Home > Consumer Reviews > Toshiba 50H82 50-Inch 16:9 HDTV-Ready Projection TV

I have held off buying a RPTV for several years because I was never happy with the picture quality. I also knew 5 years ago that my next set would be a 16:9 aspect ratio.

I looked at half a dozen sets -Samsung, Panasonic, Sony, Hitachi, Mitsubishi, and Toshiba. After searching the web for reviews and going on my past history as an electronics dealer, I chose the Toshiba. Except for a few minor annoyances, I am happy with my decision.

First, the set is a nice overall size. The width and height are not a lot more than a 35" tv on a stand, especially in light of the greatly increased picture size. The depth is actually slightly less than my Mitsubishi 35" direct view set, so I gained a slight bit of space in my living room.

As for inputs, I have more than I need right now. I use the component input for my dvd player, S-video for my laptop when needed, coax for my cable, and one of the composite inputs for my son's Gamecube.

Picture quality on digital cable channels varies with the program quality, but is generally decent. Any picture quality problems are magnified compared to a smaller direct view set, and watching pan and scan movies on broadcast channels is almost painful - grain, grain, grain. Just be prepared for this if you do not have high def signals in your area.

Dvd signals fed through component input are really where this set shines. Watch Training Day or Monster's, Inc. and you will be floored by the combination of this set and a well-mastered dvd. My living room is approx. 14 feet long so my prime viewing area is just at 10 feet from the set. This should be considered the minimum distance to enjoyably watch this set. Any closer and you will find yourself leaning away from the set to keep from being overwhelmed. (Maybe this was just me as I have been sitting 10 feet from a 35" set for 7 years.)

One thing that I invested in - and am thankful for - was a setup dvd (I bought the Sound & Vision Home Theater Tune-up because the store only had it, but I am going to invest in the Avia disk as well). Using this dvd and the THX set up screens on one of my other dvds, I found that the picture is off center by about 4-5 inches. I am going to call Toshiba to fix this, but it does not really detract from watching a movie.

Using one of these disk to set up an RPTV is a must, however. After running through the setup, I compared the changes to the standard movie settings and was shocked at the positive difference in my setup. Do yourself a favor and get some type of setup dvd.

A nice feature is the ability to set picture settings for each input, so that when you switch to that input, the settings change automatically to the ones you saved for that input. Very useful if you are switching between sources of varying quality.

The sound of the set is pretty good, but I rarely use the built in speakers, so I have not given them a really good workout. The spatial imaging seems very good for internal speakers, so if you do not have a DD 5.1 audio system, you still should be able to enjoy decent sound from the set.

A set like the Toshiba 50H82 has made me understand the true importance of dvd mastering quality, too. On my 35" set, a non-anamorphic, indifferently mastered dvd still looks pretty decent. Going to 50" really makes a good quality disk stand out. You will find yourself searching out your anamorphic New Line or Superbit dvds to enjoy them all over again. On a good disk, this set has close to film quality picture.

If you watch mostly broadcast television on an antenna or cable, this set may not be for you. If you get a good quality digital signal, or better yet, HDTV, you should be very satisfied with the Toshiba 50H82. And if you watch mostly dvds like I do, you will spend more time than you would like in front of this great addition to a home theater.

Excellent picture using a progressive scan dvd player. If you adjust the picture enough you can get a fairly acceptable picture with regular cable. But to see what this tv can do you need an HDTV source. Controls very user friendly. Size is just 21 3/4 deep so you can put it about anywhere in the house. And its on rollers, it doesn't seem like a big deal but wait til you get it home. I am happy with it.

Our Initial reaction to the 50H82 was one of content. Ya it was an upgrade from our 48" Sony but we weren't necessarily amazed..

The problem was/is, 4:3 content doesn't fill a 16:9 screen, and there's a lot of 4:3 content out there! Hence, if you're watching a standard Broadcast, Cable, or Sat signal you'll need to decide how best to fill the screen. In the case of the 50H82 you can stretch it into fitting, scale/crop it to fit (loosing a bit of the top/bottom), you can keep the 3:4 aspect ratio which translates into leaving the unused sides of the screen blank, or you can use one of Toshibas hybrid schemes that only stretches the outer portions of the image leaving the center area untouched.. This is probably your best bet, albeit not a perfect one..

One area that appears to be pretty close to perfect was discovered with the addition of an HD SatDish/OTA tuner. Within a second of selecting PBS's HD Channel it became abundantly clear exactly where Toshiba had put it's R&D money.. 1080i HIDef content, coming off stations like PBS and HD-Net, looks simply STUNNING.. Words can not do justice to Nature scenes appearing as real as looking out a window and sporting events that place you in the stands. Suffice to say,, having seen what this set was capable of, we have become virtual slaves to HD. Fortunately most of our local stations (Boston Area) have already begun OTA digi broadcasts. A lot of 480p signals during the day and 1080i for the networks (mainly CBS) primetime programs.

The 50H82 has plenty of analog inputs, 3 composite/SVideo, 2 antennas, and 2 component HiDef inputs. Sadly, Toshiba failed to provide a Digital interface. ie. NO Firewire, USB, or DVI..

This is truly unfortunate and the only real negative I can think of.. Hopefully Toshiba will follow some of the other manufactures who had neglected to provide a digital interface and offer a retrofit device of some sort... ala Mitsubishi's "Promise Module" that adds a Firewire interface to a few of their upper end sets.

Other than the Firewire issue, we're completely happy with the 50H82.. , and for those looking for an HD or DVD Monitor, would highly recommend giving it a look,,

The Toshiba 50H82 is one of the best televisions I have owned. It has great picture quality and changes sources easily. You can have several sources going at one time and switch easily. With the PIP you can view each source(2 at a time). Overall this TV is worth the money. compared to others I checked out before buying.

I purchased this tv not 1 week ago and im already locing it. The modes are great, extremely easy access to all the options. I have yet to get a progressive scan DVD player, i am waiting for my Toshiba SD-4800 to arrive, but currently im running 6.1 surround sound on a sony STR-DE885 with 500 watts, it is simply AMAZING i will never go to the theater again unless there is a movie i have to see, this TV has the best picture quality i have seen out of any tv's at best buy or abt. There is no comparison for the price and the quality, unless you are going to get gas plasma or LCD GO WITH THIS TV!!