Customer Reviews:
 Not too Big not too small... Just right! August 20, 2007
C. Waters (Nottinghamshire, UK)
66 out of 67 found this review helpful
If, like me you have been looking at lcd tv's for the last 6 months you may think that it is finally time to make the purchase...
I was originally looking for a nice 40" lcd tv (looked at the Sony KDL40W2000 and the samsung M87R40 models) and after taking the wife around quite a few shops "we" decided that 37" was the model I was having or I was going to live in the shed for the next year...
On 37" models there is not as much choice when you want to have "all the bits possible" and it was a tough call between this and the Samsung m87R37 model...
The toshiba won because not only does it have a very similar picture quality but because of its great sound too.
(the samsung sounded like 2 bean cans playing at the bottom of it, and since I dont want to put "surround sound" on every time I watch tv, it made sense to balance them both out)
The toshiba "contrast ratio" is slightly lower than others, however you must remember that we have a human eye and not a scientific gadget to measure it and to notice a marked difference is arguable and only to a keen eye would you spot the difference, to me the picture quality and greys are not present...
I Use this to watch freeview, ps3 and xbox 360.
The in-built freeview (and the guide is excellent) the quality of the picture is as good as the input going into it (I spent 200 on a decent aerial so my picture is pretty sharp)
The ps3 over Hdmi (1080p) is incredible, clean lines, great colours and no ghosting or shadowing or blurs on the picture.
The xbox 360 over Compoment 1080p (to my eyes) seems to have very little difference between hdmi and compoment. The colours seem bright, the image is sharp and no blurs/ghosting on the picture, etc..
The sound of this tv is fantastic with a nice rich base, srs wow effects and tru bass technology too (sharper base).
Overall, whichever Large LCD tv you buy you will be pleased with it, however considering you can buy this 1080p tv for under 800 (and under 700 if you look) you really do get great value for money, incredible picture quality and fantastic sound coming from the tv...
and most of all, as you compromise, with your other half, you dont have to stay in the garden shed for a year, buy it while you can!
IMPORTANT INFORMATION FOR XBOX 360 OWNERS July 24, 2007
N. Powney (Basildon, Essex)
100 out of 106 found this review helpful
I own this television and I also own an Xbox 360 with the HD DVD player and both the VGA and component leads - here's what I have gleaned through hours of Internet searching, tens of pounds on HD cables and and a lot of worry. (Most of this information can be found online or in the respective item's instruction manual, but I thought I'd round it all up for anyone interested.)
The Xbox 360 can output 1080p through VGA or component connection. The Toshiba 37X3030 can only accept 1080p through component and HDMI (with the VGA cable connected the highest setting is, I think, 1280 x 1024 - if you make the Xbox output any more the Toshiba will display a warped green image.)
Games such as Gears of War and Project Gotham Racing look AMAZING through the VGA connection (this will necessarily be at 720p - Gears can do 1080i, but as I have just said the TV will not accept it). If you want to use this television to play games and you use VGA then I cannot recommend it highly enough.
HD DVDs look very good over the VGA, but the colours are a little washed out and the options the telly gives you to configure the picture are limited because it thinks the Xbox is a PC, i.e. you have no access to Cinema mode etcetera.
Normal DVDs look very good played on the console over VGA because it upscales them (provided you have updated your Xbox by connecting to Xbox Live since last Autumn) - they really look great - no worries here.
Okay, still with me? It starts to get complicated now - over component HD DVDs look ABSOLUTELY STUNNING because you can set the Xbox to output 1080i or 1080p to this screen. The colours are richer and the whole picture looks more vivid and natural - you finally feel as if you are experiencing full, true HD. When we watched King Kong over VGA my girlfriend didn't notice the difference between HD DVD and normal DVD, but with the component cable in she was blown away.
Games, I think, fair less well over component. There's not much in it, but some of the edges are not as smooth as when connecting with VGA and the image as a whole feels a bit softer. You also need to pay atention to the packaging of the game as some, such as Project Gotham, only go up to 720p and if you put this game in the Xbox and set it to 1080i 0r 1080p it will look horrible. Gears of War and Dead Rising can both do 1080i and they both looked great over component with the Xbox set to 1080i.
So, you're probably thinking that component is the way to go, right? Well the only problem comes when you want to watch a normal DVD because the 360 doesn't upscale the picture over component - why? I don't know - I'm not very technical really. Perhaps a future update will remedy this, but for the moment, be warned - if you play a normal DVD on the Xbox and connect with component then the image will suffer from the flaws inherent in watching a standard defition image (420p) on a HD screen - pixelation (is this the right term?) and lack of detail. The DVDs fair much better than the picture I get from my VirginMedia cable box (watchable, but not as good as on my old CRT), but they don't impress like the upscaled picture you get over VGA.
Well, that's about it - I'm sorry if I've waffled, but I had to find a lot of this stuff out on my own and at my own peril and expense and didn't want anyone else to have to go through the same thing.
I suppose if you're intending to buy an Xbox 360 Elite, which has HDMI then you've got no problems at all because the TV will be happy as Larry.
Overall I am very pleased with this set - it's a shame I didn't know it couldn't accept 1080i or p through VGA before I bought it because I wouldn't have had to buy the component cable and spend hours testing things. It's also a shame that the Xbox doesn't upscale over component - but it's swings and roundabouts really.
I can honestly say that buying this TV has enhanced my gaming experience tenfold and that HD DVDs look fantastic. 4 stars for the lack of full HD over VGA. Thanks for reading.
 The best HD TV for the price September 2, 2007
Dave (Liverpool)
22 out of 23 found this review helpful
I chose this television for the price as you would struggle to find another television of this quality with the full HD experience (1080p). Even though i haven't tested this lcd tv with a Sky HD box, with a bit of fettling the picture is far better than on my previous tv. I can't imagine how impressive HD will look. The picture you get when the tv is turned on for the first time is not good; it just takes a little time adjusting the picture settings to get the right balance for various programmes i.e. close-ups on faces, distant-filmed sport etc. One thing though, with a tv of this size you need a decent sized room otherwise you'll notice some pixelation around people and objects by sitting too close (when watching Standard Definition broadcasts). Sit at least 2 and a bit metres back and you will marval at the richness of the colour and the detail on faces. I bought it with the Toshiba E1 HD DVD player (also available on Amazon) and with this you get 2 free HD DVD titles. They do make a perfect match. Make sure you have a look around; i bought mine from a large retailer because of the five year guarantee they offer on televisions. I haven't written the name of the retailer because Amazon will not allow it in my review. Just type in "5 year guarantee on all televisons" in an obvious UK search engine and you'll find the retailer i'm talking about. Set-up was straightforward, even with a Sky box and HD DVD player to connect-up. In fact the stand took about 4 times as long to assemble!
HD is the way forward if this is anything to go by. September 3, 2007
Slim Shandy
25 out of 27 found this review helpful
I have had this TV a couple of weeks now and think I have played with it enough to have a good idea of it's capabilities.
Very easy set up with the TV essentially doing it all for you on both the built in Freeview and standard Analogue channels. I also connected a SD Sky+ box by Scart; a 1080p upscaling DVD Player by HDMI and an XBOX 360 by component.
I first turned on the TV and was horrified by the pixelation that I had from the Sky box. However, after changing a few settings I have managed to get a good but by no means perfect SD picture. As a previous review says the TV looks at its best if you sit further away from it. It does however still struggle with Sports in SD because of the speed of movement.
The Upscaled DVD's look fantastic. Really rich deep colours and a really sharp picture. If this is the quality of Upscaling I cannot wait to get a true HD source, when Blu-ray and HD-DVD finally conclude their battle.
The Xbox 360 outputs at 1080p since the recent update, although most games are still limited to 720p. Either way the picture is quite stunning. It is incredibly detailed and full of colour.
All in all a truly fantastic TV with the correct source. A little dissapointing on SD but with the right settings and if you don't sit to close you can make it look quite good. That being said who cares about SD? HD is they way forward. As soon as Sky start broadcasting more than about 9 channels in HD and stop charging £10 extra per month then I will get one of their HD Boxes (Wife permitting!) and this TV really will be an all round winner.
Very Pleased ! June 25, 2007
T. HART (UK)
12 out of 13 found this review helpful
Picked up one of these over the weekend and have been very impressed by the quality of picture and sound.
The built in speakers don't seem to distort at all - sound reproduction is very good although at some point you'll want to hook it up to a proper surround sound system.
The picture quality is nothing short of superb although I had to play about with the factory default settings to achieve this (everyone had orange faces when I switched it on the first time !).
The instruction manual is a little too concise (almost to the point of being scrappy) but most technologically aware should be able to work out what's what from the very intuitive menu system.
The only real let-down is the remote control - confusing buttons to get at the right menus etc. I ended up re-programming my Sky remote and just using that once the TV had been configured as I wanted it - otherwise I would have given it 5 stars. Well worth the money, in my opinion !
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