42' Vizio PDP with built in HD tuner

COSTA MESA, CA and CES LAS VEGAS, NV January 5, 2006 - V, Inc., the multiple award-winning VIZIO consumer electronics maker, announced their first quarter 2006 high definition plasma plans.

"Our VIZIO P50HDM was recently ranked in CNET's 2005 Top Ten Holiday Tech Gifts, just behind the Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Apple's new iPod and broke sales records at retail for HD plasmas. We've designed the VIZIO P42HDTV to build on the successful platform of the P50HDM with the latest generation technology and outstanding value," stated Jeff Schindler, V, Inc. Vice President Marketing and Business Operations.

VIZIO Plasmas
The VIZIO P42HDTV is a completely new 42" high definition plasma design. At only 4" deep, it takes on the attractive gloss-black styling of the VIZIO P50HDM plasma along with silver built-in speakers, intuitive user interface and Easy-to-setup Guide.

The 1024 x 768 native resolution, widescreen plasma features a latest-generation glass with Single Scan Technology for a 10,000:1 contrast ratio, high 1,200 cd/m2 brightness and 30 bit 231 billion colors. An advanced video processor produces reduced solarization and false contouring along with sharpness improvement, non-linear chroma enhancement, closed color suppression, non-linear scaling, adaptive contrast and color controls.

The P42HDTV is fully featured with dual tuners including ATSC off air, clear QAM digital cable and NTSC tuners, universal remote control, PIP/POP, 3:2 pulldown, 3D-comb filter, motion-adaptive deinterlacer, component, HDMI and VGA-type PC (up to 1280 x 1024) inputs along with multiple video settings.

The VIZIO P42HDTV will be available at national retail stores and online in March at an every day price of only $1,799.99 along with a one-year onsite service warranty.

Entire press release with photo is here

Built in tuners, great price, specs that meet my needs, Costco return policy.

I think this is the one that finally makes me take the jump.

Agreed! My only concern is...what will the line be like at my local Costco on March 20th?

hmmm... I had the P42HDe model.... I sold it on Ebay (5) days after I got it. Picture quality was miserable and it wasnt a defective unit either.... This one looks like one helluva deal though.... only concern I have is how it will handle dark scenes & blacks in DVDs. If it's anything like the P42Hde model, I'd stay away from it....

But if this baby can live up to the Maxent 42X3 or better, then THIS is the budget Plasma to get. Case closed.

According to VIZIO's press release, the P42HDTV is based on the P50HDM (as opposed to being based on the P42HDe model), so that's a very good sign.

Of course, we'll just have to wait and check it out in person!

Any reason you chose to eBay it rather than return it?

I agree - on paper, this looks like an amazing deal. I'm trying to be cautiously optomistic. Don't want to get too excited before I actually see it, or before the lines start forming at Costco...

wonder is costco would have it in stock before March 20. Then i could just get it and get a refund later since they value coupons within 30 days of purchase

Holy cow. Thanks for the press release, richardmayo. This TV is absolutely what I've been waiting for. I wish I could fast forward to March 20. Molybdenum, do you really think they would honor the coupon if you purchase the TV earlier than March 20? That would be awesome. I know Costco's return policy is liberal, but I thought their policy on coupons was more strict.

I bought the 50" Vizio 2 weeks before the coupon date and it was no problem getting the discounted amount...I just took my receipt and coupon in...and I know you guys don't want to get too excited but the 50" has excellent PQ and I don't see why the new 42" would be any different...

I don't like the speakers: the color and the fact they are on the bottom. Otherwise, sounds promising.

I'm debating between this and the 50" RCA Scenium DLP that is at the same price point and in the same coupon book. The RCA DLP deal is about 1 month sooner. I posted a topic to try to get some opinion on which might be the better buy. It is going to be a really tough choice for me I think.

I'm also thinking of just sticking with my 4805 and just saving the money to buy new bulbs since it would get quite a bit more wear and tear. Right now it seems like the most appealing option.

Gibson LP - Can you please update your original message title to include the model number "P42HDTV".

I think it will help with searching, and will limit the duplicate posts.

Thank you.

Only Moderators are able to do that. Ask one of them.


Yup.

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march 20th seems really long. i was gonna buy the 220A phillips at costco when i saw this coupon. Wonder if this TV is worth the wait

Well, it was a gift and the place it was purchased from didnt allow returns... it was a refurbed unit.

But after doing tons of research over a 2-3 day period I realized that the issues I was having were global, more of a limitation of that model and not a defective unit.

Soon after, I sold it. There are people who can settle for the miserable picture quality of a Plasma because its... well.... a "plasma"...

But the 50" model is definently a step up... aside from the "sparklies" on black screens... and I agree that the fact that this new 42" model is based on the 50" makes this unit sound very promising. And that price is VERY attractive....

does any one know whether this new model has a cable card slot or not?

Unfortunately, the press release doesn't mention a cable card slot...I'm hoping it has one, and it just wasn't listed in the blurb.

On a related note, I emailed Vizio last week asking about this model, and they replied "it has not been posted on our website yet, we will have the final specifications on that by the end of this month."

good news. I emailed vizio for the exact date that the vizio will hit costco's shelves and this is the reply i got:

Good afternoon,

The unit will hit Costco the week of 03/13/06.

Best regards,

Bertha Villasenor

That mean that i dont have to wait till march 20th to get it. But still 2 months to go

Sweet! Thanks for letting us know, molybdenum.

The P42HDTV will not have a cable card slot per the response I got from V inc below. Hope it will work as well with Comcast as it does on Cox. I guess I won't have to get a new wall mount either as it is supposedly the same as the P50. I can't wait to see it in March.

"It does not have a cable card. You should be able to get some of the
digital channels from the cable company without their box using the clear
QAM/ATSC input(I received about 40 digital channels at my house without
using my Cox cable box and others we tested received about 60 to 80
channels).

Yes, it does use the same wall mount as the P50."

pilot,
can you explain how is it possible to recieve digital cable without a box? Do you mean like over the air signals? then i probably wont get any because i had rabbit ears and the signal around my area is fairly poor.

molybdenum, it can receive OTA/ATSC with the rabbit ears or unencrypted QAM signals from your cable provider with the built-in HDTV/QAM tuner on this PDP. Since I already get all local HD OTA channels just fine, I won't need to use my Accurian ATSC receiver if I get this Vizio so one less external box for me. However, If I wanted the encrypted QAM/OnDemand/etc, I would still need a cable set top box as there is no cable card slot.

I emailed Vizio again, this time asking for a specific date as to when the manual will be available on their website. The response I got was, "I spoke to the engineer and they will have the finalized copy by mid February."

Wow thanks. But thats still a month to go though...

looks like the manual for the p42hdtv is online now over at vinc.

that was a really quick month!!

Holy cow! You're right, it's up there now! I'll have to check it out tomorrow... Thanks for letting us know!

I have slowly been building my budget HT system in preperation for a new display (just got my HK AVR235, Polk R15's in the rear, R30's in the front, CSM center, & Dayton 12 Sub).

I just can't decide between the 42" Vizio or the 42" Sceptre LCD (although we don't have a price on the LCD yet as far as I know).

I see in the manual that it will retain size modes and volume for each input but does anyone know if it also saves the other settings per input (contrast/brightness/etc.)? Also it looks like there is no real direct input selection from the remote. My current cheapie plasma makes you toggle through all the inputs to get the one you need and even with a Harmony remote it is agonizingly slow. It would be awesome if there were discete codes for the Vizios. The 50" Vizio has a setting for variable audio out but it looks like that was left off the 42" too; a feature I really like as I have a dedicted amp and bulit in speakers just for regular TV watching. I guess I am looking for "Sony" features on a budget plasma!