks for the info! I cleaned it last night with a microfiber cloth only (no water or anything) and I think it looks great now! Mainly, I just want to make sure there are no scratches or anything since I got the open box floor model. I think I got an excellent deal, though, using the 20% off open box TVs coupon from the BestBuy website (good thru 5/13). I checked prices online and my price came out lower than even the lowest found online. The production date on my is Oct 05, so I figured they had it on for about 2000 hours, ~ 6 months. I'm very happy with it so far.

I do have another question. What all came with the TV? Since I got the open box, I can't tell if I got everything. With my 50HP95, I got the manual, 2 IR cables, power cord, Remote and AA batteries for the remote. Was there anything else that I should have gotten?

Also, I'm thinking about buying the Toshiba Symbio Hard Drive for DVR functions. Any advice on that? I'm currently only getting OTA channels (SD & HD) with an indoor antenna, but I plan on getting Cable soon, with the CableCARD. Actually, I'm not even sure I need the CableCARD or the STB if I don't plan on getting any premium channels -- just digital cable with HD. I never use OnDemand or anything of those features, so can I just go straight from the wall Coax jack into my TV?

Thanks much! :)I think you got everything.
I have the Symbio and I think it's worth getting for your Toshiba. If you do a google search, you'll find it sells for about half the msrp. It has some quirks, and it locks up once in a while, but powering it off and on fixes it. Having only an OTA antenna, it's just right for my HD and SD recording needs.

Hi everybody, I have owned a 42HP95 since February and have been enjoying it very much :). Today I was interested in using the POP feature when I ran into a little problem. When I tried to activate the POP window and went to the Input window, I only had one source available. I'll state my setup to see if you can help me spot the problem:

a) Denon 1920 DVD player connected to HDMI input.
b) Motorola 6416 HD/DVR (Cox Cable) connected through component.
c) Onkyo DVD changer connected through component.
d) Marantz receiver connected through Svideo (used exclusively for menu viewing).

The POP Input window offered me the Svideo (Receiver) as the only option and I certainly don't want to use that one. My goal is to watch two different TV channels on the POP windows or one TV channel and a DVD. Will this be possible?

Thanks for your input :D

I also own the 42HP95. I believe that when using the POP feature one of the POP windows has to be an antenna input. Check notes on page 78 of the manual.

"You cannot view two video or two antenna sources in both the main and POP windows simultaneously. (You can view a video source in one window and an antenna spurce in the other.)"

Duke

I just purchased a 50HP95 from Best Buy and am very impressed. I have Cox Cable's Scientific Atlanta Explorer 8300HDC DVR connected via an HDMI cable. A very nice, neat connection -- too bad there is only one HDMI port with this TV! Even though I probably have no compelling reason to use the TV Guide On Screen fucntion, I thought I'd give it a try in case it works well with the Cox DVR box. However, when setting it up, the instructions ask whether I'm connecting the cable box via ANT 1 or Video 1. Of course I connected via HDMI, not ANT 1 nor Video 1. Any suggestions how to solve this issue other than not using the HDMI cable? :cool:

I also own the 42HP95. I believe that when using the POP feature one of the POP windows has to be an antenna input. Check notes on page 78 of the manual.

"You cannot view two video or two antenna sources in both the main and POP windows simultaneously. (You can view a video source in one window and an antenna spurce in the other.)"

Duke

Maybe I am oversimplifying the guy's issue to which you responded, but for what it's worth here's what I did with my new 50HP95 yesterday: I split the cable signal at the wall and ran one lead to the Cox DVR/cable box and the other lead to the ANT 1 on the TV. My DVR is connected to the TV via an HDMI cable. This takes care of the two different sources issue -- one is ANT and the other is HDMI. (If you do this procedure, read the manual for how to scan in channels on ANT 1. Otherwise the TV will probably assume you are coming off air and will only find Channels 2-13, until you tell the TV that ANT 1 is connected by cable.)

The down side is the signal on ANT 1 does not include premium channels greater than Channel 99, but I don't care since this connection will let me watch two football or basketball games side by side in nice sized pictures, which was my goal. You will need to use both remotes -- the TV remote to toggle between POP windows and control one POP window, the Cable remote to control the other POP window.

hddude55:

That is a great recommendation! I split my OTA signal between the TV's ANT 1 input and my DirecTV HD-DVR's OTA antenna input. That allows me to watch 2 different OTA channels at once, or record one while watching another. Some people see no need for an built-in tuner when using a cable box or satellite, but there are times when multiple tuners are nice. The HD-DVR actually has 2 digital OTA tuners, so I can record one channel, and still watch two others via the POP feature.

Nice catch hddude!

Duke

Anybody know of a good online retailer that sill have the 42HPX95 in stock. Crutchfield doesn't have them anymore. I'm trying to decide between a 32HLX95 LCD and 42HPX95 plasma right now and need to think fast because this may be the final year of Toshiba producing flat-panel TVs. Is plasma better than LCD? Is it worth getting the 10" bigger size.

Hi, I purchased a Toshiba 42HPX95 in Dec 2005. Ive really been impressed by this set. About a month ago it started acting up, the screen keeps breaking up with horizontal black lines. Sometimes it will keep struggling to produce a picture then it will go completely black with no video and then the video might flash a few times. During this time the audio is perfect and never breaks up. It doesn’t seem to matter what video input you are on, be it Component, S-Video or RCA jacks. When its in a mood it will do this on any input, with any device connected to it. It has gone as long as a couple of weeks with out any problems, but lately its been doing this regularly every day. Anyways to make a longer story short, the repair guy says that Toshiba Canada wants the set to be sent to Montreal for servicing by their expert. The repair guy says that if they cant repair it or if they have to wait a long time for parts they will most likely authorize for a new set. My dilemma is that I dont see anything in the 2006 Toshiba lineup that compares to the 42HPX95. I dont even see the Cinema Series Plasma anymore in their lineup. We all know that what makes the 2005 Toshiba's kick ASS is their Panasonic Flat Panel. Ive got a scary feeling that Im gonna get screwed on this deal! Does anyone know what model replaces the 42HPX95? or the closest one to it. Do any of the new Toshiba'a have Panasonic panels? Any input or advice greatly appreciated.

Thanks hddude55 and mrduke for your suggestions about the POP issue. I will try to split the signal sometime this week. Thanks also mrduke for posting your results with the SpyderTV. I used your settings as a baseline and then adjust accordingly to my own eyes ( I also used AVIA). I am now quite satisfied with the picture from both of my DVD sources. Now I only have one more goal, to adjust the picture from the HDDVR source. Anyway I can do this? How can I get test patterns?

Thanks again,
M

waltzonice

As gkinma has said, I'm using my 42HP95 with a cablecard and the Symbio DVR. I did have a problem around the time of the SuperBowl with my cable company forcing out a firmware update for the cablecard. Eventually I called Toshiba after the cable company came and said it wasn't their problem, and Toshiba sent me a SD card with a firmware update for the TV. That was at the end of February and I haven't had any issues since.

As for the Symbio, I've said it before, as long as you know the limitations it can be useful. It is more like a digital VCR than it is a DVR. Yes you can record a digital channel and watch an analog channel at the same time, but you can't even watch a recorded show while the box is recording. I still have two ReplayTV's in my house so most SD stuff is recorded on them while I use the Symbio only for recording HD content. For that it works fine.

-Jody

mcastlejr:

HDNet broadcasts HD test patterns Tuesday mornings from 6:50 to 7:00 AM ET. They are pretty basic. They have color bars which you can use with a blue filter to set color and tint. Also a set of blocks with numbers that are different levels of black and white that you can use for setting contrast and black level. For black level the number 10 should just barely be visible in the block. The 0 should be plainly visible in the first block. The overscan pattern is not exact, so don't worry to much about that.

I recorded the patterns on my HD-DVR and keep them for reference.

Duke

Thanks mrduke for your reply. I am aware of the HDNet test patterns from when I subscribed to DirecTV. However, Cox Cable (my currently choice) does not carry HDNet in my area so it's not available to me. Do any of the other HD channels broadcast patterns? INHD? local PBS station?
Thanks again,
M

I have read that INHD does broadcast test patterns. Early Saturday morning around 6:45 AM ET. I do not get that on DirecTV, so I can't be sure of the time.

Good Luck

Duke

Anybody know of a good online retailer that sill have the 42HPX95 in stock. Crutchfield doesn't have them anymore. I'm trying to decide between a 32HLX95 LCD and 42HPX95 plasma right now and need to think fast because this may be the final year of Toshiba producing flat-panel TVs. Is plasma better than LCD? Is it worth getting the 10" bigger size.

Vanns says they still have them in stock on their website. But for the $$$ I would get a 50hp95. 6ave still says they have 50hp95 in stock but I don't have any experience with them other them screwing up my order last year on a 50px50u.

Does anyone know what model replaces the 42HPX95? or the closest one to it. Do any of the new Toshiba'a have Panasonic panels? Any input or advice greatly appreciated.

Well Ive been reading through the threads and found most of the answers to my questions. Im still in shock about the new Toshiba's using LG glass. I guess that rules out replacing my 42HPX95 with a 2006 model. I know the guy pretty good where I purchased my set, so he will probably let me choose another brand if Toshiba give the OK to replace it. Seeing as Im a big fan of the Panasonic glass, would you guys recommend the Panasonic 42px60u as a close replacement to my 42HPX95?

Well Ive been reading through the threads and found most of the answers to my questions. Im still in shock about the new Toshiba's using LG glass. I guess that rules out replacing my 42HPX95 with a 2006 model. I know the guy pretty good where I purchased my set, so he will probably let me choose another brand if Toshiba give the OK to replace it. Seeing as Im a big fan of the Panasonic glass, would you guys recommend the Panasonic 42px60u as a close replacement to my 42HPX95?

If I was looking to replace my 42HP95 I would certainly look at the new Panasonic 42PX60. The biggest problem with them is they still have some of the same shortfalls that drove my decision to choose Toshiba for my purchase. The biggest shortfall being the lack of independent memory per input for settings. They also do not have some of the other nice features such as a memory card reader, TVGuide, POP, dual antenna inputs. I believe they have added the capability to stretch 1080i/720p HD signals, and have gray-scale adjustments in the regular service menu. I am pretty sure their picture quality is good though.

All that being said, I probably would not be looking enthusiastically at the new Toshiba's either. The lack of Panasonic panels, and the possibility that they are being manufactured by Orion (even if it is to Toshiba specs) would probably drive me elsewhere.

I would probably look hard at the Pioneer 4260/61 and the NEC 42XR4. Or wait to see how the new Pioneer's or Panasonic 42PX600 are. Yes, they are more money, but to get the features you have now, with good picture quality, that's what I'd be looking at. Again, this is only my opinion.

Duke

and the possibility that they are being manufactured by Orion (even if it is to Toshiba specs) would probably drive me elsewhere.
It's not possibility anymore. Toshiba even admits it after I spoke with a rep over on the phone.

If I was looking to replace my 42HP95 I would certainly look at the new Panasonic 42PX60 . The biggest problem with them is they still have some of the same shortfalls that drove my decision to choose Toshiba for my purchase. The biggest shortfall being the lack of independent memory per input for settings. They also do not have some of the other nice features such as a memory card reader, TVGuide, POP, dual antenna inputs. I believe they have added the capability to stretch 1080i/720p HD signals, and have gray-scale adjustments in the regular service menu. I am pretty sure their picture quality is good though.

All that being said, I probably would not be looking enthusiastically at the new Toshiba's either. The lack of Panasonic panels, and the possibility that they are being manufactured by Orion (even if it is to Toshiba specs) would probably drive me elsewhere.

I would probably look hard at the Pioneer 4260/61 and the NEC 42XR4. Or wait to see how the new Pioneer's or Panasonic 42PX600 are. Yes, they are more money, but to get the features you have now, with good picture quality, that's what I'd be looking at. Again, this is only my opinion.

Duke
Thanks for your opinion Duke. Well it looks like I better keep my fingers crossed and hope they can fix my set. I dont think Im gonna get all the bells and whistles that I paid for with my 42HPX95. The local retailer where I bought the set only deals with Toshiba, Panasonic, Samsung, Hitachi are the main brands he carries. So the Panasonic looks like my best bet. Most of those options like PiP, dual Antenna and Tv Guide dont mean much to me because Im on Satelite. But the the lack of independent memory per input for settings is a big concern. Are you sure the Panasonic 42PX60 doesnt have this setting? I Thought that would be pretty standard considering the price of the set and the state of technology these days.

Boy, I sure hope the local tech is able to get my atsc tuner working right. Several attempts have been unsuccessful at getting a cable card to work in my set. Also, after initially working great on the local HD channels on Cox cable, those channels are now breaking up all over the screen. I am hoping both problems are due to a faulty ATSC tuner. The tech has ordered and is going to install a new ATSC tuner.

I really like the set, and when the HD was working, the image was fabulous.

Just thought I would check in. I bought the 50HPX95 the Saturday before the Superbowl and all I can say is I love this set. I consider myself pretty hard to please, however this set has exceeded all of my expectations. Sure, in very dark scenes there is sometimes some blackshift but never enough to distract me from what I am watching. It often seems to depend on the source, for example: often on Lost I see flickering in dark scenes but on dark scenes on 24 the image is rock solid. I do not really know why this is, maybe Lost is more compressed? I waffled for months and almost gave up, but I am glad I took the plunge. If you can still find this set, BUY IT!!!

I recently bought the 42HPX95 and it worked great for 4 months. Beware Toshiba service isn't good. The TV is under warranty but Its been very difficult to get the TV working again. I contacted a Toshiba Service provider and had them take a look at the TV. First they thought the Power Supply card burned out. So they ordered one up. 3 week later came out to replace the card. We'll that wasn't the problem. So the service provider called up Toshiba's customer support and they recommended that it could be the Signal Controller Card. So they ordered one up. Toshiba doesn't have the card in stock. I've been waiting 1 month for the card to be back ordered. No estimate of when the card will be in stock. So far I've been waiting 2 months to get the TV working with no estimate when the problem can be resolved. If I had my choice again, I would have chose the Panasonic...

Just my 2 cents, i've had no issues with mine.

I recently bought the 42HPX95 and it worked great for 4 months. Beware Toshiba service isn't good. The TV is under warranty but Its been very difficult to get the TV working again.

What exactly has your set been doing, please describe the problem. Does the picture freak out once and in a while or did the thing just die, please explain? The repair guy told me that the parts are in short supply, so it could take a while to get the part as well.

DidHeFocus,

I sent you a PM about the service menu. Do you have the SpyderTV, or are you using another colorimeter?

Just for reference my settings are:

Contrast = 45
Brightness = 52
Color = 37
Tint = +2
Sharpness = 15
Color Temp = Warm
Dynamic contrast, MPEG, DNR = Off

These are the results using SpyderTV (except for contrast) with a Panasonic DVD-S97S DVD player connected through HDMI at 480p with black level set to "darker". I do know that using component inputs gives different results, especially for color and tint.

I doubt just using my settings will give the correct results for all the 42HP95 displays. Just because of manufacturing tolerances, etc. Also I'm pretty sure that a lot of DVD players will also give different results, just because of design differences.

I should stress that doing a complete gray-sale calibration is not going to be for everyone. I have 25 years of TV service experience (mostly CRT), so I did know what each of the adjustments affected. I had the least experience with the DeltaE results. That's where Bill's (URSA) Calibration Guide really came in handy. You can have a 6500K color temperature but still not be at the D65 standard. That's where DeltaE helps.

Some people will be better served by having an ISF calibrator do the job. And that's just fine, too.

Duke

I was going back to look at some of your older calibration settings and I noticed that you're now using warm instead of medium color temperature. Was warm a more accurate color temp, even before the service menu adjustments? And have you changed to warm on all your inputs?

I noticed when I was looking at almost black against pure black on a DVD, the black appeared to have a blueish tinge, so I started thinking about my color setting, since I was using medium.

-Ian

I recently bought the 42HPX95 and it worked great for 4 months. Beware Toshiba service isn't good. The TV is under warranty but Its been very difficult to get the TV working again.Just thought I'd post my experience with Toshiba tech support for anybody interested in reading.

**Long post warning!!!**

I bought a 42HP95 in January 2006, and everything seemed fine. Then (shortly after the store return period, of course) I noticed that there was a thin black line across the top of the TV, like the overscan needed to be adjusted. The problem had been there since day 1, I had just never noticed it before.

Oh well, I thought, I'll call Toshiba tech support, they'll come adjust something in the service menu, yadda yadda yadda, no problem. Wrong. 3 months, multiple control boards, and a new glass panel later, Toshiba finally relented and issued me an exchange. It should come through any day now, and I've already confirmed that I can get store credit instead of another Toshiba. I'm planning on getting a Panny TH-50PX60U and never looking back.

Now maybe this was just a crappy service center I dealt with, but here are a few pointers when dealing with Toshiba customer service and service centers:

1. The service center will want you to hassle Toshiba about an exchange. The service center only gets reimbursed for warranty work up to a certain point. After 2 in-home visits, expect to lose your set to the service center regardless of what may be wrong with it. You can bet too that whatever part(s) you need will be on backorder. They'll be in no hurry to fix it either, because the more time they actually spend trying to diagnose and fix your problem, the less they're getting in return. It's cheaper and easier for them to just keep ordering parts.

2. Toshiba will want you to hassle the service center about the repair. If you call Toshiba and complain that the service center is shooting in the dark and advising you to ask for an exchange, they'll say, "Sorry, no dice. You need to get it worked out with the service center." Toshiba doesn't want to lose a brand new set to replace the one you payed for. It's better for them to just keep throwing parts at the problem, even entire glass panels!!

3. There are 2 divisions of Toshiba support. Customer service, and tech support. You speak with customer service, the service center speaks with tech support. Toshiba customer service and Toshiba tech support, however, don't ever seem to speak to each other. I was polite throughout the whole process, until I was told by CS that I'd be issued an exchange if the new glass panel didn't fix the problem, then TS advised the service center to keep replacing parts after the new glass panel didn't do jack squat. Then I started calling every day, even multiple times per day, asking for supervisors of supervisors, etc. until they finally agreed to honor what they told me in the first place.

4. Write down who you spoke with, the date and time of the call, and what was said during the call. Record it if you can, and let them know you're recording it. They keep records too, but it's always helpful for you to be able to say, "No, no, I spoke with Bob on Monday, May 1st at 1:53pm and he said...." They'll look that up in their records and suddenly change their tune. If you're lucky, it might even get "escalated" to a supervisor call-back. Oh goody ;)

All that to say this: with any new electronic product you get (especially expensive, limited return items), immediately go over it with a fine-toothed comb. Try every feature and every connection in every combination possible. If you don't have the cables or components to do so, beg, borrow and steal (or just buy it :-) to get them so you can try everything out. With TV's, pay close attention to the display and if anything is even just a little off, take it back. Keep doing so until you get a set that's perfect. Trust me, when you deal with customer support and service centers, it's a crapshoot. You may be lucky like some of the other posters in this thread, or you may be tearing your hair out 3 months later like me. Either way, the experience of testing everything out and returning it to the store is much better than dealing with any type of customer support, IMO. That may seem like common sense to some, but I really wish someone would have slapped me in the head with a 2x4's worth of that advice before I bought my plasma. You can be sure my next set will be perfect :)

Regards,
Larry

I was going back to look at some of your older calibration settings and I noticed that you're now using warm instead of medium color temperature. Was warm a more accurate color temp, even before the service menu adjustments? And have you changed to warm on all your inputs?

I noticed when I was looking at almost black against pure black on a DVD, the black appeared to have a blueish tinge, so I started thinking about my color setting, since I was using medium.

-Ian

Ian,

Warm was the most accurate color temp preset even before the calibration, I just didn't know it for sure, though I did suspect it. I was used to watching a TV that never has it's gray-scale calibrated, so that medium setting looked okay to me. The warm preset before calibration measured around 7500K across most brightness levels. After calibration, the gray-scale on the warm setting measures very close to the D65 (approximately 6500K) standard from 20-100% stimulation.

I do use the warm setting for all inputs, and I have calibrated through both the component and HDMI inputs.

I noticed the same thing on a near black signal before calibration. The blue pixels always came up first. It is much more balanced after calibration. It is also very hard to calibrate down to near black levels due to limitations in the colorimeter. I set it as accurate as possible from 20-100, and you hope it is still reasonably close from 20 down.

The calibrated picture appears very warm (reddish) at first, but it does look much more film like. Once you have watched it for awhile though, it appears much more natural than the higher color temp. And flesh tones and colors on DVD's are great. Color variation on satellite and broadcast is a reality we still must put up with though.

Some of my settings have changed over time, due to the calibration, and using the SpyderTV to set color and tint. SpyderTV does give the exact same setting for black level that I got with the DVE and GetGray discs. I also initially used component input for my DVD, and now I am using HDMI.

Duke

I'm having problems with a new cable card install. It's my second card which hasn't fixed any of the issues (reboots, loss of sound & channels). I've talked to Toshiba support over 2 weeks ago and my update SD card still hasn't arrived. does anyone know if the update can be emailed or downloaded from a website. I'm ready to buy my own SD card and do it myself.

I'm having problems with a new cable card install. It's my second card which hasn't fixed any of the issues (reboots, loss of sound & channels). I've talked to Toshiba support over 2 weeks ago and my update SD card still hasn't arrived. does anyone know if the update can be emailed or downloaded from a website. I'm ready to buy my own SD card and do it myself.My update card came pretty quick, somewhere around 2 weeks. If you don't get it in another few days, call them back and request a replacement. I wouldn't risk voiding my warranty with an unauthorized or copied firmware SD card.

Does it come in the mail or UPS or some other carrier? 2 weeks of frustration. Grrr...

Mine came in less than a week. Installed the new software version, but still can't get a cable card to work. Toshiba referred me to local service technician. There may be something wrong with the ATSC tuner, which the tech is supposed to replace soon, if the part ever gets here.

I plan on getting cable via the cablecard fairly soon. Is the firmware upgrade required before the cablecard will work? Should I go ahead and contact Toshiba now to get the firmware upgrade before I order the cable service? My set has a manufacture date of Oct 2005, so my guess is that I don't have the latest firmware. In fact, I don't even know how I check my firmware version... :confused:

Hi, I purchased a Toshiba 42HPX95 in Dec 2005. Ive really been impressed by this set. About a month ago it started acting up, the screen keeps breaking up with horizontal black lines. Sometimes it will keep struggling to produce a picture then it will go completely black with no video and then the video might flash a few times. During this time the audio is perfect and never breaks up. It doesn’t seem to matter what video input you are on, be it Component, S-Video or RCA jacks. When its in a mood it will do this on any input, with any device connected to it. It has gone as long as a couple of weeks with out any problems, but lately its been doing this regularly every day. .


Last week mine satarted doing exactly the same as python67's . Any update on what the problem might be? I've been able to reduce the frequency of the problem by increasing the ventilation - it typically starts after about an hour of use. While I'm still learning about this, it seems that rebooting the TV seems to correct the problem for a while. I'll call Tosh serv next week, but any ideas?

Thanks

Last week mine satarted doing exactly the same as python67's . Any update on what the problem might be? I've been able to reduce the frequency of the problem by increasing the ventilation - it typically starts after about an hour of use. While I'm still learning about this, it seems that rebooting the TV seems to correct the problem for a while. I'll call Tosh serv next week, but any ideas?

Thanks

Your best bet is probably trying to get it replaced. Toshiba's repair process is pretty abysmal. I had the same problem with my TV recently and sent it to a couple repair shops. They couldn't fix anything since any part they tried to get was always "back ordered". After about a month Toshiba finally agreed to send out a new one to replace it.

I purchased the Toshiba 42hpx95 in March '06. Was working great, but recently I have noticed red "pixels" popping up oall over the screen at certain times. (mostly in a person's face, or on beige bacgrounds.)..

I have tried tweaking the color settings, but nothing seems to work much. Teh red pixels become less, but are still present.

Does anyone else have this same problem? If so, how did you fix it? Otherwise, what settings should I try changing?

I have Comcast HD w/ DVR and is connected via HDMI cable on HDMI1. MY DVD player is connected via HDMI2. DVD's also playback with the same problem.

I tried watching tv via component (y, Pr, Pb) cables, but the problem is still there.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks all.

Does it come in the mail or UPS or some other carrier? 2 weeks of frustration. Grrr...
US mail.

Last week mine satarted doing exactly the same as python67's . Any update on what the problem might be? I've been able to reduce the frequency of the problem by increasing the ventilation - it typically starts after about an hour of use. While I'm still learning about this, it seems that rebooting the TV seems to correct the problem for a while. I'll call Tosh serv next week, but any ideas?

Thanks

Well its been 2 weeks since my 42hpx95 has been gone. No word on it yet. I called the repair shop yesterday, and they were going to call Toshiba and check on it, but the bastards never called me back! They originally said that if it was going to take longer than a month they would issue a new one. So the closer it gets to the month the more I start to PANIC! I definitely do not want a 2006 Toshiba\LG\Orion Plasma. I swear I will freakout and kill somone if this happens. Does anyone know what Toshiba does if they issue a new set? Do they just ship you the model of their choice or do they issue you a credit a the store you bought it from?

For the brief time that I get sound from all of my subscribed channels (expanded basic cable, digital plus HD channels) through my 42HP95's internal speakers I can only get sound from the digital and HD channels via the optical output that I have hooked up from the TV to my receiver.

The sound from the expanded basic cable channels (2-99) doesn't pass through the optical output when using a cable card?

I did get sound from all the channels when I had the SA8300HD DVR via the HDMI output.

waltzonice

Unfortunately it looks like Toshiba will only send out the firmware if you're having problems. So it looks like you should have your cable company at least come out and try the cablecard first.

Unless there is someone on the list that can send you the SD card that has the new firmware on it. Unfortunately I used the SD card to send some relatives pictures.

-Jody

For the brief time that I get sound from all of my subscribed channels (expanded basic cable, digital plus HD channels) through my 42HP95's internal speakers I can only get sound from the digital and HD channels via the optical output that I have hooked up from the TV to my receiver.

The sound from the expanded basic cable channels (2-99) doesn't pass through the optical output when using a cable card?

I did get sound from all the channels when I had the SA8300HD DVR via the HDMI output.
Your audio situation is normal. Digital audio output must come from a digital source. Analog sources including the internal tuner only pass to your receiver through the analog outs from the Toshiba. One exception is the SD card audio player which may be a digital source, but only plays through the internal speakers or analog output. I don't use a Cablecard, but it must treat analog cable the same way.

Does anyone know what Toshiba does if they issue a new set? Do they just ship you the model of their choice or do they issue you a credit a the store you bought it from?When they issued me my exchange, I asked if I could get a 95 series rather than the new 66's. The Toshiba rep told me that was not possible, since the 95 series was an '05 model. I then asked for and received store credit instead. Your best bet is to get store credit and hope that store has one in stock somewhere.

When they issued me my exchange, I asked if I could get a 95 series rather than the new 66's. The Toshiba rep told me that was not possible, since the 95 series was an '05 model. I then asked for and received store credit instead. Your best bet is to get store credit and hope that store has one in stock somewhere.

How long did you have to go wrestle with Toshiba to get them to issue an exchange? My fear is that my TV will languish in a repair shop for several weeks. How did your interactions with Toshiba lead to an exchange?

How long did you have to go wrestle with Toshiba to get them to issue an exchange? My fear is that my TV will languish in a repair shop for several weeks. How did your interactions with Toshiba lead to an exchange?I pretty much summed up my experience in post #219, but here's the cliffs notes version:

I first contacted Toshiba on Feb. 2 and they finally agreed to an exchange on May 10. The main reason for their decision was the length of my service request.

At least my problem was such that I could still watch the TV, although it was annoying to look at. A supervisor did accuse me of "refusing" to let the service center have the TV to see what else could be done with it (after 2 in-home service calls), but I had just said that I'd like to avoid letting them have the TV if at all possible. Toward the end I let them take it, and they had it for about 2 weeks.

So I don't know where that leaves you. It seemed to me that Toshiba won't even think about an exchange unless you let the service center have the TV, but I'd at least make them do their initial diagnosis in your house, and then let them pick up the TV when whatever part(s) they need finally comes in.

By the way, I'm still waiting for that return authorization from Toshiba! When I called last week they said it "should happen" middle of this week, so we'll see. Too much red tape over there I guess.

Your audio situation is normal. Digital audio output must come from a digital source. Analog sources including the internal tuner only pass to your receiver through the analog outs from the Toshiba. One exception is the SD card audio player which may be a digital source, but only plays through the internal speakers or analog output. I don't use a Cablecard, but it must treat analog cable the same way.

agreed, you have to use the analog output for the analog channels.

Does it come in the mail or UPS or some other carrier? 2 weeks of frustration. Grrr...
I got my software update in about a week, via regular mail. I am now running 1.3.1.

I have had my 42HP95 since early March. The software update appears to have solved the pixillating/tiling problems I had with the Motorola/Comcast cable card. The only problem I have now is the TV Guide will not work, as it did work before with the CC and the old software version. I have two calls to Tosh cust serv., they report they have escalated it to the TV Guide On screen folks.

Does anyone have any advice or have a similar problem? Overall, I m avery happy with my 42HP95, and I appreciate all that I have read on this forum. Thank you all!

I got my software update in about a week, via regular mail. I am now running 1.3.1.

I have had my 42HP95 since early March. The software update appears to have solved the pixillating/tiling problems I had with the Motorola/Comcast cable card. The only problem I have now is the TV Guide will not work, as it did work before with the CC and the old software version. I have two calls to Tosh cust serv., they report they have escalated it to the TV Guide On screen folks.

Does anyone have any advice or have a similar problem? Overall, I m avery happy with my 42HP95, and I appreciate all that I have read on this forum. Thank you all!
I'm not using the cablecard (just OTA HD via a small indoor antenna), but the TVGOS has been finicky for me. It worked (on it's own) when I first got the TV after about 24 hours. Then after about a week , it didn't work -- the listing was empty. It mysteriously worked again for a few days, and now it's down again.

I guess I don't really understand how TVGOS works. All of the HD channels have been coming in just fine, so not sure why sometimes I have the listings and sometimes I don't. And when I do have it, I seem to consistently get listing information for all but one channel.

Thank you waltzonice. When I learned that the TVGOS was a third party serice, not part of Toshiba, I thought "Hmmm, what kind of compatibilty issues will we have here? (e.g. Motorola cable card, Toshiba updated software, Comcast digital service, and the third party TV Guide folks)." The cust. serv. rep named Terry at Toshiba took down all of my detailed information about how it worked before I installed the 1.3.1, and now with the 1.3.1 it only displays "there is no data for this screen", not even a listing of channels and no infomration for the time periods. He stated he understood, and when I asked if this was a "fixable" problem, and I asked if I had lost a feature of this really nice brand new TV, he said that should not be the case.

Feels like buying a new car, and having the cruise control (or radio, etc.) not work. Does it hinder the overall performance of the vehicle? No, but it is a nice feature to have.

If anyone else has had any experience, or advice, I apprecite it. Thank you!

Your audio situation is normal. Digital audio output must come from a digital source. Analog sources including the internal tuner only pass to your receiver through the analog outs from the Toshiba. One exception is the SD card audio player which may be a digital source, but only plays through the internal speakers or analog output. I don't use a Cablecard, but it must treat analog cable the same way.

Hmm....I see. Thanks for the replys guys. I finally have the the software update and there have been some quirky things still using the cable card so I'll be switching back to a set top box. I want to use my receiver w/speakers even when I watch TV and I don't want to have to switch between analog (2-99) & digital (100>) inputs. That would be a big pain.

I like my 42HP95 but cable card is not the way to go for me with this set which I am bummed about.

I'm not using the cablecard (just OTA HD via a small indoor antenna), but the TVGOS has been finicky for me. It worked (on it's own) when I first got the TV after about 24 hours. Then after about a week , it didn't work -- the listing was empty. It mysteriously worked again for a few days, and now it's down again.

I guess I don't really understand how TVGOS works. All of the HD channels have been coming in just fine, so not sure why sometimes I have the listings and sometimes I don't. And when I do have it, I seem to consistently get listing information for all but one channel.
I'm told that TVGOS receives its signal from the local PBS station. Maybe there's an issue with your tuner receiving it for some reason. Make sure your PBS channel(s) are viewable.
I had a similar situation with my Pioneer PDP losing the correct time when set to receive it automatically. It turns out that PBS sends out that signal also and my antenna had a bad coax cable leading to the analog tuner from my splitter. Most stations weren't affected by the coax, but PBS was the only station not coming in that well.

When they issued me my exchange, I asked if I could get a 95 series rather than the new 66's. The Toshiba rep told me that was not possible, since the 95 series was an '05 model. I then asked for and received store credit instead. Your best bet is to get store credit and hope that store has one in stock somewhere.Just an update for python67 and anyone else out there who may be interested, when HHGregg corporate finally called (HHGregg is the store I bought my 42HP95 from originally) and said my exchange had been approved, they asked if I wanted another 42HP95. Apparently they still had one in stock somewhere even though that model is discontinued. I politely turned down the offer though :)

So if you're one of the unlucky people whose Tosh can't be fixed, there may yet be hope of getting a 95 series model, if that's what you really want. Just depends on where you bought it.

I'm told that TVGOS receives its signal from the local PBS station. Maybe there's an issue with your tuner receiving it for some reason. Make sure your PBS channel(s) are viewable.
I had a similar situation with my Pioneer PDP losing the correct time when set to receive it automatically. It turns out that PBS sends out that signal also and my antenna had a bad coax cable leading to the analog tuner from my splitter. Most stations weren't affected by the coax, but PBS was the only station not coming in that well.
Thanks for the info! Does the TVGOS come in thru the analog or digital PBS channel? Because I recently switched from the RCA VHF/UHF amplified indoor antenna to the Zenith UHF only indoor antenna. Could that be why I'm no longer getting the TVGOS?

Just an update for python67 and anyone else out there who may be interested, when HHGregg corporate finally called (HHGregg is the store I bought my 42HP95 from originally) and said my exchange had been approved, they asked if I wanted another 42HP95. Apparently they still had one in stock somewhere even though that model is discontinued. I politely turned down the offer though :)

So if you're one of the unlucky people whose Tosh can't be fixed, there may yet be hope of getting a 95 series model, if that's what you really want. Just depends on where you bought it.

Thanks larrysano for the update. I just talked to the head tech guy at Toshiba Canada today and he gave me an update. Aparrently this is the first time they have had this problem with a 42hpx95 and are doing all they can. They ran the set for about 4 days untill they saw the black lines apearing and the screen going black. Now they replaced some power module and put my old power module in another set. So now its a race to see which set screws up first. Its a hard thing to fix when it can go a few days at a time without any problems. Its has been 3 weeks and Im going nuts! I will wait another week and hope they get it figured out. I told the guy not to issue me a new 2006 set that I wanted a store credit if they couldnt get to the bottom of the problem soon. He said he understood.

Ive been keeping my eye on other sets at the place of purchase and can honestly say that I like what I had better. The new Panasonic TH42PX60 is probably what I would go with but im not very fond of the silver and like the 42hpx95 looks alot better. They have one 50hpx95 left, that has been reduced and I might consider paying a bit in the difference to upgrade. But have to wait and see.

larrysano do you have another set in mind to replace yours?

Thanks for the info! Does the TVGOS come in thru the analog or digital PBS channel? Because I recently switched from the RCA VHF/UHF amplified indoor antenna to the Zenith UHF only indoor antenna. Could that be why I'm no longer getting the TVGOS?
Mine comes from the analog PBS here in Sacramento, on VHF channel 6. This will have to change eventually, as analog is being phased out.
I believe we may have found your problem.

Ive been keeping my eye on other sets at the place of purchase and can honestly say that I like what I had better. The new Panasonic TH42PX60 is probably what I would go with but im not very fond of the silver and like the 42hpx95 looks alot better. They have one 50hpx95 left, that has been reduced and I might consider paying a bit in the difference to upgrade. But have to wait and see.

larrysano do you have another set in mind to replace yours?Yeah, I actually picked up a Panasonic TH-50PX60 last week, and I'm loving it. At first I was worried a 50 inch screen would be too large for the room it's in, but I'd never go back to a 42" now. And the silver cabinet just blends right in with my wall color, so all I see is the stunning picture :D It just feels so good to finally be done with that whole ordeal with Toshiba.

I'd say that if you're fond of the 2005 Toshiba's and they have a 50hpx95 left, go for it. It's just that my personal experience with Toshiba was so bad, that I didn't want to chance it with them again. I'm not sure that I'll ever buy another Toshiba product. It's too bad though, because the HP95's had a great picture and feature set.

I have my cable split at the wall, one lead goes to ANT 1, the other to Cox DVR/cable box. (I mainly did this hookup to accommodate the Toshiba's split screen feature, which requires two different input types so I could watch two football games.) Obviously I don't need TVGOS when viewing through the Cox DVR/cable box, but my wife often prefers to use the 50HP95 remote to watch her morning non-HDTV shows. (She doesn't like the Cox DVR remote. Imagine that!) So for those times she uses the Toshiba remote TVGOS would be useful. However, after a month of trying I have been unable to get TVGOS to load programming. I tested it with the Cox DVR/cable box and it worked under that scenario. So why won't it gather programming when using it with the ANT 1 lead? I have checked and rechecked the TVGOS setup -- and followed the suggestion posted here to verify that the local Phoenix PBS station Channel 8 was included in my station lineup. No luck. Obviously I cannot include the HD Phoenix PBS channels 708 and 760 since the lead from the wall into ANT 1 doesn't include the HD channels. Could that be the problem?

I talked to a Toshiba rep and he was going to put in a trouble ticket with TV Guide. That was a week ago and I haven't heard anything. Any suggestions, assuming that I have performed setup correctly and PBS is available?

hddude55 - while I may not be able to specifically answer your question, I coincidentally have an update from my previous post because my TVGOS was not working since I installed software 1.3.1 (hddude55 - did you need to install this new software?).

I spoke with a Toshiba rep about 90 minutes ago who informs me that my issue has been escalated to TVGOS, and the engineers from Toshiba are working with TVGOS, to create (and subsequently send me) yet another software update, to make TVGOS compatible with 1.3.1. At first she said that TVGOS was taking up to six weeks (yes, weeks) to populate the information on Toshiba's running 1.3.1. Then she said that engineering was working on it, and there was no ETA on the new software.

Mind you, I needed 1.3.1 to fix the pixillating/tiling problems I was having because I use a cable card, not a box, to receive my digital and HD programs. Version 1.3.1 fixed it, but since then I have not been able to use the TVGOS (I tried restarts, reboots, reprogram, etc, and confirmed that I am able to receive all PBS stations, in analog/digital/HD in my area - Boston).

hddude55 - maybe you cannot split the signal AND have TVGOS work on both, I do not know. I hope some of this post is helpful, and good luck. I will keep everyone posted with my status of needing yet another software update, in case this happens to anyone else. Thanks all!

Make sure you have your pic size set to "Full".
Hey, I just purchased the 50hp95 and when using my PC using the VGA port, I am not allowed to turn the tv to full. It just stays at natural and there is no way to change it. Could you tell me what steps you followed to get the screen in full mode when using the vga port.