Vizio XVT553SV delivered last night, is a nice set (1 Viewer)

New to the forums, hello to all,

I have been looking for a new flat panel, larger than what I currently have a 42' plasma. Vizio is not really something I would have even considered until I saw some good reviews on it. Cnet has it in the top 5 and its the only LED/LCD to make it in the top 5. PC Mag and htguys gave it a good review, and while the telvisioninfo.com guys were pretty hard on it, it still outscored everything else they reviewed recently if I remember correctly. Not in all areas mind you but overall. A couple areas that it did not fare as well in, contrast and blooming issues I have not really noticed, although I have not had a chance to really run it hard either. Have only watched HD Dish and netflix over the internet on it. Will try to watch parts of star wars on it this weekend or the begining of alien vs. predator where they are over the ice. Some nice contrast areas to check it out. I set it up according to the televisioninfo guys but with the smart dimming on. I am sure that plasma guys will disagree but I have a 2005 model Hitachi 42HDX62 plasma and this Vizio LED does not look much different. Maybe its the settings I dont know but other than being alot larger the picture looks about the same. The price is great on the TV, the Hitachi was $4500 in 2005, in mid 06 when I got it, it was still $2600 "on sale", the last of the 1024 x 1024 42's before 1080p sets came out. The Vizio internet netflix app is great, watched parts of Iron Man on it today. I am waiting to run the Pioneer BDP 320 this weekend to check out Blu Ray though.
 

All in all I am pleased with the TV, never thought I would have a Vizio. Just reflecting on the market I remember back in 97-98 when I sold electronics and Samsung and LG came out. They were lower end brands back then and look at them now. Hitachi on the other hand was one of the better names in rear projection and a major player in the plasma market in the early part of 2000, now they have a tiny percent of the market share. It appears Vizio is doign the same as the others, start on the lower end and build market share before moving into the higher end lines. The established players like Hitachi simply could not compete with the cheaper products coming out of China. I am rambling now so will excuse myself, and again hello to the forum.

hi Rob

 

Cool on the purchase. Vizio has come a long way and has become a serious player by dominating the wholesale clubs and Walmart shelves. they are scheduled to sell more displays than any other manufacturer this year.

Got one of these this week- it was a replacement for a 552 model which had a problem, but turns out this one has the SAME problem! Look what the "Smart Dimming" does: (And yes, I know my narration isn't clear.)


[url=http://

Wow - The problem is really noticeable with material that includes any sort of pillarboxing or letterboxing. Thanks for posting the videos!

With all due respect, do you think that you're gonna get the guys who programmed this model to fix it and release a firmware for it? Sorry, I don't see it happening.

Click to expand...

I'm sure doing that would be less trouble than sending out replacement TVs (that STILL have this problem) to the people who've complained about it. So far there have been two firmware updates for these TVs sent through the internet. It's pretty cool how it works- you turn the TV on and a message comes on screen saying "Installing new firmware update", then turns off and back on and there you go- nobody has to come over or send anything in the mail to install.


I got the first TV through what they called a "VIP Program", where from filling out a survey me and a few other people got to order it a couple months before they were out in stores. We were given a few surveys about the TV, though most of them were about the internet apps. I was rather disappointed with the whole experience as I thought they'd take my feedback a little more seriously- I sent them a detailed description of the smart-dimming problem fairly quickly but apparently they didn't really read it. The movies-on-demand services had problems that took a long time to fix too- Vudu wasn't passing 5.1 sound, instead sending out a 2-channel PCM downmix, and that took 8 months to get fixed. Netflix streaming was coming out in MONO which was completely inexcusable, that was finally fixed at the same time the Vudu problem was. I still haven't been able to get 5.1 sound from Amazon VOD, but it seems that's because my internet service isn't fast enough- 5.1 only comes through Amazon at the highest-quality connection speed.


Seems like they've sold a lot more of these new TVs than the previous model so hopefully they'll get more complaints about the smart dimming, as that's my only big complaint about them. Other than the 553 being a little thinner, omitting the S-Video jack (which I've verified doesn't make any difference in quality on these TVs anyways) and having an ambient light sensor, I haven't seen any other difference in its performance from the 552.

Originally Posted by Jesse Skeen Sorry, I don't see it happening.

Click to expand...

I'm sure doing that would be less trouble than sending out replacement TVs (that STILL have this problem) to the people who've complained about it. So far there have been two firmware updates for these TVs sent through the internet. It's pretty cool how it works- you turn the TV on and a message comes on screen saying "Installing new firmware update", then turns off and back on and there you go- nobody has to come over or send anything in the mail to install.


I hear ya. I've read a good bit about the method but have yet to be able to connect to the internet. Part of me doesn't even wanna bother with this step as some over at AVS are reporting that it slows the TV and have been causing problems with performance.

Connection is easy if you're reasonably proficient with this kind of stuff (I'm far from a computer expert, but had no problem doing this.) The first couple months of having the 552, it would sometimes freeze up when using internet functions but seemed to stop afterwards, my new one didn't want to access some of them the first day but after the second day that straightened out.

I hear ya, I just like to keep it simple. A TV's a TV, not a computer.

Video of the new TV- the other ones were of the 552.

WTF is this "Smart" Dimming feature even FOR?

Originally Posted by Chas in CT

WTF is this "Smart" Dimming feature even FOR?

Click to expand...

It's yet another example of the extreme measures companies are taking to try and work around the inherent deficiencies in certain display technologies. In this case, black levels and contrast ratio... perhaps this is how they achieve CR in the millions...

The black levels are a LOT better with smart-dimming on than off- with it off, backgrounds are greyish. Unfortunately I can't use it since it cuts the backlight completely when the picture goes to black.

Originally Posted by Jesse Skeen

The black levels are a LOT better with smart-dimming on than off- with it off, backgrounds are greyish. Unfortunately I can't use it since it cuts the backlight completely when the picture goes to black.

Click to expand...

I noticed this a good bit last night with Fargo but I don't care, I love this TV.

Hope the problem gets solved but seeing "Zapped" again takes me back

Originally Posted by Jesse Skeen




Video of the new TV- the other ones were of the 552.

Click to expand...

New firmware is coming out in the next week or so but nobody's sure if it will solve this problem or not. May have to get Zapped on DVD just to see how the TV handles this scene- it would probably go completely out during the black there, and may not even come back on fast enough to show the one frame of picture!


Another video with more recent material using Vudu online movies:

Got the new firmware but this still hasn't been fixed. The rep at Vizio says he'll forward my YouTube videos to someone else at the company who might be able to get a better answer. Been reading that AVS thread too- almost killed this TV last night after finding that number code, but it's back to normal now! I think I'll keep it regardless since I don't know what else I would get at this point- don't have a lot of money now anyways since I'm going back to school, and hopefully when I'm done with that the 3-D TVs will be ready for prime time.