4K televisions are getting cheap. But truthfully, most people don’t care that much about 4K resolution, especially with how little 4K content there is out there. Make no mistake, ordinary viewers can certainly tell the difference in image quality between 1080p and 4K. But what’s really driving so many to upgrade their TV isn’t resolution, it’s streaming features and voice control.
And why not? Ten years ago, a 50” television would have set you back about $800, and your content would be in glorious 720p. These days, you can find 50” sets from name brands at half that price. Except now the panel is in 4K resolution, it can connect to every streaming service you can think of, and will literally accept voice commands! Technology is great, isn’t it?
东芝50英寸消防电视版4K智能电视
The东芝50英寸消防电视版4K智能电视is a bit of an oddity. When it comes to certain devices, like laptops, Toshiba has a mixed reputation. But their televisions haven’t been nearly as contentious, until recently. The 50” Fire TV Edition Smart TV is about as contentious as a TV can be.
When you take this TV out of the box, you get a general sense of quality that’s hard to miss. It looks professional, it looks modern, and after you’ve glanced over its features, this panel seems like the price-tag might be missing a zero. You go through the incredibly simple setup process, snapping on the stand.
You plug in the power cord, antenna cable, and pop batteries in the remote. Toshiba asks you to provide your Amazon information, and then their Fire 4K Smart TV starts to scan for channels. And there you are, watching your favorite shows, inside of 20 minutes. You start to wonder, what’s the catch?
构建与设计
大多数现代电视看起来都一样。他们都变得更加平坦，选择使用更薄的边框，等等。即使是他们的后卫也开始看起来更加相似，因为如今只需要包括少数电缆端口。东芝50英寸消防电视版4K并不是这一趋势的例外，他们的电视看起来或多或少像过去十年来制造的其他电视。
Although Toshiba calls this a 50-inch panel, measured across, the screen is actually 49.5-inches. The device stands at 44.6 x 26.4 x 10.7-inches, but the panel is only 3.7” with the stand removed. That makes it a fairly good selection for a wall mount or arm mount. It weighs a hefty 31.3lbs, which is made to fit on standard VESA 400 x 200 mounts. The 31-pound weight can be a little unwieldy given the size of the TV, but it’s nothing that any decent VESA mount can’t handle.
Looking towards the backside of this TV, on the right, you’ll find three HDMI inputs, an optical input, audio out, and a USB port. Closer to the center of the panel, you’ll find an Ethernet, RF antenna, and AV composite port. These aren’t particularly well-labeled or easy to see because they’re angled downwards.
However, this downwards slant design is actually gentler on the cables themselves. It makes it easier to wall-mount your equipment, and when not mounted, it makes those wires less likely to knock-over the panel if one of the wires gets yanked. All in all, it’s better for you to have to struggle for a few seconds to plug-in your cables, the trade-offs are worthwhile.
Remote Control
Like you might expect, the Toshiba 50-inch Fire TV Edition 4K Ultra HD Smart TV includes a remote. The remote measures 6.4 x 1.5 x 0.8-inches, which is on the smaller side for television remotes. It’s powered by two AAA batteries, which are included. The remote is somewhat minimalistic, which many people will regard as a good thing, but some people will want to keep their universal remote on hand anyway.
The top of the remote features a microphone. Just below that, there’s a voice button you can use to start initiating voice commands to the remote. The rest of the buttons are about what you’d expect. There’s a navigational D-pad, volume buttons, channel guide, menu button, and so forth. The remote also includes buttons for quick-launching Netflix, HBO, PlayStation Vue, and Prime Video. If you use one or more of those services, you’ve got several extra reasons to like the remote.
要注意的一件事是，像播放/跳过按钮一样，必需按钮并没有变得异常大。它们的尺寸与菜单按钮（例如菜单按钮）的尺寸相同。通常，对于一个遥控器来说，这是一个可怕的罪过，但是考虑到只有大约十二个按钮开始的事实，这个遥控器不会遭受该决定的影响。
Picture Quality
关于图像质量，基本上有三件事要注意。首先是标准的60Hz刷新率。对于Avid PC游戏玩家来说，这并不是一个特别令人印象深刻的选择，但其他所有人都不应该认为这是一个障碍。要注意的第二件事是直接的LED背光，提供了较高的亮度。这对于东芝50英寸消防电视提供的HDR支持至关重要。
About half-a-year after they first released their line of Fire TVs, Toshiba performed a major update the firmware for these sets. The newly renovated settings and menu windows provide a much greater range of options for contrast, color, and so forth. During launch, owners had virtually no level of control over the colors and contrast of their set. Now it’s possible to exercise full control over essentially every variant.
Smart TV Features
这款电视的核心是Amazon的数字媒体播放器，这是Build-In-In-In-Fire TV。从本质上讲，它是通向数千个频道和应用程序的门户，包括流媒体服务以及Hulu，Showtime，Netflix等频道。无论您感兴趣的是什么流媒体，将它们与火电视一起使用都是轻而易举的。它支持4K UHD内容，并且通过火灾操作系统浏览非常简单。
The Alexa-enabled voice remote makes things a bit easier still. Paired with an Echo, you can have hands-free control of your TV at any point in your home. You don’t even have to press the voice button on the remote! You can issue commands like “Alexa, switch to Blu-ray.” Even common remote commands, like rewinding, can be done with the right voice prompt.
But note, Alexa support only extends to streaming content, not to content from your cable provider. While their advertising suggests that you’re able to simply command the remote to tune-in to various channels, some of the commands you’re able to issue are actually somewhat restricted. Which brings us to “the catch”, the secret reason why this television is so inexpensive.
缺点
近年来，一些制造商已经开始在近成本上出售电子产品。他们会以令人震惊的价格出售智能手机，电视或平板电脑，几乎无法获利。他们并不慷慨；目标是将您带入他们品牌的生态系统。
When you’re using the Toshiba 50” Fire TV Edition 4K Ultra Smart TV, within various settings windows, you’ll notice a “recommended by your apps” bar. You do not have the ability to disable this bar. Additionally, the home screen has a number of advertisements you can’t remove.
As you scroll through the home screen, about 25% of the content in your feed is yet another advertisement. And that’s precisely why this TV is so cheap. Their “angle” is to recuperate the lower cost of the television on things like advertisements.
It’s worth noting, these ads are only present in menu windows. They’re not going to pop-up in the middle of your movie. Some people will rightfully be annoyed by them, others will be willing to endure them in the interests of savings. It’s really a matter of personal preference.
Other Considerations
With respect to accessibility features, the Toshiba 50” Fire TV supports Voice View, Closed Captioning, and Screen Magnification. That’s basically the full gamut of accessibility features you can expect from a modern TV. It includes the voice remote, batteries, the TV stand, a handful of screws to attach the stand, and a quick setup guide. It also includes a one-year warranty from Toshiba.
The quick setup guide provides virtually no instructions, but luckily, setup is largely intuitive. If you do encounter an issue, this panel is popular enough that finding documentation is simple online.
Who Should Choose the Toshiba 50” Fire TV?
有一个原因,这个小组并不significa成本ntly more than it does, and it’s because of the ads. You probably already know if you’re going to be bothered by that kind of thing, or if it’s something you can deal with. If you can’t live with the ads, and you want all of the same features, you’ll have to increase your budget by about $200.
If you can live with the ads, theToshiba 50” Fire TVis an excellent pick for a person who’s moving away from cable content. This is first-and-foremost a streaming TV, not a traditional cable TV. Sure, you can run cable through it. But Alexa isn’t going to control your cable box, or help you change cable channels.
这台电视是针对通过流媒体服务进行大部分内容消费的人们制造的。从远程按钮到语音控制，很少有便利功能适用于电缆。对于已经投资于Amazon Prime或Amazon Echo的人来说，这也是一个绝佳的选择。能够通过一个网络整合所有内容具有不需要解释的优点。
If most of the watching that you do is through cable instead of streaming services, you’ll probably want to choose a different TV. But if you’re first and foremost someone who streams content, and you’re not going to be put-out by the advertisements, it’s tough to find serious competitors for the cost-effective value of this TV.
