HDTV Reviews

This is a good value for $999 with only one real issue, which is a problem with a greenish tint in very dark areas of the picture.

I had the original set replaced, and the new one has the same problem. You can't make adjustments on this, it's not an issue where you can adjust the tint control and make it go away. I've been informed that this is most likely a grayscale tracking issue and that having the TV professionally calibrated may fix this. I'll check into that after the TV has a few more hours on it.

The TV has a very sharp, detailed picture. In brightly lit scenes the colors are very vivid. I was pleasantly surprised about how good the picture was given the low price of the TV. In addition, the TV doesn't take up much space. It's only 18 inches deep, which is about as deep as a regular 27" direct view. If you have limited space and can't afford a plasma or LCD set, this TV is about the slimmest you'll be able to find.

Just to clarify. Colors look very good and the TV does not have an overall greenish tint. The problem is with the fact the TV doesn't generate a true black, so you end up with a greenish tint on a shadow area for example, while the rest of the colors in the scene look fine.

If it weren't for the green tint issue, I'd probably give the set a 5 star rating based on the price/value factor. It has a great picture otherwise and at $999 I don't think you could beat it for the screen size. Due to the fact the TV only gets used about twice a week to watch a DVD, and also to very limited space, I've decided to keep it. However if space weren't such a concern I'd probably send it back and get the 46" Toshiba widescreen rear projection set.

It works well as long as you don't mind the louder-than-a-computer fan that roars from this tiny box. And the interface completely blocks almost half the screen, so as you look to see if something is on...you can't see! About a third of that solid box blocking the screen is used to display the word Motorola. I'm returning it.

I purchased this item in March 2003 and now in June it does'nt work! I turned it on one day the set stayed on approximatley 40 minutes and then the picture began to switch off and on off and on...
I paid [a lot] for this item it should work great with no hassels! I'm writing this rewiew in an effort to warn other HDTV shoppers to be very wary of this product. The Manufacturers of these HDTVS need to understand the purchase of one of these sets is a major financial consideration for most people. I am now watching my old ...color JVC and you know what it looks better all the time!
If you feel you must buy this model from Zenith see if the merchant will give you a couple of weeks to try the product. if not find another manufacturer.......I feel in order to be fair to Zenith I must follow up on my initial poor review with a progress report. After calling Zenith and venting my anger with them I contacted one of their service representatives A technician came to my house a couple of days later, he replaced the defective parts at no charge to me and now my TV works great and looks even better P.S. have it calibrated...

I'm normally not one to take the time out of my day to write a review for something but I feel that if my bad experience here might save just one person from blowing their money the time is well spent. Everything that everyone else has said about this being a piece of junk is true. I was fortunate enough to get less than three months out of it before the screen turned into an hour glass shape and the colors got screwed up. I called one of the "service centers" nearby and they said they were no longer dealing with APEX because they would not honor his service bills and parts took forever to come in if they did at all. I've talked to Apex numerous times when I finally get through to them and they also lie to me and will constantly try their hardest to hang up on me. I'm about two seconds from working to turn them into the BBB. There has to be some kind of consumer protection we can use.

I purchased this tv about a month ago and so far it hasn't disappointed me. I have to admit I didn't think the picture would be that good but with a good set of monster cables it's not half bad. It's not as good as some of the top of the line models but for the price I paid it's excellent. The sound is awesome and I haven't even hooked up my surround yet. The only problem I've had with the tv is when I use my dvd the picture jumps during the title screen when using the component hook-up but it clears up once the movie starts. Overall I would recommend this tv to anyone who wants a hdtv but doesn't want to pay 2 grand.

great tv for the price
sound is very good, picture is sharp especially with dvd,
does not take lot of space and is very easy to use
this is the 2nd apex tv i have bought
and i am very satisfied customer. all you need with the tv is the home theater system to enjoy the theater experience at your home. the tv's picture quality is next the sony projection hdtv and is $$less then sony.

I purchased the Toshiba 65h80 in April 2001. The picture when connected to a quality dvd player was incredible! Then in March 2002, I powered on the set, and almost simultaneously heard a pop sound, then the picture totally went black, the power indicator light began to blink, and a lound clicking sound came from the set's speakers. Since it was one month before the warranty expired, I was in luck, so I thought. I took 3 weeks for a tech. to locate and repair the unit. 2 months later the same problem occured. Since the second malfunction was so close to the first, Toshiba repaired again at no cost to myself even though the warranty was expired (1 year). 7 months later the unit experienced the exact same malfunction as the previous 2 times. I paid for repair out of my pocket since Toshiba said they were no longer obligated, even though the nature of the problem began before the warranty was expired. The unit went out again! The service technician said the unit would require a new board. A new board was ordered, and after waiting two months with no response from Toshiba, the tech, contacted them, and was told that the board could not be made because it was not feasible to make only one board. Even at the expense of others Toshiba still would not meet their obligation! In 2 1/2 years of owning the set, I got approx. 1 year of viewing, nervously! $3,200 of hard earned dinero down the drain. Boycott Toshiba! Forever!!!

I ordered this item September 20th. It came around October 30th. It had a picture for all of 2 hours. Then all I was able to get was colored lines running up and down the screen. Toshiba sent 5 technicians out on different occassions. The TV was drilled, taken apart, played with and put back together. Still did not work. Finally Toshiba approved a new signal board. Signal board was installed and the picture was better but horrible. Now it is December 2nd and I still have NO TV! Toshiba is a horrible company. I will never do business with them ever again. It is worth paying an extra 2K to go with a Sony.

As someone who has spent many hours comparing big screen TVs in person, this one is the best value and has just about the best picture quality I could find. I have had no problems with this TV and would suggest it to all my friends. DVD picture is outstanding, directv picture is incredible. This TV has provided months of enjoyable movie and TV experiences. Beside great picture, this TV includes a menu for manually configuing the projectors from your remote without having to touch the unit, making maintenance easy. Other menu options contain easy to use and understand options. Everyone who comes over is literally awe struck at the quality of the picture. Friends who have big screen TVs of other brands love this one more. This TV has met and far surpassed all my expectations and desires. I am completely satisfied with my purchase. This thing is huge, so be warned. It was almost to big for us, but after watching Star Wars Episode 1, we were left with our jaws hanging. Incredible! We had a guest come by with little children, one of which banged into the screen which had no affect on the TV. Another friend accidentally hit the screen relatively hard, but again, no affect. I have nothing but praise for this TV.

This is a very disappointing product. It is supposed to enhance the image but it actually made it a lot worse. I have a perfectly calibrated home theater and after I put this cheapo upconverter everything needed to be readjusted. Color, tint, brightness. I couldn't believe it. If you are serious about upconverting, invest in a real box like the DVDO iScan HD. Now that's about the performance. About the rest, it sucks even more. The case feels cheap, switching between the different inputs takes forever (like there is a 5 sec delay between the moment you push and it does switch) DO NOT BUY.

I bought the ADS upconverter because I bought a HDTV only to find out that my cable co. didn't offer HDTV and after 3 failed attempts to switch to a satellite provider that did offer HDTV (too many trees around my house). I wasn't expecting the upconverter to magically turn my standard signals into an amazing HDTV picture, but for $550+ I was expecting the upconverter to do something that was actually noticable. When I first turned in on I asked my wife to look at the picture and tell me what she thought. She looked at the TV and said okay I'm ready turn it on. I said "it IS ON!!" This is pretty much the reaction I had also when I looked at it. The image I got for my digital cable was certianly different, but that's all it was, different. It was NOT noticably better. In fact, in some instances I though the picture was worse. I called ADS tech support and they kept insisting I try it with my DVD because that is what the product is best for (even though that's not what I got it for). So I did and to be honest I really preferred the picture I got directly from my DVD over the picture I got after running it thru the upconverter. It didn't matter what display format I put it in it just didn't do anything to improve the picture. Save your money. If you can't get HDTV don't expect this box to give you anything close to the next best thing.

I just bought this thing from Amazon and all I can say

is WOW!!!!

This is probably the best purchase I have ever made.

This thing is everything I ever expected and more!! It's

very easy to use as well!

I have bought other brands before, and this one just

blows everything else out of the water! I have to say,

everyone out there who is thinking of buying this, stop

thinking. I bought it and I am extremely happy with it

the moment I powered this thing on. YOU ABSOLUTELY

POSITIVELY CANNOT GO WRONG WITH THIS PURCHASE! I

GUARANTEE IT!!!

Purchased 1 unit, went though 9 of them before returning it for good. All of them would power up, menu worked, but could not recieve any signal with a $50 antenna. Samsung asked to send the unit in for repair...but why would I do that since it doesnt work new out of the box. I did not have any luck with this unit. My LG electronics one works great with full signal strength.

I've had good experience with Samsung in the past, but don't go for this unit unless you already have a near-perfect analog signal. I'm 2 miles from the broadcast stations in Chicago, but in an apartment. I would get 8 out of 10 bars in signal strength, but the unit would have to keep honing in on the signal so the signal strength bars would 'flicker' and as a result audio and pixilated picture would constantly come in and out despite all amplification attempts. I now get shadows with my analog set up, so my guess is that the reflecting in my indoor signal is causing both the analog shadowing as well as the transient at best HD picture and sound through this unit. I believe it's an issue with the processor not being able to re-adjust quickly enough and filter down the signal it needs just right. I also must reiterate the issue that you can not view the menu in 1080i through the DVI and this unit does NOT come with a DVI cable so expect to shell out another $100 for one. If you have a roof antenna, then then this may be the unit for you, but I'll try out the 4th generation Samsung TS360 and hopefully it will be able to lock onto my bouncing but strong signal - plus it comes with a DVI cable. I still applaud Samsung for leading the way in driving down the price of these suckers & releasing the better technology with better consumer end-user specs before everybody else.

I can agree AND disagree with everyone else's opinion of this unit. I have the unit connected to my 57" Hitachi Ultrvision via DVI-D interface, and to my Panasonic receiver via TOSLINK optical. When I first got the unit I connected it THRU the receiver via Component (RGB) cable. I experienced video dropout during sudden bright scenes, and occasional audio drop out in Dolby 5.1 as others have. I should note I am 55mile north of Tampa Bay and get about 7 or 8 channels (plus sub-channels) with a roof top antenna (Channelmaster from about 1990). The video droppout was clipping due to the Receiver's shortcomings, once I by passed it the video was excellent all the time. I also have not had an audio issue in some time now. Granted, being a TiVo family we rarely get to watch alot of "live" TV, but it has been great. Bottom line is this: reception is key. The signal is digital and thus will be slow to decode, uncompress and prone to packet loss (equating to picture pixelization and loss of Dolby soundtrack) Remember the UHF days? Ghosts, snow, etc.? Same thing, only digital. I previously bought a Zenith unit and it only got 1 channel. The sensitivity of the Samsung is by far superior to anything else in my experience. If you want terrestrial TV in HD for FREE, you'll need to invest in a well tuned aerial. Also I have a standard vhf/uhf 35db booster inline, 30ft from the aerial and 60ft from the tuner and it does not interfere with the signal in a negative way. I give it 4 stars because a this point in time we are too close to next-gen receivers to expect this unit to live up to the expectations of each individual user.

I have the previous model, the HD-200 - the absolute worst AV purchase I've ever made. After being perpetually ignored by Sony's customer service reps, I'm not surprised to see that the same problems occur in the 300 model. I am really sick and tired of having to wade through 500+ channels to reset the custom program list (the only way to navigate so many signals), only to find it gone the next day. And the remote control doesn't work unless you are directly in front of, and close to, the unit. I have mostly Sony equipment, and have always considered it a good investment, until I got this $800 turkey. Sony should be ashamed for branding this (which, I understand, is actually made by Zenith). Buyer beware - it's a lot of money to regret spending.

I don't disagree with some of the other complaints, but the problems are, in my opinion, overshadowed by the advantages if you own a Sony TV and receiver. The remote works perfectly with my HDTV monitor and receiver. I have used HD DirecTV receivers from Samsung and Hughes and found them lacking.

I just recieved mine in mail last week, and have had no problems with it so far. The picture is awesome and has 100% improved the look of my local broadcast channels, which I believe are broadcast in analog format by Direct TV (I don't have an antenna hooked up to the reciever but plan too if Direct TV doesn't get there act together soon and start broadcasting CBS [DISH offers CBS HD], NBC, and ABC HD TV shows). My old sat receiver (the freebee that comes with the base install)was not able to convert them (and along with other non-HD broadcasts) that well for viewing on my Sony KV34HS510 Widescreen. The picture was a little blurry. I am not sure if the other lower end HD sat receivers can "scale up" analog and digital broadcasts to be viewed on a HD TV set, but this sony handles the job nicely. I have had no problems with "bugs" and the program guide has some really nice functions--you just need to have it set up properly. The hassle of clicking the remote button 2 extra times to get to you custom channel or favorite channel list, should not be a reason to dissuade you from purchasing this fine product. The first time you watch a program in HD or even programs not in HD, you will be happy you shelled out the extra bucks to buy the more $$$ Sony.

This antenna is not so bad, it just cost twice what a good antenna cost. I actually got better reception on some stations with a cheep set of rabit ears. This antenna might work great for VHF, but I bought it for HDTV on UHF. Your 99 bucks gets you a very pretty antenna that works as well as some 25 dollar antennas. IF your location gives you great UHF reception, then a cheap set of rabbit ears is all you need. If your locations gives you poor UHF reception, the TERK TV55 won't help. Even with the high price, you still won't get better than light green reception (as measured on antennaweb.org). Save your money, or try a cheaper antenna first.

I purchased a Terk TV-55 antenna to pick up HDTV/DTV broadcasts from stations that were approximately 15 miles away from my home, all in the UHF spectrum. I have not been able to pick up any of them with the TERK 55.

Using the antenna locator (www.antennaweb.org)all indications were the TERK-55 should have been good for my purpose, even from inside the home. It was not.

From within my two-story home, I could find no location where I got acceptable reception on any channel. I then bought a 10' antenna mast and mounted the TERK-55 on my roof (chimney mount), at approximately the same elevation as my neighbors who have the "old fashioned" style antennas. While they receive local channels perfectly, I was only able to receive decent (but not great) analog VHF signals, very weak UHF analog signals, and no UHF digital signals.

Terk customer support tried very hard to work with me to solve the problem. The were willing to send additional parts, etc. to try to make it work, but ultimately we could never isolate the problem to a specific issue.

I bought extra in-line amplifiers (TERK BIA-20) to try to accomodate for my relatively long cable run (about 150 feet), but the amplifiers actually made the problem worse (guessing it conflicted with the internal amplifier on the antenna, but that's only a guess).

Bottomline ... I'm not an expert antenna installer, but I'm going back to an "old fashioned" style antenna.

From my perspective, the TERK 55 was a failure ...

...but if you are going to try it, I'll give you one piece of technical advice. While you point most "yagi" style antennas at the station for best reception, you do not point the TERK-55 at the station. Especially for UHF channels, best reception actually comes when the TERK 55 is perpendicular to the station (i.e. if the station is north of you, align the antenna east/west, with the printing on the antenna case facing the station).

Hope this helps.

After trying a number of smaller 'set-top' antennas with zero success, I decided to try the Terk TV55. I purchased at Circuit City for their ease of return, even though there were lower prices online. Turns out I will not need to return this unit.

I live in a heavily wooded townhome community and was nervous about my chances to receive local digital channels, even though the transmitters are less than 20 miles from my house.

I opened up the box and had it connected to my Hughes HTL-HD receiver within 2 minutes. I bought 15' of RG6 cable (beware: the unit only comes with 3'), thinking that I would need to route the antenna outside under an eave or wherever. Well, I didn't even have to go that far. As soon as I flipped to my local digital channels (we have 20 here in Norfolk), I was AMAZED at the reception quality. No drop-outs or pixellation. And this was by just having the antenna INDOORS, ON TOP OF MY TV!!!! Now that I know I can get such great results, I plan on mounting it outdoors so I don't have to look at it indoors.

Well, that's it. I have never written a review here before, but I just wanted to add my two - cents worth after getting such terrific results with the Terk TV55. Thanks Terk! My next step was going to be a monstrous YAGI type antenna on the roof, so I am obviously happy that I didn't have to go that route.

Great product...works as promised. Good luck to you.

I have had 2 of these units replaced in less then a year. First time it was because no DTV signal second was no OTA signal. First time it was under warranty and second time it cost me $239 to get it fix. Thomson who makes this for RCA would not fix under warranty because the second unit had a 90 day replacement on it. I have had a lot of DTV receivers in the last 4 years and this one was the worst!!!! Stay away and spend your $500-600 somewhere else!

The DTC-100 has been quite a joy for my home entertainment system. Being one of the first HDTV receivers available, it is a very capable receiver and is extremely low priced. Despite being low-priced, its features include a standard and high-definition satellite receiver, and a digital and analog receiver for terrestrial television broadcasts.

It also is compatible with cable systems, however most cable systems to not support the 8-VSB modulation for HD broadcasts. Even AT&T's so-called 'Digital' cable is only a poorly implemented method of adding more channels at the expense of picture quality, and it is not compatible with digital television standards. The receiver will receive the standard analog signals on cable systems.

It offers digital and analog outputs for audio, and S-Video and VGA outputs for video. The VGA output is required for High Definition video. While many HD televisions do not support the VGA connection, electronic signal conversion adapters are available to convert the signal to the three-line component video output. Firmware upgrades, received via satellite, have addressed the issues of signal incompatibility with some early high definition televisions.

For this writer, a 21" computer monitor is being used to view the High Definition content, however, when programming to record, the receiver automatically switches to the S-Video output to send a signal to the VCR. The receiver will convert high definition material to standard definition when the S-Video output is used. The quality of the conversion is very good. Something that I've noted is that the S-Video output, in conjunction with a digital television station broadcast, results in a much clearer recording on video tape than the same recording made from the signal available on cable systems or over the air.

As for the availability of High Definition Television content, CBS should be applauded for their commitment to High Definition Television by having most of their prime-time offerings in High Definition. It is my hope that other major networks will soon follow suit.

If I had any complaint about the receiver, it would be that it doesn't send a signal to both the VGA output and the S-Video output at the same time. The receiver does make up for this by offering a button on the front of the receiver that switches between the VGA and S-Video outputs. There is also a button on the remote that can be set to do the switching between the two outputs. It reality, the only time this is a problems is when wanting to record while watching in high definition(not possible unless you record to your VCR through a different tuner, but then you don't get the digital picture clarity), and when wanting to directly compare high definition to standard NTSC. (But it can be done with a seperate tv tuner)

In summary, this is an excellent product that can get a person into the High Definition crowd for relatively little cost. And even after this receiver is obsoleted by newer receiver technology over the years, it will still make an excellent second receiver for the kid's room in conjunction with an inexpencive computer monitor.

After buying the best HDTV-ready TV for my money (meaning in my budget) last year which happened to be a 52" RCA, I was ready to experience HDTV for real and had been looking at the DTC100 for quite a while since it would be directly compatible with my TV, but the price was a little higher than I wanted to pay. All of the local channels are HD now and I don't have satellite so I was looking to use it strictly for over-the-air (terrestrial) HDTV. Well, I ended up finding a demo piece available at a local dealer and snapped it up since it was the last one.

I took it home, plugged it in, plugged in a standard VGA cable between the DTC100 and my TV, and I was up and running! It searched and found all of the HD channels locally and the picture quality was great! Finally I'd gotten the most out of my TV and I was impressed. The remote from my TV runs the receiver right out of the box so I didn't even need the remote for the DTC100.

I plan to eventually order DirecTV and this box will work with DirecTV.

As a couple other reviewers said, the biggest knock I have on it is that the analog output (RF or SVHS) and the HD outputs don't function simultaneously, but that's the only thing. I love having local channels in HD with Dolby Digital surround! AND it was cheaper that buying a new over-the-air ONLY receiver by another manufacturer...