Tuesday, 2 December 2008
Internet Tv - netflix, 1080p
I bought this TV specifically for the Netflix app which allowed me to stream live movies onto the tv instead of watching them on my pc. This product is comparable with other brands I had researched in the $850-$1000 price range. The picture quality is GREAT! It was very easy to set up and connect with my wireless router. And in no time I was watching movies and building my watch instantly queue with Netflix. Some of the other reviews mentioned a high pitched whine when the unit is turned off. This must have been addressed by Vizio because I can put my ear to the thing and no noise is there. I love the Yahoo Widget apps and the TV guide app is very handy. Also, with the Pandora Internet Radio app who needs XM/Sirrius especially when played through a surround sound or stereo system. By the way, the remote is as advanced as the unit itself. I have my tv hooked into my Pioneer stereo reciever and was amazed while watching a music DVD that when I left my remote on top of the stereo cabinet and returned minutes later, it had "recognized" my reciever and after that when I raised or lowered the volume of the tv speakers, my stereo speakers raised and lowered accordingly. Can't wait to see what else it can do! VIZIO E322VL 32-Inch LCD HDTV with VIZIO Internet Application, Black
This is our first non-CRT television, so it's a big jump from our 20 inch portable.
It connected fine to the internet, and we were up and running with all the local channels pretty quickly.
The picture seemed a bit dark, but I think it was the broadcast. NetFlix videos were nearly flawless.
Our Wii console connected and worked fine. We don't have a DVD player hooked up to it, so I can't speak to the quality of DVD movies (it's in our lower basement level).
A couple of things:
1. Pandora app: only worked after I disabled the TV's DHCP setting.
2. The USB Port is useless - won't show photos. VIZIO Tech Support (very nice, by the way) indicated that the USB port is not activated for this model, but a firmware update will be "coming soon." I don't believe them. I think there is something wrong with this set. I'll try to post an update when I hear something.
Overall - I can't say too much about the TV until we've lived with it for a while.
Update: After a few days, we noticed that, when turned OFF, the television emitted a high-pitched noise. The noice stopped when the TV was powered back on.
After speaking with Vizio tech support (and going through futile "power cycles," Vizio scheduled a warranty service call. It is scheduled for September 30 - I'll update this post with the verdict.
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Update:
The service company just left.
They replaced the power board, but the sound is still there (they claim they can't hear it after installing - which is BS).
I am going to give VIZIO one more chance to fix the problem, and then the unit's going back to Amazon and I'm getting another brand.
This is really too bad, since the TV works great otherwise - Internet apps work great, picture is great.
I don't want to say not to buy this TV - just be aware that this has happened to the unit I purchased.
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Update:
Unfortunately we ended up returning this television to Amazon. We purchased an identical unit from Wal-Mart, and it made the same sound. Based on the fact that two TVs and a replaced power board didn't solve the problem, I concluded that this model from Visio will always make the sound and returned it.
We purchased a non-internet TV (Sony) and a Roku box. This combination works fine. The Sony isn't nearly as nice as the Vizio, and I need to grab a second remote, but this is an annoyance. We don't watch too much TV anyway, so it's not a big bother.
I would recommend Vizio only if you have a chance to return the set. I don't think all Vizio models will have this problem, but you can't be too carefull.
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Just got it and set it up and I am very impressed. The Image quality is really good. We have a 42-Inch 1080p 60 HZ Sharp in the living room and, while this tv is smaller, I think the image quality is superior. I was worried about it being a little small, but as a bedroom TV it works great. We had it set up on a stand for a short while and that was very easy to attach, but now have it mounted. We got this TV because it was the cheapest reasonably sized TV with Internet Apps. The ONLY wire coming out of our TV is the power cord. All we watch are things available through the VIA apps, most notably Netflix Streaming. It really simplifies our bedroom and prevents having the clutter of a blu-ray player, gaming system, etc which we have in our living room setup. I'm very excited for Hulu Plus to come to VIA apps, which is supposed to happen Fall 2010, so....any day now.
I absolutely LOVE this television!!! The picture is so great but what tops everything is the ability to connect to Netflix and other apps. We use the apps every single day. I've woken up at night to bad weather and am able to check the radar quickly with the weather app!! The sound is also great...I have another 32" HDTV and the sound is not nearly as good. Very impressed and would highly recommend this to anyone.
I used to sell HDTVs when they first hit the market, and as such I never imagined some day I would own a Vizio. I saw the market move from ED tube sets to DLPs to plasma to LCD and so on. Just like a mechanic, while I would spend all day learning and working with beautiful TV screens, up until this recent Black Friday I was strictly a tube TV standard definition kind of guy. Yes, this is my first HDTV.
I'll say right off the bat that the picture quality on this TV is fine. I've turned off all the noise reduction and all that stuff and it just as nice as all the other LCD TVs out there. Picture quality isn't the hard part anymore. The only thing manufacturers really have to worry about is ease of use. This is where Vizio is falling short.
The first thing that I have to mention is that the remote is just awful. It disregards over half the buttons I hit. Most menus don't scroll when you hold down the arrow buttons. The symmetrical shape ensures that I will always doubt whether I'm holding it the right direction in the dark. When you hit the menu button it lags for at least a second, sometimes turning the screen black until the visually unimpressive menu loads. I have no idea why a TV wouldn't be able to load its own menu in a split second, especially since there is NOTHING special about it.
The available settings change for each input. VGA has almost no picture settings (brightness, contrast), coax has a few more, and HDMI is just jam packed with them. Each input retains the settings that it had the last time you used it. The product sheet brags that you can label the inputs, but all that means is that it still says HDMI2 but alongside you can tag it with a preset name like "Game".
Audio settings I usually turn off just like picture, but SRS TruVolume is actually pretty killer. I'd never had a TV with this before. It's basically a fast release compressor that ducks down the volume when a loud sound happens. It really isn't that useful for commercials (AMC HD still has such a huge volume change between movies and commercials that TruVolume doesn't stand a chance), but it's nice for pretty much any action movie made in the past 20 years where the producer thinks the sound effects are more important than the whispered dialogue (looking at you Michael Mann!).
On to the internet apps. This was where I wasn't sure if I was making the right decision. On one hand I would prefer a simple TV with less things to break or go obsolete, but the idea of being able to watch Netflix at night without my Xbox or computer (which isn't really an option since most HD material on Netflix is "HD on your TV", not on the Silverlight player) running made me giddy. I'll get to Netflix later, but not much later since the apps (sorry, widgets) that are available are pretty much worthless. I couldn't log in to my Yahoo account because my Yahoo username was apparently too long, so I'm not sure what kind of functionality that adds. I was pretty bummed that I couldn't find a way to remove all the worthless widgets it came pre-installed with, but it seems to enjoy completely erasing them all every few weeks so that solved that problem.
So that leads me to Netflix. Oh, how glorious this could be. The interface has updated twice since I bought the unit. You don't even need to load the whole app if you just want to resume the last thing you were watching. It has all the features of the Xbox app, including search and your most recently enjoyed genres (alongside standard fare like recommendations and Instant Queue). The problem - and by problem I mean crippling flaw - is that it plays all HD content out of sync. The audio is about 500ms behind the picture. The audio menu has a "Lip sync" feature, but all it does is put the audio MORE out of sync. I can't imagine why they would only make it go one direction. I was so excited to see voice sync since that stuff drives me crazy, but it hasn't once been effective. I had high hopes each time the Netflix app updated, but the issue remains. Maybe some future update will fix it. As of February 2011 this is not the case.
Oh, and maybe the biggest flaw: the backlight hums unless it's on 100%. If yours is humming it's probably because the backlight is on 85 (default), or the Ambient Light Sensor or Backlight Control is enabled under advanced picture. - 1080p - Netflix - 32 Inch Lcd - 120hz'
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