Vizio barreling into Wal-marts everywhere
By Erik Hanson 
posted May 30th 2007 11:51PM
posted May 30th 2007 11:51PM
Relative newcomer Vizio has certainly done a bang-up job at taking the television market by storm, throwing down a sub-$1000 plasma and the first sub-$2000 1080p LCD, upsetting Sony with its pricing schemes, and making good impressions just about everywhere. Now the number-four flat-panel seller is truly heading for the mass market, with an announcement that Wal-mart will sell four new models of Vizio LCDs. The 720p sets include at least one HDMI input and integrated ATSC/QAM tuners. The VW26L, VW32L, VW37L, and VW42L panels will range from 26 to 42 inches, with the smallest starting at $448. Considering the retail giant's reach and inertia, it's going to be a tough year for competitors on the low-end of the flat-panel market. We feel for you: now pick us up some chips and paper towels with that 42-incher, will ya?
Wow. sub $500 for a plasma. I remember paying $700 for a regular 32''. I love that technology gets cheaper with time:)
Uhhhh, Vizio is not the first manufacturer to release a sub 2000 dollar 1080p LCD. Westinghouse has had the LVM-37W3 out for at least a year, which can now be bought for under a grand. Maybe you meant the first 47 inch LCD, but that's not what you said.
First sub-$2000 1080p? Seems I got my 1080p LCD for $900 last year, and it's now only $800 until June 1 at Costco. Talking about Westinghouse LVM-37W3.
It's going to be a tough year for Vizio, too. Wal-Mart's production needs are so high and their margins so low that they could very well run Vizio right out of business.
I'm surprised plasma tech has lasted this long! Does it have a future?
plasmas MUCH better than LCD...
do some research
NO lagging due to fast refresh rates, AWESOME angles, WAYYYYYYYYYY more colors (around 29 billion), burn in is a thing of the past, and o yea 60,000 hr life with NO MAINTENANCE TO DO EVER, o and AWESOME blacks
LCD is old tech
haha, I think you have it twisted. See how many manufacturers are abandoning plasma. Plasma is old tech. It's heavy, sucks more power than a typical american v6 sucks gas, has a reflective surface requiring on angle view in a dark room with no light sources behind you. Oh yea, and burn in. So yea, you get better blacks and a smoother less digital image, but it's not worth the trades off to most which is why LCS sales have soared.
Ive been shopping around for a tv
and these just look horrible compared to the samsung, lg's and sony's ive seen out there. i think i just wont be cheap and pick up a nice samsung, which seems to have the best prices to picture quality that ive seen and read about
This is to Rick Lyon, number 1 what is an LCS?-idiot and 2 i work with plasmas everyday, they crush the LCDs, better color and the do not have motion blur. and the new panasonic 77u have a coating which gets rid of most of the glare, the only upside to an LCD is brightness, i sell more plasma than anything else. when ppl see the side by side comparison of the same priced LCD and plasma they go with the plasma
I work at another retail store which carries Vizio tv's and we have their 32 inch LCD. We sell a lot of them, they are so incredibly cheap, almost half the price of any of our other 32 inch tvs and they look pretty good. Their plasma, on the other hand, we just got in. It is cheaper than the other plasmas, but it looks horrible, its watchable but if youre spending that much you might as well spend a few more hundred and go with a tv that has much better picture quality. I do recommend their LCD tvs.
Been using a Vizio 32" LCD for the last year or so. Picture quality is pretty good, especially if you're watching SD. Movies look pretty good as well. Not sure what the other person was talking about (Visio != s*h*i*t).
OTOH, I bought it at Costco so it's covered by the old "return anytime" guarantee. No issues with it, though - just solid performance.
I think Maxent was the first 1080p under 1K...at least with a built-in tuner. The Westinghouses were the first ones, but without the OTA HD tuner.
Dude, don't skip the medication!
I have had a 37" Vizio LCD from Costco since Jan. and it is awesome. It does the best job with SD that I have seen. Halo 3 beta and Gears look great running through VGA at 720p. True you can pay a lot more money for a Sharp or a Sony but at this point why would you? No matter what you buy in 6-12 months it will be old tech clearance priced for half of what you paid. I am glad I didn't buy the $1500 32" Sony Bravia partial HD (sarcasm) that only does a pathetic, eye-crushingly horrible to look at, disgusting 720p or 1080i. ;)
I love my 42' Vizio, 750$! It is great. Very very happy with it.
Most Vizio users think that their display is GREAT because they don't have clue. I would guess that many users are first time flat panel buyers and do not have an approperiate baseline of viewing experience.
Most vizio's are not horrible if that is all that your budet allows. The bottom line is that if a Vizio makes you happy then that's all you need.
However, please don't brag about how great the picture is because it only makes you look like a fool.
yes because theyre definetly NOT great just cuz it says 1080p doesnt mean it looks great. there are alot more other things after resolution, contrast ratio and refresh frate to t.v's. if you dont want to spend that much money but want something in GOOD hd, look at a nice HD crt.
Yeah of course, I am not saying its NEARLY as good as any other disply, I am just saying for someone without much $, its an awesome alternitive. Not braggin the picture quality, just the fact we could get one!
I have the PH50 Plasma and I love it. I was kinda scared buying a new brand, but after reading reviews on the net, I bought it. I have to say I am more than pleased with the purchase. HD looks amazing. A lot of my friends ask me about LCD's and Plasmas when they start looking, and I tell them about mine and they are also sceptical about it until the come over and see it. Then they go buy one too.
I have a 32" Vizio, and before you shit on me for saying I don't know what I'm talking about, keep in mind that I also have a 65" Mitsubishi, a 32" XBR3, and have had a 50" Sammy, all 1080p (except the Vizio). Is it the greatest TV in the world? No, not by any means. Does it get the job done? Indeed it does. And quite well for it's price. Side by side with the XBR3, it looks very similar. The blacks aren't as deep and it's not nearly as vibrant, but honestly, most people I know don't notice. Blu-Ray and upscaled DVD on PS3 over HDMI look great, and while I wouldn't use it as my main TV, i realize that not everyone has the money to go out and get a $1500+ TV. When I got the Vizio, it was $780 when the Sharp and Sony equivalent were almost $2000. Yeah, they were better, but not $1200 better. So please, don't belittle people who can't afford the TV you can't afford either. Welcome them to the Hi-Def world...
I just bought the 32" Vizio VW32L model that Wal-Mart started carrying. I wanted my first HD display for use with an XBox 360, and something that will double as a computer monitor. Real LCD widescreen computer monitors larger than 22" are insanely pricey, and do not feature component inputs to work with the XBox 360 -- scratch that idea. The idea of using an LCD HDTV as a computer monitor made me worry -- brought back memories of trying to connect a 31" CRT SDTV to the S-video outputs of my PC's graphics cards.... yuck! But, now we're dealing with LCD, a digital technology, being connected through a DVI-HDMI cable, a digital interface. So, in theory it should work, plus many manufacturers are advertising PC compatibility, and even including a 15 pin VGA port on many.
On my 19" CRT monitor with 18" viewable (4:3) I calculated my pixel pitch to be around 71 DPI, because I prefer a 1024x768 resolution... need no higher. I calculated that neither a 27" LCD HDTV or a 32 incher would cause the pixel pitch to even get near twice as bad as what I'm used to... if anything, might need to sit a little farther away.
So, I find this Vizio 32" with tuner (maybe use it as a TV later) for $597 at Wal-Mart. For gaming, it looks great. How could it not? As a computer monitor, it took a lot of tinkering with my display adapter's custom settings, but after entering the native reslution (custom for Windows) and changing the horizontal/vertical pixel polarities and scan rates... boom, perfectly stable video output. While it may not be perfect, this finally IS liveable. To go from a 19" CRT monitor to having a 32" widescreen on my desk is amazing.
Note that for web browsing, you experience mostly high contrast pictures (black text on a white background) so the contrast ratio is not so important. Compared to the white space, the black text looks VERY black. Now for watching movies that will be only slightly different. But for movies, I have a nice front projection setup. Go get this monitor if you've been thinking about it, I highly recommend it.
Kevin
I have a 32 inch Visio. Pixture looks ok but sound is terrible. What can I do to improve that.