When I sold my TV, I had an idea of what TV I wanted, but I didn’t have an exact plan.  I indicated that I was originally looking at the 32 inch Vizio VX32L.  However, once I actually had a decision to make, I ended up getting the larger version of the VX32L, the VX37L. I brought home the TV from Costco this past weekend, and am quite delighted with it.  I was looking to get the smaller set because of concerns I had about how the TV would look in my TV cabinet. 37 inches is as large as my cabinet can take, and I thought the TV would look outsized. I’m happy to report that it doesn’t. Before purchasing the TV, I did a fare amount of research on what I should be buying.  Even though there’s a ton of information out there, I would say it’s likely information overload and hard to decipher.  Here are my ownquick  thoughts on the TV and HDTVs in general.

HD Technology

The current crop of HD Televisions almost all support 720P, and many of the higher end models support 1080P. For those not familar with the different standards, below is a ranking of commonly found signals and their respective resolution from worst to best

  • 480i (640X480)
  • 480p (640X480) or (852X480) Widscreen
  • 720p (1280X720)
  • 1080i (1920X1080)
  • 1080p (1920X1080)

The i or p in suffix stands for interlaced or progressive. While it’s more complicated than just saying say p is better than i, it’s really as simple as progressive is better than interlaced. Most 720p TV models are like mine and have native resolution of 1366X768 which is actually higher than what’s required for 720P by a tad, but the TVs just scales things up. The VX37L also supports 1080i as a 1080i signal doesn’t require the full 1920X1080 resolution for actual display. 720p and on is what’s considered High Definition, and almost all flat panel displays are capable of this resolution currently. 480p is EDTV or Enhanced Definition TV, and generally pointless and almost completely obsolete. Other than Bluray, HD-DVD, and Sony Playstation 3 there’s very little content available for 1080p. Television broadcasts both on the cable/sattelite and over the air top out 720p and 1080i currently. Even then it’s really mostly sports programming that takes full advantage of the 720p or 1080i widscreen format.

One issue with HD TVs and one I thought would be especially true with the Vizio is question of Standard TV reception. HD TVs are not built to display standard resolution television. Most HD TVs offer a number of options of displaying SD including black bars, stretch, zoom, and panoramic. Because the aspect ratio of an HD TV is 16:9(5.333:3) vs 4:3, there’s no way to display SD TV across the entire field of the display without some compromises. Black bars just puts black in unused real estate. Streching stretches the image across the entire display causing distortion. Zoom zooms in the center of the image, and ends up cutting some of the image. Panoramic is a combination of stretch and zoom. Panoramic stretches the sides and zooms the center. Personally I find Zoom or the black bar methods best. I don’t like image distortion. Many of the reviews have given Vizio TVs poor marks in handling SDTV. I find it pretty good, but maybe because the TV I had before wasn’t that great. While I do believe many of the other more expensive brands potentially handle SDTV better by doing better job smoothing jaggies that are a result of crisper display, I found the Vizio more than adequate and comparabe if not better than the 27 inch Samsung flat tube television I sold.

Getting an HD Signal
There are basically two ways to get an HD signal either through a cable/sattelite box or off the air (OTA).  One of the reasons I picked the Vizio was because it comes with a built in HD OTA tuner, and QAM tuner for a direct cable connection sans box. The OTA tuner allows me to connect to a regular attenae and receive broadcast HD signals.  The first thing I did after buying my TV was to pickup some rabbit ears at Best Buy for $12.99, and about 5 minutes later I had free HD TV. The QAM tuner kicks when you plug in the cable or sattelite feed directly into the TV and bypass the cable box. Some cable companies have basic descrambled local HDTV signals.

Inputs
The other important consideration to make when considering a television purchase is the number and types of inputs the television has. On the Vizo VX37L there are the following inputs ranked from best to worst, and typical equipment you would connect to to each:

  • 2 HDMI - Bluray, HD-DVD, XBox, Playstation 3, Computer (DVI adapter), Cable Box
  • 2 Component - Progressive Scan DVD player, Nintendo Wii
  • 1 PC (VGA, and Audio In MiniJack) - Computer
  • 1 S Video - VCR, Standard DVD Player
  • 2 Composite - Standard DVD Player, VCR

While the Vizio has gotten praise for including 2 HDMI ports, I personally feel that 3 makes even more sense going forward. However even higher end LCDs such as the 46″ Sony Bravia only have 2 HDMI inputs.  However, many devices that can use the HDMI connection can also use the component connection.  This is true for the Playstation 3 and XBox 360, and I imagine many Bluray/HD-DVD players.  On a 720p/1080i television component is almost as good as HDMI given that component can handle anything up to 1080i.

Additionally the TV has some audio outputs for hooking up the TV to the stereo

  • Stereo Component
  • Digital Audio

Other Considerations
As you can see from the picture of the Vizio remote to the left, that’s clearly where they’ve decided to save a few bucks.  Good choice as I don’t really care for fancy remotes.  Besides, most of the time my satellite remote serves as the primary remote, and even when it’s not I generally prefer a basic remote that puts more advanced functionality in a menu driven system. I’ve found the menus on the the Vizio easy to understand and navigate. The Vizio even stores individual display settings for each input which is definitely a plus. Still, the most important function of the television is to display a quality image. I’m not a videophile, so my needs are basic. I think about clarity, color, and viewing angle. On all these fronts I’m pretty happy with the Vizio. One of the biggest question for all flat panel displays is a question of how black is black? The blackness of a screen is probably the most difficult aspect to compare at store (especially a warehouse like Costco) as there is too much light. While I’m sure the $10,000 plus pioneer models are better, I’m adequately satisfied with my Vizio.