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(More customer reviews)An LED/LCD HDTV for under $200 was unthinkable a year ago. Vizio gets points for marketing new technology at low prices. But all is certainly not well. First, the good: the picture is so crisp that my years of skepticism about and resistance to blurry LCD (and now LED) TVs was removed--really fine detail, clarity, brightness, and an amazing 20,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio, without harshness or reflectivity.
But there are big problems. I tried *three* of these units, and all had the same issues, none of which the Vizio personnel would even admit they had heard about (except the firmware update, obviously, described below).
First of all, the firmware version may need updating: if the "last channel" button on the remote works randomly, and an image-size setting called "normal" is a tiny picture at the center of the screen, click "Help" on the remote and check the firmware version under "System Info." If it's anything under Vers. 1.49, go to vizio.com and download and install the M190MV update according to the on-line instructions. The firmware on all three auditioned sets needed updating--and the set was purchased and exchanged between late December 2010 and late February 2011!
Another glitch: TV program information is incomplete. Each click of "Info" on the remote reveals more about the program. However, the playing times and program lengths are random from channel to channel. Setting the TV's internal clock has no effect. Cable or OTA broadcasters include this most basic piece of information in their signals but this TV can't read it. Vizio Customer Service was completely ignorant and unhelpful (remember, I tried three identical TVs), as it is with virtually everything. Also, channels change very slowly, and the remote is narrowly directional, as well as floppy and wafer-thin with flush, hard-to-press, usually inaccurate or nonfunctional buttons.
Then there is the sound. A wafer-thin TV can't be expected to have decent sound with no resonating cavity; the sound is reminiscent of a transistor radio, ca. 1965. No setting makes any difference in quality. The TV also has no external-speaker outputs, and there isn't enough power coming out of the headphone jack (inconveniently located at the bottom left back) to drive *powered* computer speakers. Even hooking up the analog L/R outputs of a DVD player to powered speakers and the TV with a splitter is useless because it results in a slight delay/echo (speakers get the sound first for some reason); this is absolutely unheard of and unacceptable! The ONLY way to get listenable sound is to connect the optical digital output to a separate amp or sound bar (one hopes); heavy-handed marketing persuasion almost doubling the cost of the TV!
None of the picture presets yield realistic colors: "vivid" comes closest on first glance, but it is so intense and saturated, with 90% back-lighting (!), that screen burn could occur in no time and visual details are distorted by glare. There is a "Custom" setting which can drive you to distraction. It contains an adjustment for "Color Temperature"--re-apportioning the Red, Green, and Blue gain; when one has gone as far as possible, b&w is still untrue and has a reddish/brownish tint (even disconnecting the color components of a three-cable component DVD connection, leaving only the basic b&w signal!). B&w DVDs are very unsatisfactory. Actually, even the colors are all off: blues are often violet, and at the same time, faces can have too *little* red and seem pale or greenish. I'm not sure how combination this is even possible. All this is compared against two well-adjusted 2003 Samsung CRTs.
The LED edge back-lighting is designed very poorly indeed. In all three units I tried, unless the brightness level was absurdly high, I could see faint white light at the left and right edges of the screen, and less faint blue light on the lower edge, when the image was a darker one. This is not helped at the bottom by a VIZIO logo illuminated in bright and fluorescence--one of the most idiotic things I have ever seen.
Typical of LCD/LED but still annoying, only straight-on viewing is possible, especially up and down. Moving your head seriously alters the brightness and even visibility, unlike plasma and old CRT TVs. LCD designers should have solved this by now but evidently have no monetary incentive for doing so.
This HDTV is inexpensive but is just so sloppily designed that it should be avoided even as a starter unit, despite the crispness of the images. Try another brand--though the angle viewing on LCD/LED will still be an issue. And if you need anything smaller than a gigantic 42" screen, plasma is not an option so you're stuck with the LCD/LED angle-viewing problem or your old SD CRT. Modern technology, huh?!
Click Here to see more reviews about: VIZIO M190MV 19-inch Full HD 720p LED LCD HDTV
VIZIO's M190MV 19" Class (18.5 inch diagonal) RazorLED LCD HDTV is brilliantin color, rich in detail and deep in contrast – all in a razor thindesign. This immaculate beauty delivers a 20,000:1 dynamic contrastratio for deeper blacks and brighter whites, and also includes touchsensitive controls that illuminate when your hand draws near and fadeaway once you're done. In addition, owners of the M190MV enjoy substantialHD connectivity with two HDMI inputs.
An amazing .85" ultra thin profileat its thinnest point.
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