Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #51000 in Consumer Electronics
• Brand: Toshiba
• Model: 42HP66
• Dimensions: 30.90" h x 13.40" w x 42.20" l, 90.40 pounds
• Display size: 42

Features

• Sleek, black 42-inch Plasma HDTV with bottom-mounted speakers; measures 42.2 x 30.9 x 13.4 inches (WxHxD) with included stand
• Integrated NTSC, ATSC tuners; QAM tuner compatible with unscrambled HDTV cable reception
• 1024 x 768-pixel resolution, 1200 cd/m2 brightness, 10,000:1 contrast ratio
• Inputs: 3 composite (1 front), 3 S-Video (1 front), 2 component, 2 HDMI, 1 PC VGA, 1 RF
• Two stereo speakers, 10 watts apiece (20 watts total); SRS WOW virtual surround sound

Amazon.com Product Description
Step into the future with the 42-inch Toshiba 42HP66 plasma screen HDTV, which features a stylishly contemporary black cabinet and space-saving bottom mounted speaker system.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. It comes with a tabletop stand that can be removed for wall mounting (with optional hardware).

This plasma 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 aforementioned 3D Y/C comb filter (4 MB, 10-bit) 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 42HP66 has a 1024 x 768-pixel resolution (XGA), a peak 1200 cd/m2 (candela per square meter) brightness rating, and an amazing 8000:1 contrast ratio. (The higher the contrast ratio, the greater a TV's ability to display subtle color details and not get washed out by ambient room light.)

The GameTimer feature allows parents to set the television to shut off after a specified period of time and stay off until a lockout key code is entered. For optimum display of each type of input source, the Individual AV Settings by Input function allows you to make video adjustments for each type of input, such as RF, composite, S-Video, and each component video input. Other convenience features include color temperature control, 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 provide 10 watts of power per channel (for 20 watts of total power) and SRS WOW virtual surround sound. The StableSound feature maintains television volume within a preset range regardless of the source signal. This helps to eliminate the annoyance of normal program volume being followed immediately by extremely loud commercial messages or drastic volume fluctuations while changing channels.

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. This set offers the following connection options:

• Composite A/V: 3 (1 front) in, 1 out
• S-Video: 3 (1 front) in
• Component Video: 2 in
• HDMI: 2 in
• RF: 1 in
• PC VGA: 1 in
• PC audio in: 1
• Digital audio out: 1 coaxial, 1 optical

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).

What's in the Box
Plasma HDTV, remote control (with batteries), power cable, tabletop stand, printed operating instructions

Customer Reviews

Updated; Great Plasma for under two grand
Had the TV over a month now and am really pleased. I've always wanted a plasma but of course, the prices were way out of reach. Once they hit two grand and below I decided to take the plunge. People were telling me to go with the EDTV as they are a bit cheaper but its not high def. I decided with this one. I got it at Fry's Electronics. The tv has a very big wow factor in my middle sized apartment and I find myself watching more of my DVDs. The picture quality is excellent. I got comcast HD cable box with DVR for only 9.95 more a month so I cancelled my Tivo as they don't have HD (yet) on their drives. The sound is also excellent, much better than my sony trinitron that weighs a ton (over 100 pounds). The tv weighs somewhere around 80 pounds and is less than 5 inches thick. Panasonic makes the panels for Toshiba so you know the quality will be good as Panasonic's plasmas are always on the top of lists of best plasmas. Hope this helps.
UPDATE:
The TV has been working wonderfully. NO BURN IN. THe picture shift is on, meaning that it is always orbiting the screen unnoticeably though and about once a month I put on the White Screen to clear any burnin that may have occured. The BANDING is noticable in blue skies only. My PS3 games look unbelievably good.

The price of this television has dropped drastically since I bought it in May 2006. I paid two grand and now its availible for as little as $1200 ;(.

Great TV for the price
I got a wonderful deal (i.e. <2k) for this TV at Amazon. Having been enamored by the high definition images on plasma TVs at local stores, and being a huge sports fan, I decided to bite the bullet and get an HDTV for myself.
I researched TVs for hours and hours on the internet and went on scouting trips to local Best Buys and Circuit Cities to see the TVs live. Ultimately I decided on the Toshiba for the following reasons:
- I didn't want to break the bank with my first plasma
- At the same time I didn't want to get a "no-name" "low-cost" brand TV
- Unlike many of the lower cost plasmas, the Toshiba has 2 HDMI inputs
- I liked the aesthetics and black color (didn't want a silver model)
I have had the television for a week, and so far so good! I am still tinkering around with the settings to try to get the best possible picture in standard definition TV. HDTV looks amazing. And SD looks darn good too, it's just that compared to HD it looks downright primitive.
Some things to also consider with this TV:
- The glass is actually made my LG, not Panasonic. Also apparently the television is assembled in Thailand by the same folks who assemble Orion TVs
- There is no Picture-in-picture

Terrible picture quality
I bought this TV based on the previous model's high ranking by consumer reports. I am extremely displeased with the quality of the picture. Any dark portions of the screen show color contours and banding that drive me crazy. Where a normal TV will show a gradient of a sunset for example from light to dark of continuous shades of orange. This TV shows a series of bands of successively darker colors red, reddish orange, orangey red, etc. Mostly occurs during dark scenes. The other big problem I have, also in dark scenes is dancing pixels. An almost black area of the screen will show, rather than a dark gray image, will show pixels changing from dark gray to light gray, swimming and dancing. Try pausing the display during a dark scene and watch the supposed static scene display an annoying pixel dance. The HD quality is okay during lighter colored scenes. The regular signal picture quality is poor also. Additionally the channels take three seconds to change and up to ten seconds if it has not been saved during channel scan. The tuner locks up and requires the TV to be turned off before it will allow a change of channel again. Do not buy this TV.