Vizio E601-A3 Owners Thread - Page 15

Another good review from home theater. http://www.hometheater.com/content/vizio-e601i-a3-lcd-hdtv

fyi..the first set i purchased had some bad bleeding,especially at the bottom left corner as well an area just right of center. i returned that for a second set at bj's which was much better. not perfect, but minimal even with the tv on with no input. i guess the amount of bleeding is set specific.

greg

Wow this set just sounds better and better to me all the time. Hopefully I'll own one soon enough:)

Amazon dropped their price today. But it's only by $50. I still have my doubts this set will be one of their lightning deals. But $949.99 is pretty good. And I thought Amazon did an excellent job with the delivery.

After I hung my TV, I purchased the vizio soundbar w/ subwoofer from Coscto for $199 about 2 weeks ago. I'll get some pictures when I get off of work in the morning. I'm not an audiophile by any means, but I like its practicality. I just wanted decent sound from cable/movies/sports/music so this fit my needs perfectly. I have some holes I need to patch where I tried to mount the sound bar but the space was tight between the sound bar and the wall. I think it still looks nice placed on a TV stand.

Thanks Sonnyboy, I found this tidbit most pleasing... .

Just to be clear- I'm Sonnyboy... HE'S Sonyboy!

LOL! I was just about to post about this. When I first saw your name, I had to do a double take!

I've had this TV for a few days and wanted to drop some notes (also my settings, which I had to tweak a bunch to get working):
First off, its a generally nice TV. Relatively matte screen, the apps are nice (I primarily just use Netflix and a bit of Youtube). Probably the WORST part of this TV is the sound -- it is AWFUL. I hooked it up to an old stereo of mine, did some tweaking with the audio, and now its pretty decent, but the built-in speakers are among the worst I've ever heard.

Now, onto the pics: my set had a lot of clouding -- it seems to be minimized (as others have noted) by dropping the backlight down to 53 or less. The default picture settings are pretty bleh -- you will need to do some tweaking to get the pictures nicer. The CNET settings resulted in a really dull picture. Also, the default tint seemed a little on the green side (also noted), so you might need to tweak the colors a bit towards the red to offset this. I tend to like my pictures on the warmer, higher color saturation side, so here are my settings for watching HD cable (a combo of other suggestions here in this thread with some of my own tweaks):

Picture: Movie
Backlight: 53
Brightness: 40
Contrast: 100
Color: 80
Tint: -3
Sharpness: 0
Color Temperature: Normal
Red Gain: 104
Green Gain: 115
Blue Gain: 130
Red Offset: 129
Green Offset: 130
Blue Offset: 132
Smooth Motion Effect: Off
Noise Reduction: Off
MPEG NR: Off
Color Enhancement: Rich Color
Adaptive Luma: Off
Film Mode: Off
Backlight Control: Off
Ambient Light Sensor: Off

... and since I connected to an external stereo setting, my audio:
Audio Mode: Flat
Balance: 0
Lip Sync: 0
TV Speakers: Off
SRS StudioSound HD: Standard
SRS TruVolume: Off
(Advanced Audio)
Digital Audio Out: Off
Analog Audio Out: Variable

If anyone tries these out, let me know if you have any suggestions!

Picked one of these up at Sam's Club - #8 in line, arriving at 4:00 that day. Another local Sam's had people lining up at 7:45 AM! Got it home and fired it up off our HD cable box (Time Warner). Horrified to watch everything in the picture shake around like it was in an earthquake. Judder or whatever you want to call it, it was bad. Especially obvious when there was any graphics on the screen, including network logos - shook all over the place. Spent three hours searching everywhere on the net including here. Found this place when we bought our first 60" HDTV several years ago - a Sony XBR1. That one still had one of the best pictures out of the box we have ever seen.

Anyway, at about midnight I was about to give up and re-box it to take it to Sams for exchange the next day. As I surfed one more time for a solution my internet (also Time Warner) crapped out, which is does every six months or so. Figured I would unplug the cable box then go unplug the modem and WiFi router which I keep in the basement as close to the main feed as possible. Rebooted everything and sure enough, the picture on the Vizio was GREAT! No more judder - not even a wiggle. Been playing with settings ever since and am very happy with the set. We also have an older 60" LG plasma and it isn't even close in picture quality. Of course the optical block in the XBR1 shot craps and was replaced, but it wasn't the same as when it was new. That one still had one of the best pictures ever. Thankfully Sony offered owners replacements after a class action lawsuit, so we got a 52" XBR9 for $500 delivered.

Bottom line, the Vizio is great TV for twice the price!

Does the TV remote control the sound bar? Does it power on the sound bar when the TV is turned on? I suppose it's sort of a moot point since I'll probably use my Harmony One to control it anyway but I'd like to know.

You always fondly remember your first love.

Can someone let me know if this is WiFi only or has ethernet? I use two Rokus now and one is ethernet and one WiFi and although both work great the hard wired one does do better - at least in my opinion. And a second question - since I have the Roku's is this same TV available in a non-smart version and cheaper than $949? No way I will get in on the fantasy $688 price so I have quit considering that a realistic price point for me.

Thanks

Edit: Yes on ethernet.

Input/Output:
•HDMI x4 (2 side, 2 down)
•Component x 1 (side)
•Composite x 1 (shared with component)
•RF Connector for Internal Tuner x1
•Analog Audio out (3.5mm) x 1
•Digital Audio Out (SPDIF) x 1
•Ethernet 1
•USB 2.0 x2
Edited by Steven in NC - 11/21/12 at 7:57am

Unlike the above poster, I am still holding out some hope of the $688 price point. Question for the other deal seekers on here; how early do you plan on getting to Walmart on Thanksgiving and are there any other avenues besides Amazon where I can keep the sub $700 dream alive if Walmart turns out to be a bust?

I'm not optimistic about getting it on Black Friday either. To get that great price I plan to wait two weeks.

Which sound bar did you get? The best 2.1 bar and wireless sub vizio has is the M Series. Model SB4021M-A1

I am looking to get that too, but wanted to see what you think if that's what you have? DigitalTrends.com reviewed this one and stated sound wise, its up there with $500.00 units and is one of the best deals for the price. My sams has it for $199.99. Vizio's website MSRP is $249.99

Price back to $999.00 at Amazon. Called Amazon, they said it would definitly be on sale Black Friday.

Poocho

This tv is showing as 'out of stock' at the Vizio site, would say sales are brisk!

Or there's mad inventory in the supply chain in anticipation of lots of folks like us ready to buy one for a deal.

I'll definitely be a buyer if I can get one between 700 and 800 dollars.

Thinking ahead, i don't think any of us want think about the idea of not scoring this tv on discount.

I happen to find this useful alert offered from dealnews.com. The alert will notify you when one of their "editor's choice tv's" goes on sale. could become a hassle to clean out the inbox, but could also help anyone move on from the feeling of empty-handedness and find another good tv set on discount. Potentially could get the vizio at some point in the future. Im pretty sure the vizio made their editor's choice.

Check it out, they call it their Editor's Choice TV Email Alert. If just started following this site recently.
https://dealnews.com/mydealnews/get-alert.html?c=159&e=1

Update: corrected url
Edited by davejramos - 11/21/12 at 2:17pm

Just saw a Walmart BF ad on television for the E601-A3 featuring the 688 price, I'd say the element of surprise is pretty much gone.

That's a good price for a nice sound bar but it doesn't have any HDMI input. I think the Vht215 Vizio soundbar makes more sense at $40 higher with the ARC HDMI input along with this TV. That way you can hook everything up through the soundbar. But I have no idea how well these two would sound together just seems to make sense.

We're screwed.
And to think of all the JO's that get one, then return it after the Super Bowl

I'm not a techy person so I just followed the instructions on the Vizio VHT215 manual. I have my Uverse and blueray hooked up to the soundbar. I'm at work right now and can't explain how I did it, but I just followed the manual. I haven't tried to sync the soundbar remote to my universal uverse remote, but the VHT215 remote is so small and simple, I don't mind using it.

I got the VHT215 at costco about 2 weeks ago for $199. I'm not a BF person so $199 was great considering it was at walmart for $260's. Like I said in my post earlier, I'm by all means, not an audiophile, but I really love it for movies/cable/sports/bluerays/music. I just wanted a nice front speaker system because I was never a fan of full blown surround sound with all the extra speakers. It does what I need for a great price.

Yea. I got the VHT215 for $199 2 weeks ago no BF sale or anything. I'm pretty sure it'll be cheaper next week....

edit-a pic of the tv mounted on a monoprice wallmount. don't mind the jacked up, uneven tv stand. that was my wifes from her OLD apt years ago. I want to get a new one soon. you might be able to see the 4 holes under the tv where i tried to mount the soundbar. it became a hassle so i just put it back on the tv stand below. we just moved in so everything looks blank. In the tv stand is just my uverse box and blueray player. to the left is the wireless subwoofer and an unhooked xbox. the loudest I had to use it was to seal my grout in my foyer which is pretty far away. it came with a plug for an mp3 player and i had it blasting and had no problems with it.


Edited by itr0863 - 11/21/12 at 7:13pm

Hmm, i wonder why Vizio doent have any HDMI inputs for sale for 2.1 systems like the VHT215. The M series the best they offer for 2.1 right now and optical is the best connection on that unit.

According to what I read, hdmi for a 2.1 system you won't hear a diffrence between the optical cable. Hdmi for sound is only really needed for systems of 7.1
Edited by ndsports316 - 11/21/12 at 11:18pm

delete

I see what you'r saying. The difference in the VHT and the M series is the lack of HDMI in the M series?

If I had to nitpick, I wish I can use the TV speakers if I'm just watching a quick tv show because in order for me to watch my uverse, the sound bar HAS to be on since everything is connected to the HDMI inputs in the soundbar. could i achieve using the soundbar as i please regardless of blueray/xbox/uverse by using the optical cable? i guess a nice feature is having only 1 HDMI going to the TV input....
Edited by itr0863 - 11/22/12 at 3:43am

I bought this TV for my mom this morning on walmart.com for $688 (her credit card), and I bought her a refurb Vizio 3D blu-ray player for 39$ and a VHT510 sound system for $199 (soundbar, subwoofer, and two back surrounds) to go with it (my credit card).

Here is my concern. The VHT510 only has one spdif optical input. She has two digital components, an HD cable box and now a Blu-Ray player. Both will be connected to the TV via HDMI. I suspect I will have to use the optical output on the TV to connect to the VHT150. She won't want to switch the optical cable every time she watches a DVD.

My question is...will the TV pass through a digital signal from the HDMI input out through the SPDIF output? Her cable box is Dolby Digital, and most blu-rays are DTS. Can the TV pass through one or both of these formats to the soundbar?

Thanks

Go to WALMART.COM right now!! Just bought mine for $688 + MA sales tax. Let us know how you make out.
Edited by cobaltv10 - 11/22/12 at 9:36am

Now out of stock.