NOT SURE???, July 24, 2007

I just bought this item yesterday…I am about to return it today. Basically, the main purpose I had in mind for this TV was simply to watch SD content (older movies, TV, games, etc.) – what else!? that’s basically all this thing is capable of according to the specs. So far so good. After much ‘research’ and thinking and consulting, I decided to go with this TV, but also because of what it seemed to be capable of when I saw it on display at Target.

Well, I probably should have known better, but I was about to get what was coming to me from this LCD – VERY poor SD quality! In short, if you’re looking for a nice LCD TV to watch your good ole’ standard movies and games on, this is NOT the TV for you! The ‘confusing’ part of this whole thing is, what in the WORLD is the point of this TV!?!?!? It’s pretty much common knowledge that SD content looks considerably better on tube TVs and pretty crummy on LCDs and other of the newer technologies. So, that in mind, this TV, having only the capability to display SD content (given its resolution of 640×480), is basically worthless (unless you like a super-soft, undefined image) in all areas except for, perhaps, component-video-related material (more or less DVDs). I guess if that’s all you’re looking for, is to watch DVDs and you have component outputs on your player, this TV may not be so bad (the picture is quite sharp from what I saw), but you’re not getting high definition from it and therefore, it is essentially geared toward (or should be geared toward) standard TV watching.

However, I don’t necessarily ‘blame’ the TV itself. As far as it’s capabilities, I suppose I wasn’t completely dissatisfied with its performance – even though I got turned off immediately after seeing it display SD content like an old Atari game. The colors and image itself is not ‘bad’ in any real sense. However, a big criticism I have of this set is its LACK of features. VERY VERY plain set over all (including the remote). There’s really only so much you can do with this TV – and that includes watching DVDs, VHS (and whatever else you can hook up with component or audio connections) tv-watching to some extent (cable, and OTA broadcasting – and oh, don’t forget it does NOT have a digital ATSC tuner for digital television – another prohibiting factor) and using it as a computer monitor…but who would do ANY of that, considering you’re essentially using the WRONG technology for the stuff you wanna watch? Ok, I did it. But I learned a valuable lesson about the new technologies that are out there, and I hope to save others the trouble of learning this lesson the hard way. What I’ve learned is the following (and this addresses a major issue concerning modern TVs): you wanna watch SD, stick with the (better quality) tubes; you want HD – go with the new. It’s that simple.

Well, sorry for the lecture, but I had to give the whole story on this. To summarize, be careful WHAT you use this TV for! I am “not sure” and rather disappointed about this TV for actually mainly one reason…the PRICE!!! For this price, the TV should do A LOT more than what it is capable of! Bottom line. If it were about 0 less, I might consider it for its very minimal benefits.

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Great SD TV if the price is right, August 7, 2007

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D. Wade “Proud Daddy” (Southern US) – See all my reviews

  

We needed an unobtrusive TV in the kitchen. We picked this on up at K-Mart for 9 on clearance. The picture is adequate, but that is all we needed in the kitchen.

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Not wall-mountable, January 6, 2008

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R. Gage – See all my reviews

  

I bought this TV for about 0 for my shop. I had hoped to mount it to the wall so it could pan and swivel, no such luck. After trying two different wall mounts neither one would hold the TV up. There was too much force pulling the top of the TV toward the floor.

If you look at the picture you can see the base that holds the TV up, this can rotate back for wall mounting, doing this changes the center of gravity creating a lot of force on the base of the TV. I came out the next morning to find the base of the TV had broken because of this oversight in engineering. Maybe this TV was never meant to be wall-mounted.

I have had no luck with Magnavox in getting a replacement part, so I currently have a TV with no base to stand on.

I have not tried this TV with my PS3 yet, but the S-video signal from my satellite receiver is average at best.

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