arklab Posted January 22, 2007 Posted January 22, 2007 First off - It's GREAT to be back on the Street again! Background - Until this week I've been watching a very old Toshiba 20" standard defination TV. True it did have stereo speakers and was even color, but I wanted something better. On Monday I was one of the very first at my local Costco to grab a new 47" LCD by Vizio for a sale price of $1650 (plus Calif. sales tax). It is the companies first LCD as large as 47" and the first with 1080P, or "True High Defination" (more on terms later) The store opened at 10:00am sharp. I was in the door by 10:03am and the the floor stock was gone. Five Costco guys were rolling out flats stacked with TV cartons, and I grabbed one. (Hey, I've been to a couple of "Black Fridays at Fry's - dangerous!) By the time I got to the register at 10:08am, the only thing waiting in lines were these big TVs in Orange and White boxes - and one poor guy with a bag of chicken breasts wondering what the heck was going on. Oh, and Costco was sold out of the TV's. Eight minuits flat. I thought I'd do a few posts about my experiences with this set, expanding as I go. This is a good time to start, since I just pulled the box off - I've been having a new roof put on the house. To check out the specs of the Vizio, you can go HERE Back in a while ... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
UncleDavid218 Posted January 22, 2007 Posted January 22, 2007 "This thread is useless without pictures" Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
arklab Posted January 22, 2007 Posted January 22, 2007 "This thread is useless without pictures" Perhaps, but I'm quickly learning that - except for gross problems - pictures wouldn't show what I'm seeing. Esp. with my 1.4mp camera, as well as posting restrictions, the HDTV picture is just ... well ... high defination to judge. Tonight I just used a cheep $25 "Silver Surfer" antenna. Got to fiddle more but I am getting some free HD pictures. The bad news - well that can wait a bit. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
puzzled Posted January 27, 2007 Posted January 27, 2007 Tonight I just used a cheep $25 "Silver Surfer" antenna.Got to fiddle more but I am getting some free HD pictures. I tried a Samsung originally, & it was useless. I'm currently using a RCA ANT537. After doing some research I realized why the Samsung was such a poor choice. Some HD channels come in on VHF, & some come in on UHF. The Samsung isn't capable of pulling in the VHF channels, only UHF. The RCA can bring in VHF with the antenna in the main silver body, & UHF with the "rabbit ears". It's still not as effective as a good outdoor antenna, but it works well enough for where I live. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
arklab Posted January 28, 2007 Posted January 28, 2007 Good post, puzzled My sucsess with in antenas is due mostly to good luck in location. Not so lucky with the Visio, though. Very washed out picture, gets MUCH worse if looking at it more than 30* off axis (max), and a remote that will NOT direct tune to channels above 129. It's also an energy HOG, consuming 340W average (from the manual) for a 47" set. The Sharp 46" (D62U series) only uses 240W while their 53" (yes, fifty three) uses only 302W. We know what heat does to electronics, and the Visio seems to use junk to begin with. It won't help the AC bill this summer, ether. I am SO glad I bought this at Costco! It's so easy to take it back. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
puzzled Posted January 28, 2007 Posted January 28, 2007 What I forgot in the original post, & will now add, is the quality of the tuner attached to everything. I don't know how well an internal tuner works compared to a set-top box. I use a Motorola set-top tuner. IIRC, it's a HDT-100. I also tried a PC HDTV tuner card & it wasn't anywhere as sensitive as the Motorola with the same antenna attached. The PC card might work with an outdoor antenna, but that's really a last resort. One other thing to add, you can't run a cable signal & an over the air HD signal through the same cable. This is true even if you split the signal from two in to one, & then from one in to two with a diplexer. The signals interfere with each other & you get nothing that you hoped for. The only way to do it correctly is to run a separate line for the HD signal. I figured this one out when trying to tie an outdoor antenna signal in to the one entrance for cable outside the house. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
puzzled Posted April 6, 2007 Posted April 6, 2007 Good post, puzzled The Sharp 46" (D62U series) only uses 240W while their 53" (yes, fifty three) uses only 302W. There have been many problems with Sharp & some kind of visible banding that is a defect in the design. Sharp was always an entry level company when it came to electronics. You could always count on Sharp to be the cheapest TV in the store in every size, & the picture quality reflected this. Samsung has some of the best HD LCDs, but the performance is reflected in the price. It seems it comes down to the old adage of you get what you pay for. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
puzzled Posted May 28, 2007 Posted May 28, 2007 Another family member purchased a Vizio 47" plasma. When compared to a 40" Samsung LCD, the main difference is that the Samsung captures more cable channels than the Vizio. Even when punching in ###-### manually, the Vizio wont receive those channels. There are 8-10 channels missing from the Vizio at this point. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
allthatwhichis Posted June 22, 2007 Posted June 22, 2007 "This thread is useless without pictures" Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
joel_jsn Posted June 22, 2007 Posted June 22, 2007 Man if you have it post some pictures of how it looks and all so we can be amazed.Why just post to tell you bought a TV without showing it to us.Then I'll come and post every time I buy new underwear. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
UncleDavid218 Posted June 22, 2007 Posted June 22, 2007 Man if you have it post some pictures of how it looks and all so we can be amazed.Why just post to tell you bought a TV without showing it to us.Then I'll come and post every time I buy new underwear.Yeah but, nobody wants to see your underwear Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
HITandRUN Posted June 22, 2007 Posted June 22, 2007 As you can see we are picture junkies! We want to see that thing hanging on the wall or whatever. Next time invest in some camera since the 1.4MP is not doing it anymore! BTW: Good info about the antennas! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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