TV Reviews

this would be nice ot have in my new living room, but it wont fit on the moving truck with the rest of the things we needed first.. AND the most

I bought this from a retail store around here (MI) back in October for around 2700 with a 5 year warranty. Its a great TV.. picture is great, what's really neat is watching 2 games at the same time. I would highly recommend this TV to any one looking for one

I have had mine for about a month. The picture is very clear much different with a flat screen. The color is very clear and when playing a DVD the picture is excellent. Looks much better than when I used a separate DVD player. The remote control is easy to use and glows in the dark. The sound is good except for occasional changing from speaker to speaker or blank outs which may be the reception from the cable. Its a little larger than expected with the side speakers and a pretty deep unit so if you are putting it in a small space measure first. Great for the price.

I purchased this tv about 1-1/2 to 2 years ago and at the time it was over 400 dollars- now they lowered the price and its great deal for the quality of it. Excellent picture and very conveniant with the dvd player built in. I purchased this for the look, and mainly for the dvd built right in because it was so easy to use. It also plays cd's, dvd's, and you can hook up your gaming stuff to it. Also has spot where you can plug in headphones in the tv and listen to it that way. Great value and look- perfect size for college kids or someone who isnt looking for a huge tv or too small- its perfect size and works great, Highly recomended. 5 stars.

We have been quite pleased with the 13" Toshiba TV/VCR. The picture quality is sharp and the color is excellent (better than the others we had researched). The 125 channel cable capability is great and elininates the pesky cable box necessary with our old TV. The front A/V jacks are ideal for a headset so that one person can watch TV without disturbing others in the room.

The VCR works well. Playing tapes is a cinch and recording and setting the timer is straight-forward. The VCR doesn't have VCR+ but for this price we did not expect to receive this feature.

We especially like the size and easy use of the remote. Some remotes we looked at had did not have a muting function or a skip search function. The Toshiba has both.

This is a good small-screen unit for a guest bedroom or kitchen space. we probably would find it too small to be our only TV or VCR.

This is one of the better combination TV-VCRs I have seen. Panasonic and Sony also both make good 13inch TVs. Toshiba's combination TV-VCRs often gets overlooked. However, this is an excellent set and performs equally well. The picture is crisp and sharp. The built-in Digital tracking 4 head VCR makes VHS tapes look very good. You get front A/V (RCA type) inputs with a TV/game switch. The VCR has good high-speed fast-forward and rewind performance. It also has time-shift recording capability and a built-in head cleaner. The front panel features a useful headphone jack. The 'White' cabinet design is uniquely handsome and looks better than other competitor models.

This is a great product by toshiba; I have generally had bad experiences with combos, but this unit makes a great balance of value, picture sharpness and compactness. The menu system is intuitive and the universal remote a joy. One feature that would have made this a trendsetting product would have been the inclusion of picture in picture. Otherwise, this is a combo definitely worth looking at in terms of price, performance and design. Well done Toshiba.

I have recently purchased the product and I have to say it performs great for the price that I paid. I was viewing an old poor quality VHS tape with it and the picture is nice and clear. When I viewed the same tape with my ($) Mitsubishi VCR and the picture is much poorer.

This Television set is best for the person that wants a good price and a large clear picture. Although the set doesn't have too many fancy options on it, it does a good job for just the usuall tv and movies. Is good for a bedroom or kitchen in particular.

The Toshiba TV/VCR combo is the perfect combination for a college student living in a dorm. Its compact size allows for easy placement. Being able to watch movies in your room, without the extra bulk of an additional VCR is a plus!! Also, the placement of the headphone plug is very useful, especially when your roomate is sleeping.

You will get your money's worth with this tv. The picture is crisp and clear with a sattalite, clearer still when viewing using the s-video input and just super crisp using a dvd! the SBS gives the sound some umph on the base end. the menu functions are very easy to use. I am very pleased with this tv excellent entry level model!

This is an excellent television. The wide-angle (160 degree) viewing is very nice if you have many people watching at the same time...Note: Make sure to get an extended (in-home) warranty, if possible, since these things aren't easy to move around!!!

I have had a philips hdr312 TIVO unit for about 18 months. I LOVE TIVO. It is amazing and my family are all TIVO lovers. Even my wife, who hates all my electronics, loves tivo. The pause, rewind and Fast forward are awesome. We never start to watch our show until 20 minutes into it so we can zoom through comercials and still end at normal time.

Now the negative . . my units modem went bad, I sent it to Philips, cost $99 + 25 for shipping. Recieved it back 2 weeks later saying "no repair made, no problem found". Unit was still broken, called service and they agreed I should ship it back (another $25). Again, 2 weeks later returned "no repair made, no problem found". Agian I called philips, they agreed and said they would swap unit with a refurbished unit. I asked that they pay for shipping, they agreed and told me I would recieve a UPS call tag via email with 3-5 days. 3 weeks later and a dozen phone calls, still no call tag and each time I called I was promised by a supervisor I would get it the next day. One Tech support guy told me he's seen this take up to 30 days to get a UPS call tag and suggested I just pay for shipping myself if I do not want to wait. I asked them how is it that if I wanted to return something to L.L. BEAM, UPS would be at my house the next day, yet philips can't seem to get one to me for 3 weeks now. His response "were not L.L.BEAM"

At that point, I finally researched the company and contacted the President of the US division. He was wonderful. He was appauled at my story and within 1 hour of talking to him, (still amazed I got him on the phone)I had someone call me to inform me they were shipping overnight a brand new HDR612(The next model up). The unit arrived Friday, but I was not home, so I am waiting for redelivery tommorow.

I was happy to see management was very upset with the service I recieved and how quickly they reacted to my situation. Hopefully, this might shake up the service department and no one else will go through what I went through.

To the President of Philips . . Thank You!

TiVo's claim that they'll change the way you watch TV is completely true. Being able to pause or replay whatever you're currently watching to grab a snack, answer a call, etc. is great. You can't imagine how helpful it is to have almost two weeks of programming information available to pick and chose what to record for the next few days.

I'd recommend the 30hr unit over the 14hr if you can afford it. After you start searching the two week guide by program name, channel name, favorite channels, or by time of day you'll quickly find plenty of things you want to record.

DirecTV viewers will especially find this useful...it makes all those channels much more manageable, and I prefer the TiVo on-screen guide to the one my DSS box provided.

All of the TiVo menus are well thought out, attractive, and *very* easy to use. They include lots of cables - including S-Video, a phone jack splitter (nice touch), and other goodies so almost anyone will find everything they need to hook TiVo up right out of the box. The User's Guide is helpful too, for people who are a little less sure of themselves around stuff like this.

I picked TiVo over ReplayTV because of their close alliance with DirecTV (DirecTV has invested in them), and from reading other people's comments in newsgroups and other forums. After I spent about half an hour going through the program guide and giving various programs 'thumbs up' or 'thumbs down' ratings (one of the cooler features of TiVo), it came up with a whole bunch of other programs it suggested I might like.

I'm probably sounding like a company spokesperson, but I'm not, I'm just a *very* happy new user of TiVo!

Just to begin by replying to a previous review... The fact that TiVo is on all the time is good! This prevents wear on the system and the hard drive. Think about your computer, all the experts advise leaving it on instead constantly turning it on and off... I bought my TiVo recently and Amazon just credited me with the price difference since the TiVo just dropped in price dramatically. The TiVo set-up was long, but simple. The 800 number was assuring since I don't live in a major metropolitan area. I got the lifetime subscription and the $100 Direct TV rebate, so I wound up paying a lot less for my unit overall than for the competition which I checked out. There are no long distance calls with TiVo! I don't save anytime during the day, I still watch 5 hours of TV every night, but now it's quality TV, not just channel surfing. I can also watch more good tv in less time, you can quickly scan through commercials, like a VCR, but you can do it while recording the item. If you start watching a show about 6 to 7 minutes in, while recording it on your TiVo, you can skip the commercials while watching and catch up to live TV without missing anything! It's really easy too! And now the same price as a good VCR, but it's much better. I'm the envy of all my techie-friend! END

Seriously folks, who wants to spend this much money on a device that turns you into a couch potato, doesn't work right, has a horrible guarantee and reduces your income and mental stability by watching crap like soap operas and other junk

Tivo should rename this product and call it The Automatic Income Reducer.

WASTE OF TIME AND MONEY.

When I first got my TiVo I didn't know what to expect from it, I've read many review stating that it has changed that persons life. I though that those people were just TiVo sales people hyping up what looked to be just a VCR on steroids. But when I started up my TiVo and got the 299.99 service lifetime fee I notice right away that TiVo would make a major difference in my life. Instead of rushing home to watch a show I could take my time knowing that TiVo had everything covered. Plus the feature that allows you to pause rewind and fast forward is worth the fee itself, imagine skipping through any irritating TV commercials or the boring parts of baseball and basketball games, or how about rewinding and using slow motion to watch that NASCAR crash again and again, or that dunk over and over. Imagine never missing your favorite shows and having quality entertainment in your TiVo 24 hours a day. All you have to do is watch it before it gets deleted for space. (Space is the one drawback, if I knew how many shows I would want to record I would have gotten the 80 hour TiVo)It is the greatest thing out there and is so simplistic anyone could use it.

The thing that separates this DVR from all the others are the Season Pass Manager(It records an entire season of episodes such as all of Friends, Survivor, or The Daily Show), The constant service updates that makes sure the show gets recorded even if the TV schedule changes, The View by Actor/ or Actress Feature, and once again the simplicity of the TiVo separates all the poorly made dvr's out there. If you are thinking of buying a dvr don't make a mistake and buy something other than TiVo.

The only bad thing about the box is that there is a small delay when you change channels, and the 299.99 lifetime service fee or 12.95 monthly service fee may seem way too much but after you start using it you'll see that it is worth it.

PS. The remote control in my opinion is like the frosting on the cake. It is very easy to use after the small learning curve.

It has changed my leisure time. The only "live" TV I watch anymore is Fox & Friends and the Weather Channel. The way it fast-forwards through the commercials then knows where to start again when I hit the play button is fantastic. I save several segments of favorite programs then watch them in succession during one evening like a couple of movies. I think that a better set up than this, however, would be to get it integrated with your satellite box so that you could watch one program while recording another. (You can do it with cable and non-premium channels but not with satellite.) Set it up to find your favorite actors or actresses and you'll see them in lots of stuff "before they were famous." Jack Nicholson on Andy Griffith? (Played the role of a 19 year old on trial, Aunt Bea was on the jury.) Wow, what a hoot. I find the quality to be more than adequate but I might not feel that way when the plasma screen gets installed. On my current old 23" I can't tell the difference between recorded and live - picture or sound.

Seriously folks, who wants to spend this much money on a device that turns you into a couch potato, doesn't work right, has a horrible guarantee and reduces your income and mental stability by watching crap like soap operas and other junk

Tivo should rename this product and call it The Automatic Income Reducer.

WASTE OF TIME AND MONEY.

When I first got my TiVo I didn't know what to expect from it, I've read many review stating that it has changed that persons life. I though that those people were just TiVo sales people hyping up what looked to be just a VCR on steroids. But when I started up my TiVo and got the 299.99 service lifetime fee I notice right away that TiVo would make a major difference in my life. Instead of rushing home to watch a show I could take my time knowing that TiVo had everything covered. Plus the feature that allows you to pause rewind and fast forward is worth the fee itself, imagine skipping through any irritating TV commercials or the boring parts of baseball and basketball games, or how about rewinding and using slow motion to watch that NASCAR crash again and again, or that dunk over and over. Imagine never missing your favorite shows and having quality entertainment in your TiVo 24 hours a day. All you have to do is watch it before it gets deleted for space. (Space is the one drawback, if I knew how many shows I would want to record I would have gotten the 80 hour TiVo)It is the greatest thing out there and is so simplistic anyone could use it.

The thing that separates this DVR from all the others are the Season Pass Manager(It records an entire season of episodes such as all of Friends, Survivor, or The Daily Show), The constant service updates that makes sure the show gets recorded even if the TV schedule changes, The View by Actor/ or Actress Feature, and once again the simplicity of the TiVo separates all the poorly made dvr's out there. If you are thinking of buying a dvr don't make a mistake and buy something other than TiVo.

The only bad thing about the box is that there is a small delay when you change channels, and the 299.99 lifetime service fee or 12.95 monthly service fee may seem way too much but after you start using it you'll see that it is worth it.

PS. The remote control in my opinion is like the frosting on the cake. It is very easy to use after the small learning curve.

It has changed my leisure time. The only "live" TV I watch anymore is Fox & Friends and the Weather Channel. The way it fast-forwards through the commercials then knows where to start again when I hit the play button is fantastic. I save several segments of favorite programs then watch them in succession during one evening like a couple of movies. I think that a better set up than this, however, would be to get it integrated with your satellite box so that you could watch one program while recording another. (You can do it with cable and non-premium channels but not with satellite.) Set it up to find your favorite actors or actresses and you'll see them in lots of stuff "before they were famous." Jack Nicholson on Andy Griffith? (Played the role of a 19 year old on trial, Aunt Bea was on the jury.) Wow, what a hoot. I find the quality to be more than adequate but I might not feel that way when the plasma screen gets installed. On my current old 23" I can't tell the difference between recorded and live - picture or sound.

Seriously folks, who wants to spend this much money on a device that turns you into a couch potato, doesn't work right, has a horrible guarantee and reduces your income and mental stability by watching crap like soap operas and other junk

Tivo should rename this product and call it The Automatic Income Reducer.

WASTE OF TIME AND MONEY.

When I first got my TiVo I didn't know what to expect from it, I've read many review stating that it has changed that persons life. I though that those people were just TiVo sales people hyping up what looked to be just a VCR on steroids. But when I started up my TiVo and got the 299.99 service lifetime fee I notice right away that TiVo would make a major difference in my life. Instead of rushing home to watch a show I could take my time knowing that TiVo had everything covered. Plus the feature that allows you to pause rewind and fast forward is worth the fee itself, imagine skipping through any irritating TV commercials or the boring parts of baseball and basketball games, or how about rewinding and using slow motion to watch that NASCAR crash again and again, or that dunk over and over. Imagine never missing your favorite shows and having quality entertainment in your TiVo 24 hours a day. All you have to do is watch it before it gets deleted for space. (Space is the one drawback, if I knew how many shows I would want to record I would have gotten the 80 hour TiVo)It is the greatest thing out there and is so simplistic anyone could use it.

The thing that separates this DVR from all the others are the Season Pass Manager(It records an entire season of episodes such as all of Friends, Survivor, or The Daily Show), The constant service updates that makes sure the show gets recorded even if the TV schedule changes, The View by Actor/ or Actress Feature, and once again the simplicity of the TiVo separates all the poorly made dvr's out there. If you are thinking of buying a dvr don't make a mistake and buy something other than TiVo.

The only bad thing about the box is that there is a small delay when you change channels, and the 299.99 lifetime service fee or 12.95 monthly service fee may seem way too much but after you start using it you'll see that it is worth it.

PS. The remote control in my opinion is like the frosting on the cake. It is very easy to use after the small learning curve.

It has changed my leisure time. The only "live" TV I watch anymore is Fox & Friends and the Weather Channel. The way it fast-forwards through the commercials then knows where to start again when I hit the play button is fantastic. I save several segments of favorite programs then watch them in succession during one evening like a couple of movies. I think that a better set up than this, however, would be to get it integrated with your satellite box so that you could watch one program while recording another. (You can do it with cable and non-premium channels but not with satellite.) Set it up to find your favorite actors or actresses and you'll see them in lots of stuff "before they were famous." Jack Nicholson on Andy Griffith? (Played the role of a 19 year old on trial, Aunt Bea was on the jury.) Wow, what a hoot. I find the quality to be more than adequate but I might not feel that way when the plasma screen gets installed. On my current old 23" I can't tell the difference between recorded and live - picture or sound.