38 out of 39 people found this review helpful.
Come Out Of the Stone Age and Open Your Eyes, For a Big Surprise!
Date of Review: Aug 20, 2008
The Bottom Line: I can only highly recommend this if you were to find it on sale and get lucky. For the price that I did.
Well folks, it's time to come out of the closet. It's time to come out of the Stone Age and into the high-tech world of digital television sets. If you are like me, you probably have those old TV sets placed strategically throughout your house in every bedroom, living room, basement, shop, and anywhere else that you might have accumulated a television set. We have several different types of TV sets in our home. We have a 13 inch Emerson, 19 inch Sanyo, 20 inch Crossley, 21 inch Magnavox, 35 inch Magnavox, and a 65 inch Mitsubishi HDTV projection screen. We thought that it was time to purchase some newer TVs because of the February deadline. So, while we were walking through Wal-Mart we saw this 37 inch Visio LCD television set on sale because it was a floor model. It was 50% off plus since my daughter worked there and we got an additional 10% off, and that brought the total down to $300. The original price for this television set was between $700-$800. Once we saw this particular TV on sale at that price we could not turn it down. At the time that we saw it in the store, it had a beautiful picture and the sound was excellent. But, usually when you get it home it changes, that was not the case with this set.
Description
It is amazing what the difference between a LCD TV and a regular TV is. First off, there is a substantial weight difference, this 37 inch LCD from Visio is approximately 40 pounds. Along with the size difference my Magnavox TV weighs approximately 105 pounds and needs quite a bit of space and something large enough to hold the weight. But, with this 37 inch LCD TV from Visio, with this only weighing approximately 40 pounds the overall dimensions of this is approximately 36 inches in width by 25 inches in height and only 4 ? inches in depth you will not need much to put this on. You can also install a wall mounting bracket to the holes that are already preset in this new TV set. This particular set it has a flat black color to it and the front has a very shiny glossy picture front. I do not have any idea where this name Visio came from but, I have found out that this is the main brand-name that Wal-Mart sells you can also find this at Costco.
Features
The main resolution that this TV has is 1366 x 768 and in case you want to hook up a personal computer, the resolutions that this has is; 1366 x 768, 1024 x 768, 800 x 600. One of the other nice features about this new set is the fact that it has a side access gaming ports instead of the ones that are on the front or on the back. This new TV offers 6.7 million different colors to get the best pitcher and best clarity provided. When this set was on the shelf in the store, it was sitting next to all of the other sets; I noticed that it had a slight sharper picture than the rest. Once we got this home and plugged it in we did notice that it had a spectacular view of the picture, it was just as sharp looking at a little bit of an angle as it was if you were sitting right in front of the set. When we went to hook up or VCR and DVD player to this new set, we found out that it was better to use Visio certified cables than the existing ones that we were using around the house.
Experience
When you get your new set home you should check out the contents of the box. What you should have had inside of this box is of course the main thing the TV set and a remote control, a screen cleaning cloth, a power cord, the usual user manual and a quick setup guide, registration card, VIP brochure, two AA batteries for the remote control and warranty and repair information card. The one thing that you have to be very careful about when unpacking this is not to scratch the front screen. We did find out that you cannot just plug this in an expect it to work, you will have to connect all of the cables plus familiarize yourself with this TV. Instead of having all of the option buttons located on the front of your new set which is what you are probably used to, you will find these on the right-hand side of your new set. There will be seven buttons that will give you the option of operating the power, menu, and channel up and down, volume up and down, input or enter, plus just behind these buttons you will find your AV jacks and a spot for a USB cord. Unlike the old TV sets that you have lying around the house, if you ever have to have this worked on it is almost like taking your car in to the dealership all they have to do is plug a machine into the side where it says service in the back and it can do a diagnostic check on your TV. There are nine other plug-ins spots that are located in the lower back of your new set and they are HDMI 1 and 2 (High-Definition Multimedia Interface) the number one spot is for the primary cable box and the number two spot would be for a secondary one. All of these spots are color-coded basically and the next spot is the number four spot, and it is blue in color and labeled RGB PC. This is so you will be able to plug your personal computer into this. The next spot is green and it is for component number one this is for your DVD player or cable box. There is a yellow section that is located right underneath of the green section and this is the primary source for your audiovisual components such as a VCR or video game. The next section is white and you will be able to hook up to your set for your optical and digital audio out signals it will be able to distinguish from left and right this is your home entertainment system. The last section is black in color and you will be able to hook your cable or antenna and plug your power cord in this area.
On the right side of your TV you will notice some plug-ins, these spots are also color-coded, the first spot is black in color this is where you will be able to plug your headphones into. The next spot is orange in color and you will be able to plug your secondary VCR or video games into plus you will be able to distinguish from left and right speakers. The next spot is purple in color and is for the secondary component such as another DVD player or another top cable box. The last and final spot is for a third source HDMI three such as another DVD video multimedia player. Once you have connected all of your devices, such as DVD players, VCRs, you have a decision to make and that is whether or not to use your old cables or get some new ones. We decided to purchase some new ones because we were not sure about the kind of picture that one would get with the old cables. Once we hooked everything up we could not believe the difference in our old TV sets and the clarity of the picture that we got with this new set. In some of our older sets we could hear a humming noise every time we changed channels. But, that is not the case with this television set, the sound and clarity is excellent.
We purchased this set approximately 3 months ago, and we used to always watch our 35 inch Magnavox. But, now we are continuing to go into the living room and watch our new TV from Visio. We have found that the on screen displays have become invaluable to make ease of navigating through out the TV simply amazing. The TV does come all set up with the channels selecting themselves once you turn the TV set on through the use of the automatic channel search. The first thing that we saw when we turned the TV on was a black screen asking to allow the Visio setup Wizard to help tune your channels then it will ask you what language you prefer. The next step it will ask you your input source which is either antenna or cable, this is when you are finally able to do the initial scan which I highly recommend, it is a lot easier to just let the TV do its work and try to skip the scan. As you are waiting, it will tell you what channels that it is scanning and how many of them are digital when it is done you will see the word congratulation the initial setup is complete. Once this is all done this is where you can adjust everything to your likeness, we did not have to do anything to the brightness, contrast, color, tint, sharpness or anything at all. This television set was preset at the manufacturer. There is so much more that you get on this LCD TV that it puts all of my other TVs to shame. This also has a very nice audio mode that you will be able to adjust the sound by the use of an equalizer and you will also be able to adjust the balance from side to side on your speakers and if you have a surround sound. This is the first time I have ever seen the advanced technology called lip-synch, this is sometimes where you'll be watching a foreign movie and some times the people talking will run over the people talking, in your language they will be able to put the lip movement and the voice sound in sync with each other. This also has a sleep timer which comes in very handy if you have children that like to go to sleep with the TV on, but you do not want them to watch it all night. And let us not forget the parental control section I am not sure how long these will last because I have never been found them very useful on anything else, kids nowadays always find a way to get around these devices, with this section you can choose a password and what channels you do not want the children to see just by blocking them with this password.
Other Info
You will also receive a very useful remote control with this remote control you will be able to guide your way through all of the electronic programming guide that you will need to do you will have a power button and a way to access for different devices such as the TV, audio and video devices, and extra input components and HDMI. With all of this you will have a menu button for on screen displays and four different control arrows that you will be able to move left to right up and down, a mute button, a last button, which will let you see previously previewed channel, a control volume button for up-and-down, and a channel up and down button. You will also have a number pad, zero through nine and a input button which will allow you to cycle between one of your four devices and the TV, plus a dash button which you might have to use if you have different channels in your area such as 32 – 2. Just a couple of other notes about your new remote control and it is very important that you do not mix old batteries with new batteries or mix different kinds of batteries such as alkaline and regular batteries they can explode. This remote will operate and have an effective range of 30 feet directly in front, up to 20? up-and-down and 30? to the right or to the left.
There is some technical information that you might be interested in, and they are the display capability of HDTV at 720P, the signal capability is 480I SDTV, 480P EDTV, 720P HDTV, and 1080I HDTV. The response time is 6.5 MS and this has 16.7 million colors. The brightness is 450 CD/m2, contrast ratio is 5500:1 w/DCR, there is a 178? viewing angle horizontal and vertical. There are several inputs, and these include R. F., HDMI with HDCP three, analog stereo audio for HDMI inputs one, component YPBPR plus stereo audio 2, composite video 2, composite s-video plus stereo audio 1, computer RGB plus stereo audio one, and one service port.the outputs of this TV include analog audio out, one RCA jack, 15.1 SPDIF digital optical audio, and one stereo mini headphone jack. There is some final information that this TV has and this includes V-chip, 3-D comb filter, 3:1 or 2:2 reverse pull-down, ATSC with 8VSB and QAM demodulation, ATSC with MPEG-two decoding, NTSC video decoding via RF through the antenna, cable or satellite. The NTSC video decoding through video CVBS, and s-video or component, progress and scan video, HDTV through HDMI or component YPbPr, you can also go through a computer at 640 x 1480, 800x600, 1024 x 768, 1,360 x 768 through VGA/HDMI, you also have sound enhancement, you can control the temperature up your color that 6500Kwhich is standard, or you can control it by 5400 K. and 9300 K.there is three independent fine tuning colors which are red, green, and blue, you have built-in 10w x 2 audio, you have a 50,000 hour warranty on the LCD lamp, and PDP panel, an IEC connector for direct powerline to plug in to a regular household outlet and the power consumption is 200 W, which is an average.
Warranty and Maintenance
A lot of people will just spray the front of their TV with Windex to clean the screen without turning off. But, what I have found out through personal experience is, that it is very dangerous to spray the front of your television set with any kind of spray, I have shorted out a TV in my time but it only takes one time for you to realize not to do it again. If you do have to clean the outer casing or the screen use a diluted cleaner and wipe dry right afterward. Or if you wish to use Windex do not spray it directly on the screen, spray it on the right first, then wipe until it is dry.
This new Visio TV has a one year parts and labor warranty. You will also get a free lifetime technical support and free on-site repair on Visio televisions (that are above 30 inches). You will also get a zero bright pixel defects guarantee. Today we have had no problems or concerns about calling the one 800-number which is 1-877-698-4946 or you could e-mail techsupport@Visio.com.
Conclusion
I am very excited to come out of the Stone Age and out of the closet when it comes to this TV. My main problem now is; what do I do with all of these other TV sets once I start replacing them with LCD flatscreen TVs. We are very happy with our first experience with a flatscreen TV and we would highly recommend this even though it is not a well known brand name, there are plenty of Wal-Mart stores around in the area if you have any trouble with this and you cannot get no-where with the customer service department. I really don't know if I would purchase this for the full price that I had seen and that was $7-$800. I am sorry that I do not have any other flatscreen TVs to compare this with, I only have the regular older models (analog TVs) to compare this to. We do have the one HDTV down in our basement, but it is a 65 inch projection screen TV. This little 37 inch still puts that one to shame. So, if you are like me, I think it is time to come out of the Stone Age and open your eyes and get your feet wet. If you do not have the money to purchase a big set, try taking baby steps and purchasing a smaller one at a much lower price. Even the smaller ones will put those analog TVs back on the shelf and back in the closet.
