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"Watch out for this company." on by suade907
Pros: Top notch manual and packageing
Cons: HDtuner may show some false contouring in some scenes
Summary: Being a videophile and all I'll give ya the quick heads up.
First thing you should know about this tv. They have a zero bright pixel garrantee. How well their customer service is I'm not sure but that is a better garrantee than any other tv manufactuare has for LCD tv's anyware that I'm aware of. They also have a 1 year onsite tech support if something should go wrong. And one other nice thing is that they are based out of california, I'm not sure where these tv's are made but know that the company headquarters being american based was reassurring to me since I live in the U.S.
Ok on to some things most people don't care about but I found quite impressive. The box the tv came in was amazingly designed in that you unclip 4 plastic clips and the whole top came off with no cutting tape of any kind. This tv had the best instructions and the best packaging I've ever seen. Everything in the manual was easy to understand and the quick guide to the setup was top notch. Any grandmother could set this sucker up in a heart beat. Which is saying alot for the presentation of the packaging.
On to the remote and first impressions. The remote is a universal that you can program it for 4 devices and it's very well laid out and comfortable in the hand. Upon firing up the tv I first tuned in my basic cable channels and then the hd over the air channels. It didn't take very long at all and went very smoothly. The hd tuner picked up all the channels that my media center pc does and the only one I have troubles with is cbs for some reason in chicago they broadcast on vhf and not uhf like all the others. I always have trouble with cbs. I first turned on the hd but nothing in good hd was playing but I did notice that the channel changes were very fast and the tv had a very nice guide description for the hd channels that could be toggled on and off much like using tivo and displaying what is on at the top and being able the minimize it to just show the channel or all the info for what was playing and so on. Next I went on to trying basic cable. It looks ok, merely ok but some channels are much better than others. Like I said I use basic cable and it's not very good. On the bad channels you would kind of get a slight blurring effect but on the good ones that was almost non existent. Later that night I checked out some of the hd shows and noticed that the hd tuner does a adequate job but the picture never quite looks as sharp as the newer bravias or sammys but it does look good overall, just not great.
Onto the 360. I read somewhere that this tv's picture is much crisper on the hdmi than the components and that the difference was more than you would normally notice. After hooking the 360 via components I noticed that the tv didn't have the same clarity as my dell w2600. It was very good and almost as good but you could tell that the dell was better. So next I hooked up the vga adpater, I tried the 1360*768 resolution since the tv is native 1366*768 but for some reason it made picture off center and could not be fixed. I then switched to the 1280x720 res and was really impressed straight away. I made some minor adjustments and then ran the gammut at it. First of I played all my downloaded hd trailers and was blown away. Over the vga it actually now looked better than my w2600. All the videos just popped off the screen. I then played the beginning of Kameo just to check out the colors. It looked fabulous, again I was floored. I then fired up my media center pc and played some of my hd tv shows. Like prison break and house. It's funny because my recorded shows over the MCE actually looked a tiny bit better than what was currently on the hd tuner. After a bunch of playing with MCE, which worked perfectly at the 1280x720 resolution( my prior westinghouse had issues with MCE and the vga adapter) I tried a dvd. That didn't work out so well. For some oddball reason the DVD was not filling up the whole screen. I then tried it with the components and it worked fine but still wouldn't with the vga adapter. I do have another dvd player hooked to the tv so this didn't bother me much.
To sum it up this tv cost me $999, has a great warranty, good hd, ok analog though I was using cable so it might be better with something else. But the most important it has a 8ms response time and plays xbox360 games with no blurring whatsoever and looks incredible doing it. My decision to buy this tv came down to a few things. Could I return it?, Would it play xbox 360 games well?, and would the hd tuner be any good. Well I'm not gonna return it and it plays xbox 360 games superbly using the vga at 1280x720 and the hd tuner is good but merely acceptable to me. It does it's job but will never stun you like the bravias and sammys. My MCE hdtuner actually does a better job.
In the end I'm happy and this is a tv manufacture worth looking out for in the future. With their superb quality I'm sure we'll be seeing more of them. -
"A very good unit that comes with both standard and HDTV tuners." on by apocaplyseThen
Pros: Nice picture, standard and HDTV tuners, good price
Cons: not as established as bigger name vendors?
Summary: I like this set. I think some of the complaints that the CNET reviewers list are quite minor. All-in-all I think this is a very good set for the price.
I don't have cable or satellite service; I rely on broadcast signals to get my HDTV. I live near Chicago; I installed a high-quality roof-top antenna and am extremely pleased about the reception and the picture I receive. I tend to agree with the reviewer about how the set may perform better at 720p than at 1080i, but the picture at 1080i is still fine, if not fantastic. Also, the remote is rather difficult to use because of the button size and layout, but nothing that you can't get used to.
I have had the set for about a month and a half and couldn't be happier. I'll never go back to SDTV again. -
"This LCD HDTV is NICE!" on by mekaone
Pros: Amount of inputs, picture quality, sound, packing, built-in tuners and universal remote.
Cons: I wish it had a Monitor Out for recording to DVD or VCR
Summary: OK. I have to put my two cents in on this subject.
I love this TV!
I have only delt with a Panasonic 42" Plasma and a RCA 32" LCD. All I know is that this TV has a very good picture and sound. This set kills the RCA hands down!!!! I also like the picture better on the LCD than on the plasma because the the picture is so much brighter. I think it has much better sound than the RCA and par with the Panasonic. It has PIP and POP. I love the POP and think I'll be using that most of the time. with PIP I hate that one corner is always covered up at all times. With POP you have two smaller pictures side by side whitch is what I like better. Now too the remote! It is rock solid. I was going to purchase the Logitech Universal Learning Remote for around $120 dollars so I could get all of the menus and other buttons to work unlike other remotes that just give you basic features. The univerasal remote worked on my Cable Bos/DVR, DVD Player and VCR and I got everything to work. NO JOKE! The speed button for the VCR work, all of the setup menus for my equipment worked and all of the extra features for the DVR worked. WOW. Yesterday I put all of my remotes back in my dressser to free up some space and now I don't have to pay so much for all of the batteries used. This is the best part. It was on sale at Walmart for $896 I think? All for under $1000 dollars. I don't think there is any deal out there better than this. I think for anyone this would be a very good HDTV for any where in the house. Hope you like it as much as I do. -
"Happy I bought this one" on by ddudleysr
Pros: Excellent price / performer makes this a 10
Cons: None so far
Summary: I deliberated for a year and read everything available. I was going to buy the Samsung LNS3251D but my son (who works in the business)advised me to buy the Vizio. I thought I would be settling for the Yugo car of flat panels. This thing is super. It delivers excellent colors that are vivid. Like others, I bought it at Costco for $ 699. I'm convinced that reviewers like CNET have the best intentions when they write "The bad: Subpar black-level performance; inconsistent grayscale tracking..". Man, I'm sure not seeing it. I have the Vizio connected to a Cox set top box via RGB cables. Watching the Discovery channel is like going to the IMAX. Sold my Sony 27" Wega tube TV on Craigslist for $140 and bought this. One year warranty from Vizio plus Costco friendly return policy makes this a great first step to move into the world of High Def without mortgaging the house.
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"Love it..!" on by Twosubmerg
Pros: 10 on Price
Cons: 8.8 on Picture
Summary: $799.00 with built in tuner! Can’t find better for the price. Used in bedroom with a Sony HD 3000 box with DVI to HDMI. Picture is much clearer then in store (CostCo). Grant it it's not as clear as the Sony but its not $1400.00+ either. I will purchase a second one for my daughter’s room. Two 32” LCD for under $1600.00 how can you justify spending more.
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