Vizio SV472XVT

Pros: Feature-rich menus and control. User-friendly setup, including universal remote. Beautiful pristine picture. Nice surround effect from above average speakers. Well-packaged from factory. Vizio is the bang-for-buck leader.

Cons: Vizio Internet Apps underwhelming. Heavy and thick. Bluetooth only works with Vizio remote. Pixelation during high-action (e.g. sports) and seems to handle some colors better than others (but this is LCD, afterall).

Summary: First, Costco's 90-day return policy and 2-yr warranty is unbeatable. We originally bought an SV421XVT only to return it 89 days later (no questions asked) for the SV472XVT that I ordered from Costco.com. I wanted a bigger screen and was excited about internet connectivity.

Vizio makes great LCD televisions at a great price. Period.

But I was hoping for much, much more with regards to internet features, namely browsing, video conferencing (with USB video camera) and access to iTunes library on home network. None of Vizio's advertising suggested that was included, but it was worth a shot and Vizio claims automatic updates will expand functionality and apps over time. As of this post (March 2, 2010) there are less than 20 apps and even the Facebook app is awkward to use.

Other manufacturers are including wireless and widgets, and from what I can tell, they suffer from the same not-a-replacement-for-PC lack of features as well. I have no doubt that Vizio will remain as relevant as anyone in the wireless TV market. As a side note, I'm also underwhelmed by Samsung's Blue-ray internet features, but I wasn't expecting as much.

In any case, my recommendation is to focus on picture quality and save the 50 to 200 dollar premium that wireless functionality adds. A Blu-ray-enabled media server with Bluetooth keyboard and mouse is a better option at this point. Friends of mine even have iPhone apps they use to control the media server.

I recommend Vizio highly, and plan to keep this panel, but they need to add a few developers to the team to expand the internet functionality, and make those expansions compatible with the SV472XVT.

We have this TV paired up with an Onkyo receiver, Energy RC-Micro 5.1 speaker system (*** highly recommended ***), Wii, Samsung Blu-ray player and Comcast Cable.

Updated on Mar 8, 2010

My friend bought a Samsung 40" LED TV with Yahoo Widgets. The only difference in internet features seems to be the inclusion of YouTube. I appreciate that Vizio includes WiFi in the TV, whereas Samsung requires an extra-cost ($80) USB dongle.

We watched the Academy Awards last night and I was again blown away by the picture quality of our Vizio, but I still hope to get video conferencing on this panel. I just read that Samsung, Panasonic and LG have announced the inclusion of Skype in their TVs. Vizio?!