Rating: 
Summary: Great picture!!! and well worth the price.
Review: First about the shipment process.
Ordered this set on 6/26. Got an email from amazon saying that there would be a delay in shipment and delivery would happen between 7/5 and 7/15. Was delivered on 7/9. The shipper called me a day before to make an appointment and again on the day of the delivery 1 hour prior (didnt have to waste too much time away from work) - they showed up on time, unpacked the set and set it down on my stand. I powered it up and plugged in the cable feed and voila - there was a nice crisp picture, so I went ahead a signed for the shipment.
Now on to the TV.
My first impression is that the picture is of very high quality, although marginally worse than the Sony WEGAs. The sound from the small stock speakers, well, is just brilliant. Also hooked up the set to my Samsung HD841 HD-upconverter DVD player via the DVI-HDCP channel, and watched a movie on a 16:9 format DVD - very very impressive!
And yes, I did get in at $799 + $69 shipping. Considering this is hundreds less than the competition, I didn't think the two week lead time took too much away from this being a solid deal.
Rating:
Summary: Great entry level wide screen HD tv
Review: Great entry level, easy to use, with phenominal sound and perfect HD picture....only 24'' deep. Would strongly reccomend. No problems, right out of the box...ALSO Have made extended checks, re: horizontal jitter in HD mode. I have no such problem referred to in earlier reviews.
Rating: 
Summary: i bought it. I like it.
Review: I am an HDTV advocate. I am so impressed by this standard that I check the HD stations available on my cable system first and add rating points for a program available in High Definition.
And this set is an easy, relatively inexpensive introduction to HD. The picture is bright and appropriately, (i.e. extremely) sharp. The sound is remarkable for the set's modest size, and it's size, only a slender bezel surrounds the screen, allows the set to fit in relatively small places.
Rating:
Summary: Great, but not perfect.
Review: I bought this television and all its features are great but the one thing no one talks about is the burn in the set get's from the black bars,at some point you have to watch channels with bars even in high def cause not every channel broadcasts in 1080i so keep that in mind.As I've said the set is great and it's not its fault that there's not enough high def programs, the picture is incredible and toshiba a great brand an soon the networks an cable will catch up with the technology.
Rating:
Summary: Good TV, good price, no reservations
Review: I bought this TV even after looking at the negative reviews and I'm glad I did! Good picture quality and features and the sound with the subwoofer is better than any other TV built in system I've heard, although it can't compare to a good surround system.
When I took delivery, I unpacked the TV and tested it before signing the acceptance form - not a big deal. The delivery guy was quite nice and even helped me put the TV in my entertainment center. This 30" widescreen fits where a standard 27" Sony used to, as the Toshiba speakers are wisely mounted beneath the screen.
Set up is easy, the instructions clear. Don't worry about burn out on the sides - the available options to set up the screen result in a good picture and the horizontal streching on the sides for "theater 1" (which is what I use for standard format TV) is almost unnoticeable. Great picture from digital wide screen sources!!!
The other TV I was looking at was a Gateway 30" LCD. Without the optional side speakers, it would have fit my entertainment center as well. It's lighter than the Toshiba, but I don't think it's worth spending $1500 more than the Toshiba. Plus, if I'm lazy and don't use my surround system, I can just turn on the TV and listen to a reasonably good sound and look at a great picture. The Gateway without the side speakers would have forced me to use my sound system every time I turned the TV on.
Rating:
Summary: Awesome picture ... Great Remote ... Simple Setup
Review: I focused my search on a TV that would fit into the furniture where my 24" TV sat. I did not want to pay for a thin Plasma. Most of the TVs today have the speakers on the side which limited the picture I could get. Because Toshiba places the speakers on the bottom (Great speaker system by the way -- double baffle speaker system w/ sub-bass) it allows the TV to fit into the same wall space as my 24". TV is only ~30" wide x ~22" high x ~ 22" deepI was looking for HDTV compatible and this fit the bill. I always heard that HDTV are a better/brighter TV no matter what the incoming signal but I guess I just never realized how much so until I got this one home and turned it on. Even the kids (who have never seen an HDTV) asked how I got the TV so colorful and bright. There are 4 options for the picture - normal (i.e. like my old set) and 3 different stretch options ... all 3 do very little distortion around the edges ... great/bright picture. As a matter of fact the distortion is so little I can never envision me using the "normal" mode. The remote comes with batteries and is easy to use in fact it has a little button that lights it up for ~ 5 sec along with the standard soak in the light and dims after awhile in the dark. Once I plugged in the set/cable/DVD/VCR/Stereo I had the TV in full-up mode by following the on-screen menu in less than 5 min. The TV also has a neat POP (pict-out-pict) feature which allows you to watch two video feeds side-by-side. You have the option of making one smaller while the other goes larger ... they never overlap. There is also a neat favorite channel scan where while you are looking at one station and hit the CH SCAN button the TV automatically enters a POP mode and the station you are watching is edged to one side while your selected fav channels pop up in mini screens along the top and down one side ... so you are looking at 8 channels at once! The main large screen keeps moving while the mini screens are like tiny snapshots rotating between all of your selected favorite channels ... when you see one you want you just slew over to one of the mini pictures, ENTER and presto you are looking at your selected station ... pretty cool. Because this is the most expensive purchase I made over the net I decided to stick with a reputable company that was a Toshiba authorized internet dealer. Glad I did ... they even brought the TV ~ 120 pounds in the house ... normally most companies will only do curbside service. That was the best price I could find just before the holidays. Have a great holiday season
Rating:
Summary: Great TV at a great price
Review: I ordered a Toshiba 30HF83 on 6/29 after finding it priced on Amazon @ $799. I was quite impressed with the specifcations of the tv as well as the online reviews. Now mind you, I have ordered several things on Amazon in the past without incident, but this one seemed to take an interesting twist. The expected delivery date (when I placed the order) was 7/15. I was ok with 2 or so week delay in getting the set as this seemed like such a good deal. Well today (7/16), I got an e-mail from Amazon stating they were cancelling my order because they cannot find a tv to send me. Meanwhile I log onto Amazon tonight and search for the 30HF83 Toshiba and see it here for $943 and it will ship in 1 - 2 days. Intersting eh? Well, I feel as though I was bait-switched. I have written to Amazon about the experience and I will also write to Toshiba. This was very frustrating to say the least... It would have been nice to get some communication a week or so ago, stating the risk of not finding any of these tv's, or if Amazon would have simply locked me into the original price and told me I had to wait another week or so. Anyway, sorry for venting here... seems like it would have been a fantastic tv set.
Rating:
Summary: Better than the rest in price range
Review: I shopped around for a month trying to find a good 30 inch widescreen HDTV. All the other brands had badly pixelated pictures on regular cabe and ok picture on hdtv. I then found the newly released Toshiba 30hf83. I just had to get it. This TV has everything you could want. A good speaker syetem, Awsome HDTV and DVD picture in widescreen progressive scan. And a undeniably clear regular broadcast cable picture in 1080i. Not to mention all the inputs and outputs in the back. If your shopping for a good little HDTV and don't wanna spend the extra $$$$ for a Sony get this TV. I love the remote! it glows! yeahh! My only complaint....The POP menue is kinda cheezy and a little slow but otherwise it works just fine.
Rating:
Summary: Awesome Picture & Sound and the perfect size.
Review: I spent a month looking at widescreen HDTV's looking for what would be best for my living room. I watched this TV side by side next to bigger projection HDTV's and the Sony widescreen HDTV's and this Toshiba was clearer than the projection tv's by a mile and showed flesh tones and colors equal or better than the Sony XBR. Best of all, it fit in my current entertainment center, which formally housed a 27" TV. It is as clear as the plasma and LCD's but at half the price. It has all the latest digital connections so it will grow with the latest technology. Don't make the mistake of buying the biggest screen you can find for the same money, the projections screens only look good with a perfect direct view and if it will also be your everyday TV, watching the news and regular shows on a 40-50 inch screen can really be draining and overpowering on your eyes.
If you buy this Toshiba, you won't be dissappointed.
Rating:
Summary: Gave it a chance and I love it
Review: I wanted a TV that would fit in my existing entertainment system, so the options were very easy between this Toshiba 30HF84 (the replacement for the 30HF83) and Samsung TXN3098, both which were less than 33" wide. The decision on which one, however, was excruciating for me. I had a difficult time finding either of them in person to compare side by side, researched every possible feature down to the smallest detail, ending up looking at the Samsung 26" or a similar model Toshiba in the store for comparison purposes, and read all the online reviews you could imagine. Yes, I'm one of those types of people. In the end, I chose the Toshiba based on the following:
Pros on Toshiba
- Less money
- I bought it locally so it got here in time for football season
- Generally thought of as better product than Samsung
Cons on Toshiba
- Does not have PiP
- Silver case instead of charcoal (my preference)
Pros on Samsung
- In the store, seemed to have a brighter picture
- Had PiP
Cons on Samsung
- An issue - as seen in reviews and confirmed by their tech support - where if you go in and set the picture to wide, stretched, etc, it doesn't remember it and you have to reset it each time you turn on the tv.
- Generally thought of as a lower end product, but I had differing stories that they were making TVs for Sony, they were up and coming, etc etc.
The Decision
I was going back and forth for 2 weeks. Was I stupid to get the Toshiba if the Samsung picture looked better? Did I need PiP? There were pros and cons on each. In the end, I realized that I would be getting a great TV no matter what. I called tech support for both companies and got right through. So in the end, the switching-modes issue for Samsung was a slight factor, but the Toshiba was $200 cheaper and I could have it 2 days later (I consider this a 'filler' TV anyway for a year or two until I'm ready to step up to a 42" plasma when prices come down).
Here's what sucks... while I was concerned because of the Samsung issue in switching modes, this feature is not usable AT ALL for me on the Toshiba. I have Time Warner in NYC and HD channels work fine widescreen in that mode. But non-HD channels show up as 4:3 and I guess they're broadcasting at 1080 or 720, because I can't stretch a 4:3 show into wide mode. Toshiba only can take 480 signals and stretch them. Could be a setting I'm missing, but that's me. However, I'm finding I mostly watch the main networks and DVDs anyway. Right now I hooked up my 'regular' DVD player through digital audio cables and component video, and it looks and sounds spectacular. Not sure how much better it can get with a progressive scan player, but they're only $65 so I'm going to get one anyway and hope there's at least a noticeable difference.
Bottom Line
Both TVs are sweet, and I am very very happy so far with the Toshiba. I have it hooked up through an HDTV digital cable box with DVR built in using component video, and to my receiver with Digital Audio Coaxial cables for sound. Ten seconds watching Discovery Channel HD Theater and you'll be in heaven. I recorded the Patriots-Colts NFL kickoff game and have been using that as a demo to show my friends how good the signal and picture are. I'm looking forward to a great fall of football, baseball playoffs and am currently buying some 'surround sound widescreen' DVDs off Amazon (True Lies, Ronin, Braveheart, Gladiator, True Romance, The Fugitive, Finding Nemo, Pirates of the Carribbean, etc) to build up a little collection.
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