[zybar]

Please comment if you have one or if you feel there is an equivalent or better choice at the same price point ($700-800).

This isn't for critical HT viewing, just basic tv watching.

Thanks,

George

[mdconnelly]

I'm on my 2nd Vizio 37" LCD... I bought the first about 20 months ago from Costco for $1500.    I'm not much into HT, but for my purposes it had a great 1080i HD picture and the sound was actually not bad.

2 months ago it died.   Of course, Costco took to back, refunded the full amount and I replaced it with another which then cost $799.   Not a bad deal!    I will say that the latest incarnation has poorer sound quality but picture in HD is still quite nice for the $$$.

I think as a 2nd TV, you can't go wrong, but I really haven't shopped round much.    I'm anal enough when it comes to 2 channel audio and can't afford (time or money) to do so with HT as well right now.

[TONEPUB]

I just bought a 32" for my daughters room, so Ill keep close tabs on the
reciept!!

Thanks!

[SET Man]

Hey!

   I don't have expreience with the Vizio.

   But I've been using my 27" Olevia by Syntex for a little over a year now and do far no problem.... I have to admit that I don't use it everyday but I think enough to confirm it reliability. Knock on wood here They are inexpensive compare to Sony, Sharp and etc. The picture quality is actually pretty good.

   Currently I have Time Warner Cable HD box hook up to it. Not many HD channel but those like Discovery HD look great!

   Anyway, since the 1080p just came out I think they are now trying to get rid of those set with 1080i. And if you don't care about the 1080p than I think you could pick up one cheap.

Take care,
Buddy

[Bill Baker]

My parents just purchased the Vizio 42" last week. (I've never heard of them before) They don't have HD yet but so far, it appears to be a decent set. I have no idea what they paid for it but it seem to have a picture quality I could live with but then again, I am far from a quality video junkie.
 I am no longer in the market for a "regular" TV as I want to pick up a projector for the store and bring the 52" Hitachi widescreen from the store to my house. My little ones want a Wii and there is no way I am going to let them use it on anything but a projector (may need to get a cheap Optoma projector for them and put it in the game room) as I have too many friends with cracked screens

[toobluvr]

George....

Just a few weeks ago I bought a flat screen HD set....figured it was time to retire the 32 inch Panasonic box set purchased in 1996!

Early in my search, I was about to settle on that exact same Vizio....both for price and for pic quality.  To these very untrained eyes, it looked at least as good as - if not better- than the big name sets next to it.

But as I searched a bit more, upgraditis and size seduction took hold, and I eventually got a Hitachi 42" 1080i Plasma.  So far, I am extremely happy.  And at $899....what a screaming deal!!

 

[Phil A]

I bought the 32 inch set about a yr. back to hang on the wall in the kitchen.  It does not get tons of use (e.g. news).  I got the 42 inch 1080p set for the bedroom a couple of mos. back.  The new (1080p) generation seems much improved in terms of HD picture quality.  I can't comment on stuff hooked to the 32 inch set as it is there just to be hooked to the antenna.  The 42 inch set looks great with the Oppo 980 DVD player I just got.  I've heard that some have reliability issues and I guess I'll find out.  The bedroom system is on sleep timer at night probably 75% of the time.  I had an old Samsung 40 inch 1st generation 480p LCD in the bedroom for 6 yrs. with no issues using it that way.

[lcrim]

I've had an Olevia 32" in the bedroom for nearly 2years.  It has a directv HD H20 receiver attached through DVI and DVD player attached to the components.  Trouble free for roughly $850  I watch it sometumes but my girlfriend watches mostly standard def channels on it and its fine.

[zybar]

Thanks everybody.

I was able to get a very good deal on a Samsung 32" LCD (http://reviews.cnet.com/flat-panel-and-plasma/samsung-ln-t3253h/4505-6482_7-32306314.html?tag=lst) so I went with that.

George

[TIC]

George,

Sorry I'm a little late to the party, but I think you made a good decision. When I was looking for a 37" flat panel, of course I looked at the Vizio at Costco. I simply could not buy it because of the obvious color issue it exhibited. I've also seen the other sizes of Vizio LCD displays, and they looked fine. However the 37" unit had a very obvious yellow tone to the color. I visited a couple of different Costcos, and also saw it at a couple of other store, and they all had the same issue. I also read a reference to this issue over at AVSforum.

Please note that I'm talking about the 37" Vizio from about a year ago. The current model may haved resolved the issue.

BTW, at that time I ended up with the 37" Viewsonic and I've been very happy with it. Today the 37" Viewsonic sells for $799 at MicroCenter. The styling of the Viewsonic is not as good as the Vizio (IMHO), however the picture quality was better.

Enjoy,

TIC

[Big Red Machine]

http://hdguru.com/?p=107

Once I read that I began to rethink the 'cheaper' brands, although my Olevia 27" has been flawless for 3 years now.