VIZIO VX37L review (37" LCD TV)

We checked out Training Day on HD-DVD from our Toshiba HD-A1, and the results were impressive for an inexpensive set. Blacks areas such as the letterbox bars, or Denzel Washington's leather jacket could have appeared darker--they weren't as deep as those of the Philips 37PF9631D or the Sharp LC-37D40U, for example, but we've definitely seen worse. Details near black did appear somewhat obscured in places; Ethan Hawke's bulletproof vest, for example, appeared somewhat indistinct as it blended into shadow, but again many LCDs display less detail in shadow. Dark areas also preserved color accuracy well, appearing neither too blue nor too red as they approached black. Low-level video noise wasn't a problem, and we discerned very few traces of false contouring.

Speaking of color, once our adjustments were made, the Vizio appeared relatively accurate. Skin tones looked good, and other colors had as much vibrancy as we'd expect from an LCD, all thanks to the VX37L HDTV's solid color decoding. Primary colors was also close to ideal, although green did appear somewhat on the yellowish side.

Uniformity was fairly good for a flat-panel LCD on our review sample; in the darkest areas, we noticed a lightly brighter spot in the lower-left corner, and the right side was also somewhat brighter than the rest, but neither of these issues was egregious. Seen from the off-angle, the picture did start to wash out a bit earlier than that of some of the better LCDs we've tested, but anybody that's a seat or two away from the sweet spot on the couch probably won't notice a difference.

When fed a standard-def signal via component video that consisted of our normal series of material from the HQV test disc, the Vizio VX37L HDTV held its own, although standard-def performance was by no means stellar. It resolved every line of standard-def detail with no flicker and quickly engaged 2:3 pull-down compensation. On the other hand, we did notice jagged edges along the diagonal lines of the waving American flag, and the details in the stone bridge were softer than we've seen on many LCDs. We also would have liked to see some kind of noise reduction option in the Vizio's picture-settings menus, because the set didn't do much at all to quell the snowy motes visible in skies, clouds, and other sections of the noise-reduction section of the test.

PC performance

In our testing, the Vizio VX37L HDTV operated perfectly well as a computer monitor. After we set our PC to 1,366x768 resolution and engaged the Auto Adjust feature, the Vizio resolved every detail of both horizontal and vertical resolution according to DisplayMate. Text looked crisp and sharp, and we were treated to an unusually large array of picture adjustments including adjustable color temperature for red, green, and blue, just as the video inputs offered. Overscan was nonexistent, so we were able to see the entire desktop to the edge of the screen.