The Toshiba DLP (HM/HMX) Owners Thread - Page 16

moman,

Yes, there is a difference. For the best picture on the 52MHX84, you should use HDMI. Do not buy expensive cables. Performance is identical for digital cables so long as they are not defective. You can get a HDMI cable for less than $30.

Monster cables are no better than most cables available at 1/5 the cost. You bought into their pretty cable covers and marketing hype once -- be sure not to do it ever again. You should never pay more than $20-$30 for digital audio or video cables. If you want to put in the extra effort, you could probably make your own for under $15.

I get ghosting via component cable AND DVI->HDMI connection using the LG LST-3510 OTA/QAM receiver. I got no such ghosting using the RGB output with my PC monitor. Component cables are the same I use with xbox; a combination that has consistently produced a crisp and clean 720p picture.

I also get ghosting using DVI->HDMI from my PC video card (with zero overscan compensation). I have tested this in several video modes and 2 different video cards. I know there is a sheet that comes with it that says not to be used as a PC monitor but DVI is DVI, or is someone lying to us? Even if I could live with the overscan, there is still ghosting that's far beyond acceptable. Will the HDMI port accept any type of analog signal? I know DVI cables can carry an analog signal but I assumed HDMI was digital only.

Maybe the PC signal is no good, and maybe the LG receiver was just garbage? Or maybe the Toshiba is garbage. I guess only time will tell.

-A

I have ordered the Pioneer Elite DV-59AVi and it should be here in 3-4 days. It is setting me back some serious $$$$ (around $970 when all is done) but I don't have a progressive scan DVD, let alone a top notch one that will handle SACDs. This DVD player should take care of my needs for quite some time. This past three weeks has marked roughly $9,000 in Home Theater purchases for me so I am pretty well tapped out. The savings is running low so time to take it easy for awhile!

too...http://www.audioreview.com/DVD+Playe...5_1587crx.aspx

I am anxious to test out the HDMI to HDMI interface and I will post my results then.

I have bought the HD Direct TV box and HD antenna (with Sunday ticket) and they will be installed next Saturday. HDMI outputs aren't available (except $1000 Tivo models) so I went with the $200 Samsung model with DVI out. I plan on getting a DVI to HDMI converter. I still have to purchase an HDMI switch until HDMI receivers come down to the $1000 price point I require, as a max price, for purchase. Until then component sound will have to do At least I am positioned for the future.......

The only thing left to buy now is a new receiver (OUCH).
http://www.tvauthority.com/Search.asp

Hopefully I will hill from Tweeter's installers (Hillcrest here in Dallas) and I will be able to get my new speakers installed also on Saturday. I purchased the Polk LC series, in wall speakers, and LSI Bipole/Dipole speakers for the rear. This room is gonna rock when everything is said and done.

I will post pics once everything is installed and good to go!

Dan

Nice review ndahbar, very similary to my experience with the 52HMX84.

Haven't had the chance to run Avia on the set yet myself (still waiting on a decent DVD player), but my eye-balling came out pretty close to what you've got.

I'm still too busy drooling over this set to write a real review, but I probably don't have anything more to add than ndahbar. No regrets with the set - and I don't personally think you can beat the size/features/quality for the price with any other set at the moment.

I tend to think that (at least my 62HM84) the Toshibas have a touch of yellowish tint to them. I watched the game last night (OTA HD) and Bernie Williams face (along with others) had a sligthly yellowish tint. I've notice this on other things too. It seems like green gets a little bit of a yellowish tint to it to in football games. Watch the game tonight and see if you notice it too.

Off. I was full-aware of this to disable it even before I bought the thing, based on findings I read about in this forum.

Admittedly, this is the toughest thing for me to "see". That is to say, inaccurate color "push", whether too much green or red or yellow...I guess I am just lazy to pay attention to it?

Thing is it is something so easily affected by someone's color / tint settings. I optimized mine carefully using AVIA and if u wanna know what I used, see my post on the previous page with the lengthy review.

When watching Kill Bill 1 (*before* calibration), my friend pointed out that in the hospital scene, things looked too green, especially Uma's hair. Then I told him I see what you are saying but nah, Tarantino did it on purpose. Because after she goes to the parking lot to look for the "Pussy Wagon", all the colors looked extremely vivid and realistic again. I mean, there was a VERY bright yellow piece of leather in the car and it looked PERFECTLY 100% pure yellow, and if the TV was screwed up (or dvd player), it woulda looked a little green no? That's why I say I think things are good. Cuz it cannot be "bad" in one scene, but then fine in another. It's white or black. No in between.

I am having trouble with DVD playback through my new 52HM84. I am using an SD-H400 DVD/DVR and component inputs. On all dvd playback I have black bars at the top and bottom of the set.

I have the progressive switch in the "P" position at the back of the set. I have tried settings on the player and on the TV. Before I call service I'd like to seek help here.

Aspect ratio is set to : Auto on the TV and "Full" in the pic size





dvd settings:
16:9 Widescreen for TV Shape
Progressive 4:3 Output set to "Full"
Progressive Conversion is set to "Auto"

The progressive button on the remote doesn't do anything AFAIK.


HELP!

Pier,

Please read this for answers to the black bar question. It is basically FAQ material.

I have large black bars, maybe about 4in top and bottom, is that normal by that threads standards?

Pier,

Yes, that's normal. Think about it this way:

I have a TV that is a 16:9 ratio. Ignoring the diagonal measurement upon which TVs are normally measured, we'll say my 16:9 TV is 48" wide and 27" tall (16/9 and 48/27 = 1.78). HD broadcasts come in at full screen for me. Now, I pop in my favorite 2.35:1 aspect ratio action DVD. At 2.35:1, it fills up the screen horizontally, meaning that it's 48" wide. With a little math (48 / 2.35), I know that my movie will measure a little over 20" tall, leaving the rest of the space with black bars at the bottom and top.

Hope this helps,
Z

pier,

How many DVDs have you tried? Roughly half of all DVDs are 1.85:1, and should fill the screen without noticeable black bars. You should only see black bars on DVDs with a 2.35:1 aspect ratio. Refer to the back of the DVD box (or an online search for information about the film), as many list the aspect ratio on the back.

Some older 4:3 letterbox DVDs with 1.85:1 ratio won't fill your screen because they require scaling, which the Toshiba SD-H400 DVD player doesn't offer. If you had a better DVD player, these would correctly fill your screen. Note the SD-H400 is not a very good DVD player, feature-wise and PQ-wise.

In general, when you are commenting on the performance or behavior of your DVD player and display, it's best to note exactly what DVDs you are trying.

If this is the case, I believe you can set your TVs aspect ratio to Theaterwide1. Don't remember the setting but over the weekend I watch Cool Runnings on my Toshiba 62HM84 which is 1.85:1 and it came up in stretched when I set the TV to full. I then changed it to Theaterwide (or whatever option 2 was) and it filled the screen properly.

Back to the DVI-> HDMI issue, I've hooked up the Samsung OTA tuner via Acoustic 6' HDMI cable ($55) with an Acoustic Research DVI->DHMI adapter ($25) from Best Buy. I tried it out with Monday night Football and the Red Sox vs. Yankees game the other night and it looks much better over component. Component is brighter and much sharper. I don't really know how to describe it when using the HDMI input other than it comes in much darker with higher contrast and edges look blocky. On some scenes it doesn't look to bad. The Toshiba HDMI DVD player hooked up to it via HDMI looked aweful. I'm starting to wonder if there are issues with the HDMI connection on the TV. The Samsung hooked up looked OK and may not be noticed as looking bad to the casual user but to me it definitely had an issue with Sharpness and details. Anyone call Toshiba about this?

I received my 62hm84 this morning. I recently moved and left my 56" Samsung hln with my sister after having it for a year. I was very excited to connect everything and start watching HD again(its been over a month, I was going thru withdrawals :-) . I first connected my Voom receiver via dvi to hdmi using a pacificcable.com dvi>hdmi cable. the voom receiver was set to 480i and the picture wasn't so good, I switched to 480p, and still the picture wasn't so good. I then switched to 720p and 1080i and all I saw was snow, nothing I tried changed that. I imagine this isn't what people are considering "ghosting" but I'm not sure. I then used component cables to the voom receiver and was able to set the box at 1080i and 720p. I then hooked up my Samsung 931 DVD player via dvi>hdmi and was able to use the little button on the front to send 720p and 1080i signals with no problem. I can't say the picture is perfect yet as I still have to do some tweaking and watch a couple different movies to be able to compare it to the old Sammy HLN, but I also don't think I'm seeing the "ghosting" others refer to. Overall, I think the picture is coming around, the HD didn't blow me away like I remember it doing with the Samsung, but like I said before, I have some tweaking to do, and I imagine there is a period of burn in for the lamp, so maybe it will get better. I have a hdmi switch on order and would like to use the dvi out on the voom instead of the component but I cant seem to get it to work. any ideas?
ps: this thread has been very helpful and informative, thank you to all who have been posting.

I too owned a Samsung HLN before the Toshiba. I had the Samsung DVI DVD player hooked up via DVI to in once and all I got was snow too. I then powered down both the TV & DVD player and removed and reseated the cable and powered both back on and they came up fine then. you might want to try that.

I'm not seeing 'ghosting' via HDMI, and I'm not sure how to desribe it. it looks more like some colors are saturated maily around edges. I set my settings for Component 1 & HDMI so they'd be exact and the Component input comes through brighter and sharpness is good. The HDMI input has a much higher contrast and dark areas are much darker and lose details and sharpness is just not right. I'm a little concerned as hooking up the Toshiba HDMI player just looked bad and there was no conversion as it is HDMI to HDMI.

Has Toshiba renamed the HM94 to the HMX94?

I see several vendors like Crutchfield advertising the HMX94 (which isn't on Toshiba's site) with two HDMI inputs, rather than the HM94.

Thanks xb1032, I just tried that and no luck . I'm going to try and call toshiba tomorrow and see what they say.

the toshiba 62hmX84 has 2 HDMI ports
the toshiba 62hmX94 has 2 HDMI ports and CableCARD implementation.

i have purchased (and shipped today) a 62HMX84 and i can't wait for next week.

For those confused about ghosting.. it looks like there are transparent copies of objects offset slightly on the sides. For instance a white solid circle might appear to have shadows around it's left and right sides.. this is what i'm referring to as ghosting. I'm not sure exactly what would cause this over a DVI connection.. I don't know how it could possibly be the cable (as this would cause digital-like artifacts, not analog-type distortion). Ghosting is also really obvious on the left and right edges of a 4:3 program.. one side will be darker than the background, and the other side will be lighter than the background (just the far edges)

Hope that clarifies. Right now I'm trying to locate a Sam SIR-451 locally but it seems like they are out of stock everywhere and nothing is shipping anytime soon :-/. maybe I will get a DVD player w/ DVI output just for testing purposes.

-A

I was just going to post the same concern. I received my DVI to HDMI cable today and the picture looks crappy . . . not nearly as good as it does through component. The HD feeds don't really even look HD anymore -like xb1032 said they are much darker and not nearly as clear. I also notice more audio-video sync issues through that connection. I would just use component instead but I need to take advantage of all my HD inputs.

Have others noticed this problem? If you're device is hooked up through HDMI, have you ever tried component for comparison?

And if this issue can't be resolved, does anyone know of a good way to expand the number of component hook-ups via some type of switcher that wouldn't diminish the connection quality? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

OK, I have another newb question.

When my tv was delivered I saw a faint greyish area on the screen, about 5" long and 3" wide, there is also a semi-round one. I am assuming these are blemishes from somebody bumping the screen. It is barely noticeable when playing stuff, to unnoticeable.

I would like my TV to be perfect, since I paid 3k for it, but nor do I want to return it without reason. Does anybody else have these marks or is your screen completely "clean"?


Thanks
Shawn

Just got a 52HM84 and Samsung 841 last Sunday from BB. It is my first observation:

1) The Samsung 841 component input is acceptable but not as good as the DVD demo in BB.
2) The Samsung 841 DVI-HDMI input is worse than component IP. Darker and less detail in the darker area even with higher brightness.
3) SD is acceptable but not as good as my old 35" CRT TV. I use 0 sharpness.
4) Had play with the "S" menu. It changes the horizontal and vertical position; color and some others. But none has altered the gray side bars.

Adelphia will install the HDDVR on Friday. I shall post further result. If the HDMI input with the cable HDDVR doesn't work fine, I shall return the TV.

KC38,

You might want to check the the AVS DVD players forum. The Samsung 841 is not one of the better DVD players.

hi ya' all, finally pulled the trigger on the 52HMX84, been waiting for it for quite some time now...jus got available last monday...got a pretty good deal for it i believe.....cant wait for the delivery!

Thank you bfdtv,

I found that my experience with the 841 has been well reported there.

Does anyone know why the picture size modes are unavailable in 720p? I'm thinking if we could change the modes in 720p we might be able to get 1:1 pixel for HTPC. Even in 1080i the "Full" mode is unavailable.

Pack the TV up.

The picture size can be modified on my OTA Samsung tuner but not of the TV so I'd assume it's restricted on the TV's user menu.

I believe that someone had mentioned earlier in the thread that the HMX was indeed capable of displaying black sidebars rather than grey ones while viewing 4:3, and someone else had asked whether the HM84 was also capable of this. Depending on the STB it is; I've attached a pic that I took a few minutes ago of a 52HM84 if anyone is concerned that this might not be the case. The Panny DLP is to the left of the Tosh.

The feed to this set was from a ExpressVu HD receiver; a Motorola DCT6200 does the same.

Unfortunately, after watching a PBS HD feed for about ten minutes rainbows were painfully obvious to my eyes on either set. I didn't see any while watching a Panasonic CART clip a couple of months ago. I'm bummed. Right out of the box, both sets look terrific even with a less-than-perfect source.