Toshiba 30HF66 30" Upconverting Widescreen Pure Flat CRT HDTV

With the Toshiba 30HF66 1080i Widescreen Digital Direct View TV, you'll have a better viewing experience with more flexible connectivity. This attractive, slim TV gives you 30" of pure viewing pleasure, with brighter colors and deeper blacks for a more vivid picture. The 16:9 aspect ratio recreates the feel of watching a movie, and the built-in speakers make the sound come alive. Space-saving bottom speaker design in silver with black bezel. Color temperature control CableClear DNR+ BBE Sound & StableSound Advanced Channel Return Two ColorStream HD Component video inputs HDMI input Connections - Front panel A/V/S in, 2 rear S-Video in, 2 rear A/V in Fixed audio outputs Coaxial digital audio out (ATSC only) Includes 4-item Glow Universal Remote Control

The 30-inch Toshiba 30HF66 flat-screen CRT HDTV proves you don't need to spend an arm and a leg to bring vividly colorful high-definition programming into your home. It has a widescreen, 16:9 aspect ratio that's ready for HDTV programming and letterboxed DVD movies. It features a variety of video technologies that will enhance your enjoyment of both standard and and high-definition pictures, including a digital comb filter, wide-band video amplifier, and high-speed velocity scan modulation. It also upconverts standard definition broadcasts to near HD quality. And it's easy to connect to brilliant imagery with the component and HDMI connections--the latter offering pure digital audio/video performance with no degradation of signal from just one convenient cable. Surprisingly slim at just 19.5 inches deep, its attractive silver and black cabinet will look great in any room. The set's built-in ATSC (DTV) tuner pulls HD signals (480p/720p/1080i) right from the airwaves, and its QAM tuner is fully compatible with unscrambled HDTV cable reception. A standard analog NTSC tuner receives standard-definition (SD) programming. Toshiba's CrystalScan HDSC technology upconverts all video signals (including 480i/p) to 1080iHD, resulting in a significant reduction in jagged line artifacts to create the sharpest, most realistic picture possible from every source. This set features Toshiba's CableClear DNR+ technology, which optimizes poor NTSC signals from antenna or cable sources to eliminate video noise ("snow") for a clean crisp image. It utilizes the digital 3D/YC comb filter to compare frames and determine the existence and extent of video noise. It then applies the needed amount of digital video noise reduction, and the appropriate sharpness adjustment to keep the picture clear. This feature now works on RF, composite and S-Video inputs, and can be selected by input. The FST PURE flat screen picture tube delivers increased viewing angles along with the enhanced picture linearity necessary to produce accurate, life-like images. This feature eliminates unwanted reflections from room lighting, which is a common problem in conventional tube designs. It also improves sharpness and brightness. The aforementioned 3D Y/C comb filter separates brightness and color signals better in 3D domain to eliminate cross-color, cross-luminance and dot-crawl distortion. It performs field-by-field comparisons of the television image to accurately separate the color from the black-and-white information and remove both horizontally and vertically hanging dots, as well as dot crawl, resulting in a razor sharp image. The Cinema Mode feature performs 3:2 pulldown detection and reversal, too--a handy feature for watching progressive-scan movie programs in their native 24-frame format. To adapt 24 frames-per-second movies to 30 fps video, frames in the original movie must be duplicated; 3:2 pulldown digitally corrects this duplication by removing the redundant information to display a frame-accurate picture. This set also offers five TheaterWide modes that expand letterboxed images--which is particularly useful when watching narrow letterboxed Panavision or CinemaScope films. The Dynamic Quadruple Focus feature utilizes both horizontal and vertical beam adjustment ensure that the edges and corners, not the center of the screen, have a precise beam spot for a sharp, uniform picture from corner to corner. The wide-band video amplifier maintains the higher frequencies that standard video amplifiers eliminate, producing a higher resolution. The Movie Mode feature changes the basic picture setup conditions to create a more theater-like picture, while the Sports Mode feature automatically adjusts appropriate picture levels to produce enhanced color, detail and brightness. Other convenience features include color temperature control, auto aspect ratio detection, closed captioning on mute, sleep timer, tri-lingual on-screen display, video input labeling, channel labeling, channel/video lock, and V-Chip parental controls. This set has two stereo speakers that produce 5 watts of power per channel (10 watts total). The StableSound feature eliminates the annoyance of normal program volume being followed immediately by extremely loud commercial messages or drastic volume fluctuations while changing channels. Here's the full round-up of video and audio connections: Composite A/V: 3 (1 front) S-Video: 3 (1 front) Component Video: 1 HDMI: 1 RF: 1 Headphone: 1 (front) Tech Talk HDMI is a lossless, uncompressed, all-digital audio/video interface to link any audio/video source (such as a set-top box, DVD player, or AV receiver) with your TV--all over a single cable. HDMI supports standard, enhanced or high definition video, plus multi-channel digital audio on a single cable. It supports all ATSC formats--standard (SDTV), enhanced (EDTV), and high (HDTV). Component video (also called Y/Pb/Pr) features a three-jack video input, which provides separate connections for luminance (Y), blue color difference (PB) and red color difference (PR). This results in increased bandwidth for color information, resulting in a more accurate picture with clearer color reproduction and less bleeding than you would get with S-Video or composite (RCA yellow video plug) connections. You will need a separate RCA left/right audio cable for sound. What's in the Box Flat-screen CRT HDTV, remote control (with batteries), printed operating instructions

I got my unit 2 years ago from a sale at Kmart- the unit cost a third of a grand. I needed a HDTV for the apartment living room but didnt have the budget for the plasma/LCD types so I settled for CRT. So far, so good. Since then, a lot more channels upgraded to HD, so I wasn't "left behind." I now have the budget for a 46" or bigger LCD TV. When the time comes, this CRT will be moving into the bedroom, the perfect spot for it's size!

I bought this tv from kmart as a display, not one problem yet, set does need to be tweaked to get best picture, and weighs an amazingly hefty 120 lbs. not for the faint of heart. as with ANY HD crt, watch out for magnets!!!! the can pull these tiny pixels enough to ruin your evening trying to get the set back to normal :)... db

I read all the reviews and bought the set early in 2007. It seems to me most the reviews were a bit harsh based on my experience thus far. Besides, in scanning the ratings in Consumer Reports it became obvious that Toshiba consistantly ranks high in [...] tubes. They didn't rank this particular set real high, but for the money, it seemed like a steal. I bought mine on sale from Amazon for four C-notes, shipping included. A great price for a top-name 30" HDTV-capable set. Reading all the technology info in the product description is enough to put a graduate Electrical Engineer in the fetal position. In laymans terms, the set has it all and can do everything. I chose the infamous 'free shipping' option and waited 3 weeks for my set. No big deal- the price was right for a 130 pound box that can hardly fit through your door. The set arrived packaged well and undamaged. I have only an outside antenna for reception, and live on a hill about 25 miles from the nearest transmitting towers so I expected to be reception-challenged. The set up went well as the installation/set-up guide is very well written. I plugged the set in and, as promised, the set automatically conducted its own set-up, scanning the input signals for all stations that could be received. When done, I found I could receive several more stations than I had in the past, including two HDTV signals. That's the good news. The bad news is that I get a message 'signal strength too weak' whenever I try and tune to the HDTV frequencies. My hunch is that I will get reception once I mount my antenna higher above ground level. Stay tuned! The picture is much better than my previous set- even with the factory settings. Other reviewers are correct when they say you should expect to spend some quality time adjusting the set for the best picture. There is a ton of new technology in this set and if you want to make the most of it, take the time to learn the menues and various settings. Once I figured out the best settings for various inputs (Video, DVD, antenna), the picture proved to be all that was advertised. I am especially impressed with DVD's- the picture is sharp and color accurate. Those reviewers who are more electromagnetically sophisticated may be let down, but so far I'm more than satisfied. Update 3/25/07. Regarding the automatic channel scan feature: this is one of the ways to add receivable channels to memory. The TV is supposed to scan all available frequencies and automatically add the ones with good signal strength. I chose this method during the initial start-up, and the set found 6 regular stations and two HD frequencies, but the HD signals were so weak I was never able to actually get a picture. On a hunch, I later tried adding some channels manually. Much to my surprise, I have been able to add 8 HD stations! And here's something else- I have never seen such unbelievable clarity in TV reception. The HD stations come through with absolutely zero interference, static, etc. The pictures are perfect. I was unaware that HD had this advantage over analog signals. Even during times of very poor weather the pictures remain perfect. All this with just an antenna! (I did buy a good antenna- it's a Turk model 36 meant to receive both analog and HD signals). The cable and dish companies are certainly in trouble. I can't say I feel bad about that. UPDATE 8/07 OK- the honeymoon is over. After performing flawlessly for months, I can no longer access the main menu and the channel number is no longer breifly displayed. I've tried several things to fix it but now am faced with resorting to warranty coverage to fix. Bummer. Revised rating- 2 stars.

I bought this TV at BestBuy, and got my friends to lug this beast into my room. The first thing I noticed while setting it up, was that the batteries it came with were dead. Next, I noticed there were tiny bits of dust behind the screen, where to this day I can see two black specs if I look for them. When I got it set up, the geometry was a bit messed up (4:3 mode's lines weren't straight). By boldy entering the service menu, I was able to correct this issue for the most part. Next, I noticed bold colors (especially red) ran, and blurred the overall image. I was able to fix this by lowering the contrast to no higher than 17/50. Also, as a previous poster had mentioned, black details are lost in darker scenes. I fixed this by calibrating my TV off of the 'Movie' preset (which keeps contrast low, and brightness medium-high). However, after much tuning, I went from having a crappy bargain-bin item to a beautiful 1080i picture, and an amazing step up from my SDTV. I can't quite say I recommend the set, but if you feel confident in your abilities to tweak the overall image, and you're on a tight budget, then this set may just do the trick!

I got this TV from BestBuy at a knockdown price as an open-box item. Although it's got a great picture and is feature packed, the TV turned out to be faulty and randomly turns off for no apparent reason, or doesn't turn on at all. BestBuy offered to replace it with a brand new one, except it's been discontinued, so I opted to return it and get a refund, though anything brand new will be nearly double the price. Quite disappointed though. Any TV randomly turning off is a big problem, and coupled with the fact that Toshiba are outsourcing the manufacturing of their tube TV's to Orion, and BestBuy discontinuing this new-ish TV so soon rings alarm bells for me. I'd stay clear of this product.