Home > Consumer Reviews > Toshiba TLP-ET1 Home Theater Front Projector

Positive aspects:
1) real 16:9 mode is excellent with a 16:9 screen
2) great brightness, even in economy mode
3) great colours
4) scarcely any screendoor effect if the screen is 2.5 times the screen length away from you
5) barely noticeable noise in economy mode
6) excellent compatibility (component, composite, video, VGA, etc.)
7) very easy of use

Negative aspects:
1) component YUV necessary to get a sharp picture
2) contrast could be better
3) has to be put really close to the screen!

Problems
1) during big travelling shots the image can be jerky at times

I've been using the Toshiba TLP-ET1 for about 3 months and love it. It is LCD, 480x858 pixels ( 1-to-1 mapping of DVD video ). The color is fantastic and the 700 lumens is very good for home theatre with an 80" screen. I keep my room dark and use the low power setting. The only negative point that I can see is that screen door effect is still slightly visible at 1 1/2 x screen width but my best seating is at 2x anyway. Contrast ratio - black level is respectable and this is coming for someone that has been using (still uses) a 36" Sony XBR television which has outstanding black levels. There are no visible artifacts of any kind and the internal DCDi processor even makes 480i signals look great (ie standard broadcast). The internal sound system is a bit of a joke and may make some people over look this other wise great projector. Because of the short lens throw, I am uable to use this on a coffee table in what is otherwise a rarely used formal living room. The screen gets put away for other entertaining and the PJ looks good enough to stay on the table. I put my DVD player (Denon 710) on the same table to minimize the Video cable length and run the digital audio to my Denon 3803 receiver by a single long coax cable.

It has excellent features and is very easy to use.

For the previous reviewer; I've been quoted $400(cnd) or a new bulb from my dealer so it should be $300(us) or less.

This may be an entry level project with a relatively low resolution compared to the more expensive projectors, but with the DCDi and quality colour and contrast it fills the 93" screen I have with great detail.

Setup is quick and easy as I have to keep it in the cupboard away from the children when not in use.

The pixel box effect can be reduced substantialy by setting the focus a little soft. I found that small text became even easier to read with the soft focus.

Unless you want to spend a lot more money, it's hard to go past this projector.

After almost buying a HD wide screen TV that weighs 200 pounds and costs twice as much, I decided for now to go the projector route, and so far I'm not dissapointed.

I use a nice 5-foot "da-lite" screen to get a 16:9 image with the projector only about 6 feet away. Picture quality seems to be very good to me, much better than computer-centric projectors I tried in the past. The menus and setup are very easy to understand, and the little remote has dedicated buttons for the most used functions like picture size.

Drawbacks with a projector are you need a dark room, about 5 minutes setup time if you are not permantly installing it, and a new set of 4-meter long video cables; but that outweighs the benefits in my case of living in a small apartment and putting it all out of site in 5 minutes when I am not using it.

So far I have used it with my progressive scan DVD player, and my Xbox system, all using component cables and really enjoying the picture quality.

One comment is that since this model is so new - even Toshiba themselves do not know how much the replacement lamp (2000 hours) will cost. I see other lamps on their website for $500 so I wonder how much it will be for this.....

But in summary, for my situation it does exactly what I wanted it to do, and the price was right.