Toshiba TDP-ET10U Projector Review

For $329.00, I thought this projector was probably going to be too good to be true. I don't know much about projectors, so I did some research to try to learn more about contrast ratios, lumens, resolution, DLP vs. LCD... I learned as much as I could to try to make an informed decision. This projector is not just less expensive than other competitors, it's a LOT less expensive than competitors. The closest comparison that I considered buying had only VGA and composite inputs, yet it was over $100 more than this one. After a few weeks of debating and considering options, I finally took the plunge and ordered this. If it was truly too good to be true, the best way to find out was to test drive it. I was afraid that the price would go up or it would not be in stock by the time I settled on my decision.

This projector is not "too good to be true"... it's very very good and all that you are reading here from the other reviewers and me IS true. This projector would probably not satisfy the true audio/videophile, but I imagine that even someone that tech savvy would say you got a great deal for $329.

The two things that matter more than I thought they would are the short-throw lens and the location of the inputs on the front of the machine. If you do not have the ability to place the projector 4 feet or less from your screen and/or do not plan to place your dvd player, game unit, etc. on the "lens side" of your projector, this projector may be inconvenient for you. I had no real master plan for the room that has ended up being my home theater, so I had to set up the room to accommodate the projector. I'm surprised how well that ended up working for me, but your situation may differ. If you don't have the flexibility to (re)arrange things to accommodate the projector's design, you may want to bite the bullet and buy something else. Oddly, now that I've set everything up and see how practical this projector's design is, I'd consider this design to be an "upgrade". If this projector ever breaks, if I cannot replace it with the exact same thing, I will look for this type of design in the future and would pay more to have it. In a room that otherwise would only have gotten maybe a 50-60 inch projection (I used someone else's projector in that room as part of my research) I am getting 100+ inches of "screen". I'm going to paint one of my walls white and use the entire wall as the screen. Since the projector is going to sit only 4 feet from the wall, having the inputs in the front works really well because I can easily unplug everything and store the projector on the same shelf as my stereo pieces. This is, in my opinion, the type of smart design that comes from real life use.

The fan is quieter than I expected. It's not "whisper quiet", but you have to pay bigger bucks for a quieter fan. I'd be able to live with a louder fan for this price, so the sound level of the fan is a plus in my book.

The picture, in general, is great. The contrast is excellent. Blacks are nice and dark, whites are bright, etc. I am still figuring out my settings, the best placement of the projector, screen size, etc. A 100+" image is a bit harder to get in perfect focus and lacks a bit of crispness, but the novelty of having such a large image is still so much fun that I blow the picture up as big as my wall will fit. I'll figure out how to make the picture a little more crisp and clear once I stop messing around with the settings. I've had it a little less than a week, so I'm still playing around with it.

One of the menus shows the signal quality and it says the picture is 1080i when I plug my PS3 and Apple TV in via HDMI, so for those wondering about whether or not it's HD, I can say that much. I compared the picture via HDMI vs. component video and I prefer HDMI.

The variety of inputs is awesome. I've primarily used the HDMI input, but having composite, component, S-video and VGA also means this is like the swiss army knife of projectors. Audio inputs are also varied, but I do find it rather odd that they have a yellow composite input for video, but not the corresponding red & white inputs for audio. Instead there is a stereo jack, coaxial digital input and the HDMI for audio. One nice feature of this projector is the ability to mix & match the audio and video inputs. So, you can do HDMI for video and coaxial digital for audio, and other mix & match like that.

The speakers are pretty good. You won't replace your surround sound system with these speakers, but for "on the go" purposes the speakers are solid and convenient. I plan to use this outside for outdoor movie nights, and the speakers are great for that type of use. For home theater use, you'll probably just bypass these speakers entirely and hook up a home theater worthy sound system.

All in all, I consider this machine to be an outstanding value. It's worth much more than the $329 that Amazon is currently charging. Since Amazon is online only and this product is exclusive to Amazon, there's no way of seeing it in action before purchasing it. I read the other reviewers comments a few times before making my decision to buy it and found them very helpful in making my decision. Hopefully this review helps inspire someone else to take the plunge! Get while the getting's good.

Buy it here now!