Vizio M55 Quantum (M558-G1) my new Master Bedroom TV (1 Viewer)

[Kyrsten Brad]

Well folks, after what 4 years, I’m finally upgrading our master bedroom TV with a new Vizio 55” M Series Quantum
(4K of course) It replaces our 2015 model Vizio 50” M-Series (4K but no HDR or Dolby Vision). The 50” will be wall mounted in our den which could prove useful for movie viewing while I’m working on film scanning or for a big screen setup when I hopefully become eligible to work at home.

Originally I wanted the 2018 model Vizio P55-F1 but those are getting really hard to come by. Vizio lists them as not available but notify me when they do come available. All the reputable outlets list them as out of stock which leaves only eBay and Amazon third party resellers advertising “open box specials” or “factory refurbished” with skimpy discounts. Don’t trust either one.

Wife informed me that the new M55 has arrived (sent pictures) and awaiting me to come home to install it (A couple of carpenter friends of ours who know how to do wall mounts will wall mount the old 50 for us before I get home).

As for the M55 Quantum, note that there are two, no now make that three distinct versions of the M55 Quantum’s. The one I got, the M558-G1 features 600 NITS brightness and 90 local dimming
zones. The M557 and now the M556 have 400 NITS brightness and 16 or 10
Local dimming zones respectively (wonder what’s with that).

Checking over the specs, the new M558-G1 Quantum seems superior to the 2018 P55-F1 in most aspects, save for native refresh rate (120Hz for the P55 vs 60Hz for the M55, not sure what to make of that effective refresh rate) and maybe brightness. Any of the M55 Quantums or P55 will be vastly superior to my old M50 so I think I’ll be quite happy.

In my MBR setup, the TV is pretty much the hub. I do have a Vizio 5.1 36” sound bar setup on this but someday I’d like to bring in my old Denon X2000 AVR but by that time, I might just be able to get a much more up to date Denon AVR X2600 or so quite inexpensively.
This setup does also include a Sony 2100 Blu-ray player, a Sony 510 DVD player and of course the cable box. Might add a Roku Ultra 4K and ATV4K (Spectrum has a deal in those).

I’ll be updating this thread with my observations on how this set performs.

 

[Kyrsten Brad]

Wouldn’t you know it. NNOOWWWW Best Buy has some Vizio P55-F1 TVs (2018). Even though the new M55 Quantum appears superior in all aspects except native refresh rate and brightness, I’m still having a little buyers remorse.

Guess when I get home and see the new M55 Quantum though, I’ll be very happy, especially considering the M55 Quantum has the Quantum Dot technology.

 

[Kyrsten Brad]

Well first impressions of the new Vizio M55 G8 Quantum:


Color definitely jumps out at you using the default out-of-the-box settings. Guess Vizio wasn't lying about the quality of the Quantum color.

Did some initial calibration using my Disney WOW Calibration disc (nowadays getting expensive, over $100 last time I looked). Took down the overall brightness a bit and increased shadow detail. Like it so far but still have a little calibration to do.

Native refresh rate of only 60Hz (vs 120Hz for my P Series Viz 75) but by turning on Clear Action, NFL football doesn't look bad at all. Much improved from the old M50 and light years ahead of my old (and given away) Vizio 70" E-Series.

Ordered a new Sony X800 M2 UHD Blu-ray player for the main HT setup which means I'll be moving the X700 to this TV. But I might change my mind and put the X800M2 on the 55. The smaller size of the X700 means it fits nicely in my improvised Entertainment rack but the X800M2 won't fit, except up top.

Added a second Roku Ultra (Black Friday WalMart deal again) to my Roku account and installed the Roku on the new TV.

 

[morganc]

Nice choice. I would advise you ST650P Tilt Wall Mount for your TV.

 

[morganc]

Nice choice. I would advise you ST650P Tilt Wall Mount for your TV like in this article .

I have bought the same for my tv.

 

[Kyrsten Brad]

Nice choice. I would advise you ST650P Tilt Wall Mount for your TV.

I actually used a less expensive non-tilt wall mount for the den 50". Quite happy with it and didn't see a need for a tilting display, for now anyway. Actually I didn't notice my mounting wasn't tilt type until too late but it wasn't a big issue with me.
Now all I need to do is how to hook it up. Do I want to pay more for another cable box or can I hook Spectrum up directly to the TV successfully with no cable box. I will buy a Roku Premiere 4K for this TV and add it to my Roku account (for a total of 3 Rokus on one account). Spectrum also offers a 4K AppleTV box as a alternative to a cable box (I have one on my main theater setup but still have the cable box on that TV) for $7.99 a month till paid for, but I'd want that Apple box for my MBR TV.

I did give some consideration to wall-mounting the new 55" in our MBR but unfortunately the one wall that the TV fits so well with backs up to our bathroom & shower. The thought of drilling into a water pipe to put a mount up definitely apes-nayed that idea. Even if our carpenters installed it successfully, a bursting or leaky water pipe in the future would not be good for that TV.

One of the big reasons why I upgraded our bedroom TV is the simple fact that wife wants me to come to bed when bedtime comes. Having a quality set in there helps a lot. Plus the wife loves having it for the Music Choice channels (piped thru the Vizio soundbar with the TV either on or off). Maybe its a good thing this new 55 isn't a OLED as she likes to constantly run the Music Choice channel on screen. No worries about screen burn in.

 

[morganc]

Nice choice. I would advise you ST650P Tilt Wall Mount for your TV like in this article https://webproductradar.com/best-tv-wall-mount .

Very useful.

 

[Kyrsten Brad]

Very useful.

My mistake, it is a tilt capable wall mount.

The den TV is now my first internet only TV using Roku Premiere 4K (caught on sale at Target for $29), my old Sony BDP-2100 Blu-ray player and a Sony DVP-510 DVD player. Both disc players from my MBR setup as the new X800M2 replaced the BDP-2100 and strangely enough, I did not have a open HDMI port on the new M55 TV as it only has 4 HDMI ports. So I was unable to include the DVD player. No big loss there as the X800M2 plays everything.

The other TVs have cable boxes, the result of wife & mom not being tech-savvy.

 

[JohnRice]

Well, I'm this close to pulling the trigger on this TV for my living room, since it's on sale at BB. The only real negative I can find for it is the upscaling, but I can have most upscaling done before the signal reaches it. My cheap Philips UHD player seems to do a very good job, and the AppleTV 4K seems to do an exceptional job. The only exception will be old shows in 480 on broadcast, but they look like crap anyway. I do like to watch the Create channel on Saturday mornings, which is 480 in my area, so we'll see how that looks.

Any negatives from those who have this model?

 

[Tony Bensley]

*Deleted Post.