Everythings awesome... except input lag., October 14, 2010

I primarily bought this TV because I was using my Samsung XL2370 23" monitor for playing my Xbox 360 and it was difficult having to sit so close to the screen (Console games are designed to be played on a largish screen from a further distance, as opposed to PC games which are designed to be played on a smallish screen from a close distance). I bought this TV for my Xbox 360 and also to watch 1080P movies because the HDMI port on the Samsung isn't very good, it's not native support so it's blurry.

Anyways, the picture quality on this TV is excellent. The smart dimming may not be quite as expensive as a TV with a full-array LED backlights, but it works wells enough that really dark scenes look a little bit better, you can usually notice when only one area of the screen has dimmed or is dimming, it just doesn't follow the movement of light colored objects as well as a full-array equipped TV. The contrast and shadow quality is great, and the colors are well saturated. I haven't seen the non-LED version of this TV but it seems that this one does have better contrast because it's the best I've seen on a TV under 40".

The sound is pretty good, it's better than a lot of flat-screen TV's, especially because flat screens prevent the speakers being able to have deep mounts. It's why LCD's always have tinny sound, but the bass is fairly good on this TV. 10 watts each is actually better than average for built in speakers.

Standard definition TV looks pretty darn good if you put a lot of the post-processing on such as noise reduction. Everyone knows SD looks worse on an HDTV than a SDTV, but the plethora of post-processing options help a lot to make up for that as much as purists may not like those. There is a lip-sync option in the audio or video menu that can help make up for the input lag that is added for using these processes.

Movies are awesome. It's pretty cool that this TV has a Toslink/Optical output built in so that if you have a speaker system with an integrated amp such as Logitech 5.1 speakers for computers, you can just plug it right in and get 5.1 from your HDMI. Note that this TV does NOT have a miniplug (3.5mm headphone jack) output so it will not work out-of-the-box with stereo or 2.1 computer speakers or non-Bluetooth headphones. The movie setting in the video menu worked well for Iron Man 2 and the 120Hz and smooth motion stuff makes action scenes a lot less nauseating.

Now the main con I have (which I will update if I remedy it with instructions). Vizio TV's are apparently known for their input lag, which is due in part to their circuitry design, partially to their over-use of post-processing (color enhancement, noise reduction, smooth-motion, smart dimming etc.) and the last one is actually a blessing and a curse: they use IPS-Pro or S-IPS panels (I forget which), which have superior off angle viewing angles and color accuracy, but have far inferior response time (input lag) except in the most advanced and expensive displays. Despite going to a larger screen with way better contrast and twice the refresh rate, my Halo: Reach scores are WAY down because of the input lag. I've tried turning off ALL post-processing and trying with the "Game Mode" (not picture setting, there is something called "Game Mode" in the general options that isn't defined. Usually this turns post-processing off or goes into overdrive mode to improve response time) and turning them on, separately, I haven't been able to get the input lag to improve enough (there is a small difference so I'm on the right track). I tried using VGA with a crappy VGA adapter and it was better, so this is likely due to un-disable-able post processing (VGA is raw there are limited video options when using VGA) that occurs when using HDMI. I also tried setting my Xbox to 720P and I don't think that made any difference (probably because of added upscaling). I'm going to try buying a wired controller (supposedly removes up to 1.78ms of input lag) and using Component to see if it's better. A lot of time analogue inputs are faster for various reasons).

The Vizio Internet Apps are pretty awesome, albeit slow. Because it uses Yahoo! widgets, you can count on their being more options to surplus the already existing options (Great! There is even an app for seeing what my Xbox Live friends are playing! Most awesome show-off app ever, + Yahoo! Finance, weather, Wikipedia!! Vimeo, Vudu, Amazon Video On-Demand, Web Videos...) regardless of whether Vizio is committed to continual support, which is a nice comfort. The only thing that could make this more cool is if you could play Pandora in the background while playing Xbox.

Other cool things, picture in picture controls are intuitive. This seems to be a kind of neglected option in TV's these days so it's nice and nostalgic. The resolution of the screen is nice enough that using the side by side option you can watch both, or switch to cable with Xbox in the corner looking for multiplayer matches (best use in my opinion). Digital and analogue closed captioning (whatever that means). The menus have a nice elegant slate blue and grey scheme with shadows and anti-aliased text that follows the widget layout, and is consistent in little things like volume adjustment. First-time-start setup is cool you can create an account on the TV and choose a picture avatar, you can set parental controls on a profile you make for your kids, set your zipcode so the weather and other appropriate apps can give appropriate information, the remote is bluetooth so you can point it anywhere, the QWERTY keyboard makes text entry so much better, you can turn your Xbox off with the remote! I'm trying to think of little cool things that other reviewers haven't mentioned... Easy switching of picture zoom modes for TV, there is a somewhat useless but cool power button on the side that rotates to change channels, but trust me, do NOT lose the remote. Once you go QWERTY it's hard to go back!

One other thing to note, which may be a big thing to you, this TV is a little quirky. My remote and physical controls on the TV were non-functional randomly while watching TV. The manual suggests a hard shutdown by unplugging it: this seems dangerous and sort of barbaric for such a big ticket item. There is a rather large troubleshooting section: I think Vizio is admittant there that you really are getting what you pay for, this TV saves money on getting the most reliable or consistent components.

I'll edit this post with my Xbox antics. Please leave comments if you have any questions or a solution to my problem.

PS: I would assume everything in this review applies to the 32" (XVT323SV) version as well.

EDIT: 10/16/10

So I believe there is a "break in" period in which the response time has gotten better. I've been using the same HDMI port (side) since I got the TV because I can't find the HDMI cable for my laptop so I've been taking it out of the Xbox and putting it into my laptop and vice versa. Either I'm getting used to it (doubt it, it was really bad) or the response time is getting better. LCD's aren't really supposed to have a break in period, but maybe Vizio does less hours worth of testing so whereas a Sony or Samsung would be broken in by the time it leaves testing, a Vizio is still "cold" per se. I am now able to play Halo: Reach just fine. I'm pretty sure the menus are a little more responsive too. I'm pretty sure it's not just me getting used to it because I'm able to track enemies a lot better in close quarters and the sound seems more synced up well. Because of this, I can recommend this TV for gaming in all but fighting games like Street Fighter because I know you guys need the best-of-the-best response time. I played Iron Man 2 in 1080p on loop overnight and it seems to have improved the response of the screen and/or broken that specific HDMI port in.

Because of this I am changing it to a five-star review. It really is the best value and the best 37" TV as far as I know.

1,000,000 to 1 Contrast Ratio Gives Great Picture Quality, October 3, 2010

 

By WJK "Consumer Advocate" (SC)

When I read some of the other reviews here and elsewhere, I see that their expectations for this TV were a little unrealistic when it comes to using it as a computer screen. Before I bought it through Sam's for $698 (deal is off now, but probably will be back for Christmas), I researched it completely. The Internet Apps right now are OK, but more will come that will be exciting in the future through automatically downloaded firmware updates. I was told by Vizio that eventually, it probably will have the capability to Wi-Fi what is on your computer screen to this TV. But, as for now, I'm very happy with the picture quality and size of this TV, as I watch it from a 10 to 15 foot distance away. Like someone else said, it is not too big, and not too small. When I watch HD Theatre channel's travel/nature shows, the picture quality is close to a Blue Ray's quality, IMO.

Oh, the lower amount of heat that comes off, and the less electricity use than my 2 1/2 year old Sony Bravia S-Series KDL-32S3000 32-Inch 720p LCD HDTV that went bad, are great buyer benefits! Sony wanted me to take that tv to an authorized Sony repair shop and pay $50 to find out why the picture went out with no guarantees that they would pay for parts and/or labor to fix it. I thought it was throwing good money after the bad $900 that I had paid for the TV. So, on my new 37 inch Vizio, I bought Sam's 3 extra year extended warranty for $79.96 after reading the "fine print". No extended warranty is perfect, but Sam's was the least offensive, IMO.