For years, I’ve made do with the same early-1990s-vintage 26-inch tube television set, waiting for the day to arrive when a big television with a great picture would turn up on the market at a decent price. When buying gadgets, it’s really easy to put off a purchase by saying, “It will be better and cost less next year.” Finally I found a screen that made me say, “It will be better and cost less next year, but only a little better and a little less.” It was time to buy.
The specifications for “high definition” top out at 1080p, unless one moves into the theatrical digital market. It looks like cable television signals, broadcast signals, movie discs, and other media all top out at or below 1080p right now, and that no higher-resolution media are planned for the near future. Thus a 1080p screen is as good as it needs to be for the near future.
Television shows are broadcast at 30 frames per second (technically, 29.97), typically interlaced at 60 fields per second. Films are 24 frames per second. For smooth results with television media, a screen needs to run at a multiple of 60 per second. For smooth results from film, a screen needs to run at a multiple of 24 per second. A screen that runs at 120 per second (120 Hz) can show television material smoothly by repeating each field twice, and can show film smoothly by repeating each frame five times. Thus a 120 Hz screen is sufficient for optimal results with media from both television and film.
As for size, bigger is better, until the screen is too large for comfortable viewing, which depends on room size and personal preference.
Another consideration is inputs. This screen has five HDMI inputs, an RGB analog computer input with analog audio, an S-video input, a DTV/TV input, two component video and audio inputs, and an audio output. One of the HDMI and one of the component inputs is on the left edge (as viewed from the front) of the screen, rather than on the back. That’s a lot of inputs; it covers just about any needs I can imagine.
This screen has numerous user-adjustable settings. In most cases, the defaults appear appropriate.
The “picture adjustment” settings include presets for various types of source material; “standard” and “movie” seem like the most useful ones to me. I adjusted the color temperature setting.
The H/V position and size settings are useful. Some television channels have a few pixel rows of jittery garbage; it’s nice to adjust the vertical position to hide them because they’re very distracting. Some channels have a few pixel columns of green on one side or the other; hiding them makes the screen look nicer.
An important adjustment feature is “viewing mode”. This screen has five settings: “normal” (4:3 pictures displayed with black bars on the sides), “wide” (4:3 pictures stretched to the full width of the screen), “zoom” (widescreen pictures scaled proportionally to the full width of the screen, even if that cuts stripes off the top or bottom), “stretch” (widescreen pictures with black bars on the sides are stretched to the full width of the screen), and “panoramic” (the edges of 4:3 images are stretched, but the center is preserved un-stretched).
Since this is my first high-definition screen (other than computer screens), I’m not an ideal judge of image quality in comparison to other sets. To my untrained eye, it looks great, and in the store it looked about as good as other sets of the same size.
The sound quality seems good for built-in speakers, but a fancy screen like this deserves a dedicated sound system.
Since this screen appears to have all the features it needs for the next few years, good quality, and a very low price, it’s a good choice — at least until something even better comes along.
VIZIO VF551XVT – 55″ LCD TV – widescreen – 1080p (FullHD) – LED Backlight technology – HDTV Reviews
The VF551XVT 55″ TruLED delivers the best picture quality available on an LCD HDTV. This direct type, backlit LED HDTV is comprised of 960 LEDs divided into 80 control blocks and utilities Smart Dimming to intelligently control these blocks turning them on and completely off based on the content you’re watching. This cutting edge technology stops light leakage enabling you to achieve real 2,000,000:1 contrast ratio for rich, dark scenes delivering an experience that will blow you away. Rounding this out are features such as full 1080p high definition resolution for crystal clear images, 240Hz Smooth Motion for fluid transitions and SRS audio technologies for amazing sound! The Extreme VIZIO technology series epitomizes what HDTV should be!
VIZIO VF551XVT – 55″ LCD TV – widescreen – 1080p (FullHD) – LED Backlight technology – HDTV Features
- Size: 55 Inches
- Widescreen: 1080p
- Resolutions: 640×480, 800×600, 1024×768, 1920×1080
VIZIO VF551XVT – 55″ LCD TV – widescreen – 1080p (FullHD) – LED Backlight technology – HDTV Customer’s Reviews
Finally found what I wanted! – Mickey H. Leatherman – Oklahoma
I did a LOT of searching for a big screen HDTV, especially after having been literally robbed by SONY. I bought a SONY 50″ projection TV and it lasted one year before needing service. The insides of it were replaced and that lasted another year, so I started looking for another set.
When I saw the 55″ VIZIO at Walmart I couldn’t believe the picture quality, the inputs and the price. I came back home and researched VIZIO, found out they were an American company, so I went back and bought it. And I am NOT disappointed! So far, it’s been the best set I have ever had. I recommend it highly.
Nobody Does It Better! Puts all other LCD Mfgs to shame! – Bruce R. Nelson –
i am a confirmed Vizio Customer. I worked my way up the the SV470XVT 120hz/1080P from Costco last Fall. and I added the optional wireless subwoofer/rear satellite speakers. Total cost under 00! I added a Sony PS3 primarily for the outstanding BluRay dvd player and I get 1080P gaming to boot. Now I am at just under 00 for a whitehot machine which, by the serves as my primary monitor for my MacBookPro OSX 10.5. So, lets see, oh yes, I decided I wanted the very best electrical protection for the money on AMAZON I settled on the APC5750XL “Smart-UPS” which “launders my juice to a pure sine wave feed and gives me however much back up I need. Cost last winter at Amazon, 0! so now what do I need…you got it! I need a 55 inch Vizio so bad I can taste it. Everything I now have plus 6 more inches diagonal. I find the sound output which comes on automatic at 5.1 is all most neighbors will allow me to listen to…darn it all..can’t have everything. I am now waiting for about 30 more days to see who has the best delivered pricing…COSTCO or AMAZON. I love Amazon but a few hundred means a lot to me, like another plug in back up battery for my APC750XL!
In my humble opinion, and if you are getting by on very limited income as am I…you really have no choice but VIZIO. They back their product and while the parts may come from God knows where, Vizio IS an American company! Something else to think about during these troubled times. GO VIZIO…and Amazon, make the 55″ available delivered for under 00. I am waiting to place my Prime order!
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