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.

Costco also offers an American Express credit card that saves you an additional 1%.  The last thing you probably need is another credit card, but I mention this because Costco does not take any other credit cards except this one. Otherwise, you have to pay with cash or checks.

Return Policy

Another advantage of buying an HDTV at Costco is that they offer a 90-day return policy. That gives you three months to decide if you like the television.

I was originally concerned that my 47-inch HDTV would be too big for my one-bedroom apartment (it wasn’t), or that once I got it home, I wouldn’t think high definition television was enough of an upgrade to justify the cost (it was). I felt better knowing that I had three months to return it and get a full refund (no restocking fee).

The three months are also good in case you stumble across another television you like better. I don’t know of any other stores that give you this much time to return your TV. The 90-day return policy is a big advantage over Circuit City’s and Best Buy’s 30-day return policy.

Price Guarantee

Costco has no official price guarantee policy, but essentially, their return policy is the price guarantee.

If the price of your TV drops by $200 a month after you bought it, you can ask for the difference or return the TV for a full refund then buy it again for the lower price. I’ve read that usually you can talk them into the credit, but again, it’s not their official policy, so you might have to actually return the TV (although I really can’t see that happening). So the 90-day return policy can be seen as a 90-day price guarantee policy.

Price Match

Costco does not price match.

Extended Warranty

Coscto also extends the warranties on televisions to two years from the date of purchase. I haven’t had my Vizio conk out on me, but it’s still nice to know it’s still covered in case it does. Best Buy charges for their extended warranty.

Other Good Stuff

Costco has a concierge service that offers free technical support over the phone if you have any questions about your television.

They also offer an in-house set up of your television (except for wall mounting) for $89.99. The set up includes a crew of 2 to deliver and unpack your television, assembly of an attachable base (but not a television stand), programming of up to two remotes, integration of TV into existing home theater system, stringing of wires up to 15 feet (surface stringing only), a 15-minute demonstration on how to use your equipment, clean up, and packaging removal.

Costco sometimes has coupons that can take hundreds of dollars off the price. Costco coupon booklets come in the mail for members, but you can usually discover the latest coupons through minimum research online or pick them up at the store. I also check out the FatWallet.com forums for deals at Costco that are sometimes localized or not announced.

Conclusion

Costco may seem somewhat impersonal when entering the store; the place is huge, and there are no hovering salesmen in the electronics department. However, I am someone who appreciates being left alone to browse the TVs, as I do all the research myself before entering the store (and so should you). The perks gained from the membership fee more than make up for the cost; a lot of peace of mind comes from the 90-day return policy and extended warranty. It comes down to Costco having the HDTV you want. If it does, don’t let the membership fee throw you off, it’s worth it. Besides, where else can you buy a gallon jar of mayonnaise along with your HDTV?

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.

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.

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.

Vizio VO47L 47-inch 1080p HDTV Reviews:

I brought home my new Vizio VO47L from Costco the other day. After mounting it on the wall (I used the MonoPrice Adjustable Tilting/Swiveling Wall Mount Bracket #3337). After hooking everything up, I spent a bit of time with Digital Video Essentials to get it dialed in.

Summary:

I really like the set. It excels on the HDMI input with a 1080p source. I didn’t have as good of luck on the component inputs with a 480p source, but that’s not a deal breaker for me. Digital HD TV signals look wonderful. This set is in my basement and used mostly for my Xbox360 via HDMI. For that, it’s fabulous. I also like the styling very much.

Long answer:

Starting point: This set is in my basement. I did all my adjustments in the evening, so the environment was dim but not pitch black. The first thing I did was turn off all the “advanced” settings and put the color temperature on normal. I don’t like any of the advanced settings because they pretty much change around all the adjustments I’m making.

HDMI: I started with an xbox360 via HDMI. The xbox recognized it as 1080p capable and sent that signal by default. I loaded DVE and went straight to the test patterns. The black levels are very nice, including the plunge. Contrast immediately got the whites beautiful. I then went to the color pattern and got out the blue filter. Color set immediately with the blue filter. On the red and green filters, I adjusted the tint only slightly. They’re not perfect, but quite good. For the sharpness pattern, I easily found the right mix between softness and harshness. My set shows no overscan at all on the overscan pattern – I’ve actually never seen a TV that showed exactly 100% of the overscan pattern. Nice. I couldn’t ask for a better picture on the HDMI input.

Component 1: I have a recent model PS/2 with component cables. It’s set to 480p. DVE showed quite a few flaws in this setup. Starting with the brightness to set the black levels, I couldn’t see the -5% black plunge at all on the component input. It just wasn’t there. The whites are fine. The colors bloom more than I’d prefer. Overscan was typical of most TVs, the top 5% didn’t display. All in all, I’d describe the component input as fairly average.

Component 2: This is a fairly low end home theater in a box setup. It’s a Samsung HT-Q45 with component cables. I was hoping for better results than I had with the PS/2. What I found was pretty much exactly the same thing, from which I conclude that the issues are with the component inputs on the TV and not the PS/2 or HTIB/DVD player.

TV: I have a large antenna and very good signal strength. Everything looks great. I set the adjustments equivalent to the HDMI settings.

Backlighting: Some people have experienced uneven backlighting on their sets. I friend of mine has this set and sees it. I’ve seen nothing like that at all. I looked for it carefully on the HDMI and both component inputs. I haven’t really looked for it on the antenna input. I set my backlight at 0. I just think the image looks best that way.

Audio: The optical output provides 5.1 sound when the antenna signal (TV) provides it. Otherwise, it’s always active, but will convert Dolby Digital from a L/R input into stereo. Meaning it strips out the Dolby encoding. The L/R output preserves any Dolby encoding from a L/R input. I’ve never listened to the speakers on the set.

Motion: Before this set, I had a Vizio VX32L. The 32 had a “typical” response time of 8ms. On some xbox games I could see motion blur. This set is rated at 5ms (not “typical”, what ever that means). I don’t notice any motion blur on this set. The faster response time on this set really does make a difference in my experience.

My HDMI settings:
Backlight 0
Brightness 48
Contrast 51
Color 43
Tint 4
Sharpness 4

–jds32

——

BTW, I’ve had this TV in my apartment for the last week.

I’ve now compared it to the Sceptre 42″, the Phillips 42″, Sharp Aquos 42″, the Sony V-series 40″, and the Vizio 42″ models that are all being sold by Costco at the moment.

This set is excellent at its price point, and in terms of P.Q., I’d say it is nearly on-par with the Sony, and defintiely superior to any of the others I mentioned.

The extra 4″ makes a surprising difference in my living room at a 12 ft. viewing distance. Most info I’ve researched pointed me in the way of a 46-50″ + display for that viewing distance, but I had thought I could get away with 42″. Well now that I’ve had a 36″ in my living room, I will never know if I could have gotten away with it, b/c now I am spoiled and would rather spend $1500 on a good 46/47″ like this Vizio than a “high-end” 40/42″.

I have to say, that so far, one of the only shortcomings I see in this set are the black levels. They are not on the same level as the Sony V-Series, Sharp Aquos, or perhaps even the Sceptre. I will say that the Sony probably only has better blacks b/c of its “auto-dimming” feature which dims the backlight during darks scenes automatically (which is actually not-defeatable!). But in terms of color-balance it is on par with any of these. And in terms of sharpness of picture, only the Sharp Aquos sets seem significantly better. I think I can live with the black levels though at a savings of around 600$ compared to the Sony and Sharp 46″ sets. The only other one I would consider now at this size would be the Samsung 4665F model, which can be had for only 1-200$ more than this Vizio. But there seems to be quite a lot of firmware issues with that one, as well as “black crush” issues. I will mention though, that the Sceptre 46″ that Costco.com hs on sale right now is tempting. Supposedly it looks nearly the same as the 42″ version, which I starte out with….it had a very nice picture, sharp, and good blacks, but I decided I couldn’t live with its strange “red/pink push”…but with the 46″ version now at under 1k$, I might even be able to convince myself I can live with it!

My omly other complaint would be the sound. The S.Q of this set on its own is probably the worse of any of the sets I’ve tried, with the Sony coming in a close second. I think it is largely due to the thin-bezel design, which offers less surface area for speakers to fire forward. But then again, this design is an advantage aesthetically. And many of you will be using home theater setups and the like…

Now, if it were only on sale! Hopefully Costco will discount it in the next 90 days. and reimburse me the difference.

–monologuist

——

Hi guys, I just bought this set after reading this thread and a lot of reviews… I must say I truly like it… right now I have all four HDMI connectors utilized. Two dvd players Pioneer DV-400V-k and a Sony DVP-NS72HP, time warner’s SC 8300HDC and my laptop.

–darmoktech

——

hey all I just bought this badboy yesterday and love it, the only problem I have had so far was when I initially hooked up to cable it picked up all the regular channels i have and also picked up an additional 10 digital channels, about half which were HD (awesome). The quality and clarity were wonderful even on the SD channels.

–redeye813

——
hey all… I bought this TV at costco a month+1/2 ago. I leave it on 24/7. its still working flawlessly. 1080p with my xbox 360, looks great! no problems.

–speedcoder

——

I replaced my old GV46L with this set. There is no comparison in picture quality. The VO47LF is noticeably superior in picture quality.

–Ras Thavas

——

Rarely does a purchase exceed expectations. There always seems to be a compromise. But not with this unit. I am so thrilled. Setup was easy, but I’m just on analog cable. DVR coming next week. Then some sound system TBD. (I have no room for surrounds; wife hates speakers on poles,) So most likely will be a Phillips Soundbar-type or equal.

But the set is wall mounted with the monoprice in-wall cables and their low-voltage cable faceplates. I’ll finalize color once the DVR is in, and I plan to be as happy with this as I am with my Vizio 32L.

–62thunderbird

——

Finally picked it up at a local Costco and I must say its definitely worth the wait.

In comparasion to my early model Vizio 37″ and my Sharp Aquos, Im very impressed with this new Vizio model. Colors and resolution are a great improvement and not to mention that the user interface is vastly improved.

The new remote is much more of a true universal remote than my previous model and it works perfect with my Scientific Atlantic HD DVR…it has about 95% of all the buttons and features of the HD box remote.

The attention to overall is much better than before and is much closer to my Aquos.

—Will PWR

—–

I have yet to resolve my audio dropout problem. The post on the Vizio forum is not helping at all.

I genuinely like this set and would hate to return it because of that problem.

My set has absolutely no uneven back lighting, no blooming, and I find the picture to be great.

Funny, I was shopping at C today and they had a 52″ Sony at the head of the aisle. They were showing a basketball game. There was a hideous amount of motion blur on that set.

–Ras Thavas

——-

I bought my VO47L yesterday. So far, I am very impressed. This TV is for my bedroom. Downstairs I have a 52″ Mits DLP that I have been very happy with. This Vizio cost less that 1/2 of the Mits (in fairness, the Mits was bought 3.5 yrs ago). I think the picture is just as good if not better. Thanks to y’all in this thread, I was able to remove the funky flickering pixels on the top.

The best part is that I have not even used 1080p yet. I don’t have anything that outputs 1080p yet. Just my comcast DVR via component cables. The closest I have is an upconverting DVD player that I will hook up later today.

Anyway, just wanted to join the thread and give my thanks for fixing my only issue so far.

–AtlantaGatorLee

——

I couldn’t resolve my audio dropout problem either on both sets and I did return them. I’m back to my trusty GV46L. I see in the Vizio forum another person with a different model is also having the same problem. That makes 3 – GV52LF, VO47LF, and now the VU42LF

People might not notice they have the problem because
A) you have to be using the QAM or ATSC tuner – people might be using a STB from their cable or satellite company.
B) you have to be outputting the sound to a receiver and have set the TV to output in Dolby Digital. The TV defaults to PCM. Kind of reminds me of the backlight buzzing problem which only happend if the backlight was set below 90 so they defaulted it to 90.

I am hoping others will check their TVs and chime in if they have the audio droput problem to see if it is more widespread or if we now have 4 TVs, across 3 different models, that have the problem. Hopefully the Vizio forum might be able to help too.

–midisidster

——-

Just picked this TV up yesterday from Costco. very nice. We were shopping around for a lot of TVs and were considering a 50″ Panny 1080P plasma and a 46″ 120hz Samsung LCD… we saw this set playing “The Ant Bully” on Blu-Ray and it looked amazing. We decided to save ourselves $600 and went with this—we are very glad we did.

I am also very interested in some calibration settings if anyone has some recommendations.

–brazzle

——–

alright, i’ve had some time to play with this set and here is what I can say:

PS3 and 360 look amazing
I tried out some games on both machines and they look great. There appears to be no overscan at 1080P and the default calibration looks amazing in-game. I tried Guitar Hero 3, Devil May Cry 4, and Ratchet and Clank Future.

Blu-Ray is to die for
Watched 300 last night on blu-ray. Looked amazing. The artificial graininess in 300 made it a bit difficult to tell how well it handles artifacts, but while watching the bonus content on the disc, it is clear that 1080P on this set is gorgeous.

Accepts 24fps…
This set will successfully accept a 1080/24 signal, but there appears to be no difference between 1080/24 and 1080/60

HDCP handshake is seamless (so far)
On my Olevia, 50% of the time during the HDCP handshake over HDMI, there would be screen flicker and sometimes buzzing. I have heard this can be common on many sets. On the VO47L, it switches seamlessly to the blue “No Signal!” screen, then seamlessly back. While it would be nice to not have any switching screens, this is a good alternative.

Input switching is fast
On my Olevia, it took about 5 seconds or longer to successfully switch to another source. The Vizio is almost instant.

Slight buzzing in the back of the set
This isn’t a big deal. When you get close to the back of the set (I’m talking inches)–like when you are plugging in your source connections–you can hear a slight buzzing in the back. No big deal, I’m pretty sure its the backlight but I’m not sure what backlight setting will get rid of it.

VIZIO logo always backlit
When the set is off, the Vizio logo has a nice warm amber backlight, when the TV is on, it is more of a white-blue and much brighter than the amber. Neither are distracting to me.

SD looks…like SD
SD is about what I would expect. My 37″ 720P Olevia handled it well, but this set is 10″ larger, so SD is stretched even more.

Works with universal remotes, but may need testing
The manual has two remote codes for other universal remotes, and so far I have successfully gotten my Dish Network remote to use every function except the input selection…which makes it almost unusable. I have only tried one of the two codes, so I will try the second later.

Very sleek
It is nice to have an LCD that isn’t bloated with huge speakers on all sides. This 47″ panel doesn’t take up much more room than my 37″, but it takes up almost the entire space for the picture.

I love this set. I almost bought a Samsung LN-T4671F 120hz 46″, but I’m glad I saved myself $600 on quality that is quite comparable and more than good enough for me.

–brazzle

——

I picked up this TV last weekend and I may return it this coming weekend. While the OTA hd picture quality is overall amazing, the SD image looks like absolute dog poo….it’s like I’m watching a youtube video on the tv. I know that good SD on a LCD/Plasma is a tall order but most of what I watch is SD through my directv receiver so I’m a having a hard time justifying keeping this set to get sub-par SD images and only a few local HD channels.

I did play around with the settings last night and got the SD image a bit better by turning down the contrast and the backlight, increasing the sharpness, turning on the black lever extender and DCR. At least the image doesn’t look quite as blurry and cartoon-ish but I wouldn’t call it “good”.

I did notice some pixelation and motion blur while watching the nbc ota hd feed last night, mainly during the animated intros to shows. I did notice a loud buzzing sound that I hadn’t heard quite as loud before, maybe it’s because I turned down the backlight setting.

I have only seem the “white bar” exactly once while watching an analog channel ota but hasn’t shown up in any other channels or even in that same channel again. I can’t test if my set has the audio dropout issue since i have no audio receiver i can plug it into.

—matadorCE

——

I just got it and have been playing around. Take a look and see some of the pictures and samples I have uploaded to Flikr….

I have included some samples:
- My Dish Network HD Service (Connected via HDMI – set to 1080I)
- XBox360 games (connected via HDMI – set to 1080P)
- Xbox360 video streams @ 720P (same setup as above)
- RGB Input – displaying desktop and a 1080P WMVHD video (set to 1920 x 1080)

Sample VO47L Images

–ctgoodman

——

I’ve had this TV for just over a week and I really like it so far. It’s my first LCD HDTV so I don’t have much to compare it to, but so far I’m happy with the picture. I don’t have any dead pixels that I can see and I didn’t have to do a lot of tweaking to get the picture where I wanted it. I’ve emailed Vizio a couple times with questions and received replies on both the next business day. My only concern with owning a Vizio is their longtime reliability. But at the same time I’ve seen complaints about other brands as well.

NAMiller

——
Just got this set yesterday, replacing a buzzing/humming Vizio P50 Plasma.

Plenty has been said about good picture quality, and so far I agree.

Unfortunately the sound quality from the built-in speakers is noticably poor. This is my bedroom TV and thus no surround sound setup. Perhaps the P50 speakers were just exceptionally good — with exactly the same audio sources and cables, even my wife quickly noticed how hollow and tinny the sound was from the VO47L.

It may wind up going back to Costco. I’ll give it a few more days tho, since audio certainly wasn’t a key buying criteria.

–kcwdad

——–
I have a upconverting DVD player hooked up with the HDMI cable and the picture is amazing. My wife (who isn’t easily impressed) was blown away by the picture when we watched “Finding Nemo”. I too was thinking of waiting until I could getting an LCD with the 120HZ refresh rate but most of them with that were too expensive for my taste. There is always going to be something “bigger and better” on the horizon so if you wait for that, you’ll always be waiting. I’ve watched a few sporting events on this TV and because this is my first HDTV, I don’t really notice any blur because I’m too busy being impressed by the picture.

–NAMiller

——

I’ve had this tv for just over a week and I bought it mainly for sports and so far, I’ve seen no blurring issues when watching football or basketball. Both have looked very good to me so far. That was one of the things that spooked me from getting a Samsung. Everyone went on about TBE when watching sports.

–GoCowboys

——

Read this site religously as well as a few others in reference to which new LCD TV I was going to purchase.

After changing my mind several times, I kept coming back to this Vizio…and man, I will tell you what… Vizio – Where Vision Meets Value – is true in every sense.

This is one amazing TV packed full of features and it produces (once you calibrate and tune) an AMAZING HD picture without any ghosting, splotchy or unlit areas.

I have TW Cable (8300HDC) via HDMI, Xbox 360 via HDMI w/ HD-DVD player and at 1080P…

W O W!

…no other words… You cannot go wrong in purchasing this TV unless you absolutely are a videophile that notices every little nuance or artifact.

I personally didnt see anything wrong with the display or image quality, even though I caught myself looking for it based on a very few people saying that they noticed this or that.

All in all, this is a fantastic purchase, produces excellent image even on SD channels, Blacks look Black to me, no ghosting, great features, easy menu with great features on the remote.

I purchased the extended warranty just to cover myself for 2 added years.

Thanks for the info

–tonym89

———

I had the GV47 for a week then saw the VO47 at Sams and had to upgrade.
I liked the GV47L 20A – Had a great picture after adjusted. Then got the VO47L and the picture was so good, my wife even noticed….
This is a great TV and around 1350, it’s an amazing TV.
As to sound quality, I have no idea as I run everything through my receiver

–cannaman

——–

Just purchased the vizio vo47l yesterday. This is my 1st lcd.
Picture is great and is only on regular cable for now. Get hd tomorrow.

–graham1

——–

I bought this TV VO47L two days ago from local Costco and absolutely love it.
I have it hooked up only to my DirecTV receiver via HDMI.
HD Movies and sport events look amazing.
SD programing look OK in my opinion.
Built in speakers sound nicer than a lot of TV sets, even to a decent job in “surround” sound.
I would recommend this TV to anyone.

–desertdragon

——

“Just hooked this up last night and all I can say is WOW. Love the 1080p on the PS3/Blu & HD DVD. Love the HDMI feed for my DVR. Hell, I love everything about this tv so far. I did get some of the white flickering line on SD channels like Weather Channel, but I’ve already seen there is troubleshooting tips about that several pages back.

I think I also saw a troubleshoot to get the normal SD channels to spread out full screen, I gotta get rid of my black bars too here somehow. I only get the option of standard and zoom off the remote.”

–watchtower41

——

“Well I purchased my VO47L lastnight and had it set up in minutes. I have my HD/DVR hooked up through HDMI and the HD picture looks wonderful. I am having the same problems with the white static line up top, and the yellow bar on the left. I tried the tips from earlier posts and was able to move them off the screen. There are still certain SD channels that I can see it on. Is this normal for LCD screens to have to adjust them like that at first” I know my Vizio plasma right out of the box was ready to go. Hopefully I can get this thing adjusted just right because it really is a nice set.”

–Mediademics

———–

While I am happy with my VO47L , the Blacks are definitely not “awesome”. This is the main flaw of this TV compared to its higher-priced competitors. The black levels are just not on par with the Sharps, Sonys, Samsungs, or Mitsubishis. But for 400+ $ less, you can’t expect it to match the performance of those sets. Also the sound is really subpar, but that won’t be an issue if you are using external speakers. Otherwise, the VO47L is a nice looking TV.

~monologuist

—–

Honestly this tv is awesome… Don’t listen to the contrast numbers all companys inflate these numbers for marketing. Many professional AV sites claim to not read them. The blacks, and color depth on these are awesome, great features at unbeatable price. Love the 1080p over component, I was also gonna get the Sharp D64 series then kept hearing about banding and grainy picture. Vizio tv’s panels in this model are made by LG.Philips, so nothing crappy.

My setup consists of
Vizio VO47LF
Directv HDDVR HR21 1080i (HDMI)
Toshiba A2 1080i (HDMI)
Samsung BD-1400 1080p (HDMI)
Xbox 360 1080p (Component)

Everything looks just fantastic except COD4… Only drawback, but everything else on this tv is 100% great. I don’t think alot of people know how good Vizio is until you own one.

–VizioFreak

———

k guys – I’ve had my VO47L about 24 hrs, played about 3 hrs xbox 360 on it last night, left it on from about 11am until 10pm tonight on a OTA DT channel. Had the volume muted and the wife reported hearing some cracking now and then from the general area of the TV (still have a SD TV she was watching next to it). She muted the SD and said it still was going on.

NOW, with the brightness set to anything besides 100%, I can hear a medium pitch ‘awwwwwwwww’ from the back of the set. The kicker is I can hear it from 10 FEET away on the couch with the set muted in a quiet house.

I should note DCR is ON, but if I turn it off and fiddle with the backlight setting to 100 from 50, the noise will also go away, just like increasing brightness to 100.

Bum set or just the nature of the beast?

—Damn Dirty

———-

Only one week so far but no issues. Great pic (after adjustments of course), no hum.

–Russ_Boston

———-

I have had this set for about a month now. As long as it lasts and doesn’t crap out I have to say I am very pleased so far. It corrects many of the complaints I had with earlier sets.

1) HDMI 1.3 inputs
2) 4 HDMI inputs
3) Excellent screen resolutions with 1:1 mapping at 1080P
4) Large number of adjustments for picture
5) Universal programmable remote
6) Slim profile – all in black

–Jaseball

————–

I’ve also got some uneven backlighting when the screen is black mostly in the corners but after the TV has been on awhile it evens out. Still enjoying the TV and the picture overall.

–NAMiller

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 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 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).

“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.”

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.

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:

• Fat Wallet’s GV52L discussion.
• AVS Forum GV52L owner’s discussion.
• Official Vizio GV52L website.