Toshiba 40ZF355DB - On par with Pana TH42PX80 or just looks the part

[Hendy00]

Hi,

For a fair while i have been looking at upgrading my 6 yr old Toshiba CRT tv with a plasma and had settled on a Panasonic TH-42PX70PED but was not going to get it until we moved house( too big for current home but just right for new house). I bought my CRT because it has a good quality picture (still has) and i liked the 'Picture Frame' style which gave more of a looking through a window feel rather than a box with a glass front. I felt the same with the Panny. Now they are phasing them out(gutted)and replaced it with the TH42PX80. Still a top notch TV but that silver stripe under the screen i know will begin to grate me with it 'Groan' look. Why o why did they do that?.

When i first started looking, the Tosh Rega range were getting slated and were not in the same league as the Panny range. Just by chance i saw a very favorable review on the Tosh 40ZF355DB and a few more after that. Price wise and connectivity it's about the same as the Th42px70 but atheistically looks 10 times better with it's Picture Frame looks. They say The picture quality has improved greatly which imo suggest a complete turnaround for tosh in the LCD market.

How does this compare with the Panasonic? is it worth considering or should i stick with the Panny? has any1 seen it or got 1? I've not seen it in the shops as yet so i cannot do a comparison myself.

thanks in advance

 

[Anonymous]

The 42PX80 is around £650, the Tosh is over £900. To compare with the Tosh you need to look at the PZ80 which is Full HD 1080 too and costs around £750-800.

 

[Hendy00]

Aaargh

Yes you are right. I was comparing the wrong 2(it was late and i was tired- my excuse and sticking by it).
After a quick look through my WHF collection i found what i was looking for in the April 08 ed. The 40ZF355BD is the newest model(£900) and not the one reviewed in WHF which is the 40XF355BD which i have seen for £700 on the web (£1700-madness). It done very well according to WHF review. it was only just bettered by the panny TH37LZDZ70. I checked Tosh's site again (more awake this time) and managed to compare the 2 models and there are a few but important differences. 100hz for starters on the 40ZF which should eliminate the slight motion judder on the 40XF a few have mention. Also mention was this 'white light' around the edge of the picture. What is it and has this been sorted with the 40ZF? (Probably more of a question for WHF eds and journo's)

 

[SpiceWeasel]

The "white light" around the edge of the picture is caused by the backlight on LCD's. I think it's called backlight bleed if im not mistaken. This can effect any LCD tv although from current reviews it seems to be less of a problem than it used to be. I would imagine that this won't be a problem with the next generation of lcd's due to the new LED backlight.

Don't worry to much about the specs, get a shortlist of tv's you are interested in and get viewing. The one with the best picture might not be the one with the best specs.

One thing to look out for with buying an older model is to make sure it can handle 24fps blu-ray material properly. Older sets might play blu-rays but it won't be as smooth as a tv that fully supports the feature.

 

[Hendy00]

Cheers.

I've narrowed it down to Panny PZ80, PZ85 or Tosh 40ZF355. The PZ80 is the cheapest by about £200 compared to the other 2 (£8-900) but i don't mind paying the extra if I'm getting more for it

Classic Case of lcd vs plasma. need to do some serious viewing.