37" VIZIO LCD - Page 4

I have the l37 and like it so far. However I don't have much experience other LCds or Plasmas.

One thing that irritates me is that it does not allow Panoramic mode on the component or HDMI inputs. This means I need to run my standard broadcasts via s-video (side connector only on L37) or composite. While I can't really tell a difference between standard definition through component vs. composite it is a paint to have to run additional video and audio cables and to have to always be changing the inputs.

Can anyone recommend a good 37" LCD or Plasma that will do a Panoramic type stretch on the component inputs or hdmi when feeding standard definition.

My 32" Toshiba does a wonderful job at this and calls it Theater Wide Mode 1. When a high definition siganal is fed it senses it automatically and locks out the aspect ratio change option.

I will spend an little extra for a panel that has better aspect ration controls.

Thanks.

I measured and researched and the L37 is vesa 100 (four holes each four inches apart that make a square in the center). There are also other mounting holes so it probably complies with other standards as well.

I ordered a Sanus VM400b from buy.com for $157. This mount appears to do it all which is what I need.

Will the mount come with the screws or do I need to get these from a hardware store or from Vizio?

After contacting Vizio's tech support, they confirmed that the set is VESA 200 compliant. Based on that, I purchased an articulating mount rated up to 80 lbs. from a seller on eBay. Actually just finished mounting it tonight.

The bracket mounted on the back of the set just fine, using the hardware that came with the kit. It was about $120 + shipping (hope I can post that). The kit had about 8 different sets of screws (one for every possible mount on any given TV. I had it up in about 20 minutes, and what a difference. I've got it up in the corner (14' ceilings) of my master BR, and tilted it down so it faces the bed. Wow... it is nice!

I attached a pic - now off to work on the cables

This is the mount I purchased. The specs and cut sheet show it it both Vesa 100 and 200. It is rated to 80lbs and only requires one stud for mounting. Looks pretty straightforward.

https://www.sanus.com/cgi-bin/web_st...=7188105_27361

Does anybody know if the Vizio stickers on the front are easily removed without marring the bezel?

I can already see my buddy that has a high dollar Pioneer Elite Plasma give me crap for buying a cheap tv even though he doesn't know anything about home theater and doesn't even run HD signals into his tv.

Why be ashamed of what you bought? I am happy that I got a decent unit for a great buy. My father spent over 10k for his pioneer 50in a few years back and look at what prices have come down to! Be proud of what you own and not what matters to what others think! Enjoy the tv. That is what it is ment for.

Garrett

Thanks Garrett. I was really just kind of poking fun at my buddy. No real intention of removing the stickers.

I too recently got one from Costco and am quite pleased so far, but I've had just the opposite experience with the OTA tuner. I would recommend it as an excellent value. Can't say I've directly compared it to the competing 37" brands at the same price point, but next to the 32" Philips, it's nearly as good. The only noticeable difference is probably from lower contrast ratio, but the overall picture quality is quite acceptable, unless you're in a very bright room. Under normal viewing situations, I'd actually have to tone down the brightness/contrast settings no the higher performance sets.

As far as the OTA receiver, I'd say it's worth a hundred or two (cost of an external receiver) and about the same for the "costco warranty" what I hope not to have to use. I was able to connect a short cable to the DTV RF input and hold the middle conductor wire on the open end with my finger. Using myself as an antenna, I was able to receive about a dozen channels. I'm looking for a couple of old antennas I've got somewhere in the garage, but in the meantime, I found a 75-300 ohm converter, and I kid you not, used a coat hanger bent in a quasi-circle connected to the 300 ohm connectors. It's able to pick up about 2 dozen stations, including ABC/CBS/FOX/NBC/PBS/KCET all in very nice HD quality. I credit the technology more than the quality of the receiver for this, as all that really means that the receiver meets specs.

I'm debating cable versus satellite, but I'm not sure it's worth the added expense at this time. It's not only the service charge, set top box rental, but also premium channels. After all is done, it's about $50/month for a couple of extra channels (HDNET, TBS, ESPN, Discovery) and $80 if you want a couple of movie channels (HBO and SHOWTIME). I'll probably sign up down the road sometime, but for now, just enjoying incredible HD OTA for free.

The second set I purchased was for my father. He is in a more densely populated area, so I would have expected his OTA at least as good (if not better) than mine. Unfortunately, using everything from bare wire to an amplified indoor (cheapy) antenna, he was unable to pick up a single channel. I attribute that the construction of his home. It's wire-lath and plaster - where my house is only 2 years old (made of the cheapest 1/2" drywall). So my guess is, his home is a virtual RF bunker. Antennaweb. org says we're both equally distant from the majority of the transmitters...

Did you try running a wire outside? Best if you can get something that's line of sight to the antenna source. Inside a window should work as well. If this works, then you know it's the house and you need something outside or in the attic. If it doesn't work, something else may be the problem.

I just purchased the Vizio L32 from Sams Club and i absolutely love this television. I bought the Akai from them but i returned it because whenever there were dark scenes everything looked animated. It had a shadow over it and i just couldn't tolerate it anymore. I was originally going to purchase the Syntax Olevia but when i read the customer reviews from one of the shop at home networks everyone did not give it a good review so that was definately out of the running. I researched these LCD televisions and what i found was that Sharp had alot of fantastic reviews but i did not want to spend that kind of money for a television that was just for use in my bedroom. This Vizio L32 picture quality is absolutely beautiful. The color is very nice and there is no shadowing over the black. I must say that I am very pleased with this television. It was displayed next to a sony and i must say the sony looked alot darker next to this Vizio and was twice as much. I give Vizio the thumbs up on this television and i must say i am a very picky woman.

Didn't run a wire outside but I did try placing one of the amplified antennas in the window to see if it made a difference. Nope. Like I said, it may be a factor of my house construction and our particular OTA HD environment.

Spleen

Was the window facing the transmitter? If so, I'd check something else, as this new digital technology only needs a weak signal. At the very least, you should hope a signal or two is near threshold (pick up a broken signal). One other test would be to take on old TV (ntsc) and see how you fare with UHF channels. If you can get a couple to just come thru (not have to be very clear), I would expect you'd have enough signal for HD. Of course, if you had the setup, you could try another ATSC receiver/TV to eliminate the HD tuner as the problem. Just thought I'd mention basic troubleshooting, which sometimes gets skipped over, but good to go back to in problem cases (eliminates silly things as plugging in the wrong RF input which is possible if there is more than one, or settings if only one).

I have dialed in my L37 using Digital Video Essentials and it looks great. Here are my settings for anyone that wants to try them.

Backlight: 90
Brightness: 49
Contrast: 57
Color: 36
Tint: 50
Sharpness: 50

The only thing that is lacking in this set is the ability to use Panoramic mode on the component or HDMI inputs but I can live with that. I will just run a set of composite cables for standard def TV.

If anyone figures out how to get to the service menu please see if there is an option to enable panoramic mode on the component and HDMI inputs.

Like all floor models both were in torch mode, so no one panel had a advantage.. & I never seen a HDTV in a store being fed a HD feed via a DVI connection (which would be needed for the Westy to display an image at 1080p).. It doesn't happen..All models are using components, splitting the same signal many times over..

Not a big deal.. I read many post from Xbox360 gamers that they cannot tell the difference playing games in 720p or 1080i.. Some even say 1080i is sharper.. & a lot of these gamers have LCD displays.. I know my Sony looks better when fed a 1080i signal..

If you're already saving $100 with the rebate, why not play it save and buy the warranty? On the other hand, you could've bought it from Costco or Sam's Club and had the best warranty in the business!

For the difference in the sales tax, you COULD have boght it at Sam's/Costco and not needed the warranty (you would have also kept that money local!). Don't get me wrong, I buy ALL kinds of stuff online but when it comes to biger ticket items that can suffer from infant mortality, I buy local all the time from a reputable place without the warranty. Just my 2 cents!

Thanks for the settings. It made a slight improvement over what I had previously (I don't recall exactly, but I manually tweaked it while watching to around 80/50/80/50/50/50 to very good results). Turning up the backlight and down the contrast did make a noticeable difference in contrast range by making the overall brightness a bit lower, but improved contrast. The contrast range/ratio is fair, but little weakness in the set compared to some of the competition, otherwise, with a good adjustment in settings, quite acceptable. The reduced color will take a little getting used to, and I might raise that a bit to see if I like that. Anyway, thanks for a better starting point (or end point if I don't get around to it) for the settings.

Just a quick update, I did dig up an old VHF/UHF antenna in the basement, and replaced the ad-hoc antenna. To my surprise, I LOST signal reception in about 5 channels that I used to get with my coat hanger gizmo. After some tuning, I would gain a station, but lose another. I'm surprised that a real antenna didn't perform as well (it's a passive one). Still, I have/had both plugged in thru a signal splitter (for making connections easier so I don't have to go fumbling behind the set), which loses a few dB, so I hope that when I get final placement and directly plug it in, it will perform adequately. I'd hate to have to go back to the wire hanger, but if it can be hidden behind the set, might consider that over buying some sort of amplified antenna or hooking up something outside. For now, as long as the major stations pick up, I'll be satisfied.

Can someone give a quick post on the good features of the warranty from Costco or Sams? Are they the same as what you paid a big chunk to get at Bestbuy?

It's not an actual warranty in the sense that you buy extended warranties from BB or CC or any of the big electronic stores. Rather, it's an extremely liberal return policy - essentially, if you have any problem with the TV at generally any point in its lifetime, you can return it for full credit. Heck, you can return it even if it's just for the reason that you don't like it any more. As a consumer, I'm very appreciative of this policy in case I have problems but also nervous that if a lot of people abuse the policy, they may get more restrictive in the future. Costco was getting burned by this with computers (people buying them and returning them in a year or so to trade up the newest and the best) so they've put in restrictions now for computers saying that it needs to be returned within 6 months of purchase.

Spleen

I couldn't tell from the responses listed above, but has anyone used this monitor with the xbox 360 with success. Let's say compared to a smaller plasma.

Thanks,
Gleek

Thank you for the post. Amazon's L32 is in back order so I cancelled my order. Costco does not have the L32 in the store anymore but have plenty of the L37. I am considering the L37 now but seem like a lot more money ($600) to pay for 5 inches. It goes from a low cost model to a medium price model. Are the additional features worth the extra money?

The difference in 5 inches is surprisingly substantial. The difference between the 42 inch plasmas and the 50 inch plasms is also only 8 inches but also a big difference. I'd go to a local store that has 32 inch LCDs and 37 inch LCDs side by side and see if the difference is big enough to pay the difference for you. There really is no substitute for screen size though, assuming you don't live in a shoe box where the size would be a hindrance to proper viewing.

Spleen

I'll double that. The 32-37 upgrade seems much bigger than the 37-42 step, though both are just 5" in diagonal. It's a 15.6% vs. 13.5% linear increase (the 42-50 is 19% increase). Some people have 42" (or larger) sets in their bedroom, but to me, 32" seems to be the biggest I'd consider. The 37" seems just too big for my bedroom. I considered the L32, but it lacks an OTA tuner, so the price difference isn't so large, especially if you value that. I do believe the L32 has a higher contrast level, so it might be a bit better in picture quality. If 42" was only $600 more, I would go there, but not this year, maybe next.

The L37 has the ATSC tuner built in

and it is so stupid that they put an ATSC tuner in and no QAM tuner or cablecard slot...that might have pushed me to get one, but i dont want an STB in my bedroom.