Decent picture but very flawed overall, February 1, 2011

An LED/LCD HDTV for under 0 was unthinkable a year ago. Vizio gets points for marketing new technology at low prices. But all is certainly not well. First, the good: the picture is so crisp that my years of skepticism about and resistance to blurry LCD (and now LED) TVs was removed–really fine detail, clarity, brightness, and an amazing 20,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio, without harshness or reflectivity.

But there are big problems. First of all, the firmware version may need updating: if the “last channel” button on the remote works randomly, and an image-size setting called “normal” is a tiny picture at the center of the screen, click “Help” on the remote and check the firmware version under “System Info.” If it’s anything under Vers. 1.49, go to vizio.com and download and install the M190MV update according to the on-line instructions.

Another glitch: TV program information is incomplete. Each click of “Info” on the remote reveals more about the program. However, the playing times and lengths are random from channel to channel. The TV’s internal clock has no effect. Cable or OTA broadcasters include this most basic piece of information in their signals but this TV can’t read it. Vizio Customer Service was completely ignorant and unhelpful (I tried two identical TVs). Also, channels change very slowly, and the remote is narrowly directional, as well as floppy and wafer-thin with flush, hard-to-press, usually inaccurate or nonfunctional buttons

Then there is the sound. A wafer-thin TV can’t be expected to have decent sound with no resonating cavity; the sound is reminiscent of a transistor radio, ca. 1965. No setting makes any difference in quality. The TV also has no external-speaker outputs, and there isn’t enough power coming out of the headphone jack (inconveniently located at the bottom left back) to drive *powered* computer speakers. Even hooking up the analog L/R outputs of a DVD player to powered speakers and the TV with a splitter is useless because it results in a slight delay/echo (speakers get the sound first for some reason); this is absolutely unheard of and unacceptable! The ONLY way to get listenable sound is to connect the optical digital output to a separate amp or sound bar (one hopes); heavy-handed marketing persuasion almost doubling the cost of the TV!

None of the picture presets yield realistic colors: “vivid” comes closest. There is a “Custom” setting which can drive you to distraction. It contains an adjustment for “Color Temperature”–re-apportioning the Red, Green, and Blue gain; when one has gone as far as possible, b&w is still untrue and has a reddish/brownish tint (even disconnecting the color components of the three-cable component DVD connection, leaving only the basic b&w signal!). If you watch a lot of b&w DVDs, this is not the HDTV for you.

Typical of LCD/LED but still annoying, only straight-on viewing is possible, especially up and down. Moving your head seriously alters the brightness and even visibility, unlike plasma and old CRT TVs. LCD designers should have solved this by now but evidently have no monetary incentive for doing so.

This HDTV is inexpensive but is just too sloppily designed even as a starter unit. Try another brand–though the angle viewing on LCD/LED will still be an issue. And if you need anything smaller than a gigantic 42″ screen, plasma is not an option so you’re stuck with the LCD/LED angle-viewing problem or your old SD CRT. Modern technology, huh?!

Help other customers find the most helpful reviews 

Was this review helpful to you? 

>Report abuse
| Permalink

 Comment

Great little home office TV!, December 11, 2010

By 

E. Raasch “DevLopper” (Twin Cities) – See all my reviews

  

Great value for the money. Would have been 5 stars if not for the “tinny” sounding speakers. Bought some Logitech speakers that would fix that.

Help other customers find the most helpful reviews 

Was this review helpful to you? 

>Report abuse
| Permalink

 Comment

Not well thought out…, January 21, 2011

By 

J. Bailey “Jay” – See all my reviews

  

I was buying a small LCD for mounting to the wall in my workout room – something to watch while on the treadmill or the elliptical. However, this television has several issues that made me decide to return it and get a 22″ Panasonic LCD, which is much better, larger, better picture and for less money.

First, you can’t really wall mount this TV, at least not easily. The VESA bolt pattern is 100mm x 100mm, which is standard, but the bottom bolt holes are only about 1/4 inch from the TV inputs (cable, HDMI, etc). So any wall mount bracket you get will actually cover up the inputs (I know, because I tried several). Other flat panels leave some space between the bottom of bolt holes and the inputs so that this doesn’t happen. I guess Vizio never tried to wall mount this TV when they were designing it.

Second, I went to the trouble of running an electrical outlet and cable outlet in the wall and placed the outlets right behind the wall mount bracket so that everything would be neat and hidden. Except Vizio designed their power supply with this HUGE (I’m not kidding) wall wart of a power adapter. This thing must be 4″ x 4″ x 1″ thick, and it plugs in from the EDGE (doesn’t lie flat on the wall), so it actually sticks out 4″ when it’s plugged in. So there’s no way it will fit behind the TV mounted to the wall. Totally stupid.

Lastly, the stretch modes on this TV are useless. One mode puts a tiny picture in the middle of the screen (no idea what that’s for) and then they have this “panoramic” mode which is totally unwatchable.

My advice, buy almost anything else (I bought the Panasonic 22″ LCD here for less money and it has none of these issues.)

I did give this two stars because (1) The HDTV picture is decent, and (2) the sound is good for a small TV.

Help other customers find the most helpful reviews 

Was this review helpful to you? 

>Report abuse
| Permalink

 Comment (1)