Official Vizio XVT3Dxx0CM 21:9 CinemaWide Owner's Thread - Page 3

When Costco says 5-10 business days, they sure mean it. This Monday it'll be day 10 since I bought the TV and I still haven't heard from them but the tracking notice says they will call me any day now to arrange for delivery. Guess I should clear my schedule for Monday already, but I'm pretty sure this is going past day 10.

Well, the TV updated itself several times since my last post. As with your drop outs, mine were random as well. Your 1 drop out is a lot better than me. Mine dropped at least 4 -5 times before the updates. After the updates, I noticed 1 drop out in the last movie I watched. Funny thing is when I watch online streaming a la Netflix, the drop outs occurred noticeably less frequently than through HDMI-connected devices.

I am beginning to think that the Cinemawide were released half-baked and not ready for prime time. For example, the online manual has different viewing modes listed for Cinemawide than actual. I think Vizio is sensitive to criticism for not releasing their products as promised, i.e. Cinemawide was showcased more than two years ago and promised to be released last year, and rushed to release Cinemawide not quite ready. I am hoping and believe Vizio will release more firmeware for Cinemawide that will fix the issues. This TV is their "halo" product and I am sure Vizio wouldn't want their reputation to get damaged.

Still loving this thing about as much as I hate it. This is the most confusing display I have ever owned and the jury is still out!

My biggest issue really is just the size. My thinking is if you go all the way and make a Cinema Wide 21:9 display you might as well go all out and make it huge. With 16:9 material its a 46" display and that is barely BIG screen territory. If they had introduced the 71" version first this thing would have some serious BLING factor. With 16:9 material it would be officially big and for CinemaScope it would be mind boggling.

Interesting...I looked at the online manual. Interesting and I don't think mine came with a full manual and I did not think anything of it. My last Samsung I bought has a manual built into the TV and did not come with one either. Only the quick start guide is all mine came with. The online manual shows an additional picture mode called Panoramic. Mine does not have this at least over HDMI and I tried 480P and all the others. Not sure what it does but it may be non anamorphic DVD friendly mode I am looking for. I wonder if its available only through Component input? I don't see why it would be limited in this fashion though!

I did watch MIB3 and no dropouts occurred during that movie. I hope to really put it through its paces this week and make a final decision next week. I am kind of stuck since I sold my 60" Sharp display and anything else at this size or larger is considerably more expensive. I did order an Oppo 103 player so I can try out the 3D and the Oppo players have non anamorphic DVD scaling built in. At a different Costco I visited yesterday they were running this display on a separately and had a 3D movie playing. I tried the 3D in the Costco store and it looked pretty darn good. Very little if any loss in brightness and the 3D had a lot of pop. The loss in resolution was not noticeable from 8' back or more. So I got a taste of 3D on this display but in my own home in a dark room will be the true test.

If this display does not work out I am leaning towards the 60" Samsung 7000 Series or if Costco ever gets them back in maybe the 65" Samsung 6500 series. I am quickly finding out that I don't trust Vizio. I did not back in 2008 and I don't now in 2012. I should have turned away as soon as I spotted the Vizio name on this display. However I found the 21:9 aspect ratio something I wanted to try.

Well here is yet another opinion or view on the Vizio Cinemawide:

For me this TV size is a dream come true. For past two years I have owned a Sony HX800 LED LCD with 3D. The Sony 3D has always been marginal in 3D with the overblown brightness revealing the cloudiness that the local dimmed LED function usually hides. This makes anamorphic 3D films have bright bars or corners which are distracting. The set is also unable to zoom in on this content (I hate black bars so I usually zoom in on all films). The crosstalk has always made 3D kind of lame with video games impossible to stomach. Finally, the glasses are uncofortable and are battery hungry - we have 6 pairs and one or more always need new batteries even when we only watch a couple of hours a month of 3D movies. Other than this the Sony is a great TV in regular content.

The Vizio picture quality in 2D is just as good as the Sony, but 16:9 content is smaller. I wish Vizio had a geometry correct zoom for 16:9 in order to get a bigger feel but its not such a big deal to me since I care more for Blu Ray film content. It is here the TV shines. So far I have watched a handful of movies and they all played without any issues. The Dark Knight was a bit of a pain when it switched aspect ratios from 16:9 back to widescreen as it took about a second or two to go full screen (widescreen to 16:9 was seamless). I dont particularly care for this effect in my old Sony either though I will admit it was less distracting. Screen uniformity and color/tint after calibration are a bit better with the Vizio, but there is a tad of DSE in this panel that I do not see in the Sony. There is however no smearing, corner bleed/flash lighting or other problems that I have noticed so far.

In 3D the Vizio is absolutely fantastic. I remember being a bit concerned with the 'resolution drop' that I must admit is discernible in all of the passive sets I have sampled ( at viewing distances equal to or larger than my 8 feet). I was prepared to take a hit and live with the bit of horizontal lines but to my surprise I saw none or at least nowhere near as noticeable as with the other passive sets. It may be that the added pixel density slightly offsets this - dont know. The picture is brighter with colors/tint virtually unchanged compared to using the active Sony . Crosstalk is non-existant I can now play wipeout and other PS3 games without issues. With the Sony I had to have my head fixed as any slight leaning would make crosstalk worse not so with the Vizio. Viewing is also more comfortable with the lighter glasses. 3D is killer on this set - I am sold on passive don care what anyone else says.

There it is as I see it. I also debated going with a 65 or 70 inch set but remember that even though a 65 might give you a same size picture, your pixel density will be smaller so that might make a difference to you. If I end up keeping it (and most likely I will) I may pick up a second set for a back up for fear of not finding another set with this aspect ratio.

I think 2560x1080 over DVI may require dual link - I know the input on Dell's U2913HM monitor (also 2560x1080) is dual link. As far as I know you can't pass a dual link DVI signal to HDMI using a conventional adaptor, you'd need an expensive professional converter.
Has anyone tried to see if it can take 2560x1080 from a GPU they know supports 2560x1080 over HDMI (ie. many Kepler-based nVidia boards, not sure about AMD)? All the cases I've heard of either don't specify the GPU and connection used, or they used something other than HDMI, so I haven't heard a conclusive answer on this yet.

 

 

Hey dad1153, anything yet?  

Mine will be arriving tomorrow. I plan to use it primarily as a computer monitor so I can use it for games and occasionally 21:9 3d movies. It will be replacing my current 52" samsung. I was hoping to use HDMI to get the full resolution (2560x1080) from my computer, but I might have to use dual-link DVI. I'll post an update with my findings as soon as I get it hooked up.

It worries me how little information this is on this TV. Very few youtube videos or professional reviews. I hope it works for the primary reason I got it (PC gaming/desktop use at 2560x1080).

I will probably do a full unboxing/lengthy youtube review as there isn't one on there yet. I want to try to support this type of TV, so if I can help people decide if this TV is right for them and support the sales/support of this TV I will.

The way Vizio already had a massive discount for this TV also makes me wonder how long they will continue to support this model and 21:9 in general.
Edited by rogershomework - 12/11/12 at 8:34pm

Watched the movie Ted on Blu Ray tonight witch is a 1:85:1 16:9 movie (Funny movie BTW). This time I put the TV in the fixed 16:9 mode and not Auto because I did not want the CinemaScope trailers auto expanding this time and ruining the experience for the Flat movie. One thing I noticed was mild letter boxing on the top and bottom of the movie once past the opening scene. It's likely a simple case of framing in the 16:9 image and not much of a concern. The film is 1:85:1 and if memory serves 16:9 is 1:78:1 so some films filmed in Flat format will still be mildly letter boxed. If it is bothersome you have the option to manually zoom the image plus 10% (or other increments) on the tops and sides to fill the image in if you so desire but I did not bother. It would be nice though to have the option within the fixed 16:9 mode to mildly overs scan like some displays. For example on my Samsung LCD's on a movie like Ted I can see the mild letter boxing in Just Scan but not in 16:9 mode with hardly any noticeable loss in PQ. This is pretty common feature on most 16:9 displays now days. It appears the fixed 16:9 option is set for pixel by pixel with no other option. This is not a bad thing and yields the best possible picture but a simple option to zoom slightly would be nice. Now again you can manually zoom witch achieves the same thing and its rather flexible but it requires additional time and steps to accomplish. It also saves the changes so you have to go back and manually undue it.

The big issue mentioned before is the video drop outs but wish to share new info. I thought for sure it was an issue with the auto zoom mode used for CinemaScope movies causing the issue. However during Ted I had experienced 3 drop outs in the Fixed 16:9 mode. The first one happened about an hour into the movie and it was a violent drop out with a flash of green displayed for a split second. It lasted maybe 1 whole second witch is definitely noticeable and distracting. The 2nd one happened about 2 minutes later and was the exact same. I swear I hear a high pitched squeal when it happens. Sort of reminds me what you get when you pull the plug out of the wall on a CRT display back in the day. The 3rd drop out occurred towards the end of the movie about a half hour after the 1st two. Really finding this odd and almost unheard of these days. In the past it was always blamed on bad HDMI cables but the problem sort of went away in later generation displays. I tend to believe its a firmware issue more then anything else. I am however replacing my HDMI cables when I install my 3D Blu Ray player in the coming day (s). So maybe perhaps the issue will go away after doing so?

I think this display is now starting to grow on me. Been looking around and really for the movie buff this thing is a dream come true. For giggles I looked at the Samsung 75" Display at my local BB. Its a sexy beast that also cost more then I got so no contender. It was cool for Full Screen 16:9 display mode but for CinemaScope stuff it lost a lot of Bling in my opinion. With the CinemaWide display you get the exact opposite and once you experience this its hard to go back to a regular 16:9 display especially if you are a movie fan (like Me). My only real issue at this point is Vizio should have made it larger by starting with the 71" version and the system bugs are a real disappointment in an otherwise great display. I would sure hate to have to return it and go back to a 16:9 display but this is likely if the bugs are not addressed. If the new HDMI cables don't do the trick I will open a case with Vizio. It seems such a bug would be easily addressed.

Anyone here not experiencing drop outs by any chance? I believe I read over at CNet this is a common problem but it might be worth while to try and exchange it to see if that solves the problem.

Are you running it through a receiver? Does you receiver have built-in up-scaling/optimizations? It might be possible that the TV doesn't like the upconverted/messed with signal from the receiver. Have you tried hooking it up to the TV directly as a test?

What graphics board are you planning to use?

I am currently running through the receiver. The receiver is set on By-Pass so in theory the signal passes through the receiver unmolested. I suppose it could be some kind of signal strength issue but never had this kind of trouble before so I doubt its that. Also I did go direct from a different blu ray player earlier in the week and noticed a drop out as well. So even direct the drop outs occur blowing that theory. Only thing I need to check on is the style of drop out. What I am experienced with Ted tonight was a complete loss of signal for a second except audio. Another style has happened when in Auto mode and watching a CinemaScope movie. A few times I have had the picture collapse to 16:9 mode for a second resulting in a pillar box situation with CinemaScope material. I can't remember if the drop out was complete or just a collapse when going direct player to display. I can easily wire in another Blu Ray player and test over the coming days and post my findings.

Nvidia GTX 680. It has two dvi, display port and hdmi output.

The graphics board should be fine then, like other Kepler-based boards GTX 680 is supposed to be able to do 4096x2160 (I'd assume p24) over HDMI and some people have run 2560x1440 monitors off the HDMI ports of other Kepler based boards - it's useful with many laptops that lack displayport or DVI. I remember one guy saying he needed an HDMI 1.4A cable to do it - not sure if ordinary HDMI 1.4 cables would work too.

The real question is whether the TV can take that kind of input, so I'll be interested to hear your experience.

DVI to HDMI probably won't work - I know it doesn't work for 2560x1440 because that needs dual link DVI and DVI to HDMI adaptors only do single link.

Not yet. Costco shipping was supposed to take 7-10 days and it's day 12 now. Still not even a call to set-up a time/day to receive the set even though it's been on a warehouse in Jersey (per tracking) for days now. I'm not worried about losing my money or exchanging the set if I don't like it (Costco's reputation is solid) but I'm not a happy camper.

Just got mine tonight. First impressions were not very good. The main reason I got this model was because it stated the resolution was 2560x1080. I was hoping to hook it up to my computer and use that resolution for gaming and desktop use at that res, but it seems like this TV won't accept its native resolution. It only wants to accept 1080p which results in black bars on both sides of the screen. With the nvidia control panel, I am able to create a custom resolution and set it to 2560x1080, but it doesn't display it correctly. It is very blurry and it originally displays a smaller screen (animorphic aspect ratio with black bars around the entire thing). It than automatically zoomed (like it does with animorphic movies) but when it did that it looked terrible. It was very blurry/impossible to read.

My 2 year old 52" Samsung LCD tv looks 80% better on the computer and in movies. I do admit, watching 21:9 movies on this set is very impressive. Star was and lord of the rings was very cool..

So it looks like I will be reselling it. The 3d works pretty well, but the uneven backlight and bad overall picture quality doesn't justify the cost. My specific TV also has a bright line that is very noticeable when using 3d. It's also noticable sometimes with 2D content.

Rating:
Picture quality: 3/10
Sound quality (not that it matters): 5/10
Features/Usability: 2/10


Now that I have one, I'd be more than happy to run test/take pcitures or answer any questions you may have about the set. As of now I can't really recommend the set to anybody due to the picture quality
Edited by rogershomework - 12/12/12 at 9:56pm

@rogershomework

This is using an HDMI to HDMI connection I take it?

Yes, HDMI to HDMI (high speed cable). I have tried it in a normal port and port 3 which is labeled HDMI-3/DVI. I'll try an HDMI to DVI cable in port 1 and port 3. I'm pretty sure I understand how the TV does 21:9. I did find it interesting I am noticing things in movies I've never noticed before. For example, I never noticed the squares around the ships in star wars in some scenes:





The more I use this TV for animorpihc movies the more I am impressed with the quality. Than I hit a darker scene, or a scene with dark and bright areas and it just kills it for me

Edit: I tried a dual-link HDMI to DVI cable and got the same results. The TV model is detected correctly by the computer. I am fairly confident the tv chipset that handles incoming video doesn't allow anything besides the standard resolutions (720 and 1080).
Edited by rogershomework - 12/12/12 at 11:07pm

Anyone else having picture quality issues?

To be fair, I haven't really done very much calibrating. Still, I am pretty confident the quality issues I am having are due to the edge-lit/uneven backlight and the lower quality panel itself rather than the slightly modified calibration. Stock calibration seemed very bad for me though I did notice that I can't see the squares at all on my normal computer monitor, so my tv is nowhere near to spec with brightness/contrast. The biggest annoyance for me is a wierd color effect that shows up in alot of scenes. The best way I can describe it is it looks like the gamma is too high. it's like it's not capable of displaying all the colors correctly in certain scenes.

I will try a VGA connection as that is technically the "computer" connection. Hopefully that will unlock the full resolution of the screen, though I'm not sure if a VGA cable can even support 2560x1080.
Edited by rogershomework - 12/13/12 at 8:24am

Believe it or not, VGA can actually do 3840x1024, so 2560x1080 should be easy. And the manual section about hooking up a PC actually says to use VGA and set your monitor to 2560x1080 - so I hope it works! (Even if it means you won't have HDCP support...)

If that also fails, you can always try something really esoteric like using Picture-outside-picture (side by side) mode running an HDMI input and a VGA input (manual says you can't do POP with dual HDMI...) and set custom reses of 1280x1080 for each output from the computer - but I have the feeling that would run into some kind of issue, be it scaling or different amounts of input lag or whatever, not to mention the issues with getting games to run on such a setup.

I tried VGA with the same results. It will only let me select 1920x1080. Forcing 2560x1080 didn't help either. I contacted vizio and the rep I spoke to claimed he just hooked up one of their computers that is setup for this to this model and it worked correctly and looked good using a VGA cable. What I find strange is that the computer is detecting the model of the TV correctly but not the resolutions it supports. The vizio rep told me I should contact the manufacturer of the computer (which was me in this case) to see what they can do as the TV should accept that resolution if you set it correctly on your computer. I did have to use a DVI to VGA adapter in my case, so I guess that could be part of the problem? I find that hard to believe.

Still, I gotta give props to the vizio support. Got in right away to US based support rep and he at least seemed to know what I was talking about and wasn't afraid to contact a senior rep when he needed information he didn't have.

Edit: I tried straight VGA from a laptop and got the same results. I'm not sure if the Vizio rep was pulling my leg or didn't realize he was stretching a normal 1920x1080 signal. Either way, stretching should not be required if the TV can actually display its rated resolution. I've read that other 21:9 TV owners are trying 2560x1080 at 50hz with better success. It didn't work for me

I'll have the vizio rep make sure he isn't stretching it and actually check what the TV says the resolution is in the menu when I call them tomorrow. I'm really giving this TV every possible chance for this to work, but it doesn't want to work as it should. I would obviously much rather keep this TV than resell it, but if I can't get this to work that will be the deal breaker for me.
Edited by rogershomework - 12/13/12 at 10:16pm

I don't think it's the adaptor, the GTX 680 is rated for 2048x1536 - high than 2560x1080 in terms of actual pixels - and nobody offers GTX 680s that don't require an adaptor to use VGA!

And I don't think the 2560 horizantal pixels thing is the cause either, everyone just rates for 2048x1536 because it has the highest pixel count of the resolution standards VGA supports. Early widescreen monitors like the Sony FW900 (2304X1440) and multimonitor adaptors like the original analog Matrox TripleHead2Go (3840X1024) supported resolutions wider than 2048x1536 with no problems.

Assuming Vizio is telling the truth about having tested the 2560X1080 over VGA thing - and I would hope so given that the manual talks about it supporting this - then I think you really need to talk to someone who knows a thing or two about forcing custom resolutions on Nvidia boards. Unfortunately, that person isn't me.

I know how to force resolutions in the nvidia control panel. It's pretty simple actually. When I force 2560x1080 it just shows a small picture on the screen with black bars around the whole thing.
Edited by rogershomework - 12/13/12 at 10:31pm

Sorry, I didn't explain that well. If the GPU is only detecting the TV as 1920X1080, it might be scaling 2560x1080 to 1920x1080 before output - the OSD on the TV might say what it's receiving.

If that's the case, you're going to need to force an output resolution as opposed to a rendering resolution, which as I understand it is a more complicated process.

Well, further tinkering with the TV only further confirms my suspicion that the Cinemawide was released half-baked.

I figured out what Zoom 1 and 2 does. It's for 4:3 image. Zoom 1 take anamorphic 4:3 image and correctly stretches out to 16:9 image. Zoom 2 is a straight 16:9 zoom of 4:3 image. This tells me that the zoom modes are for 16:9 TV, not 21:9 Cinemawide. I am thinking that Vizio took a shortcut by taking 16:9 TV firmware and slapped it in the Cinemawide, with Auto Mode only being truly designed for Cinemawide. This would explain why the actual viewing modes differ from those listed in the manual. The firmware currently in Cinemawide is not designed for it other than the Auto Mode.

Also I got another update. It seems like I get an update every other time I turn on the TV and access VIA, which further confirms that Vizio is still developing the Cinemawide firmware. I just hope Vizio finish the job and don't leave us hanging.

Finally, after 14 days on the road from California, my 58' Vizio arrived today. Haven't time for a thorough check-up (I'm readying myself to go to work) but so far so good. Please excuse the crap quality of my pics, they're from an HP Touchpad tablet (only camera handy).

Costco delivery guy dropped the thing on the first floor. Had to drag it though the elevator all the way up to my floor.



My good ol' Olevia 747i in the back with its new kid brother still in diapers.



The stand was a pain in the butt to set-up but I was trying to put it on backwards. An extra pair of hands would have been nice but I was able to set-it up on my own. A Blu-ray case of "Metropolis" to give you an idea of what the size of this TV is.


Just had time to hook up an antenna to test the regular HD and SD channels. Regular OTA looks fine on this TV and the built-in 30 watts speakers (not as manly as the 747i's 50W speakers) are solid. And it might be anathema for a purist to say this but, on first impression, the fill-the-screen CinemaWide mode looks pretty good with regular OTA channels.



Over the weekend comes the acid tests: "Dexter" episodes from Showtime on Demand, a ton of SD/HD content (from 1:33:1 to anamorphic widescreen content with everything in-between) and, over the coming weeks, old and new videogame systems to test the TV's alleged 5m lag. Unfortunately I can't upgrade my PS3 to play 3D Blu-rays and I don't have a thumb drive (or the money to get one) so that's gonna have to wait. I also can't log on to my Wifi connection because I've forgotten my own password but it's not like this is a Samsung SmartTV. But I would like the Vizio HDTV to have the latest updates. Stay tuned.
Edited by dad1153 - 12/14/12 at 2:59pm

It's being delivered tomorrow. My Panasonic DMP BDT-500 arrived yesterday. I'm all set to run to run 3D and retain the use of my Onkyo TX-SR876. I thought it would be wise to grab the panasonic over the sony S790 being that it has analog outs. I haven't had any problems with my 876's HDMI board, but it seems to be an issue and if does go out I can at least limp by using the multichannel analog inputs on the receiver. I'll post some pics tomorrow.

I just got done talking with Vizio again. After about 45 minutes of "troubleshooting" the rep I spoke with basically said "well its not going to work the way you want it to". Which is the complete opposite of what the other rep told me so that is a load of BS. This rep didn't seem to know what she was talking about. It says right in the manual that you hook up a VGA cable and set the resolution to 2560x1080. If you are not able to do that with this set, why is it in the manual. She claimed I should try to set it to 1920x1080 on my comptuer and the tv will "upscale it". I'm like, uh no, going from 16x9 to 21x9 isn't upscaling, that's stretching.

I'm going to try to call back again tomorrow and hopefully get a little more competent rep. She wouldn't let me talk to a senior rep. She says they are "really only for internal use". She had no clue what I was talking about when I asked whether she could confirm that an nvidia video card or AMD card worked at 2560x1080. She also claimed this is the first time she's ever heard of someone hooking up a computer to this set. Either she hasn't worked there for very long or I call BS.

Seems to me this TV was rushed to market or they never fixed the firmware bugs. The TV should not say 2560x1080 on the front of it if its not capable of running at that resolution. Stretching 1920x1080 onto 2560x1080 is not equal to 2560x1080. Needless to say, I am very upset that vizio dropped the ball on this one.

As of now, I would not recommend this TV to anybody mainly due to the quality of the panel/uneven backlight. I am not overly impressed with the quality after calibrating it and their support rep's lack of knowledge about the TV doesn't help matters. This is supposed to be their flagship/premium model, but I can't help but be severely disappointed with this set.

Thanks for contributing your time to take the pictures dad1153, this owners thread was really needing those. Kind of a shame that one of the first images you get on the set is about such a horrible act.

The manual says to set the resolution of the computer to output at TV's native resolution of 2560x1080. Obviously this is not the case. I believe the manual shows the planned specification and capability of Cinemawide.

I am leaning toward Vizio rushing TV to the market without fully developing firmware specific to Cinemawide but slapdashly sticking in slightly modified firmware for their 16:9 TVs. It seems to me that the current capability of the TV is dictated/restricted by the firmware designed for 16:9 TV, i.e., zoom modes suited for 16:9 TV, accepted computer resolution limited to 16:9 ratio. Hopefully, Vizio will come through and give us a firmware that does what's promised in the manual.

It was shots of the news of the day or some SD stretched infomercial or old B&W TV show. Literally every major HD channel in the NYC area was wall-to-wall coverage of that horrendous incident in CT.