Vizio E601-A3 Owners Thread - Page 21

Cayers, do you have any sync issues after the reset?

A workaround for the sync issue is to use the audio output from the TV to your AVR. The component path would look like this: |Video source|{HDMI}|TV audio out|{composite audio (RCA)}|AVR video sound input| This will align the TVs video and audio processing planes, which is where the issue is at. Of course, this will affect audio quality somewhat...which is why I characterize the suggestion as a "workaround" as opposed to a "solution".

Vizio needs to fix this, or modify the lip sync adjustment to provide negative offset.

No menu/TV control issues now...audio sync and Media app issues notwithstanding. After resetting, the TV is behaving nornally.

I will say that you have to give the TV some time to "boot up" if you will, at initial power on. The thing to realize is that modern video displays are now working from an operating system, abstracting between hardware and user interface...much like your PC or smartphone. This is what allows features like internet apps and firmware updates (for what they are worth at the moment!) Point being, I have noticed some sluggish apps menu response when the TV is initially powered on...after about 90 seconds or so the issue goes away. This seems to only affect the apps menus, and not the display's video reproduction capability...e.g. it will show you what is being sent to its inputs, as long as its not from one of the Apps.

Not ideal, but i can live with a 90 second "boot" if it gives me all of the great functionality.

Regarding audio sync specifically, I dont have the issue as I am using the TVs audio output to feed my AVR. I didnt test to see if the reset solved the issue...I am assuming that it will persist until a firmware update.

if I dont see updated firmware by the end of the week, I will be calling back to Vizio tech support to follow up with them directly.

Yes. Lets say for instance if you have a 1080p MKV file on your PC. As long as the product you're trying to view it on natively supports that container (MKV in this example) it will play in the same quality it was encoded/ripped to. If your player does NOT support the container Plex does transcode it on the fly.

Plex first tries to remux the file (meaning changing the container without losing any quality/transcoding) and if that doesn't work...it transcodes it.

In order to get the fancy cover art and episodic/movie info for your files you need to use a native Plex app on your TV or media streamer (Samsung, Roku, etc.). The best thing about Plex is if you do use a native app on your TV the simplicity is awesome for organizing/indexing your files. The Plex documentation tells you the naming properties for TV Shows/Movies and once you follow that Plex Media Server does the rest... It even monitors the directory for any new/deleted TV Shows/Movies and updates on the fly. You just move your file into the "watch" directory and it does everything. I haven't had one single problem yet with the indexing. It's amazing.

I do know that somewhat recently one of the developers of Plex bought a new Panasonic VIERA TV and is said to be working on a native app for that as well. Their forums seem to be really helpful and the developers answer questions quite rapidly.

Just thought I'd chime in here and say I just tried this PLEX thing, it works pretty great but it will only play my .avi files,, wont play any of the .mp4 video files, the files show up but they wont let me play them is there a reason for this? I'm not using a roku or any other type of box with it by the way.

Well, occasional lip sync issue aside, I was pretty much happy with this set until today when I completely lost my picture while the audio continued. A few days back I noticed a few occasions wher the picture would flash on and off briefly but thought nothing of it. I can still see that the LED's are active - it's a dark screen but obviously lit - so I suspect this is yet another software issue. Seems like the firmware/ software on this TV is still in Beta! Trying to reset now but this is probably going back.

I don't believe the Vizio natively plays .MP4 files.
I don't have personal experience with them but Plex SHOULD transcode them on the fly or remux it using the .MKV container.

Since you're using DLNA and not a native Plex app to play them it gets a little more dicey... Le'ts just say DLNA is not the greatest..It's probably the DLNA profile that Plex is using for your TV. You might want to check the Plex DLNA forum and see if you can find anything.
If you ever find a cheap Roku player you might want to invest in one...It has a native Plex app so you'd get all the goodies and they are not too expensive.

Advice for now:

1. download the free program mkvtoolnix http://www.bunkus.org/videotools/mkvtoolnix/downloads.html#windows
2. run the MMG.exe (mkvmerge) file once you install mkvtoolnix
3. click the "add" button at the top
4. select your .MP4 file
5. at the bottom click Browse and select where you want to save the MKV file
6. click start muxing at the bottom
7. it will remux the .MP4 file into .MKV format without touching the quality
8. play the resulting .MKV file through DLNA on your Vizio like you tried with the .MP4 and it should work fine.

the above takes about 15 seconds to complete. it's the easiest thing you've ever done. see if that works for you until you can acquire a native Plex app.

Reading this thread over it could be said many, if not all, of the issues could be explained by early production gremlins.

Sync; software issue
Panel Lighting issues: Inherent LCD/LED format implementation true of any set, manufacturing errors in mounting the panel causing flex related lighting problems. There aren't enough complaints to believe there is a global problem with this set.
Wifi crashes in VIA: Software?


Some reported problems only involve one or two sets:
Screeching, popping sound issue: bad set, return.
Screen goes dark: Bad set, return.
Half the screen dies: Bad set, return.

By far and away the most common issue is sync. I think it behooves everyone of us experiencing this issue to contact Vizio service and report it. Sync is by far the most common reason stated to return the set for either replacement or refund and it can't be good for Vizio to have this issue costing them as much as it will. FYI, the new E70 is experiencing sync issues as well.

Having said ll that, this is the best television experience I've ever had. The picture on the set is nothing short of phenomenal, I really want the E70 for my LR but I'm going to wait until these issues are resolved before investing in that set.

Has anyone had problems with the network connection? Mine has dropped and the TV won't recognize the SSID but all my other wireless in the house works fine. I've tried to enter it manually and nothing seems to be working. It's not like I need the smart TV features since my Direct TV has Direct Link, but it would be nice to use being that's one of the main features of the TV.

I do love this TV. I haven't encountered any of the lip sync, backlighting, and other issues people have brought up here. I either got a really nice TV or am just clueless to what these would look or sound like. The picture is really great with everything including sports. Basketball and football look amazing on this set, and my blu ray movies are awesome. The biggest down side is the sound quality. Still need to get that sound bar figured out. Amazon had the Vht215 on sale for $199 a couple days but now it's back up to $238. I'm still looking for suggestions of the best sound bar. Don't really want or need the 5.1 set up as that's on the big TV in the basement. This is for everyday watching and would just enjoy a little better sound.

Right now I have everything going to my receiver and then a single HDMI to my TV. By doing what you suggested (and substituting toslink for rca), would the TV pass through HD audio to the receiver or would it be in stereo?

Anyone else with the lip sync issues have success with this?

I'm surprised that so many people are praising the picture quality of this set. I'm coming from a Panny plasma from 2010 and am very frustrated and the blockiness/choppiness with the motion smoothness enabled. I never noticed these issues on 120hz or higher LCD TVs in store or when watching on someone else's TV.

The lip sync issues are probably going to have me returning this set, but the picture quality itself has me thinking about picking up a 60" U50 Panny for <$100 more than the black friday price of this TV.

Go back to the Plasma forum, Plasma fanboy.

Hey everyone! Been reading this thread since the Walmart BF ad came out. Happy to report I am one of the lucky ones who picked this up on Thanksgiving night for $688 (my store had 24 of them, I was third in line, got there at 2PM).

Overall, I am very happy with this set. Would definitely pay $1000 bucks now after owning it. Some tweaking of the settings really improved the experience, blu rays look awesome. Put "The Amazing Spiderman" on for the little guy the Friday after and he came up with a fist bump stating, "Nice TV."

Anyways, I had a question regarding DLNA. I have the Plex server setup on my computer. I can view the video files I have shared via the Media app just fine, however, none seem to work. I have some .avi files, and when I try to play them it says "Video Codec not supported". Which codec does it need to be?

Also, it does not seem to want to play .mkv files. I may just be impatient, as it lists the .mkv files, I can select it, and it acts like it is going to play it. However, the time slider never starts, and the screen is black. It does show up with how long the video file is though. Does it just take awhile to encode the large .mkv file? I think I waited a total of 15 seconds before saying screw it, so I might just need to have a little patience

Issues I've seen:
- I also have the bright spot in the lower left hand corner. Only noticieable on boot up and when there are very bright colors on the screen.
- Also have run into lip synch issues twice. Changing the channel and then back again resolved the issue both times.
- On bootup I also see the dark patches all over the screen, however, when their is some sort of video (blu ray, cable, xbox) it is non-existent

That's all I've run into. Thanks so much!!

Not sure how to edit my post, so I am going to add this here, sorry for the double post!

Netflix looks AMAZING!! I swear it looks as good as bluray. It might have to do with the fact that my wireless router is very close to my TV so the signal is strong, but we watched Transformers Dark of the Moon to test out the HD with all of the special effects. We were blown away.

I just got off of the phone with Vizio tech support, and the agent I spoke with stated that the TV does support HD audio decode and output via the optical connection. She also stated that PCM is the signaling format used for Toslink, in and out. So, your suggestion should work around the sync issue.

I also checked the user manual for this TV, and the recommended setup is to go direct via HDMI to the set, and then output the audio signal to the AVR.

Awesome, I will try this as a last resort and report back! I just wish I knew where to get a cheap toslink cable instead of spending $20 at BB.

"Cheap" and "toslink" don't normally go together, but that said I've never had to look further than Amazon for cheap cables of any type. They should have a bunch for less than $5.

Was hoping to buy local so I can test it out tonight instead of waiting till next week...but I think I'll have to look to monoprice/amazon.

Is it possible to get the Native Plex app on this Vizio TV? I'd love to have box art and all that goes into a nice interface... or is DLNA the only way? In which case all I see are folders and movie titles... no box art or descriptions or anything

An update on my issues and conversations with Vizio tech support , for those interested.

Two chat sessions and two phone calls later, Vizio has stated that my TV requires a mainboard replacement to fix both the audio lag issue and the media file browsing issue. After enduring the troubleshooting approach, It feels a little like "we are not sure exactly what to do, so we are sending a tech out with new guts for your TV". Also of note, Vizio tech support does not actively diagnose technical issues with TVs. Tech support performs troubleshooting steps, and sends notes to a third party repair shop which decides which parts need to be replaced or repaired, but this happens only after tech support fails to resolve the issue by some other means of troubleshooting. I had to call the third party repair shop to find out which parts were being sent out to repair my TV. Anyone else see the problem with this methodology?

When asked, the tech did assure me that the mainboard replacement is a simple, modular part replacement that takes 10 minutes...and its no where near the LCD components. For now, I am content to let them replace the part and will report back here with the results in a few days.

I just got off chat with Vizio service and te tech was insistent that the sync problem was coming from the cable box and setting it to PCM output will resolve the sync problem. I'm going to have to contact Time Warner to figure out how to do it on my Motorola DCH3200. If anyone can check their box to see if it works, please post back. I won't be able to do it until later today.

That's funny, seems that DISH has the same issue as Time Warner................................

no way in hell am I running HDMI into the TV, then running a cable from TV to my receiver to fix any sync issues. i run EVERYTHING into my receiver, then once cable out to my TV HDMI. Clean and simple. Im not going to complicate things for this TV.

Problem is, I have 2 of these and wont be hooking them up until close to Christmas. We just a bought another house, and we wont be closing until the 21st of December, so I wont even know if I have these issues until then.

I tried this...no luck. For my Fios box I turned the settop box off, hit OK, then hit Menu to get into a white screen.

I was offered the in-house tech or a replacement and declined both for the time being as I assume (based on the # of complaints here) it is not an isolated to my specific TV and will occur on any TV of this model until a firmware fix.

I feel the same way and will more than likely end up returning it if there isn't a firmware update that resolves this issue regardless of how I set things up.

Not to pour water on this idea as being a solution but my lip-sync issue occurred with over the air HD AND a toslink optical cable connected to my receiver. So, at least in my case, it had nothing to do with a cable box OR an HDMI issue.

Not unless someone creates one specifically for Vizio's. I haven't heard of anyone even starting work on it.
DLNA is really limited and usually a headache/finicky.

I'm becoming convinced it's a processing issue with individual set variations. I only have the issue on 'pure' cable channels, MTV, Discovery, Velocity, etc. no problem with streaming either VIA or Roku, no network issues; ie ABCCBSNBC.

Same here, dont have the problem via streaming, just with my cable box.