Big Screen TVs for Football Season

yes.

oh dear, i think its time for me to buy a new tv.

and now, we research…

this is gonna be fun.

Okay someone please talk me out of the Vizio 46" 1080p 3d hdtv.

Help us figure out the next steps? There’s not already steps in place to make things right with us customers?

Having a hard time passing that one up as well.

Why do you prefer the 46" LED over the 47" LCD?

Oh… Never mind. The explanation is easy to find.

Yes there are but sometimes you have options.

Also note that we’ve worked with our vendors to improve the packaging on these large screen TVs.

I own one of these, but mine is 120 Hz. It so kicks ass. My god the picture is just amazing.Especially using Netflix where I pay the extra $2 for blue Ray almost quality.Meaning I pay $10 a month. I do know that to get to 240 Hz. they just use software.Which would make me want to definitely get at least a 1 year warranty maybe more.

Very glad I waited till this year to go HD. Do Remember if you wait another year you will be getting a 55 inch for the same cost. But I waited for 9 years, long enough.

Some day I will get 90 inc TV because it makes watching FOOTBALL look like there are midgets playing LIVE in your living room!

So, how’s this T V working for you? you must answer me quick before I buy a refurbished one. I’m not sold on the 60hz refresh rate, but what do u think? Is it worth my buying? Let me know right now if possible. You know how Woot is. Thank yo SSSSOOOo much if u can help.

The Hisense 42" is tempting… since everyone talks about how good of quality it is for a cheap price/cheap brand. Anyone know if a 42" is a significant size difference compared to a 46", when you’re watching it? Is it noticeable? 46" LED available at Wally World for $479.

Well I order these tv and when I got it came damage

ALL refurbs …naaaaaaa.

Thoughts on the 60" LG Plasma?

I’m looking for a larger screen for a newly refinished basement. Seems like a decent deal, but I’ve never had plasma.

Thanks

If it’s 1080p then it’s 1920 pixels wide by 1080 pixels high regardless of whether the screen is 23" or 60". Basically with a bigger screen you get bigger pixels and bigger digital artifacts. This is why there’s a rule of thumb (don’t know it offhand) for screen size to viewing distance. If you are too close to a big screen you will start to see individual pixels and artifacts. Note that artifacts (blockiness) are usually due to a less-than-ideal signal (ie cable company) and shouldn’t be present in a blu-ray source.

My girlfriend’s roommate owns one, so I “get” to view it and play with it quite often. The ports and features are all nice, sure, but I don’t like the TV overall.

*My Qualification
I have a Bachelor’s degree in Arts & Technology and am currently pursuing a Master’s then Ph.D. in the field. I deal with tons of varied displays and display technologies on a daily basis, and am able to calibrate them by eye (with no equipment) to within <.2% of fully accurate calibration.


**~~~~~~The TV~~~~~~**
**===SPEED===**
To begin with, its biggest problem is that it is aggravatingly slow to turn on. It is also as slow as molasses to change modes or do anything other than simply display video. It is actually faster for me to fire up my laptop from being completely turned off, attach it to the TV (while the TV is booting up) and navigate to my Hulu or Netflix account, log in, and start watching videos through my laptop than it is to simply turn on the Vizio and open the Hulu or Netflix apps.

It takes the TV about 45 seconds on average to turn on, and about 5 minutes total to navigate to a show that I want to watch (even if I already have the show and entire menu sequence in-mind).

Also switching between modes is laboriously slow, and often times I am left wondering if the RF remote suffers from connectivity issues as well, as sometimes (regardless of new/old batteries) the TV will just sit in front of me completely non-responsive to my input.

One of the more annoying issues with slow processing on the TV's part is the ~.5 second video delay. If you have a computer or Wii or other device cursor-oriented connected to the TV, you will find yourself constantly trying to compensate for the lag between your action and the display of the screen. Even doing simple things, like navigating the internet with a mouse, is unnecessarily difficult. 

**===DISPLAY===**
The size is nice, and the 3D is neat, but the image usually suffers from a noticeably uneven distribution of light. Also, even with optimized, calibrated settings, the image often looks washed out and poorly representative of the video's content.

Additionally, the dynamic back-lighting is completely useless in any real application. Yes, it does effectively make the blacks blacker and the whites whiter (but not at the same time - it's one or the other at any given moment, which is to be expected with the technology Vizio employs). The issue is that, even with the ~.5 second delay I mentioned above, the dynamic contrast is reactive. The lighting does NOT change instantly with what is being displayed. This means that if you're watching a TV show and the camera angle jumps from a dark room to the street outside, there is a brief moment in which the sunlight looks sickly and dingy.

After about a second passes, the back light brightens itself smoothly up to the correct level. If the camera jumps back inside, the room looks very washed out and unduly bright until the TV can again catch up with itself. If a show cuts back and forth like this a lot, the effect can be sickening. Any Star Trek is a great example, as they frequently cut from the darkness of space to very well-lit rooms. I quietly disabled all of the options relating to dynamic back-lighting/contrast on my friend's TV.

The 3D effects is neat, but I personally don't feel like at-home 3D TV displays have matured quite enough to be very useful. My friend has hundreds upon hundreds of DVDs and a fast-growing collection of 3D Blu-Rays, but she rarely uses the 3D feature (despite having 6 pairs of 3D glasses, as well). I find the 3D to be average and acceptable for its price, but not nearly as effective as the likes of Samsung can produce.

**===SOUND===**
For the price of the TV, I cannot complain much about the sound. It is a bit tinny, but I have heard far worse.

**===CONCLUSION===**
The price is enticing, yes, and the features are neat when/if they work correctly, but there are far better bang-for-buck deals out there. I would not recommend this TV to a friend.


**===OTHER THOUGHTS===**
My television is a 32" JVC that I bought from Amazon for $290. It is 15" smaller than this Vizio, has half the refresh rate (my TV is 60HZ), has only 2 HDMI ports, has no Wi-Fi (or wired) internet connectivity, and has no "smart TV" features...but I consider it to be a vastly superior television in every regard. For two big examples, the picture is far more vibrant and crisp, and it only takes 4 seconds to completely turn on (compared to the Vizio's 45 seconds). If you're interested, look up the JVC Blackcrystal 3000 series.

If money is less important, though, Samsung is the king of the consumer-level market. Samsung makes the best TVs and Monitors out there in my opinion, but they come at a premium. That includes the display panels for some of Dell's highest-end monitors and, yes, the screens for Apple's Retina displays.

Eratosthenes,

I was right there with you until you mentioned that Samsung makes the panels that go into all the apple cinema displays. This is wrong information. LG panels are used, at the very least on the Apple 27 inch Cinema LED panel, and also on the equivalent 27 inch Dell Ultrasharp (though I will admit I am not 100 percent about that). The same LG panel that is in those monitors is in the CatLeap Yamakasi monitors that are making waves for their low prices from Korea these days (of which, I am a recent purchaser of). Makes me wonder how much more of your post you just made up on the spot without actually knowing…

Whoops! It looks like, as far as the monitors go, I was suffering from outdated and/or incomplete information. Dell definitely uses Samsung panels in some of their higher-tier monitors, but not all of them. LG, Phillips, and several other companies are also used. The monitor I am using at this moment (a 2011 model) happens to have a Samsung panel in it.

As far as the Cinema Displays, you’re totally correct. I have never owned an Apple (save for the dinosaur from 1993 I have laying around still), and based my inaccurate statement on what I was told about two years ago by a man working at the Genius Bar. LG does, in fact, manufacture the Cinema Display panels. Oops.

Oh, and it also looks like Apple is slowly phasing Samsung out of its mobile device screens this year, as well.

Good timing, Woot! Wednesday I got a Vizio M470SL at Costco. I joined Costco to get it, since it includes their extra year of warranty.

They have a $50 instant rebate on the 3D version, making it just $50 more, but I am not a huge fan of 3D. I was still tempted.

I’ve played with the apps. Now I’ve got three devices that will stream them (TV, TiVo, Roku), and will probably have a fourth when I get a Blu-Ray player.

Does anyone know how these are shipped? (UPS, FedEx, freight carrier, etc)

Because I am kinda assuming the 60 inch plasma is shipped freight, and having to take a half day off from work to wait for a delivery kinda kills the deal. Unless the seller will provide a option to pay extra for saturday delivery.

If its shipping UPS or Fedex I realize I will probably have to sign for it, but if its UPS I can have it shipped to the UPS store then just pick it up there, which would be ideal.

Anyway if anyone knows for certain it would be much appreciated.

I’m assuming this will be no different than our last 60" shipments which means it is shipped by a freight carrier. They’ll contact you to arrange a delivery time. We don’t have an option to pay extra for weekend delivery. That’ll be between you and the shipping company when they call.

Hope that helps.