i know i got alot of crap on CF about the subject, but i just didn't feel like searching thru millions and millions of threads just to see what i'm looking for



but right now i am looking at a vizio 42" LCD HDTV, and from the reviews i have read, and the picture that it puts out that it seems like a really nice TV... anyone ever have any experence with VIZIO brand TV's? they seem like a really great TV, just havn't heard anything about them... the last new TV i bought was about 12 years ago from walmart, it was a SANYO brand CRT, and it has been an awesome TV


this is what i'm looking at
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=5623473


i know its wrong buying a TV from the same place that you can do your grocery shopping, get an oil change, and buy some new clothes... but it seems like a decent deal

Are you a Sams Club member? If not, I would check into it. We got the 37" Visio at Christmas of '06.

We have been very happy with it and would get another in an instant.

I also think the product that Walmart sells is NOT at the same level of quality that Visio makes normally.

In other words, the product at Sams is better.

I would start with the Sams product line and start comparing with the box stores. I saw where there are no Sams in Oregon...

there is another place here in eugen that claims to come, and see them before you buy a TV... so monday after work i'm gonna go over there, and check them out

We should do this right mate, and see what your budget, and goals are first.

Then, we should see what your room looks like, which way you want to sit, whether you like watching TV with the lights on or off, day or night, how many hours in the day you watch it, what you like to watch, how often itll see video games, etc...

Then, im going to say that TV looks like cheap rubish, and the price is pretty big considering the screen is so small.

its a 42", not that small


my budget is $900... i'm looking for something that plays good, but doesn't have a glossy screen, my parents have loaned my their 42" plasma, and it has a glossy screen, and i just hate the glare from the windows


the reviews for it seem really good... 199 out of 209 custimers recommend this product

42" is very small. 100" plus is a big screen.

I dont like plasma at all, its not half as good as its made out to be, and not as good as CRT. So im happy to see youre looking at LCD.

I prefer projection myself, that way you get abit of size to the picture. LCD is the better choice for projection as well as TVs.

The RIGHT Visio is a damned good TV. We have the 37" version, and it's nice for the size of our room.

We sit rather close (~8') and any bigger would have overpowered the room.

I am just not sure about the quality of a walmart TV. Most makers have 2 to 4 levels of quality... A thru D is the buzz in the bizz... A is the best, D is the dreck. It has the name name, sure, but it's junk. Walmart has a tendency to sell a lot of C and D line garbage. Sams is more up market, and will sell A and B line stuff. I prefer Sams Club... you get B line at D line prices. Seriously. It isn't an audiophiles dream store, but it beats Walmart all to hell. And for a consumable like a TV, why not get the best price?

I am concerned that the Walmart TV is a C line product... whereas the Sams TV is the A or B... and it's about the same $$ point, too.

It's one reason, among many, as to why I don't shop at Walmart... the store scares me, too.

Yes i see your point about the size and the room size, however, thats why i was asking about room size and placement, all that jargon.

As far as small TVs like that go, i prefer Panasonic, in my experience, they seem to have the longest life, and the features are always right up there.

Where i work, we have ALOT of TVs around the place, mostly 42 and 50 inch, mostly LG, and they all seem to fail from the same issue. Every one of them burns in, which is part of the reason all the replacements we are now installing are LCD, cause they dont burn. The LCDs we have are Panasonic, and they havent been there long, although their picture is substantially better than any plasma TV we have in the joint. We have 2 Panasonic plasmas, one of which was one of the first to go in, and its been going the longest, although its now got a fair amount of permanent artifacts on it. The NEC plasmas we have there have outlasted the LGs, however they burned in faster, even though they kept resonable contrast. The LGs seem to lose their contrast over time due to the burn in reducing the brightness of the phosphor.

LCD doesnt suffer from any of the above, it wont burn in, it shouldnt lose brightness or contrast, and does provide a far better white colour. Plasma and CRT direct view cant show a pure white, front and rear projection CRT can, provided the convergence is set well.

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I'm looking at Visio too, read all the reviews.
Andy's right about Walmart.
Check the specs. The Visio's Walmart is selling now are all 720 dpi's. Costco has Visios at about the same pricing except they're 1080 dpi, there is a difference in the picture quality. I can't remember if Sam's has the 1080's.

If you go on the Visio site, they aren't selling the 720's, at least not on their site.

You mean 720p and 1080i i believe.

I saw those visios at wal-mart over Christmas. I just have a hard time buying something that expensive where I have never heard of the brand and am completely unaware of their customer service or quality. Perhaps people have had good experience with them, but it's still pretty early to say.

I bought my Samsung DLP through crutchfield.com and had it shipped to my house and they brought it inside. I went to best buy to see if they would match the price first, and the guy actually told me to buy it online. Free shipping and no tax was hard to beat (along with the lower price!).

My opinion, I would stick to name brand on electronics. In most cases, you get what you pay for.

Matthew

As I have said, the Visio has been very reliable. Sure, it's a newer brand, but this is a newer technology.

The Panasonic is a nice piece. I would look at those, too. Same with Sony.

I hate plasma. Where I worked, we had a plasma monitor... not only was it slow as hell, it had all sorts of burn in artifacts. Yuck. And it was an IBM unit! I think it was over $6000, just for a 16" monitor!!! then again, it was 15+ years ago.

I think Sams is selling both 720p and 1080p. 1080i is available with 720p... so who cares. The price goes up at 1080p.

The unit at Walmart is not the same... it is a visio, yes, but it looks crappy compared to the Visio we have.

As I said, we got ours over a year ago. ZERO PROBLEMS. And we sure do use it!!!! The other thing, the price was killer. Ours is 720p, but I am very happy with the picture quality. At the time, the price was 800.00, then, and it has taken a year for it to really start to come down.

When we buy a house, we will move this into our room, or bastets mom's room and get a bigger 1080p for the new livingroom... but that's a while off.

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I just went through this. I spent a lot of time looking at 1080P sets and 720p/1080I sets. Seems a lot has to do with the refresh rates and all that jargon. I bought a very nice 720p/1080I set . It was $1000 less than the 1080P . Side by side with an input from direct tv I could not tell enough difference for my eyes. I could see a difference in the blue ray dvd picture but still not enough to justify a $1000 for me .As for the A to D quality I bought what I believe is A or B quality, Sony Bravia. I also got a good price due to the set being a 720p/1080I and everyone wants 1080p.

i have heard if i'm eventually gonna go with blu-ray that i'd be better off going with a 1080P... but if i go blu-ray, would i really need a 1080? or would i be just fine with a 720?

Around here, Visio has become a name brand in LCD HD TVs.
I have a friend that works at Costco and he says that they get the least returns from Visios of most of the other brands. There are others on the floor with good pictures, but I think the Visio is a great TV for the money.

I bought my wife a 22" Viso HD LCD for the bedroom and it has a great picture without the HDCable box which is surprising. My brother-in-law just bought a 46" Sony Bravia and it looked like dog-do until the HD box got hooked up.

I'd buy another Visio in a heartbeat.

i'm gonna go check out a few TV's within the next few weeks... but i might wait till memorial day weekend, there might be some really good sales going on that weekend

I have a Panasonic plasma myself. It is the 720p 50" version. I am quite happy with it. The picture is very clean. Panasonic plasmas were voted best buy at Consumer Reports. One of the ones they voted best was the 50" I bought. You will still get a great picture with Blu-Ray at 720p.

I do not own a Blu-Ray but from what I have read from other users at AVS they love it. 720p can give you a screen door effect if you are real close to the screen. I sit about 11 ft from mine and never notice it. I can see it when I am 5-6ft away. However, with a 42" it will not be as noticeable on the smaller screen. You can catch some pretty good deals on them from time to time. At one time, I saw them for $899 at Sears. My in-laws bought one at that time after I told them about it.

Vizio is not rated nearly as well. The cadillac of plasmas is the Pioneer.

Good luck and enjoy whatever you buy.

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Yea, I gotta quit postin' at 6:00 a.m.

She's apples Billy boy, think nothing of it mate

Related Question,
Andy, dose your Visio have PIP? From what I can see, Visio's have the feature but not the extra tuner needed. So, you can use the PIP with an external source hooked up like DVD but not 2 channels.
I'd like to have PIP when NHRA and INDY cars are on at the same time.

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Oh, get over yourself already!

First, I must admit that I have not read ALL the replies, so hopefully I won't repeat anything. But I did read several replies before deciding to post.


I bought a 42" Sanyo 1080p LCD at Wal Mart, for a number of reasons:

1) Wife works at Wal-Mart. She gets a 10% Discount.
2) Once a year, near Christmas, they get an extra 10% off one item. the TV was it for Christmas of '06
3) No way was I gonna buy a Plasma. I do too much gaming. Can't have burn in.
4) Let's just say that I "know" somebody who sees what brands are returned, and deals with companies for returns and repairs....

I would not buy a Visio from Wal-Mart. If there is proof that the non Wal-Mart ones are better, then I guess you could consider one.

I am running a Sony PS3 BluRay player through my TV with HDMI cables. The picture is INSANE! If you are going to go with BluRay, I think you want to have 1080p at least. But I am not super knowledgeable there.

I only have one BlueRay movie. Pixar's "Cars". I also have the standard DVD. I saw and heard things I never noticed before, and I've watched the DVD about twenty times. I honestly could not believe the difference.

We've had the Sanyo since December of '06 with no issues. After all the discounts, we were just under $900. I would buy another, but if I had the money, I would probably buy a Sony or Panasonic.

i found this one, its a sanyo 42" 1080P

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=9106633

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Buggered if i know how they can see what is going on there

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I am reasonably sure that is my TV. Well, the latest version of it, anyway. Looks pretty much identical. But it was priced at $1,100 before our discounts when we got it.

I am very pleased with it so far.

Forgot to mention, sound quality through the attached speakers was pretty good. I did recently purchase a Yamaha AVR to run sound through better speakers. I also have a little 17" Polaroid LCD TV that sounds like a single speaker from a small AM radio. Not acceptable.

The Vizio Story from the WallStreet Journal.
Interesting story of a new Name Brand TV

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB12082 ... 7.html?mod=hpp_us_pageone

i heard the poloroid LCD TV's are complete crap


i looked at alot of TV's yesterday, i looked at the samsung, vizio, sanyo,and RCA... they all had pretty cood pictures, the sanyo had alot brighter picture than the vizio i was looking at, and the samsung was a little more that i was wanting to spend at $1,100

It's hard to buy a TV based on picture when you're in a store. There are TONS of settings that could have been messed with, that could leave one TV with a better picture than another. And the set with the better picture could be trumped by the weaker set with some tweaking.

I've often wondered if shops that sell multiple pricepoints on TVs take more time to make the expensive sets look great, and don't bother so much with the lower end units.

Anyway, I've read more than a few reports/posts/blogs about folks taking several hours to get their set dialed in before they were happy with their picture.

I plugged in my Sanyo, and it looked great. I tried to get it to look better by messing with the settings, but in the end, I was pretty darn close to factory defaults.

I doubt it. Most stores I go into half of the TVs are jacked up and blurry. Some are getting digital signals and some aren't.

I think it's more of the job of the marketing people from the manufacturers to make sure the displays are set up correctly in the store, maybe some try harder than others.