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220 of 226 people found the following review helpful.
HDTV for the "rest of us"
By William H. Thomas
Although I work in a technical field and love all the new gadgets and gizmos as they come out, I consider myself on the "trailing edge" of technology. That is, I don't buy the new stuff until it drops considerably in price, whether it be GPS, I-Pods, or HDTV's.Even this season, with my 42 inch rear projection CRT TV (bought used for $200), I wasn't ready to make the jump to HDTV. My satellite service is in Standard Def, and just saw no reason to go to HDTV....yet.Well, my trusty 42 inch decided to take a permanent vacation and without a lot of cash (read zero....) budgeted for a new TV, and two teenagers in the house (which elevates TV from a luxury to a necessity), I went about looking for a cheap "interim" TV that would fill in the gap.Off to WalMart with little or no expectations and I started pricing around.I live in a small apartment, and although I was initially was hell bent to not go below 42 inches, my lack of liquid assets quickly told me that 42 inches was a bit above my price range.I found this TV on sale for $398.00. The picture blew away anything else in it's size and price range. And being almost 300.00 cheaper than a comparable 42 inch model, I decided to eat my pride and save some green.Like others here, I find the whole "eco/green" crap a little out of control, but in the case of this TV the whole ECO thing does two things.1. The TV is amazingly light. At just over 24 lbs with the stand, this TV is a joy to move around compared to that 42" tank.2. The TV is EXTREMELY energy efficient. At approx 85W operating and .33W standby (thanks to a slightly annoying amber VIZIO logo that can't be turned off without unplugging....), my kids blow more electricity going to the bathroom than I spend watching my favorite DVD.The fact that this TV is energy efficient is great, but if the picture is lousy, then it don't mean jack. I mean a TV that I won't watch because it looks like garbage is great on energy efficiency because it's off!!!Thankfully this is not the case. With a 15000:1 Dynamic Contrast Ratio and a pretty nice Viewing angle this TV is perfect for my small Apartment Living Room. In fact moving out that 42 inch rear projection on favor of this box actually makes the Living Room look less crowded.Now some of you may think that 32 inches for a living room is too small, but considering most of us were singing the praises of the "mighty" 27" TV 10 years ago, saying 32" is now too small is a bit disengenuous.But for larger rooms, you will find yourself spoiled and wish you had a bigger screen. But for my apartment, it's just about perfect.The one thing I didn't expect is the enhanced DVD viewing performance. Due to the 4:3 contrast ratio of my 42" TV, when I watched widescreen DVD's the actual usable picture size on my old TV was less than the what I get on the 32". So now my DVD's are actually "larger" on my "smaller" TV.On to HD....Being raised on Standard Def, I thought the hype surrounding HD was just that...Hype....WRONG!!!For 15 bucks I picked up a cheap "wall mount" antenna that I can use to pick up "off the air" HD broadcasts to watch my weekend football, and all I can say is HOLY COW!!!! Even with the smaller picture, the clarity and detail in HD broadcasts just makes the picture jump out.Overall, I am shocked at how much I love this TV. It is small enough to transport home without trouble, light enough to place on a cheap 15 dollar TV stand, and the picture is outstanding.What started out being an "interim" TV for the time being, just may be my size of choice for as long as I live here. At 32" the TV is certainly big enough for comfortable viewing, but not so large as to overshadow the rest of the living room.At $400 this TV easily falls into the "best bang for the buck" category for HDTV's of any size. Smaller screens just won't cut it for a family room of any size at all, and the price savings is not worth it. 37 inch models are not too common so your choices are limited in this area. The next "common" size is 42" and will easily run you almost double. Also, if you do go to 42" or higher, if you have DVD's or still some "standard def" cable/satellite, the imperfections of standard def will be that much more noticable on a larger screen.The instruction manual and quick setup guide are very well written, and you will have this TV setup in no time. The TV has a myriad of ways to connect up to various video sources, including two HDMI ports, Component Video, Svideo, SVGA, and coaxial. It even has an audio out that you can output to a set of amplified speakers or inexpensive surround system.One last thing to keep in mind. This TV is 720P and upscales to 1080i. This is the default resolution of all OTA HD broadcasts. 1080P is used mainly for PS3 and Blueray, plus a few Video on Demand services. So unless you are into Blueray, or PS3, 1080P would be a waste of money for you. Add this to the fact that, as others have mentioned, your ability to differentiate 1080P and 720P on a set of this size is negligible.In short, if you are looking for a great looking TV for your bedroom or your apartment/condo living room, you really can't go wrong with this model. Especially at this price point.The combination of Size, Picture Quality, Features, and Price make this as close to a must buy product as I can remember in a long time.Tremendous Value.
155 of 170 people found the following review helpful.
Considerable Improvements to the Earlier Models With an Economy Price
By Kyle Slayzar
OK, first let me just get the ecology-friendly "green" crap out of the way, which we probably do not care much about anyway since we just wanna watch the game/movie/show. The new Vizio eco-lines consume roughly 85 watts while running (.33 in standby), which is somewhat less than its predecessors. This will marginally, if at all, effect your electric bill (the switch over from plasma to LCD will save you enough as is), but you can sleep better at night knowing your new green television will save the rainforest for .000000000001 more seconds - that should give the animals plenty of time to duck and cover when the bulldozers come in.OK, that crap aside, the new Vizio Eco-Line is a considerable improvement over previous models, which were specifically designed for economy and not so much performance. Vizio has done the unthinkable and focused on performance all the while lowering the costs to just about nothing allowing us mere mortals the opportunity (finally!) to purchase a strong 32 screen at a price we can afford. Now keep in mind that the standard resolution on the Vizios is still 720p and not 1080p (see Vizio's Java Series if you want a 32-inch in 1080p)) so it's not true-high definition. The product description states 1080i, but remember that it is only a simulated up-conversion (hence the "i" for interlaced) so it's not all that important. Besides, most human eyes cannot differentiate 1080p in 37-inch screens on down anyway since the resolution is too highly compacted on smaller screens.Now, the Eco-Line sports a considerably higher contrast ratio (15,000 dynamic) compared to the older models capping out around 2,000. Now, I know contrast ratio is arbitrary to the corporation making the screen, however, they do remain consistent within said companies so a switch from 2,000-15,000 is a quantum leap in quality. The differences between darks and brights is a lot more apparent, giving the picture more differentiation between the colors and presenting a more accurate picture for audiences. The hertz is still 60 Hz over the more popularized 120 Hz, but again, it's a 32' and not a 47' or a 55'.Now, the 32 Eco-Line Vizio does sport the usual refinements of its predecessors. My personal favorite is how it kept the scratch and impact-resistant screen cover. It can withstand anything short of a direct hit (and no, that is NOT a challenge) from babies throwing small objects to light impact from moving it around. This feature makes the Vizio line a favorite among families with little ones in the house.Vizio also still retains the bragging right of being one of the (VERY) few television makes still making them in the US. Granted the parts are made in China, but the final products are assembled and finished hear. Sony, Samsung, and Philips still make theirs in Mexico while everyone else pays tribute to the communists.All in all, the new Vizios have received very positive feedback from the customers I've spoken with whether it was their picture quality, durability and longevity, or the darn fine price. Vizio has leaped over Sony and Samsung in sales as well as achieved the best-buy title from Consumer Report for several years running and is expected to do so if they keep this trend up.A great buy!
41 of 43 people found the following review helpful.
Good picture in store
By Richard H. Martin
That title has two meanings. This bargain 720p HDTV can be made to display a very good picture, but not if you 'obey' Vizio's instruction manual. You will pay a big penalty if you fall for Vizio's green marketing baloney.It appears that all TV manufacturers adjust their picture controls at the factory to make their displays stand out in a lineup on a shelf in the store. Often that creates a picture which at home is inaccurate, too bright, too contrasty, over sharpened, etc. Thus any new TV must be 'calibrated' to produce a picture that correctly reproduces the video signal it receives. Sure enough, Vizio does that with the VO320E too. But that makes it draw more current. So during the initial setup routine the manual advises you to select the "Home Mode" rather than "Retail Mode," to "give you the opportunity to save energy." It says nothing about any effect on picture quality. So, good (and penny-pinching) citizen that I am, I dutifully punched in Home Mode before proceeding, a few days later, with calibrating the set using the Digital Video Essentials (DVE) system. When I finished the picture indeed looked pretty good... at night in a very dimly lit room. But in daylight it was lousy--dim, dull, and washed out. An unpleasant surprise, since a review of inexpensive LCDs in the October, 2009 issue of Consumer Reports had graded the VO320E's picture as "excellent." By then I had forgotten about that "Home"/"Retail" toggle, which doesn't appear in the VO320E's regular picture-tuning menus. After considerable fussing with brightness, contrast, color and other controls, often in flagrant violation of what DVE advised, I was about ready to return the set--which I bought for our brightly illuminated kitchen--when I realized that, duh, a little more juice might make a difference. And it did--a big difference. But I wish that Visio would admit the dirty trick they used in order to put "ECO" in the VO320E's name.So, set it up in the "Retail" mode and the VO320 (I presume that eliminates the "E") will indeed deliver an excellent picture. Not up to the quality of a 46" 1080p 120 or 240 Hz set, but fine for a second or third TV, and costing much less. It is light, easy to mount on a wall, and visually attractive--surprisingly unobtrusive for its size, and a thin strip of chrome along its bottom edge adds a neat touch of class. Vizio is to be commended for providing a printed 67-page manual that is all in (reasonably clear and non-geeky) English--although it does not manufacture the VO320E in the United States as another reviewer claims (at least my set says it was made in China). The 'calibration' process (Vizio calls it "fine tuning") is simple and straight forward, at least if you don't try to use DVE, and most of the controls' default settings proved to be nearly correct when checked with DVE's test patterns--I had to change "Color" from 50 to 45 to get a fair calibration using DVE's red, green and blue filters, and reduce "Sharpness" from 4 to 1 (but I subsequently decided that a tad more sharpening gave the picture a little more pizzazz, despite what DVE concluded).I hesitate to gripe about sound quality in a TV as small and inexpensive as this, but since no other Amazon reviewer has as yet done so, here goes. Plan to hook the VO320E up to some other audio device if you possibly can (fortunately, we had an old Bose CD player on a table in the same corner of the kitchen). You can turn off the VO320E's tinny little speakers, and the "Analog Audio Out" control can be set to "Variable," allowing the TV volume and mute controls to regulate an external audio device (a convenience that my much fancier HDTV in the family room lacks). There is even an equalizer included among the audio controls--a welcome feature since the VO320E's audio amplifier distorts badly, apparently in an attempt to compensate for the shortcomings of its speakers.For its price, this is a fine 32-inch HDTV. Were it not for Vizio's Eco-prevarication, and the tinny sound, both of which are easily overcome, I would give it five stars.
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