Official Vizio P50HD Thread ( part 2): NO PRICING: Technical Issues ONLY!

Not a bad thread, over 372,000 views and 4,700 posts.

actually markrubin, its two chains pretty equally right now.

anyway, PDAWG and DRWAM, i returned my june build set to ***'s and kept the F53 build unit...picture quality i think is a tad better but nothing extra to write home about. the buzz is a little louder than my F27 build, so i think i am going to call vizio tomorrow and have them replace the board doing the buzzing. im sure they can get it down some with a new board. as far as keeping it or getting one of the new panasonics, time will tell. had no problems at all returning it to ***'s, did tell the guy it had a bad pixel and i think he was going to mark it down and try to resell it. other than the pixel it was a fine set...but for 2599 retail, i want all pixels to work correctly...period. the thing that worries me is that if they can go bad over time, whats to say it wont happen on all of their sets?

Okay, just so we're all on the same page

dtrell, what you just posted in not acceptable. Editing out the letters with *** does not cut it.

I'm going to assume you are being honest here and made a mistake, but you mentioning how easy it was to return it to costco, or sam's is off topic for this thread. It is for P50 technical issues. Everyone stick to talking about the set, or the manufacturer, and everything will be fine. When Mark said "limited reference is allowed", that means if you bought one somewhere, you can post that, but it needs to end there. When you make mention of the ease of return at a specific vendor, it will cause someone to ask for more info, or post there own return experience. This type of info goes in the master thread.

All that said, dtrell, I do appreciate what you said in the Part I P50 thread about not having to like a rule, to follow it. We do this in an effort to make the forum a great place for everyone. Given that, we all have to make sacrifices. But we all like this place, even given the rules, as evidenced by our continued coming here. Please remember that is why these rules exist. They are an effort to maintain the formula that has worked for AVS and it's members for a long time.


thanks again all

another observation between these two cables/connection (through Cox), HDMI do look somewhat better in PQ when viewing HD or HD DVD. However, I see lots of noise and interferrance with HDMI when watching SD channels as compared to component.

Anyone else have the same experience?

BTW, any cox (orange county, ca)subscribers here, they give free cables with subscription (hdmi, optical, component, etc.) save yourself $$.

Is it just a "feeling" that the PQ is better or do you notice something specific (sharper, etc)?

well pdawg, when youre talking about something that close, its hard to be empirical. i would say at this point that its just a feeling. id say its slightly sharper, but not enough to where id have hassled with returning the old one if it didnt have a bad pixel develop. now i have to call vinc today and get them to replace the buzzing board.

picked mine up the other day, mounted it now i see 4 neon red lines about an inch apart on the right side of the screen. they dissappear and come and go depending on the picture on the screen :-/ kinda looks like a laser pointer beam when you place it along a wall :P

The panaoramic mode is available using S-video. I use S-video to make setup changes on the SA8300 since I get no picture in the 8300 setup mode using the HDMI connection. I leave an S-video connection available for that reason and I tried and saw the panoramic option.

take it back to whichever of the two establishments selling it that you purchased it from.

hoped you were not goign to say that, thats an hour away + i gotta get it onto my truck these guys are heavy!

Thank you. I wanted to try the panoramic mode to see if I could stretch the SD picture to the entire screen. I did some checking on my Dish Network HD receiver and found a way to stretch the SD picture. The picture looks good no distortion in the streched mode. I have the SD picture in wide mode from the vizio and then strecth it with the dish receiver.

well you could always call vizio and they will come replace the board. it sounds like a board problem, but if it is the panel, they will replace that also or just replace the unit...however, its quicker dirtier and easier to just exchange it.

Couple of questions. 1) For you guys who own this unit. How does it compare to the new Maxent? 2) You know how maxent is made with panasonic parts. What are these made with? Thanks

To troubleshoot, have you tried different inputs or type of connection (s-video, component, HDMI)?

My dish network receiver gives me the option of 420p, 720p, or 1080i, What is the best setting for the Vizio?

LG panel with Genesis Scaler and Faroudja (Genesis now owns) DeInterlacer.

use all settings iff possible and let the vizio scale and deinterlace.

720p or or switch back and forth to the content's native rate and let the VIZIO scale.

Is there a way to tell what is the content's native rate Jim? I tried all the different settings on the STB, but the PQ of Vizio is just too good and I don't see a whole lot of difference.

goseecal, you check the native rate of the content by allowing all formats from your STB. then whatever format appears in the STB window, thats what it is. unfortunately (and i dont understand why) the vizio only shows the input on the screen and doesnt show the type of signal it is receiving, unlike almost every other plasma brand.

Hey guys, thank you for answering my questions. I have another one.
As I stated before, I just picked up this set. I have had it about 4 days. Average run time is about 3-4 hours per day so far. How often should I use the screen washer?

My comment was meant mainly for Over The Air OTA HD TV content. In most cases you'll get CBS, NBC, WB, UPN in 1080i with ABC and Fox in 720p. So I switch from 720p to 1080i when watching the 1080i stations. This allows the good scaler and deinterlacer in the Vizio to do the scaling to its native resolution. And for DVD you could probably benefit by outputting 480i component video and letting it deinterlace and scale there as well.

To see what OTA HDTV stations are in your area and to see what ATSC format they're broadcasting go to antennaweb.org.

If all else fails output 720p as it will like it better in most cases because 1080i will introduce interlacing artifacts.

I posted this in the last thread and didn't get any responses, so here goes again:

Can anyone that is using a harmony and having it work correctly with this TV check their settings on the web site? If you go under the TV properties and select "adjust the delays"?

What is listed there?

Thanks

Good luck with that dtrell!

I hassled with a Vizio replacement of my F50's buzzing board for a month and when it was all said and done, it was no better than before the fix. But by all means, let us know your results.

mdifabio

Depends on what you are watching. If it's full screen TV all the time then once a month at most (unless you keep it on a channel that has a static image always displayed, or a stock ticker on the bottom etc). If its mostly video games then once a day or more (every couple of hours of play - or just give it a rest on an HD channel). That's why the owners manual tells you to switch content often.

I talked to tech help at Vizio about this, and they said we should use it regularly, whether we think it needs it or not So I run mine once a week.

If you can fill the screen in the wide mode, it is better than the panoramic mode. The panoramic mode will be distorted except the center.

Dish sat receivers only allow selecting a particular output format, not like some cable boxes that allow the native format. I'm not sure about Directv sat receivers.

............With a sweet picture. Loving this set for 4 days now.