Opinions Needed: TOSHIBA PROJECTION TVs

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Hello Everyone,

This is my 1st post on these forums & it looks like there are a great group
of people on here. I am in a bit of a predicament here & was hoping that
some of you, with a bit more knowledge than me, can shed some light on my
situation.I apologize in advance if this seems like a very long post. I just
want to make sure I get all the details I can on here...

We've all been there: The day you buy your TV set or sets. I took the
plunge,finally, & bought 2 Toshiba HDTV projection televisions (51" 51h93 &
65" 65h93). The prices were right & I bought them.They delivered them & I
was off hooking up everything I had to them.

I currently have Digital Cable through ATLANTIC BROADBAND.I signed up for
their "High Definition package" that has HDNET,DISCOVERY,HBO,& NBC & ABC hd
channels. I have Scientific Atlanta 3250 set-top boxes on both televisions.I
am running a DVI output from the cable boxes to DVI input on the televisions
..Any dvd player hooked up on either TV is hooked up via Component
inputs(red,green,blue). All of my dvd players have Progressive Scan.All
Monster cables.

After finally hooking up everything, I turned on the sets. Went through the
"Setup" processes & tuned into HDNET. The picture was amazing & I was happy
to say the least. However, once I got into the other cable channels
(TBS,USA,CNN,MSNBC & other local non-HD networks that are part of my cable
service), I noticed that the picture was severely lacking. It doesn't look
horrible but it doesn't look great either. I noticed that I am getting alot
of artifacts on certain channels & I am getting alot of "picture noise" on
others. The blacks look good & I have adjusted the Contrast,Brightness, &
Sharpness. I noticed that the sets have "Pre-Defined" picture settings like
SPORTS,MOVIE,PREFERENCE. All that does is dumb or raise the overall picture
brightness. I tried to modify certain stuff in the PREFERENCE tab but it
doesn't seem to improve much.I have left both sets on SPORTS as it seems to
be the best setting in this situation.I have turned of the Ambient Light
Sensor on both sets as I find them to be annoying at times.

Onto the dvd test.After having watched tons of dvds in my life, I have
certain films that I know are great looking & sounding. However, on both
sets, I notice that when watching, let's say APOLLO 13, the overall
crispness isn't there as I expected it to be.I am seeing what looks like to
be a snowy kind of pixelation in certain highly lit parts. I bought a copy
of FINDING NEMO for the family. Upon watching this film, I find the colors
to be amazing but I'm getting certain motion artifacts in parts.It looks
like the fish have slight shadows around them.Is this normal?? Have others
out here experienced this???

Now here is where I find myself in a predicament. The price was right for
the sets. HD programming looks incredible (check out FATHER OF THE PRIDE in
HD on NBC,awesome). However, normal cable programming is not that
impressive. DVD watching isn't that mind blowing experience I remember
either. Is there anything I can do to improve the overall picture quality so
everything looks great??? It seems like the only thing these sets have going
is the HDTV.
I know that these sets should be best viewed in a dark room. However, I live
in a "high rise" of sorts & daylight seeps in regardless of what you do.
Besides, I don't want to mess up my view just to improve my TV viewing
slightly...

Any feedback will be appreciated as I am at my wits end & am thinking to
just return these sets.That's going to be a bitch in itself as this building
has alot of "rules" for deliveries & returns. They were right in my price
range.I want to make these TVs work for me....

If you'd like, e-mail me privately. Just be sure to remove the
"NOJUNKNOCRAP" from my e-mail addy...

Thank in advance...

All the best,
Kenny