Toshiba REGZA 42HL167 HDTV Review

Toshiba is a company known for releasing great electronics but the Toshiba REGZA 42HL167 HDTV is not one of them. This flat screen has a great bargain price, but a few problems such as the lack of picture in picture leave a lot to be desired.

The colors are also hard to watch as they ruin perfectly good TV shows and movies that you happen to be watching. Scenes that are supposed to look dark but still viewable are almost completely black and the characters on screen look like large blobs of color too hazy to make out detail in. Bright colors such as sunlight will also make it hard for you to see what is happening on your screen.

When most consumers buy an electronic gadget they want it to do certain things and have good capabilities. This Toshiba LCD TV however, will not add much to your home as it lacks even the most basic features.

While it may have been an expensive option and hard to get feature a few years ago, almost every television set now comes equipped with picture in picture. The Toshiba REGZA 42HL167 somehow decided to get rid of this feature. Another simple but missing piece of technology is a jack used to plug in your headphones. Many consumers use this jack as a way to comfortably listen to the TV without waking or disturbing other members of their household. This is especially true for late night viewing.

A USB port is not a standard feature but it can be found on manyy models of flat screen TVs and HDTV's but it is also absent from the Toshiba design. This port allows users to connect portable gadgets so that they can view pictures and listen to music.

On the plus side, if you have a Toshiba high definition DVD player, you can use your HDTV to control it with ease. You can also use the built in controllers to automatically turn off the TV at a preset time. You can also control your children's gaming consoles by putting a limit on how long they can play video games.

The Toshiba REGZA 42HL167 does have its good points but the cons far outweigh its pros. When you attempt to do an initial setup of this new HDTV you will run into more than a few problems along the way.

The input connectors like the coaxial input are not easy to work with because their downward facing position makes them hard to reach. You will have an easier time with the audio and composite connectors as they can be found the side of the HDTV.

When you want to change a source such as turning the TV from cable or satellite to DVD, you will have to search through every single input and that includes the inputs that are empty. You can easily use the remote to switch the mode but you will still have to go through that extra process.

The manual, which is usually a problem for many electronic gadgets, is one of the saving points of the REGZA - up to a point. The instructions are easy to see and easy to read, and they offer clear and precise steps to get your HDTV up and running. However, if you want to go online to quickly search for a section that you are having trouble finding, you will find that there is no downloadable version online.