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Toshiba 37C3030 - 37" Widescreen HD Ready LCD TV - With Freeview - Black |  | Brand: Toshiba
Category: CE
This item is no longer available
Rating:  reviews
Sales Rank: 26280
Media: Electronics
Shipping Weight (lbs): 37
Dimensions (in): 39 x 29.7 x 14
MPN: 37C3030DB
Model: 37C3030DB
EAN: 5017151616658
Release Date: March 8, 2007
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| Customer Reviews:
 I've got a 37 incher... April 17, 2007
G. Shelley (Redhill, Surrey)
56 out of 56 found this review helpful
After spending many hours perusing internet review sites & forums along with "What HiFi, Sound and Vision?" magazine and numerous visits to leading electrical store show rooms to see the TV in the flesh I decided to purchase the Tosh 37C3030 LCD TV. I will admit, this is my first HD ready LCD I have owned and I'm certainly not an audiofile but I have to admit I'm so impressed with the TV. From opening the box to sitting back and watching TV took no more that 10 minutes. I honestly thought I was missing something, but seriously that was it. Of course there's the next phase of tweaking sound and colour options to your personal preference but I tend to do this once I've watched a variety of media and formats. I'm running the TV using only Freeview at the moment and the picture quality is superb compared to my old 28" JVC CRT. Seems crazy to spend the prices Sony and Sumsung are charging for equivalent TV's, and trust me, I've stood in numerous show rooms and seen them all side by side in their various states and the Tosh equially matches them on picture and build quality.
If you purchase this TV, enjoy the experience and put the money you save towards buying an HD DVD player. I'm going to!
Excellent Value May 21, 2007
H. Middleton (Leeds, UK)
47 out of 47 found this review helpful
Bought this TV yesterday and have to say that overall I am extremely impressed with it. My wife wanted the 42" version but I feel the 37" is ample, any bigger and it would take over the room. I agree the set is extremely easy to set up, it searched and sorted the DTV channels quickly and the picture quality is excellent. I have yet to get Sky HD but having seen the HD picture quality in an instore demo it looks sensational.
If you have (like me) been umming and ahhing for a while figuring out which unit to get I would have no hesitation in recommending this TV.
I was altering the settings and there are so many that it's going to take some time to find the optimum settings for all different formats but I'll get there.
Please note the factory default settings need adjusting, the backlight and contrast settings are at 100% each so they will need tweaking.
The pedestal stand is sturdy and can be screwed down for safety, also it swivels which many do not.
I particularly like the Toshiba because this model has a matt black frame which doesn't shine or have reflections which are annoying on other sets with high gloss frames (why do they design them like that?).
Please note your Sky or Sky + box, if you are connecting via scart needs to go in scart 1. Do a search on avforums for the Sky remote code (the code is not in the Sky interactive guide yet).
The TV will default to displaying 4:3 pictures in a 4:3 format with black bands at either side, but you can alter this in the settings so that it stretches to fill the screen. Be sure to read the manual and familiarise yourself with all the picture settings and what each of them do.
The sound is very good, I haven't hooked it up to my surround sound system yet but the sound quality from the unit on quite a low setting was very good, and there are, again, plenty of audio settings to adjust to suit your particular needs.
10/10 No need to spend more than this.
Great quality HD LCD June 13, 2007
Gadget Fan (London)
28 out of 28 found this review helpful
I spent ages looking through different review sites and reading magazines before buying this TV. Now I'm sure that there are LCD TV's with better specs (3HDMI and 1080p for example), but I had to ask myself how much of difference I really thought they were going to make on a 37" TV. Actually when you look at the dynamic contrast on this TV abd the fact that it has two HDMI ports, you start to realise that the specs are better than many of competition. I've seen this TV hooked up through 720p HD player (the E1) and it was fantastic.
Major plus points:
- Very quick and easy to set-up
- digital turner has booster built in (before my signal was awful)
- great looking design
- 2x HDMI
- Surpisingly good sound
If you really think you need 1080p then don't go for this, but from what I've seen you only need it in bigger screen sizes.
A Great TV and it's built in Britain September 19, 2007
thebikeman (London, UK)
20 out of 20 found this review helpful
When our tube TV finally gave up the ghost after faithful service of more than 12 years it was time to upgrade. Flat panel TVs have been coming down in price so much that a 37" TV was well within the budget. Though I did not buy it from Amazon (I got a bundled Toshiba DVD player deal elsewhere and for less), I do buy a lot of stuff here and is amongst the sites I check for competitive pricing.
We've had the Toshiba 37C3030D since July and felt that it was long enough to voice an opinion. The Toshiba was amongst the group supertest in August's What Hi-Fi Sound and Vision magazine on 37" screens, which the magazine reports as the UK's best selling screen size. Though not the winner of the group test, that accolade went to a 37" Panasonic plasma, it was the runner up with 4 out of 5 stars. The group test helped to decide which technology and model to grace our living room. I hope what's been written will help you make your decision.
Picture
What specifications on many websites do not reveal is that the 37C3030D has a built in analogue receiver in addition to digital Freeview. It's not that much of a feature unless you live in an area where digital has poor coverage, however the pictures from an analogue signal are pretty dire. This is a prime example of why low resolution analogue transmissions needs to be consigned to history and it is with the higher resolution digital signal that the 37C3030D excels. View broadcasts in digital and the difference is clear. There is very little high speed screen smearing, the colours are vivid, though not out-of-the-box (you'll need to adjust it a little) and the darks are very dark. The Dynamic Contrast feature reduces the panel's backlight when the picture is mostly dark, it looks a little odd, especially in closing credits that have a dark background and makes the text appear to fade a little. The good thing is that you can always turn it off. The 37C3030D is not full HD but will downscale a 1080p signal to 720p (which according to the magazine worked effectively). You notice a lot of detail with a screen this size, details that I never noticed on old school tube TVs, like wrinkles on an actor's face. You should also be aware that at 37" it's a rather large TV, thankfully the cabinet surrounding the screen is narrow as compared to the cheaper manufacturers. It actually looks bigger when it's switched off, with a large expanse of black sitting in the corner of your living room. The recommended minimum distance for a screen this size is at least 2.5m, at closer range you will notice the pixelation, so if your room doesn't allow the optimum distance I would recommend a smaller screen.
Sound
Maybe I've been used to tube TVs that generally have their speakers in the side of the cabinet and lived with mediocre sound for far too long, but listening to the 37C3030D's speakers, mounted below the screen is a revelation with good clarity and especially strong bass. I've had to turn the bass control down for normal viewing. It's well controlled and deep. They've done a good job with the speakers and the sound it reproduces. There are also line level stereo outputs and one for a woofer (as if it needs it!) to feed an external amplifier and speaker set-up. The menu allows the built in speakers to be turned off. A definite 5 stars for sound performance.
Inputs/Outputs
More than you need generally. Two Scarts, two HDMI, PC, Component and Video. It also has Digital optical sound out and 2.1 line outputs (see above). My set-up has a DVD player connected to the Scart, though not as good as the Component connection (I've tried both connections and could not tell the difference) it is only one cable and the picture from the DVD is great.
Menus
The menu system is simple to operate from the remote control. The downside of having an uncluttered facia is that pretty much all the control has to be performed from the remote. There are 7 buttons on the right side of the TV along with a video/sound line input (which allows the connection of say a video camera without the need to fumble round the back). Their functions are for On/Off, Programme, Volume, Menu and Source. There is not much to say apart from the easy and intuitive approach. The 7 day EPG allows you to view and record programmes in the future if you have a compatible Toshiba DVD/HD recorder. Auto tuning on both Digital and Analogue are simple and one of the features I liked best was the ability to create 4 favourite programmes list (frankly one is enough) which includes the radio channels. This allows me to eliminate all the channels I don't watch or listen to, like pay-for TV and those horrible shopping ones, making scrolling through the EPG a doddle. Another five stars for the features here.
Conclusion
Some of our considerations apart from picture quality when choosing a TV was the power consumption and weight. That pretty much excludes plasma technology as they are power hungry, generate a lot of heat and would probably pull the plaster of the wall of our Victorian house. The debate on the relative merits between Plasma and LCD technology are still raging. Where once contrast levels on plasma panels were comparatively better than LCDs, that gap is closing fast. A search on the internet reveals the polarity of views on the merits of both technologies, a bit of investigation will help you make a more informed decision.
When we first got ours, I put a number of DVD's from The Matrix to Chicken Run just to see how well the screen handled the different movies and I can say that I was not disappointed. I will be surprised to see a better picture for the same money. The design of the TV's slim silver "frame" surrounding the cabinet is mirrored by the elegant looking remote control, which has a switch to allow control of VCRs and DVDs from Toshiba. A very neat feature as we have the bundled Toshiba DVD that has reduced our remote control clutter to just one. Our TV is mounted on a wall using a cantilever arm (Omnimount) which keeps the mucky kid's hands off the screen and floor below clear. The 37C3030D's boomerang shaped integral table top stand (that allows the TV swivel - about 5 degrees either direction) is fixed by five screws at the rear of the cabinet, it's removal is not covered in the owner's manual and I found it on Toshiba's web site. Last but not least, one of the best features that will certainly beat many other big brand manufacturers - it's made in Britain. How many can claim a feature like that! I didn't know that when I bought it but it's a welcome surprise, we try to support British industry (yes, I know Toshiba are Japanese) and feel better in knowing that it hasn't travelled across the world to get to us.
Excellent TV for the money July 27, 2007
Steiner (Glasgow)
17 out of 17 found this review helpful
This is a brilliant buy for those looking for a good TV without paying £1000-£3000 for the privilege.
This price puts it in the budget category, but this TV is in a different league in terms of sound/picture quality when compared to similar priced supermarket-specials or lesser known brands.
I was also surprised to find that the picture quality is better than my older Panasonic plasma, that cost nearly three times as much. Although maybe this should not be a surprise as we are now (arguably) in the second generation of flat panels, and things have moved on. Quality has improved whilst prices have decreased.
I have viewed this TV using various connections with the following results:
1. HDMI
Picture quality is absolutely stunning on the PS3, and an upscaling DVD player connected through HDMI port. The Sky hd picture is (as expected) brilliant too. It's hard to imagine a better picture, but no doubt it exists when you spend more money.
2. In-built free-view
The picture quality on free-view is very good to excellent, but slightly below The HDMI connected systems.
3. Scart
Scart connected Sky is the poorest of the three. The picture would still be considered good if not compared with the above. Better than my old Plasma (and a friends Samsung) but as is the case with most flat panels the picture is not quite up to the standard of a CRT unit on this type of connection/signal.
The unit is very easy to setup and operate, and benefits from a good clear (non-annoying) remote. The small claw stand is solid, and allows the TV to be turned easily toward your viewing position.
The viewing angle range is also very good. There is no problem in terms of quality when viewing far to the side. You almost have to get directly to the side of the unit before quality reduces.
Decent Sound, a great picture, Stylish, decent connection options, a great LCD for the price!!
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