Give your TV a new home from IKEA
- Average user rating: 3.5 stars out of 83 reviews Back to product review
- My rating: 0 stars
Full user review
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32 out of 34 people found this review helpful
4.5 stars
"Best LCD for under $1000"
Pros: good picture from any source
Cons: the stand is a bit flimsy
Summary: I just purchased this TV and am very pleased overall. Right out of the box, I could tell Vizio takes little steps to satisfy its customers, like providing a lttle lint cloth for the screen and printing a nice full color manual. I plugged the comcast cable directly into the TV (no digital set box), and hooked up a DVD player with HDMI connector, and I was in business. The TV automatically found all the standard cable channels and tuned in about 8 airwave channels, some of which are definitely HIDEF and look great. This was a real surprise, that I can get terrific HIDEF images over the tuner without cable. (OK, so this is my first HIDEF TV.) The standard analog channels all looked smooth, not grainy at all.
I reduced the backlight and set the custom color controls for best picture as indicated in this CNET review, and watched a Star Wars DVD upconverted to 1080i (which the TV then downconverts to 720p?) and it looked terrific. I just plugged in the HDMI connector, set the Vizio to widescreen and the TV did the rest. (I noticed widescreen looked much better than zoom. Zoom fills the screen completely but must add more processing). At no time--from DVD, air, or cable did I notice any pixelation or video noise whatsoever.
Yes,the contrast was a little better on my old 31" CRT, and I have seen "blacker" blacks on plasmas and the very best LCDS, but overall the widecreen and higher resolution make for a much better viewing experience than a standard TV, and the scenes from star wars in space looked black to me, not grey. The colors and shadow detail all looked good and bright to me, even after I spent hours looking at Panasonic plasmas and Sony and Samsung and Sharp LCDS in the showrooms, which are considered "the best" and rigtly so. But I believe this TV really can stand its own against them and for the money, it definitely deserves the "best buy" that it rated in a recent pcworld review.
The remote is nicer than I expected, it has small buttons but is backlit and has a very nice feel to it. My only nitpick is the stand is a little flimsy, and I would prefer a black back to the white, but all in all it looks real good and the little logo on the front looks so nice, you would never guess this is a "budget" TV. I'm happy. Go get one.
- 1 reply to this review
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There's really not much I can add to frjamesglass' comments. After much research, I bought this TV yesterday. I am not disappointed. It was easy to set up and looks great in my bedroom, both turned on and turned off. The connectivity to this set is pretty unbelievable, considering its price. I connected a PC to it, and that looks great too, probably even better than the one connected via HDMI to my 55" Sony CRT in the living room.
I can't really say that I agree with the few semi-critical comments. I think the stand is fine, although I plan to hang mine on the wall. I really can't see the sides or back of the set, even with it sitting on the stand, so I don't care what color they are. My main gripe with this set is that the connections are kind of difficult to see, although their orientation will no doubt come in handy when I get it hung on the wall.
Bottom line - I agree wholeheartedly. Go get yourself one of these. Or even better, if your budget allows, spring for the 42" model. It has the same great feature set, I believe.
