-Hi there, I'm David Katzmaier from CNET.
I'm sitting next to Vizio 65-inch XVT3D650SV.
This monster is the first 3D TV to ship in United States that feature passive 3D TV technology.
We'll get to that in a little bit, but first I wanna note that this is the only model of its kind right now, Vizio only makes this in 65 inch size.
A little bit later in the years, there's gonna be a lot of other smaller
Vizios that use passive 3D, but for now, this guys is it.
So, as I mentioned it has passive 3D, it actually comes with 4 pairs of these passive 3D glasses.
Between passive and active 3D is that the glasses are a lot cheaper and they don't have any sort of electronics inside them, so these passive glasses look a lot just like standard sunglasses and of course they fit over a standard pair of glasses, so, at the same kind you can find in the most theaters that use 3D TV technology in the US.
The active glasses on the other hand are a lot more expensive and you got to buy of course a pair
for each family members you can add up.
The design of the Vizio is relatively generic.
It's got this glossy black around the edge.
If you look at it from the side, you can tell its an LED based LCD TV, its only about 2.2 inches thin, which makes it pretty light, a good thing on a TV this big.
Vizio's apps platform on this TV offers Netflix, Amazon Video on Demand, and Vudu, the later actually has 3D TV streaming.
So you can actually rent some 3D videos; of course the selection right now is pretty slim.
It has also a good selection of audio streaming apps including Rhapsody,
Radiotime, and Pandora.
So, all total the streaming apps selection on this TV is very good.
There is also a few nice streaming apps including Facebook and a new app from Fandango that allows you to go on and choose movie screening times in your areas, so, we kinda like that a little addition.
One of the nice things about Vizio's apps platform is it is well integrated it even includes TV settings apps all the options for adjusting the set.
Not as many options is found on many other high-end TVs and the 3D options are particularly slim, but at least its all nicely integrated to the main menu.
A round back
because of the slim TV, the input bay looks kinda squashed, it does have 5 HDMI; however, in Vizio PC input and a component video input.
The analog selection is pretty sparse, but at least there are plenty of digital inputs.
Another standout feature on the Vizio is its well-equipped remote control.
You can slide it open to reveal a full qwerty keyboard that allows you to interact with apps like Facebook and Twitter a lot easier than using a virtual keyboard on your TV screen.
Remote is a little bit chunky, however and a little bit less responsive than most smartphone keyboard, so keep that in mind.
We also like that the [unk] has
bluetooth capabilities so you can operate it without having line of site for the television.
Picture quality in this Vizio is actually little bit disappointing in 2D mode.
We have noticed that relatively light black level picture uniformity wasn't that great.
We blame that on the edge LED back lighting.
TV also has an artifact that looks a little bit like smearing when there is fast motion for example in faces they tend to blur a little bit more than a lot of the other LCD TVs we've seen and that's actually a little surprising given its 120 Hz model.
This big TV also has a relatively glossy screen, so, it does catch a lot of ambient light
in bright rooms.
On the flip side, we did appreciate the Vizio had accurate color, but that really doesn't offset all the other picture quality issues we saw on 2D.
One of the downside of the Vizio 3D performance is that it has half the resolution of active 3D.
That means that when you're looking at 3D on the set, it does appear a little bit softer than we're used to on active 3D models.
There are also a few more artifacts; for example, there is some jagged edges on diagonal lines that showed up on the passive TV and not on the active models.
On the flip side, the Vizio was a little bit brighter over all than the
active TVs.
Of course if you have a relatively controlled viewing environment that's not a big deal, but if you're viewing in a bright room, the active brighter 3D image might be a nice thing.
In terms of comfort, we did appreciate the Vizio's lighter glasses, but we didn't really see any difference in terms of headaches or that sort of thing induced by the active TV versus the passive.
In general, we feel like headaches and those sorts of viewer comfort issues are more results of the content, not the implementation of 3D, but we'll keep looking and of course passive does offer a nice alternative to active if you are
really not a fan of those expensive glasses and still want 3D.
That's the quick look at the Vizio XVT3D650SV and I'm David Katzmaier.
