Archive for category GV47LF

Buying an HDTV at Costco: A Review

Mar 29

Posted by alan in Best Buy, Circuit City, Costco, Extended Warranty, GV47LF, HDTV, HDTV Buying Tips, HDTV Return Policy, Price Guarantee, Vizio | 4 Comments

When you set out to buy an HDTV, it’s unlikely you’ll start by researching the store you’ll buy it from. But buying from the right store can be important, especially for getting a fair price or returning the TV in case something goes wrong.

When I eventually settled on the Vizio GV47LF for my HDTV, I noted it was available at Costco. As I began to work out the mechanics of purchasing the TV, I realized that you had to have a membership to shop there. $50 for the right to buy my HDTV? Suddenly, I wasn’t so sure that was the television I wanted.

However, with a little research, I realized that even with the $50 fee, the HDTV was too good a bargain to pass up. In the end, I was very happy buying the TV from Costco, as Costco offers many advantages over other big box stores, the biggest being their liberal 90-day return policy and 2-year extended warranty.

Membership

Yes, you need to have a membership to shop at a Costco retail store. When I bought my television last year, I found that the bargain cost of the television justified paying the membership fee. But there were bonus ways to save some money. Costco offers 2% cash back for “executive members.”

There are two tiers of membership. Regular membership costs $50 and you get no cash back. Executive is $100, and you get 2% cash back. If you buy a $2,000 television, you will get $40 cash back, which essentially pays for the upgrade to Executive. Plus, the 2% continues for future purchases. I did not know about this policy and had the regular membership at checkout, but the Costco cashier was paying attention and helped me upgrade.

I just got my check from Costco from the 2% cash back and was happy enough to renew my membership for another year.

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Tags: Bargain HDTVs, HDTV Shopping, HDTVs at Costco

Tip for New HDTV Owners: Adjust Settings of Peripherals

Mar 8

Posted by alan in DVD, GV47L, GV47LF, GV52LF, Vizio GV47LF Picture Settings | No Comments

Philips DVD Player Video Settings

If you are upgrading from a standard definition TV to an HDTV, it’s important to remember that your peripheral devices (like your DVD player) will need to be adjusted from the 4:3 aspect ratio of your standard def TV to the 16:9 aspect of your new widescreen HDTV. If you do not do this, you maybe get some strange visual effects such as a stretching effects on widescreen movies that makes the picture look like a fish eye lens. To adjust your settings, go into your DVD player’s (not your television’s) menu system. The picture above is the video settings menu for my Philips DVD player.

Tip for Vizio GV47LF Picture Settings

Mar 8

Posted by alan in GV47L, GV47LF, GV52L, GV52LF, Picture Settings, V047L, Vizio settings | 1 Comment

Once you’ve found your optimized picture settings for the Vizio GV47LF, it’s important to note that those settings are not replicated for all inputs. For instance, if you adjust the color temperature while watching broadcast TV, the settings are not replicated for the component input (DVD player, etc). So, you must go to each input using your remote and adjust the settings manually. It does appear, however, that the “Advanced Picture Settings” stay consistent across all inputs.

I just found this out after having the Vizio for 7 months. The menu system gives no indication the settings are different between input and does not label the input settings when you access them. The television’s instruction booklet is kind of vague about this fact as well.

Check out my previous on calibrated picture settings for the Vizio GV47LF.

Collection of Vizio VO47L HDTV Reviews

Mar 2

Posted by alan in GV47LF, V047L, V047L Review, V047LF Customer Reviews, Vizio, VO47L, VO47LF | 12 Comments

I’ve put together a large collection of owner reviews from the AVS Forums Vo47LF thread, so there’s no need to cull through 15 pages of questions, troubleshooting, etc to see the reviews. Reviews are after the break.

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2008′s Vizio 47-inch LCD VO47L to Replace 2007′s GV47LF

Jan 19

Posted by alan in 1080p, Costco, GV47L, GV47LF, LCD, V047L, Vizio, VO47L, VO47LF | 1 Comment

It’s a new year, and along with it Vizio has introduced its 2008 LCDs. How much of an update is this year’s 47-inch 1080p LCD, the VO47L, over 2007′s GV47LF? There are few nice tweaks, but not enough to call it a major update.

Vizio added two more HDMI inputs for a total of four on the VO47L, as opposed to two on 2007′s GV47LF. Also, the VO47L comes with a 6-foot HDMI cable, a nice consumer-friendly touch from Vizio.

Vizio also updated the TV’s look. The VO47L now has black speakers along its undercarriage as opposed to the awkward silver look from last year’s GV47LF. A very smart design move. Although it now appears the speakers are no longer detachable.

Compare the pictures below:

2008′s VO47L:

2007′s GV47LF:

However, a big disappointment is an apparent lack of picture improvement for the 2008 model. The technical specs from Vizio’s site has the contrast ratio staying the same at 2000:1 contrast ratio (with DCR). Contrast ratio was one of the biggest weaknesses from last year’s model, so it’s a little surprising they didn’t choose to improve it. Until CNET gets around to reviewing the unit, potential buyers should probably check out reviews of last year’s GV47LF. Also, check out the V047L thread on the AVS Forums. New owners will report their reviews and problems there.

There are reports the VO47L is selling now in some Costco stores for $1,399. Other Costsco stores are reportedly holding back until they clear current inventory (probably the GV47LF). Vizio.com has the manufacturer’s price at $1,499. That is a lot less than last year’s GV47LF’s starting price of $1799.

*Update* I’ve gathered together customer reviews for the VO47L from the AVS forums here. There’s also a CNET review of television.

Links:

Official Vizio page for the VO47LF Evolution.

VO47L thread on AVS Forums.

EngadgetHD news blurb about all the new Vizios.

My Vizio GV47LF Has Started Buzzing Like an Old Refrigerator

Nov 3

Posted by alan in Backlight Buzz, GV47LF | 1 Comment

*Update 10/6/2008* I’ve determined that buzz only happens when the dynamic backlight has the AI setting turned on. This mode can be found in the GV47LF’s advanced picture settings in the menu system. This is a shame because I think the AI settings delivers the best picture in terms of brightness and vivid colors without being too bright. I now have the dynamic backlight set to On instead (There are three settings for the dynamic backlight: Off, On, and AI). The screen becomes too dark for my taste with the dynamic backlight turned off. I suggest setting the dynamic backlight to On and setting your brightness to around 50.

My GV47LF has developed a buzz. I think it’s the backlight buzz I read about on the AVS forums. It sounds like old refrigerator. It gets louder when there is a lot of black on the screen. The television did not do this when I purchased it. It started buzzing 5 months after I bought it. It’s not loud enough to make the television unusable, but it’s distracting nevertheless, more so because it’s not a constant sound, but rises and falls with the black levels.

The Nintendo Wii on the Vizio GV47LF

Oct 7

Posted by alan in 1080p, GV47L, GV47LF, HDTV, LCD, Vizio | 1 Comment

If you’re wondering how the graphics of the Nintendo Wii fare on a large HDTV like the 47″ Vizio, I can tell you, they look…..eh, ok. I purchased the Wii because it’s supposedly the best of the new consoles in terms of sheer entertainment. The functionality of the controllers gives games a wider range of gameplay and allows players to get more involved in the game.

The Wii is capable of pumping out widescreen 480p, the same as a DVD. You need to buy a special cable for 480p, otherwise, the Wii outputs 480i. I think the cable is worth the price for the extra clarity a progressive signal brings to the LCD. Many of the Wii’s early games are ports of early Gamecube games, and thus carry previous gen graphics. For example, the best game so far for the Wii (in my opinion) is Resident Evil IV. The game has been ported from the Gamecube edition. The game looks grainy on my screen, even at viewing distances of 8 feet. In contrast, Warioware: Smooth Moves, a game made specifically for the Wii, looks sharp and clean, mainly due to its cartoony graphics and bright palette of colors.

So far, the Wii has been an average entertainment experience, mainly because of the lack of great games. But the potential is obviously there, in terms of gameplay. Graphics for the console haven’t been pushed to the limit yet. But, the ceiling will always be 480p. If you want cutting edge graphics, of course you should go with the 360. But if you want to get the whole family involved or entertain a lot, the Wii is a good choice, even for large HDTV owners.

*Update* Check out Part II of my take on the Wii on my HDTV (I included better pictures).

Initial Vizio GV52L Reviews Are Coming In

Aug 22

Posted by alan in 1080p, backlighting, Clouding, GV47LF, GV52L, GV52LF, HDTV, LCD, Vizio | 1 Comment

The Vizio 52-inch 1080p LCD officially went on sale yesterday. Initial reviews are coming in from buyers who are posting on the AVS forum. I found an excellent review from forum user TheKal that seems the most genuine and well written—the review hits on all the important pros and cons I’ve noted with my GV47LF. There are lots of relevant details here for people choosing between the GV47LF and the GV52L. I’ll repost the review here, but I highly recommend checking out the latest posts on the GV52L forums. From TheKal:

“Well I am the previous owner of a GV47. I owned for almost a full 90 days however I returned it as I had a VERY uneven backlight with severe clouding and streaks during night time viewing in dark scenes. I have been looking at several HDTV’s for a while now so I feel I am pretty well qualified to describe the new Vizio. I have Time Warner digital cable and Toshiba HD-A2 HD DVD player.

First off, this thing is HUGE. I didn’t realize how overkill it was until I put it up on my wall. It looks monstrously bigger than the 47 I would have never thought 5″ would do so much. I am viewing this TV at about 10 feet eye ball to screen and while it is the perfect size picture for watching HD movies it is too big in my opinion for watching SD material. I will be playing with the zoom feature and will probably be watching SD material shrunk down to a more enjoyable size as SD material has tremendous artifacting and pixilation at this size and viewing distance. I don’t know how much of this can be improved on by the TV as I really think this is just a result of digital cable at 480 lines with a lot of compression. At 52″ and 10 feet you really see the quality of the source material as even HD cable looks far more noisy and artifacted than a real high definition disk where those 1080 vertical lines makes a huge difference on this big a set. IF you own this set and you do not own a HD DVD or Blu Ray player you are robbing yourself from the experience of this TV as everything else looks so overblown up and pixilated.

Anyway, the GV52 has significantly better sound quality than the GV47. We are talking night and day difference. GV52 probably has one of the best speaker setups of anything built into a flat panel on the market. The blacks on the GV52 are quite noticeably darker and blacker. I feel the picture is richer and more saturated looking giving it better depth and color intensity. I popped in the HD DVD version of Training Day, the picture was stunning in all the bright scenes, and as good as anything, you can find on the market. The black is absolutely an improvement over the GV47 however when watching the TV in the dark it is still not a true black but still a dark grey even with the backlight at 0 and the brightness/contrast turned down a few clicks. GV52 still lacks the ability to produce the deep blacks of Sharp or Samsung. On a brighter note, however the back light uniformity on my set is picture perfect from corner to corner in a pitch-dark room with a black screen. No clouding in the corners at all. I made sure to transport the set upright the entire time so this may have something to do with it. Unfortunately as mentioned earlier in the dark scenes, there does seem to be considerable shadow detail that is lost and there are plenty of these scenes in training day. The blacks appear to be a bit over saturated and I would love to hear any tuning adjustments from future guru’s to improve on this drawback as it is really the only flaw I can find with the TV PQ. So far, in playing with adjustments, the only way I can bring the shadow detail back is to turn up the brightness and contrast to where the TV looks washed out and the blacks are significantly greyer. This may make or break it for some people if you can live with the lack of shadow detail against black backgrounds this is a tremendous value for the money. I really hope some of the guys in here come up with some settings to clean up this problem as much as possible.

HDMI connectivity has been perfect and the on screen menu is far superior to that of the GV47. Overall, the set for sure has an overall newer generation look and feel about it. There are independent adjustments to move the picture left right up and down. By the way I also noticed the white bar noise at the top of the screen when I had the Cable DVR set to up convert SD to 1080i. Go into the DVR/Cable box settings and have it force SD programming to 480p and you will not have this problem and this will also unlock all the picture modes for SD 4:3 programming built in. If you are still unable to fix this problem, you can always shift the image up.

Anyway, so far this is my input if anybody has any questions I’d be happy to answer them I know there is many excited prospective buyers out there looking for some owner insight.

FYI there is no speaker hum whatsoever however; there is backlight buzz when the backlight is set less than 90. I really feel this is inherent in all Vizio’s due to the type of transformer they use to modulate the backlight. Bummer but it seems to be the way it is. On the brighter side, the PQ with a 90 backlight is much better than it was on the GV47, which would wash out with so much backlight so in most room lighting you will be more than happy with the backlight at 90 PQ.”

Westinghouse’s new 47-inch 1080p HDTV, $1,500.

Aug 18

Posted by alan in 1080p, CNET, GV47LF, LCD, Westinghouse | No Comments

CNET just posted their review for the new Westinghouse 47-inch HDTV LCD, the TX-47F30S. BestBuy.com has it listed for $1,500, which is $100 cheaper than Vizio’s current 47-inch LCD. The Westy has 4 HDMI inputs compared with 2 HDMI for the GV47LF. Looks like the new trend is 4 HDMI inputs.

Also of interest is CNET’s comparision of the Westy with the Vizio 42-inch LCD, the GV42LF, for its performance tests. CNET says the Vizio produces better blacks compared with the Westy. However, in the technical specifications, the Westy has a 5000:1 contrast ratio compared with the Vizio’s 1600:1. I guess even a company’s own specs won’t tell the whole tale.

CNET states the main problem with the Westy is again the black levels and screen uniformity–the same problems I experience with the Vizio GV47LF. And the strength of the Westy is color reproduction, which is also the strength of the Vizio. So it looks like the current Vizio and Westinghouse 47-inch 1080p LCDs are close matches. We’ll see if Vizio responds with a price cut or a product refresh.

GV52L Will Go On Sale August 20, 2007

Aug 11

Posted by alan in 1080p, Costco, GV47LF, GV52L, GV52LF, HDTV, LCD, Vizio | No Comments

More info is coming out for the GV52L HDTV. It will go on sale August 20, 2007 at a Costco near you for $2,000+tax ($2,200 manufacturer’s price – $200 coupon). That’s $400 more than the GV47LF (since I own the GV47LF, my perspective is from a comparison point of view). This new Vizio 52 inch HDTV has a few upgrades from the 47. First is a 1000:1 typical contrast ratio compared with the 47′s 800:1 typical contrast ratio. Not really that impressive, but any gain is good in that category. The 52 also features 4 HDMI inputs compared with 2 HDMI inputs with the 47. Two more HDMI inputs is not a big deal for me, but as more and more devices go HDMI, it could save you the cost of an HDMI switcher or other similar devices.

I don’t envy the person trying to make a choice between the two televisions. At first glance, the $400 price difference is a big motivator to go with the GV47LF. And, I’ll also wager there will be a GV47LF price cut for the NFL season, or maybe Black Friday or the Holidays. But then again, 52 inches of 1080p television is pretty glorious. In the end, I don’t think you could go wrong either way, and it all depends on what the difference between $2,000 and $1,600 means to you.

Helpful links:

myHDTVchoice.com