Toshiba 50LF621U19 50-inch Smart 4K UHD TV - Fire TV Edition

I have had a 1080p insignia for about 7 years as our main television. I have been a cord cutter for 2 and a half years and have many different android and apple tv boxes including a firestick, apple 4k,and Nvidia Shield. When i bought this tv i was not expecting much from the internal fire tv platform and planned on using my Nvidia shield as the main IP platform. To my surprise,and delight, the fire tv platform is working much better than expected.All of the apk's that i have on my other boxes were able to be loaded on the fire tv with just a few minutes of watching YouTube to figure it out. My internet provided cable service, which cost $5 a month for every channel you can imagine was very easy to "side load". One of the best features that is included on this tv is the live television built in with connecting a Hd Antenna. I live about 8 miles from Pittsburgh and with just a $15 window antenna i receive 30 over the air (OTA) channels and there is a built in guide for the channels that we receive. If you are considering being a "cord cutter" please realize you still need an internet provider and make sure you get a fast internet speed so buffering is minimized. The color on this television to me is great coming from what i had before. If you want a cinematic experience you are not getting it with a sub $400 television but this is great for our family with light gaming, medium movie watching,and a lot of television watching. The sound really surprised me. Our room is about 14ft. X 12ft and my chair is in front of the tv. It has very good external speakers and it comes at you in stereo. In my opinion if you are considering a 4k tv and dont want to pay for cable this is the way to go. With just Netflix,Amazon prime,and an Hd Antenna you can watch just about anything you want anytime. Overall this tv is a great buy and i would think this Black Friday or cyber Monday you will get a great deal. Just my opinion but well worth the investment.

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.

I reallly want to like this TV, and hopefully future software/firmware updates will fix it. If they don't, I will join the class-action suit. I could really expound on the topic of this TV endlessly, but in the interest of writing a review someone will read, I will do my level best to keep this brief. I bought this TV thinking it would dovetail into the purchase of a Fire TV Recast. Based on my experience with this TV, I no longer want a Fire TV Recast. For the last 5+ years we have used a Win7 Home Theater PC in conjunction with our primary living room TV display. We have a two tuner HD Home Run on the network. It works great. But the sun is setting on Windows 7 and once a year (or so) I have to reinstall Windoze on the HTPC -kind of a pain. I should mention, we are not cable or satellite subscribers and have only a TV antenna pulling signals from Toledo and Detroit. We looked at options for replacing the HTPC with a Tablo, or other such thing. I eschewed options which included a subscription charge for the program guide service (Windows Program Guide is free). Upon getting this TV, I was thrilled, I liked the interface, it feels suddenly like we have more than just an antenna on the roof. Upon using the TV for only a short time, I am extremely disappointed (bordering on furious). Here are observations about this TV that piss me off: 1. Say goodbye to knowing what channel you are switching to. You won't know until you have selected it. It doesn't show you the channel numbers in the guide. 2. Even after eliminating the secondary singals from the listings, you still often see two of every show. 3. If there is not any associated data for the channel, fuggedaboutit! You can't watch it! I've got stations that can't feed the metadata to the air -I don't get to watch these channels. 4. Not all subchannels show. I have an NBC affiliate running TBD, a network for Wil Wheaton's geeky friends to play Magic the Gathering on -it doesn't show. It just ain't there. Go to any other TV in the house and there it is, but it isn't on the Fire TV. 5. The damn super high res TV won't handle the highest support resolution from my HTPC! It'll show, and format properly (and I'm HDMI out to HDMI in, I'm not converting anything) but try to watch TV and it shows lines, artifacts, it breaks up. Terrible. Lower the resolution, it is OK, but doesn't scale to the entire screen. ARRGHHH!! 6. Does your wireless router suck? Is it moody sometimes? Mine is, and now I have to replace it because I need Internet to watch over the air TV! ARRRGHH! 7. The remote control does not have a dedicated button to switching inputs. This is absolutely crazy. 8. I still have not been able to have my Echo do anything to this TV. I have registered the TV in the app, I have the setting for the TV set right, Alexa cannot find the TV. I changed the name. Still can't find it. And there is even more nitpicky stuff that I won't go into. My wife hates this TV, and is now watching the TV that this one replaced exclusively (in the basement). Some of these issues will be addressed. I'm sure I've missed ten things and need to comb through my settings too. But I no longer revel in the tedious setup of such things. I bought this thing to be intuitive and easy to set up and use. So far, I have not been able to set up and use the TV to my satisfaction. Here is the major headline to remember if you are an OTA viewer - YOU WON'T GET YOUR FULL CHANNEL LINEUP Had I known this at the outset, I would have not purchased the TV. Amazon needs to fix this, and work very hard to improve their program guide. EDIT UPDATE 7/20/19 -- I have contacted Amazon requesting to return this TV for a refund. In looking back through my previous review I am reminded of other things that bother me about this TV, but the most irksome thing is that you can set the PINS and get OTP codes for your phone for purchase, but this TV is perpetually tripping you into signing up for something you don't want. I just today decided it was time to rid myself of this awful TV when I could not view live OTA TV and was instead stuck uninstalling PLUTO and removing it form my program lineup. I can't stand this TV.. And life is too short to.... PLEASE WAIT.... For the live TV coming from the ANTENNA on MY ROOF! AMAZON! THIS THING SUCKS!

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!

I was using a 1080 Smart TV (28 inch) before, and I wanted something bigger. I saw this for a really affordable price, and figured I'd buy it. Setup was easy, and the audio is surprisingly good. I read a few folks who were complaining the audio was washed out, and not loud enough. I don't have ANY of those problems. Pros: - Big TV. Really. It's quite large. If you need a bigger TV you'll need to be prepared to spend a lot more money. - Decent picture quality. I've only seen a few things in 4K, but it's pretty good. Definitely better than 1080. Upscaling on this TV is pretty good too. I've been to TV stores where they sell the ultra premium TVs, and obviously this won't compare with those, but it's very nice for an upgrade off 1080 if you're on a budget. - Inexpensive. I literally bought this TV 3 years after I got my 28" 1080 Smart TV, and it's not even 50% more expensive. I really couldn't have asked for a better TV for the price. Someone showed me a bigger TV for a little less money a few weeks after I bought this, and I didn't even care. I literally didn't care that there was something that *Might* be marginally better than this one, at a lower price. Because I'm that satisfied with this TV. - Lots of ports. I've got a DVD player, Game System, and a Casting device all hooked up to it, and there's spaces for more stuff. It's got USB on the thing (I'm using to power my casting device), and a bunch of other stuff I'm not even using. - Decent audio. I've never even considered putting it to max volume. Not once. It's got decent sound, and maybe someday I'll have a bunch of money to throw around and buy myself a soundbar, but it really doesn't need it unless you're a complete audio snob. Cons: - It's a giant advertisement for Amazon every time you turn it on. Not the worst thing, I know... but some folks really get hung up on stuff like that. - The remote it came with has a button that's to a deprecated app, and another that's to an app I don't have. And I can't program them to other apps. That's pretty frustrating, as I think it'd be super easy to program. - It's a bit bulkier than all the more expensive TVs. Make sure you've got a sturdy place to put it. - After a lot of use you'll start to see some weird... issues. Audio was out of sync on a single series on one of the video platforms I was watching, but none of the others. I called support, and they told me to clear the cache, and restart the TV (from the settings, because turning the TV off with the power button is only a "soft" off). I thought the guy was just blowing smoke, but it actually resolved the issue. Also, the TV will kinda freeze every so often, and become mostly unresponsive. Bottom line: You're going to have to know where the restart TV option is in the settings. Yes - "Turn it off, then turn it back on" is the solution, but it's not as simple as you think. Other thoughts: - I'm happy with my purchase, but I'm super cheap. Your mileage may vary. - The memory on the thing has been sufficient for my needs, but I'm not a super heavy user. I've noticed that the memory is getting low, so if you like to install a lot of apps, and just utilize the heck out of the system... Keep that in mind. I think you can expand the storage with the USB slot, but don't quote me on that. Check the owner's manual beforehand if you're at all concerned. - Enough people talk about it getting wacky bugs and going belly up on them that I bought the protection plan, and I recommend you do too. I haven't had any issues, but I read a LOT of comments where folks did. I'd buy it again.

**9 month update*** Television is GREAT! The picture is wonderful, but the SOUND and Alexa interface are what I think are outstanding. Both background sound and voices are really clear, and navigating the screen is intuitive and easy. We ended up purchasing a second television for my husband to play Xbox in the other room, and it just starkly shows the contrast. the other television from Panasonic seems like 87 clicks to get where you want to be and the voices aren't clear through background noise. Same with the Samsung training television at my office. TRULY made me appreciate the great qualities of this television enough to comeback and update the review*** We have had the television for 3 months. The integrated Amazon interface is great, we play amazon music through the TV while our family photos play on the screen as picture saver. It is like having art on my wall instead of a TV. All the previous televisions we have owned have had sound issues while they are in the cutout above my fireplace. This is the first television with clear sound and clear voices that has fit into our space. We have just loved the Alexa interface, and think that the quality of the picture and sound are just outstanding, especially for the price. I would highly recommend this television

So first, let me point out by far the two worst things about this TV. 1) It is meant for the cord-cutters, if you primarily use only streaming apps then it's great, but if you want to use HDMI input or something like that it's not as good, although a new setting does promise to default to your last input I haven't tried it. 2) It is thick, many other posts have mentioned this, but even though I'd read those I didn't expect it to be as thick as it is, it's literally inches thicker than the old samsung it replaced, like whatever you're thinking on thick, just add a few inches, cause it is seriously thick, so thick that I want to buy another one of these for my main living room, but I'm not going to put a TV this thick into such a prominent public space. I thought people were just complaining about it being thick, but that "thick" had to be okay still cause it was many years newer than my old TV. Anyway, not a problem for me cause I use this as a TV in a back bedroom anyway, but I wouldn't be happy with how thick it is in my main living room. Now that all that's out of the way, I still give it 5-stars. Why? Cause it's freaking amazing. First off the picture is 4k which was an upgrade for the TV this replaced, and the picture looks great. I am also just using the stock TV speakers for now, and they're surprisingly decent for built-in speakers. But what I love most about it, is how gosh darn quick and responsive the interface is. When I power it on, it powers up near instantly, and when I open an app it acts like it's just alt-tab switching to it like it was already open, and when I navigate the apps, they move so quick. I primarily use Plex, and on my old TV I had to wait for Roku to boot up, took forever, then I had to launch the plex app, which also took forever, then Plex was slow to navigate and would sometimes crash. All those issues are gone with Fire TV built-into this TV. Plex just opens instantly and navigates flawlessly, so quick, I love it, and since I primarily just use that one app where this TV is, this is perfect for me. Also, I didn't expect to care at all about the alexa-enabled feature, as I already have a bunch of echo dots and a lot of home automation... however, I actually love the alexa remote. I often ask alexa to do something, like set an alarm, or adjust lighting, ect... and when the TV is on this can make alexa not hear me well. However, with the alexa remote it automatically pauses the video while I press-to-talk to alexa, and automatically unpauses when I let go, and this surprisingly works out really well for me. This TV was seriously cheap, I got the 50" for under $300. That was a huge plus. Also the whole reason I got it was it was one of the only 4K TV's on the market with Fire TV built-in. That was important to me because I had having several remotes just to use the TV, I want to just always use the native TV remote, so buying a 4k TV and then adding an external Fire TV box wasn't an ideal solution for me. Plus being alexa-enabled I can turn it on by voice with the other echos in the house, not a huge deal, but it is nice to be able to turn it on by voice as I'm walking towards the room it's in so it's ready to go when I get there, even though it does turn on extremely fast anyway. Overall, I just love how fast the menu is. That's something you never really know until you get your hands on it, and it's such a stark contrast to the TV it replaced, that I want to replace more TVs with this for their 4k Upgrade, however, the thickness bothers me for a main living room. I'd pay three times as much if they'd make a thin 65" version of this and I'd buy it for the main living room.

First thing, first. I bought this TV because it was a very affordable 4K TV. I'm stating this because in reading all the the videophile reviews makes me wonder if they really are experts? Or just a normal person looking for a good deal on a TV and expecting a little to much. OK, on with the review. The TV has a nice picture, the sound is also good. But sadly, the remote might be the worst one I have ever gotten with a TV. Seriously, if anyone important reads this pass it on to Toshiba. Remotes should last for many years, not many weeks. And remote batteries should last for at least many months, not many days. My remote stopped working after about 2 months, I had to do surgery on it to get it working again. To summarize my trauma, the problem is with how the batteries interface with the PCB inside the remote. Back to the TV itself, it is really light weight and not very durable. As many people have posted, they received a "broken" TV. Well, maybe, but more likely they broke it removing it from the box or installing it. Yup, it is that light weight. When moving this TV use two people and be gentle. If you have Amazon Prime Video, its a cool TV. If not, probably not so much. If this TV lasts me a few years I'd say it was great, but I seriously doubt it will last. All that said, for anyone looking to buy this TV, either spend a bit more money on something else or wait for a better version. 2nd year update: As a expected the TV isn't doing well, the video processor started glitching about a month ago. I found unplugging it for about 10 minutes seems to temporary solve what is probably a heat related issue. The good news is the remote has stayed fixed ;) The sad part is I believe most of the issues with this TV set could be solved by simply assembling it properly.