Vizio L32 - Page 25

Comcast doesn't scramble the HDTV - I have a second QAM tuner (a Fusion 3 Gold card in my PC) that got the Fox HJDTV games the Vizio couldn't.

As for the guide, Comcast send its Guide info via the boxes OOB (Out of Band) tuner. The Vizio's guide gets its info from each channel's PSIP, unless I'm mistaken.

http://img246.imageshack.us/my.php?i...pics037ip9.jpg

YAY! I finally set up my L32 HDTV with my 360 and HD Dish Network Box.

cool - 'twas just a thought. In that case you are right, and it is bizarre. Since you asked re guide, I checked when I got home. Vizio's actually works better than my LG4200a - CBS, KGAN, and PBS guide data is fine; nothing for Fox or NBC.

Apologies for incorrect assumptions - what I get for trying to attribute reasons to explain observations.

But my observations are that I personally get some guide data, on both of my Vizio L32s. And the QAM tuner is arguably the best part of the set, imho. I have been running both the 4200 and the LG3510 - I am getting more stable reception, over same cable line, with the Vizio than I ever did with either LG.

Thanks for the info - I was beginning to think that the problem was with the Vizio. I had a 32 but traded it in for a 37 - they both had shared identical problems on the Comcast feed.

For the folks who still want to use the vivid modes. Here is a repost from my earlier review. sorry for the folks who have seen it.

Here is my first impression of the Visio 32 LCD. Pick it up at Sama club in Green Bay. The set had the worse setup of all the TV's at Sam's. If it weren't for AVS forum I would not have bought this TV. Many thanks to the tweak master here on AVS. The picture was full torch mode in the store. The set suffered from the contrast ratio. It look pretty sick compared to the other displays. My son thought I was a candidate for drug testing for buying this set. But fear not got this baby home and started the set up. I originally had issues with a poor switch I was using with the analog signal it looked awful. Spent an hour trouble shooting the cable and switch. By bypassing the switch the signal get better. Whew I knew that this set was not that bad.!!!
Out of the box the set was on vivid torch mode. I used the following settings. From Jeff099
Blacklight 50
Brightness 52
Contrast 68
Color 30
Tint 40
Sharpness 25
The contrast ratio improved greatly. The set has a lot of video noise blur present in SD analog picture mostly went away in the sharpness reduction. . I can still see it at 3 feet from the screen but at 6 feet picture looks better. Viewing distance will be 10 to 12 feet. The video noise blur is related to the signal strength AND quality of the cable feed. The digital SD signal doesn't suffer the same noise as the analog.
Qam tuner pickup up a few channels Time Warner cable here doesn't send that much in the clear but what the set received looked good for SD and great for HD. I then switch to my OTA antenna and rescanned for channels the tuner pick up all my locals without any problems. All stations looked pretty good. HD looked really good.
More testing to come. I will be looking at the computer RGB performace and then I will hookup the Xbox.

To summarize the worse things about this set is the contrast ratio. But you have to understand I am using a 50 Panasonic Plasma as my based display. You lose a little bit of the live window effect with this set. You can clearly see this contrast disadvantage in the store looking at the other sets side by side. When getting the set home and adjusting the gray ghost of contrast gets tamed abit. I believe most Joe Six-packs would never notice the difference unless the TV's were shown side by side. I would not use this set for my primary set and would be looking at using it gladly for a bedroom set. This set is a great value for the price.
PS: AVSform needs to be paid a commission from Vizio for the outrageous out of the box performance of this set. What were they thinking? ALL IN ALL THIS SET IS A KEEPER !!!

I've really searched and have not found an answer to this question. Can the L32-HDTV be configured to display CC on mute? If so, it is not documented in the manual or at the Vizio web site.

If it can be done, what is the procedure?

Thanks,

TXRedleg

hi guys... i just bought the vizio l32 from costco today. when i turn on the tv, i heard a weird sound from the back of the tv. even when i played movies, i still heard that sound too. does anyone know about this problem? should i exchange it to costco? is it defective? thank's...

After having this TV for a while, I noticed several things. With my Dish Network Box hooked up to component, everything like shadows look red and people look sunburnt. My DVD player hooked up to component (Xbox 360) All the shadows have a red hue. But my S-Video DVD player has very deep blacks and good color correction. Using an antenna for DTV looks good and natural also, a far cry from component.

My question is, Will the HDMI look as good as the DTV?

Just picked up this set a week ago for our bedroom...personally I feel the PQ is totally washed out. It just looks dull...I have it set up with a OTA antenna on roof for local HD, The PQ does not look sharp/detailed. I also have a JVC Pro 70" and it looks razor sharp with vibrate colors...the Vizio L32 so far is a real let down...I guess you get what you pay for.

Antenna looks washed out for some reason too. Component and HDMI is way vibrant on mine... but OTA is really dull

I use the user mode for all my settings. This is the starting point. My OTA looks great. Maybe I am just lucky. Upconverted DVD looks good also.
Backlight 50
Brightness 52
Contrast 68
Color 30
Tint 40
sharpness 25

Just picked up the Vizio 32 last weekend [EDIT] and talk about a lot of bang for my buck!... Sure there are better LCD's out there but, I can confidently say that this set looks as good as sets twice the price. Hooked up my Oppo to it and watched my Region 2 "Flash Gordon" and I can honestly say that I've never seen the movie look better. It will be interesting to see where this company goes in the future because, if this is their starting point their competitors better watch out.

Well, I'm planning on getting the Vizio 32 this week. I'm gonna use it as a computer monitor, for Xbox 360 and cable HDTV. I'm planning on using the QAM tuner.

I'll post my comments as soon as I'm setup.

That is exactly what I do with mine and love it. Hook up your xbox compsite your puter RGB and if you have HDMI on your cable box that is the way to go.

Well, spoke (typed?) too soon, a few posts back. Got a new Vizio to replace my sick one, Sept build - well great - this one does not get Fox over QAM either. My old one, with the bad NSTC tuner, got Fox fine. (May build date on set) This one will tune to FOX HD, but no display/picture.

So apologies to others with this problem - did you find any solutions elsewhere? Thanks.

Here in the Detroit area several Vizio owners using the QAM tuner on Comcast cable report that the Vizio is unable to display (or output audio) when FOX is airing certain HD programs.

Tuesday evening the Tiger-Oakland game in HD started out fine (I was tuned to Fox before the game started) but when I switched to another channel then back to Fox I got nothing but the black screen.

Is this what's happening to you?

I'm in the Raleigh, NC area. My Vizio intermittently picks up Fox. During the local news cast, I get it, and will keep getting from then on. If I tune to it "before" or after the news cast, for example, I don't get it.

every once in a while i will lose a qam HD channel that i got before. i do a new channel scan and it picks the lost channel up every time. i get cbs,abc,nbc,pbs,WB,cartoon network, and fox. i live in seattle area and have comcast basic cable. my cable is only split one time from the street with a high quality 3-way splitter.

I used to have L32 now have L37 in Raleigh TWC area and don't get QAM FOX HD during the day. I don't think this a Vizio problem more of a TWC/FOX problem.

I read (but didn't understand) of some broadcast issues concerning status of FOX network????

Thanks for replies - but if that many of you are having issues, I have to believe it is a firmware, triggered by some sort of flag sent by Fox. Why - because, when I knew so much up above, my May build set had no problem with Fox HD - admittedly, only NFL and baseball in season, but it was working. Now, 3 days running I can't get any picture with my new September set.

seanheis - I did as you said, - has worked for me before. I did get a half dozen scrambled channels with the new scan (that I couldn't watch - they ARE scrambled) but neither FoxHD or the FoxSD digital sub came up. I can even select the channel, and I get KFXA-DT 28-1 up in the corner - the logo. But no picture. Or sound. Am waiting for a callback from Vizio - will let you know what they say in the next week or so, after they call back.

fwiw, Fox IS coming in via QAM using my LG tuners, tho I did have to do a rescan - which would support the presumption that Fox is also doing something. But whatever Fox is doing, it appears that Vizio changed their firmware to be "aware" of the flag or info that Fox is sending.

Hello All,

I'm interested in the L32HDTV10A and am very impressed with this forum and its members. In fact, my eyes are bleeding from reading all 25 pages of this thread over the past two days . Alot of good info, y'all !

To all the owners out there, I was curious as to whether they can split the screen with POP and use the PC connected through DVI, while watching TV or DVD on the other half of the screen. I recall that someone mentioned input combination limitations with the POP.
I understand that the screen displayed may be a little distorted, depending on a number of factors, but it would be nice to have that functionality.

I called the SAMS Club nearby to check on availability and spoke to their "electronics guy." I asked if he got alot of these sets returned, and he replied that Vizios, in general, are returned alot. It's nice to take a risk once in awhile, though, and alot of Wally's customers may be disinclined to try calibration.

The PC Magazine review seems a little more objective than the PC World review and claims poor component input quality. Is this because this review seems to be of an older model L32 (review date 2.14.06)?

I'll probably try this TV out soon and would like a response about the POP. Thanks!

have only tried the pop with rgb - nothing wired dvi. BUt just tried on my set - NOPE. DVI (actually, the HDMI input) will only split with NSTC tv and the AV inputs - S-video and composite. So you would have to run S-video from you dvd player to watch what you want.

Component input looks ok to me. Not spectacular, but not hideos. At least as good as my Phillips LCD. Picture is a little to sharp edged, some jaggies from scaling, and black level is very average.

Sam's will get returns cuz build quality and consistency is pretty spotty. I'm on my second one - this one won't pickup Fox HD. And it just "lost" ESPN last night - had to do a rescan to tune it back in.

Mr. Moderator:

Have you ever thought of merging this thread with the 37" Vizio LCD thread? My impression is that the sets are identical except for panel size now that they both have a QAM tuner.

My first Vizio was the 32" set, but really need a larger screen so I exchanged it for the 37" and don't recall any differences in their operation - good or bad.

I monitor both threads and it seems that almost all posts are applicable to both sets.

No need to merge the threads (IMHO). Tried the component through my DVD player it looked fine. But using the upconvert DVD player through HMDI is great looking. Just a bit sharper image.

I picked up one of these guys on Thursday of last week. I have mixed feelings about this TV. So far DVD's seem to play great. I was able to use my Video Essentials disk and get what I feel like is a good image. Cable and OTA HDTV are a completley different beast. They look like garbage to me. I have matched my settings from the component input to the cable and OTA DTV and it seems to make no difference. It just lookes grainy lifeless and dull. I think I am going to take it back and I am not sure what I will do next. I am at my whits end. I am on about a $700.00 budget and I have taken back two TV's. One was the Sanyo that just died on me and now this. Are there any special tricks to good Cable or DTV (OTA) HDTV signals? I am a bit disspaointed...

Jt

Jt - don't know what your'e seeing - OTA (and QAM) HD looks better than dvd on my set - Really. standard nstc cable will vary depending on your cable provider - some channels will look better or worse than others. None will look as good as dvd; dvd (unless upscaling) will not look as good as HD. But how could it - I have an outboard scaler to make SD look almost as good as HD - it costs 3K. Which is what, FOUR times what the entire set costs?

That said, NBC HD looks a bit worse than Fox or ABC, just because the onboard scaler seems to have a harder time getting 1080i to look good on a 768 line display. But if HD looks like "garbage" on your set, something is wrong with your set. Either that, or the adjustments you made killed the picture.

But what do you expect, for what little money you are spending? The panel is quite good for the money - maybe you just got a bad unit; I'm on my second, waiting for a third.

I have tried both OTA and QAM. To me it looked very Grainy, lifeless, dull... When I had the SanyoI never noticed this type of problem on the OTA. I can't base a comparison on QAM as that TV didn't have it.

I have tried going back to the default picture settings and I have tried to adjust and readjust. I have boxed it up and I am going to return it to Sams tomorrow. I think I am going to spend a little bit more and get something else but I am not sure what that would be now...

JT

Dunno - our Sam's have Sony open box units they are selling for a discount, but you are still talking an extra 4 bills. They do have cable card tuners - and look a bit better. But not enough to justify the money, IMHO. Just curious - did the ones at Sams look that hideous, compared to the half dozen around them, on the display? And if so, that would beg the obvious - why buy it? OTOH, if the display looked much like the others, how can you expect a different set to look a lot better.

You may well be better off getting an HD crt - my 32" crt blows the Vizio (and even Sony) lcd away. But it's big, and heavy. But wow, it sure looks a lot better - no grain, no SDE, and far better contrast.

Anyone got this working well with an Xbox 360 using VGA? I set the Xbox to 1360x768 but the image on the Vizio is shifted way over to the right (big black bar down the left third of the screen).

1280x720 and 1280x768 fill the screen but I would like to get closer to the native res....

It looked fine in Sams. It didn't look bad to my eyes in the store... But then they were playing DVD's and not any kind of OTA HDTV or HD programing period. Its also hard to tell in the Big Box stores... Especially with all those other TV sets next to it. Who knows maybe my eyes are messed up, or my expectations are set incorrectly...

JT