 Excellent set for the money! |
| Review Date: November 1, 2007 |
| Reviewer: Tom Niderost, Jacksonville, FL USA |
This is my first HD television. I know, it's about time! Well, I didn't want to spend $5,000 for a TV set. A friend told us about this set at Sam's Club that was on sale for less than $900. We compared it to other brands and were amazed at the clarity and sharpness. Side by side with other sets, LCD and plasma, the picture on this Vizio set was in the top of the pack.
When we got it home, we couldn't wait to see it in action in our living room. After unpacking our new HD DVD player and a new HD DVD disc, we were finally able to see it under actual home viewing conditions. The first thing that we noticed was that the new TV, out of the box, needed color, contrast, brightness, and tint adjustments. So, for about 30 minutes we tweaked, adjusted, and scrutinized the adjustments until they were almost perfect.
Although my wife and I are in our early 50s and our eyesight isn't as great as it once was, I found the optimum viewing distance to be closer than I had thought; about 12 feet works better than 16 feet. This makes the set ideal for most bedrooms and living rooms.
One of the more impressive technical features is the myriad of input connections that are available on the set, including two HDMI inputs. You can even use it as a computer monitor!
I am sure that there are bigger and better sets out there, but for the price it is a fantastic value ($897). We saved enough to buy the HD DVD player, some HD Video discs, and upgrade our DirecTv system to HD. |
great deal
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| Review Date: January 15, 2008 |
| Reviewer: craigc013, |
this is our first tv upgrade since our 34'' tube tv. the vizio is awesome quality for the money spent. it's got all the connections and plug-ins needed for every sort of accessory. i use an antenna to pick up HD channels and it is a great picture.
the settings and menus are easy to navigate and great for minor adjustments for different uses (i.e. games, movies, sports).
it's relatively lightweight (~50 pounds).
the remote is easy to use and has all the options on there that make switching from TV to compenent to AV easy as well as changing settings.
if you've got an extra $500, the samsung and sony 42" LCDs looked more vibrant in color in comparison to the vizio, but the Vizio is a much better buy for the money. |
Great Value LCD HDTV (and lots of equipment connections).
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| Review Date: January 13, 2008 |
| Reviewer: Nuknuk, Springfield, VA United States |
Update: (04-22-2009) Still using this as our main TV for watching OTA HD signals and playing Wii games. Averaging 2 hours of use everday. 2 years and counting.
When my 52" Projection TV that costs 1400$ broke only after 3 years of use. Repair cost is almost the cost of this LCD TV. My Panasonic is as big as an upright piano and this one fits on top of a medium size table. I am sure the Sony's, the LGs, the Samsung are technically superior. But unless you are very discriminating, the difference for me is not enough to spend the extra hundreds of dollars.
Pros:
-Price. (It was available for 875$ from Sams Club at the time I bought it last year).
-2 HDMIs, 2 Components, 2 VGA, S-Video, etc. With HDMI, you have audio and video in a single cable.
-Works with my Fios TV HDMI, Macmini HDMI, Upconverting Phillips HDMI DVD player, Wii, etc.
-Viewable even at sharp angles
-No burn-in as opposed to Plasma
-Lighter than Plasma displays
-1080i
-Excellent computer monitor if you want it big. I use it to watch videocast from Itunes with a wireless Logitech V200 Cordless Mouse.
Cons:
-It does not look like something you would like to show off. Not very elegant, but looks alright
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Excellent Value
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| Review Date: March 25, 2008 |
| Reviewer: Scott R. Tucker, |
Let me first start by saying that yes, Vizio is a value brand. However, after having seen 1080p Samsung units that are twice the price, I can definitively say that the Vizio is able to hang with the big boys.
Straight out of the box, there were some calibration issues, and each input retains its own settings; you'll have to go through the process for each device you have hooked up. After bumping down the brightness and backlighting, image quality is phenomenal. HDTV is crisp, smooth, and rarely jagged. SDTV scales nicely with an OTA antenna, and is much less pixelated than I had assumed it would be. The remote layout does leave something to be desired, but it has all of the important functionality on it (sans backlighting). PIP settings are very useful, although you cannot use PIP on certain combinations of inputs (i.e. component and RGB at the same time). This is not a huge problem, however, since you more than likely will want to flip between the tuner and another input.
I can't comment on how the XBOX 360 or PS3 look on it, but I can tell you that the Wii performs extremely well with component cables. I even have cables with extra thick jack sleeves, and they fit without any issue.
Sound is just as mediocre as any other flat panel tv in this price range; that's why I hooked it up to the surround sound as quickly as possible.
For those worried about the illuminated Vizio logo, it quickly dims after power up; I've not been distracted by it once, plus it looks pretty classy.
Long story short, at under $900, you will not be able to beat this deal in terms of overall quality and value.
Pros:
Great image quality
No ghosting
Works excellently as a computer monitor
Wii looks fantastic!
Good PIP functionality
Value, value, value
Cons:
Slight light bleeding from upper right hand corner (probably just my set)
So-so speakers
Remote layout |
Amazing TV
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| Review Date: January 27, 2008 |
| Reviewer: Adam Dodson, |
| This is our first HDTV. I was nervous that only getting a 720p set would not be good enough, but I was pleasantly surprised. It has plenty of connections for our TiVo, Apple TV, PS2 and DVD and we have a few left over! It is definitely worth every penny (even though Sam's Club had it for $897). |
dead after 1 year
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| Review Date: October 14, 2008 |
| Reviewer: Kevin R. Hash, Trapped in my head |
After we bought our house, my wife went shopping for a TV to surprise me while I was at work.
She bought the Vizio vx42l. I was very excited. It was by far the best TV I'd ever had. I was impressed, and for a year and 3 months I enjoyed my HDTV very much.
Today was my day off. I was puttering around the house, kinda listening to the news, when everything went quiet. I figured there had been a power surge or something, maybe the dog managed to unplug something.
When I looked at my TV I noticed the familiar orange indicator light behind the Vizio logo wasn't lit.
This could be a long story, but I'll shorten it.
After 1 year and 3 months my $1000 TV went poof and turned into an expensive paperweight because "The power board went out", according to some 16 year old working the Vizio tech-support customer care phone. THEY WERE NOT HELPFUL AT ALL. He informed me that the warranty (1 year!) was up and I'd have to get it fixed at my own cost. He gave me a number for Repair Solutions. He had no answers for why the power board might have "gone out", didn't even care to hazard a guess.
Bottom line, we spent our hard-earned cash (and believe me we aint rich) on a product that stopped working cold with no abuse 3 months after the warranty ended, and the customer service is non-existant.
I did some research, and the old adage still holds true... you get what you pay for (In fact, on every review site except this one, Vizio comes in dead last).
So tomorrow, rather than footing the bill to have this thing repaired, I'm going to Best Buy and I'm going to spend my hard earned cash on a Sony Bravia. It may be more expensive, but I'm sure it will last more than a year.
Everything I have written here is the truth. |
WORKED FINE FOR 15 MONTHS
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| Review Date: April 19, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Ronald F. Dodson, Lakewood, OH |
On March 14th 2009 My 42" Vizio died suddenly 15 months after purchasing this it. No sound and no picture. The backlight still worked. I had the foresight to purchase the extended warranty. What joke that's turned out to be.
Vizio farms out it's extended warranty to a company who farms it out to another company. TheY shipped me a power board and a motherboard. This took a month. Then finally found a local tech (who doesn't work for any of the aforementioned entities) willing to come and install them. Three techs refused to take the call. The "new" (it was a refurbished part) motherboard had no video, but great sound. It's been a week and the third or fourth party vendor (Captovis) still hasn't shipped me another part. I have a 42" nightlight with a great built-in radio.
I'm starting to believe that they have no intention of honoring their contract with Vizio or National Warranty to resolve this problem. Too bad because my warranty lasts through 2011 and I'll get immense satisfaction in making someone's life as miserable as they made mine.
Avoid this company at all costs because after a year you're on your own. CHINESE MADE JUNK.
I was a field service engineer and repaired computer equipment for over 20 years and I can't believe a company would have the nerve to call this "customer service". |
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