Vizio VF550M

I saw this set at Walmart and was very impressed with it. Beautiful picture, solid blacks, colors poped but still looked natural.

It did look great and at that price with all those bells and whistles' it looks like a great deal

I just installed it about a week ago. I would have waited until the LED models come out in the fall but my wife wanted the room finished. So far no complaints very satisfied. I only just began to experiment with the settings. I will try to update if there is anything worth mentioning.

I have hooked up my 360 and it looks great. No issues that I came across at this point. Looks better then it does on my Sony.

Here are some pictures of it set up.

I used the settings from CNET, TweakTV and UltimateAVmag. The last one looked the best to me so that is the one I use.

http://www.ultimateavmag.com/flatpan...tv/index7.html


The room is fairly dark but I still bumped the backlight up to 25.

It absolutely looks better in person. I couldn't figure out the best way (camera settings, lighting) to take the pictures. It always looked off but I guess it could be the camera too.

Thanks for sharing,

a tip for taking better photo's of the T is to turn off all the lights get about 4 feet in front of the TV and that should render a better picture of what the set can do

what did you find best for settings?

I initially used the settings I mentioned above. However recently I was not satified with the colors (green did not look right to me). So I reset and now I am quite happy with the factory Movie mode with all enhancements off and the backight down to about 25.

very glad to see a 550M thread on here.Not a popular tv,but a very good tv in my opinion.Hooked up sony ct-100 sound bar and subwoofer with digi cable.Cant get bar to turn on with set.Must select amp to turn amp on with remote.Have tv speakers off and variable selected-no go.Any suggestions? Thanx.

In the audio sub forum in the Home Theater in a Box section there is a Sony CT-100 sound bar that is VERY informative. Has tons of info and some of the guys on there such as Da Writer and beyond helpful.

Thanks for the help.As I was a reciprocating aircraft engine mechanic and not a rocket scientist I will eventually figure it out with the help of that thread.(And a hammer)

An opinion after 1 week.W/Scientific Atlanta 8300 dvr.My 550 has a very good pic.one ch has green line on left,3 ch have white lines on top.My Vizio plasma gives better SD pic.No flashlighting. NCIS has the judders with smooth motion at medium.All settings out of box except sharpness which i reset from 3 to 5.Sound better than expected.So far I would give it a 8.5 out of 10.Day 8 of 90.Will keep updates and questions coming,hope there will be some answers out there.

looking forward to those updates.

this is a contender (with certain warehouse club perks) along with the Sammy B630 but I can't seem to find it anywhere!

Got rid of H and V lines with H and V adjustments from 32 to 34 and 16 to 21.Still using out of box pic settings with the exception of backlight which I lowered to 70.Cleared pic itself somewhat by selecting 1080i on cable box (somehow reverted to 480i when I switched tv's.) Still have amp problem.Hooking up blu-ray tomorrow.Really getting to like this tv more and more,would increase rating to 8.75 out of 10.Brilliant,clear and black is black pic.

i saw this at costco and looked better to my eyes compared to led vizios

After seeing many picture"settings" I question if most everybody has Noise reduction,Color enhance,Adapt lumina,Backlite control,etc in the off position,why do the engineers put those in the menu in the first place.They are set to "on" positions out of the box.Are they set to that just for job security or do they really mean something? I have all mine as out of the box after testing various positions.

What is this tv like with Xbox 360 gaming? Both my kids and I play various games as well as will watch DVDs, and maybe even BluRay.

I am upgrading from an old tube HDTV so wondering what changes I may see. Really like the price and the features of the tv. We all play Call Of Duty, and I play sports games as well.

Anyone give me insights on this. So far most of what I see referring to this doesnt really answer the question.

u will do fine, find cheapest with good warranty

March Consumer Reports lists VF550M as #10 overall of 52" and 55", 1080 LCD and 1 of 2 bestbuys.The other being a Toshiba 52xv648u.Not to bad for a young,up and coming company.After having mine just short of 2 mos I give it a 9 out of 10.Still out of box settings except backlite to 55 and smooth motion to precision.Good tv for the money.

I saw the 550 next to the 551, and I couldn't tell the difference.

Having said that, Consumer Reports had these negatives to say about the 550.

"Dark scenes were slightly lacking in contrast. For SD, black levels were only fair-black areas of the image were too bright, and darker scenes looked unnaturally illuminated. Lacks USB port, customizable picture settings by source, auto power save, and multi-media slide-show."

You have to realize that every TV CR tested has its Highs and Lows. The 550 wouldn't be check rated if it didn't do a good job overall.

The 550 is hard to beat at its price point.

I currently have the VL420M and plan on upgrading at the end of the year to a much larger screen (see 55"). I have been looking at this and have to say that I am completely impressed with not only Vizio's product but their customer service. For the money you cannot get a better bang for the buck.

Metasin - Why do you have it hooked up via component? Do you have an older model or something? HDMI to me looks loads better to me with my Jasper core 360.

Rustedwalleye - You cant go wrong with Vizio. If you can pick one up from Costco or Sams for their extended warranty/return policy. I had issues with my first one (an XVT), called Vizio tech support and they told me to return it as it had a bad sending board. Had no questions from Costco, and got the VL420M (not as pretty as the XVT) and have loved it ever since.... Cant wait to upgrade to a 55" or better!!!

The 1st thing I looked at was "the Dark knight"
on BR.The blacks were great.I spent 2 mos visually checking PQ on all sets at all major stores,with their display settings and "V" came out the best in my opinion.So,I disagree with CR on the non contrasting blacks.The SD quality could be better,but the cable company's output probably isnt the best.The rest of their testing,I'll buy.I dont need the frills of the 551 or 552 but anyone who does,go for them.

Well, I've been doing some research and for the price it seems this is the most bang for your buck. Everyone here seems really happy.

I'm finally moving out of the stone age with my Hitachi 57f59 CRT HDTV (it still looks great! Just too big) and I wanted to stay comparable with size. I'd like to stay 52" or better and this almost seems like a slam dunk. Would anyone recommend a different set than this one? Just curious...

I am thinking of buying the Vizio VF550M at Wal-Mart but am wondering something, you know how nice the picture always looks in the store? Will my cable TV look anywhere near as good as it does in the store on an LCD? Currently have a failing 55" RPTV so need to upgrade, but seeing friends LCD TVs the picture on cable TV doesn't look as good as it does in the store. I don't know what kind of TV they have, maybe it's not 1080p or something but since this is a section is for TV discussion you guys probably can tell me if my cable TV should look good on this TV.

Usually a store has a recorded 1080p feature that all tv's get fed.The SD on the 550 is bearable from Blueridge cable and the HD is great.The store settings are set to vivid.Remember when you get it home on start up menu to select "Home" display,not "store". I look at very few SD programs so,the sd quality doesnt bother me.Plenty of hd out there.Go Vizio and see what you think.Take it back if not satisfied.

Oh yeah, I forgot to ask, this TV doesn't need any extra hardware to receive HD channels does it? Like the free ones (if they are available in my area, not sure, currently looking) that are over the air, that's what the clear QAM tuner is there for, right? Are there any examples of what I should expect on quality? I am thinking it will be like comparing blu-ray (what you see at Wal-Mart) to a standard definition DVD (our regular cable TV), is that right? Or will the quality still be lower? I need a visual example!!! :P LOL

No it doesn't need any extra hardware. to receive over the air it needs an ATSC tuner which it has. a QAM tuner is so you don't need a cable box if you don't want one. It will decode the digital signals set from the cable from the wall.

but if you do want the cable box for the guide,PPV, on-damnd etc. remember you MUST have an HD cable box

I just picked up a VF550M

I have it hooked thru my Denon AVR-790 and also have my Scientific Atlanta HD8300 (comcast) and PS3 plugged into the Denon.

I notice that when I watch FOXHD or CWHD and a few other 720p stations I have the vertical black side bars. But if I watch CBSHD, it looks fine. Does anyone know what could be going on there?

My cable box is set to receive 1080i, 720p, 480p. It shows the stations are all in 720p for the ones I am talking about.

Also what I notice is that there is a small thin line of "garbage" at the top of some of these stations, like FOXHD. If I use the TV's V-Position I can move the picture up and the garbage line goes away, but it almost looks like clipping or static just a sliver at the top of the screen.

I have the TV set to Wide Full, and the Cable Box picture format set to Fixed, but I believe I tried Auto DVI/HDMI as well.

I just want it to not show the sidebars for FOXHD and a few other 720p stations, its strange that it only does it for some.

Any help is appreciated.