As noted, when calibrating the set, we discovered that the autoconvergence actually works fairly well. It's no replacement for a thorough service convergence, but it does seem to work much better than that of sets that we've tested from other manufacturers.
After a full ISF calibration, we sat back and watched some scenes from Planet of the Apes using progressive-scan DVD player, and we came away impressed with the images. The color was rich, saturated, and very accurate, thanks to the set's excellent color decoder. It's worth noting, however, that while the DVD looks sharper when running progressive-scan (rather than interlaced) from the Yamaha, the 42H81's 540p video processing did create some artifacts in the up-conversion process.
Although we didn't have an HDTV source to evaluate the 42H81's HDTV performance, our experience with the last several versions of Toshiba's 40-inch HD-capable models with HDTV program material has been excellent.
The 42H81's list price of $2,499 is $500 less than the cost of last year's 40H80, which means that this is a solid value in its size category. The only other comparably sized, HDTV-ready RPTV is , which sells for $2,199. The Hitachi has a comparable feature set, with similar 540p video processing, but lacks manual convergence controls and has an inferior color decoder. Therefore, even with its slightly higher list price, the Toshiba set is a better value.
What You'll Pay
- Set Price Alert
