Firstly, YOU *CAN* CHANGE THE SETTINGS SO THE TV DOES NOT ALWAYS START AT THE HOME SCREEN when it turns on. I almost did not buy this TV because of all the negative reviewers who said it sucks so bad because there's nothing you can do about it......... that is simply not true. The TV does factory default to start/turn on at the Amazon Fire home screen, but THERE *IS* A DISPLAY SETTING for you to set the TV to turn on/start at the last input/channel you were on when you turned the TV off last. (See picture).
Now that being said, this really is a great TV; I am entirely happy with my purchase (and I have never really been that excited about buying a new TV). I remodeled my bedroom and I was looking to replace my 20-year-old tube TV for relatively cheap. This TV fit my budget, it sits great on my dresser, and because of the angle of my roof/ceiling I really could not fit a bigger TV even if I wanted.
At the same time I also "cut the cord" and got rid of cable in my house. I wanted a smart tv so I could use my streaming apps (DirectTV Now, Netflix) and I already had a Fire stick in my living room, so having the "Fire" platform built into the TV is a great option. There are certain things I don't like about Amazon Fire but having used other platforms (Roku, GooBang Doo/ MXII & XB-III/Android Box), Fire is the best option for my bedroom. And I didn't want to have additional hardware/boxes & separate remote controls to deal with in my room, so I love that it is all integrated into the TV and I only have 1 remote to deal with.
I have a fairly large master bedroom, and I have my desk at the other side of the room with a PC/router and a separate amp/speakers for the PC. Before setting up the TV I ran some wiring (3 wires) along the baseboards from my desk to the TV -- a Cat5 (wired network for TV), HDMI (video from computer to TV), and a RG6 coax (digital sound FROM the tv back to my amp). The TV itself doesn't have a digital coax output (it does have SPDIF out); a 50-foot fiber optic cable would have been way too expensive, so I bought a $20 SPDIF to coax converter for the back of the TV. I like that the TV has a wired ethernet connection, because I'm not a fan of streaming over wireless, especially when there are like 20 other wireless devices already on the network.
With my cabling in place, I was ready to rock-n-roll. Opened the box, plugged the tv & wires in, turned it on. We had lift off. There was a first-time setup video that played; I skipped past it but for the novice user it might be informative. On screen programming was fairly simple and straight-forward. The biggest decision was whether to set the TV to "Full" or "Basic" mode (which was probably explained in the video but I skipped past it). BASIC mode is just native OTA channels, inputs, and 6 built-in apps (NetFlix, PSVue, HBO, etc). FULL mode gives you access to the entire Fire application and app store, but you will need to already have or create a new Fire account. Obviously I chose Full mode.
From there, I was determined to show all the reviewers wrong by finding the setting that controls start up behavior. I knew it had to be there. It is. Settings > Display & Sounds > Power On > Last Input. GOOD, because I am one of those people that likes the TV to turn onto the last channel/input I was watching. So there we have it, my only real reservation to initially buying the TV was found and fixed. I went through all the other settings and set them to my preferences. Then I went to the App store and downloaded the apps I use. I also deleted the pre-installed apps that I will never use.
I also bought an OTA digital antenna. Since I've had cable for the last 20 years, I never dealt with that analog-to-digital conversion that happened 10+ years ago, and I never experienced all the new .2 and .3 digital channels there are now. Wow. After scanning stations, I had 84 OTA channels available. Honestly, there's enough on regular TV for me to watch that I don't really use the streaming apps. Why didn't I get rid of cable 10 years ago???
THE ONLY CON I have with this TV, is the way it displays OTA channels in the guide and in the quick-view bar.
1) The guide sorts by channel ID (alpha). I wish it sorted by channel number, or gave me the option to sort by channel #. In fact, it doesn't even show the channel # until you select a channel. I know in the modern era we are getting away from #'s. But I still like my channel #'s. If I want channel 9, I want to go scroll to channel 9, but instead I have to scroll all the way to the bottom to find WGN.
2) I miss having channel up and channel down buttons. Everything is through the "guide" now. You can press the down button, and you get a quick-select menu, which I find more convenient that the "guide." I would still rather flip from one channel to the next with 1 click and not have to go through menus.
3) YOu can set stations as your "favorite" and then show only favorites. But that only applies to the guide. The quick-select menu still shows every single station available. Since the quick select menu shows recently viewed stations first, my solution was just to go view each of my favorites, and then they show up first before all the other channels.
Given the few "cons" which are negligible, I would still buy this TV again, and I may end up buying a larger version of it for my living room the next time my projector lamp goes out. Definitely 5 stars for value received to cost.
I usually wait a month or more to review a product to insure I give a fair accounting of it. But this Amazon Alexa enabled TV is just to good to wait in the face of some poor reviews from people who didn't realize what they were purchasing or never used Fire-TV and Alexa before, both of which require a learning curve to love it.
PRO's:
Ease of setup - Took it out of the double packed boxes installed the stand legs, connect the power cord, and antenna cable, put the batteries in the remote and turned it on by the remote. It immediately went through the setup process where I put in my Amazon account information. That fast there was all of my Amazon Fire and Prime programs and history. Next it scanned the antenna for channels and found 15 more then the old TV could fine. In 30 minutes (I'm a Old man a younger man could do it in half the time) it was up and running.
Video - Great looking video. Played moves off the air and 4K content frome prime all of which is as good or very close to the much more expensive TV's.
Sound - The audio was great for vt speakers. I later hook up my old surround sound system which was even better.
Ease of Use - With Alexa control and the one putton channel guide finding just the right thing to watch is a breeze, but once again a learning curve to it.
CON's:
Shipping boxes - Good news / bad news the shipping boxes weighs as much as the TV. No pissedoff delivey man is going to hurt that TV. The bad part for me is I'm a 74 year old disabled veteran. If I do this again I'll ask someone to help.
Manual (what manual) - Other then a small quick setup guide there is no printed instructions. Maybe soon Toshiba will put one on their website. For me with little to do all day I was able to hunt and peck my way through it but others might not have the time.
All and all this one great TV especially if you are vested in Amazon Prime. All the feathers at this price is a great value.
I bought this 50-inch Toshiba on 2018 Prime Day for $289.99 and I had to buy it for that price. I have two other Toshiba TVs. One isn't a Smart TV and the other has Google Chromecast built in. This Toshiba with the Amazon Fire Stick built-in is much better. The menu is very easy to navigate and you don't have to use an app from your phone to operate the smart functions. Setup was super easy and fairly quick, but needed some software update time. Most importantly, the picture and sound are great. I have a soundbar, but the speakers on the TV alone are loud enough and have a quality sound. I definitely think this Toshiba deserves 5 Stars for the price and yes I'm a grown man that watches cartoons if you saw the pictures.
Update: I've had this TV for several months and it is still going strong. The picture is still crisp and it is continuously on for hours throughout the day. I've seen many reviews about losing internet connection, but I had a simple remedy to my internet issue. I did lose connection once when I moved my TV and had to disconnect the ethernet wire. I could not get the TV to connect to the internet after I plugged the ethernet cable back in and the wireless internet could not connect. The internet didn't connect until I did a factory reset and never had anymore issues. Even with that small issue that I had, I continue to love my Toshiba!
This is very easy to set up. For those who also have cable, this tv works extremely well with the cable box (yes, I still have one.) The picture quality is amazing.
Good morning! Yesterday my sister and I set up this tv and are amazed how simple it was to do. This is our first tv of this size and we are both in our 80s, -- but the setup was simple, actually it was fun. Amazon you have a winner here. We were glued to the set..the picture
Is beautiful.
Feature Product
- Toshiba HD Smart TV - Fire TV Edition delivers 720p picture quality with deep blacks and rich colors.
- With the Fire TV experience built-in, enjoy tens of thousands of channels, apps, and Alexa skills, including Netflix, Prime Video, Hulu, HBO, SHOWTIME, STARZ, and more.
- Fire TV Edition seamlessly integrates live over-the-air TV and streaming channels on a unified home screen (HD antenna required).
- Easily control your TV with the included Voice Remote with Alexa-plus, launch apps, search for titles, play music, switch inputs, control smart home devices, and more, using just your voice.
- Dimensions (W x H x D): TV without stand: 29" x 17.2" x 3.3", TV with stand: 29" x 18.6" x 7.1". Multiple device input/output options: 3 HDMI including 1 with ARC, USB, composite input, antenna/cable input, digital output (optical), audio output, Ethernet.
Description
Toshiba HD Smart TV is a new generation of smart TVs featuring the Fire TV experience built-in and including a Voice Remote with Alexa. With HD picture quality and access to all the movies and TV shows you love, Toshiba Fire TV Edition delivers a superior TV experience that gets smarter every day. The Voice Remote with Alexa lets you do everything you'd expect from a remote-plus, easily launch apps, search for titles, play music, switch inputs, control smart home devices and more, using just your voice.
I purchased this tv as a replacement for my broken bedroom tv. The picture quality is pretty decent, and the alexa voice control is a great feature. The voice control feature makes it easy to maneuver channels and the volume in the dark. In the past I have experienced volume issues with other smart tvs. The volume on this tv actually allows you to hear it. If needed I would definitely repurchase this tv in the future. :)
Now. let me start off with saying that i'm not an expert on TV's. My first HDTV was a Vizio 42 inch 1080p that i bought almost 5 years ago after high school. It looked great. I Paid $420 for it. I thought i got a pretty good deal on it. Fast forward to 2018 and 4k is still settling in and technology is moving forward. I was at work during Prime week and the website was terribly slow but i still wanted to see what they had in stock. I stumbled across this TV as i was going to be in the market for one during the holiday season 2018. When i found this TV, I was shocked at how much it was! $280! For a 50 inch 4k Fire TV with Alex built in, That's almost half the cost of my old vizio. I thought it was too good to be true. Reviews were mixed but i wanted to take a stab at it anyways. I ordered it and it was here 3 days later. My initial impressions were "eh". Setup was a breeze but there was more than that i had noticed. I decided on comparing it with my vizio with some Good Mythical Morning on YouTube. I Know it's compressed video but it was the best i had to work with at first. I watched one episode and I was kind of Disappointed. The Brightness was good but the color was kind of dull overall and over saturated on some parts of the image like a person's face, but i wasn't giving up there. Setting the TV's Picture color setting from default to natural completely changed the game. The Color was great! Everything seemed correct with pulling up a color correction test on YouTube and it looked great! The Speakers were OK but that doesn't bother me because i have a dedicated 5.1 Surround System that blows the socks on the TV speakers. I really wanted a bigger size TV overall since the 42 inch wasn't quite the size I wanted. The 50 Inch was the perfect size for my TV stand and it matched the room which is a pretty small living room but it worked just fine. Now it's $400 and i still think it's a good deal considering my 42 inch was $20 more. I run the TV 1080p still because my laptop does not output 4k but It still looks great. The Fire TV portion is good for what it offers. More Ad's than I liked but for the value, No big deal. The 4k Netflix Shows look great. HDR Looks really good. The only downside to this TV for me is when i'm playing Dolby Digital through any apps on the smart portion of the TV, the volume seems to fluctuate. I'm sure this can be fixed with a software update but It's what i experienced. I would give it a go if you're interested in getting a good TV for the Money and hey if It doesn't work out, 30 Day Return!
Thought long and hard before ordering this t.v. and I read alot of the reviews. Sept. 28th the Fire Edition 55inch was delivered. Easy to set. And I connected it to Amazon Dot but had to go to the settings and go under like music, books etc and find Fire T.V. and done. Well we still have a cable box and connected it with our HDMI and Ethernet cord. We noticed our picture would flicker & flutter for about a second or 2. And we decided we would send it back in case it was the LED lights and it would get worse. But after some research we found out we needed to update our HDMI cord to a 4k Ultra HD and HDR compatible that is premium certified(pictured) about 19 to 39 dollars for a pretty good one(we paid $39) and a Ethernet cord that Cat6 not Cat6a which cost about 15dollars. Or if your using Wi-Fi you don't need the EC. We replaced the old cords with the new cords and have been watch Netflix Seven Seconds, 7th episode in and the picture looks better and the picture has not flickered or fluttered at all. So we are happy. Hope this problem was fixed.
For $399, this is a really nice TV. It's not as bright as some of the TVs at the $1k pricepoint. The audio is fine for a basic experience, and stays clear even when it gets pretty loud. The remote control is clean and easy to use with minimal extra features (apart from that odd Sony placement). I really like that you have to press a button for the Alexa usage rather than having it be always-on and listening in the room. Alexa continues to be best in class for voice recognition and show search across multiple apps (e.g., finding a show in Netflix).
The only awkward thing is that the setup process is not what you might be used to from a FireTV or other Amazon product - it doesn't come preconfigured with your Amazon account and you need to log in and choose what apps to install. There are also a bunch of questions I didn't really understand (e.g., Full vs. Limited experience?). Netflix and other apps continue to have a tedious setup process of entering passwords manually for each application, even if you have other devices with Netflix or even other FireTV and Alexa devices in the house.
The defaults are pretty good, with allowing Alexa to control the TV's power off by default, though sharing personal information with advertisers for a "more customized experience" is unfortunately on by default.
So I bought this 50” Toshiba TV on Prime Day 2018 for about $250 I think. I was in the market for a new TV for the bedroom, and I was just about to purchase a Samsung TV with the Fire TV Cube. I knew Prime Day would be great to buy the cube, so I waited. When the day arrived, I stumbled across this Toshiba TV and thought, “Well shooot... I’m basically getting a 2-for-1 on this deal!”
Now before all the videophiles start booing my review, let me be clear in that the picture quality and aesthetics are not as solid as comparable or top of the line Samsung’s, but for the price and the location of the tv, I couldn’t pass up the $250 price tag (especially because Fire TV is a necessity for the way I driver my entertainment).
Having said that, I am extremely happy with the TV and would purchase another one for any other bedroom in my home. If I could make one subjective criticism, it would be that I wish the remote control was a little more universal. My Samsung TV’s remote is capable of controlling many of my DTV receiver functions and that makes it EXTREMELY convenient in the living room!
Hope this helps...
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