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Vizio HDTV: Low Price, Mediocre Performance

April 2nd, 2008    Subscribe To Our Feed

The Vizio HDTV is attracting more interest amongst prospective buyers mainly because it is a flat panel TV that is affordably priced for both LCD and Plasma versions. This in spite of the fact that most buyers’ are reluctant to buy inexpensive TVs from manufacturers that do not enjoy the best repute, though now that many thousands have tested the Vizio HDTV, there is even some useful feedback available that can shed more light as to its advantages and drawbacks.

Not To Be Compared To Sony Or Pioneer

One of the more popular among Vizio HDTV models is the VX42LHDTV10A that is all of forty-two inches in diameter and is easily available from big stores such as Costco and Wal-Mart and according to the experts; it is certainly a good HDTV model well worth checking out. Of course, it is not the same as a Sony or Pioneer HDTV, though it is still not a bad choice when you consider the other brands because it still boasts of many good features that you would normally find only on high-end TV.

This particular Vizio HDTV has Picture-in-Picture feature as well as built-in over-the-air HD antenna and if you are located in big market area, you would actually be able to receive some kind of HD programming without any cost to you thanks to this HD antenna. In addition, there are loads of input options which allow you to connect your Vizio HDTV to other gadgets including DVD players, though the only downside to this Vizio HDTV is its rather poor quality of sound though you can get around that by connecting it to a surround sound system.

Essentially, the Vizio HDTV is the result of bolting together many components that are both high specs and also low in cost with the latter being the major component of the strategy employed by the company which is relying on making big volume sales and thus you can expect that the price of Vizio HDTV will always be rock bottom.

In fact, the Vizio HDTV is produced not in the USA, but in Thailand and that explains why these TVs are among the cheapest available, though of course some would opine that the performance is not that much better than what you are paying for it. There may thus be certain amount of disappointment if you spend your money on buying a Vizio HDTV only to find that it fails to impress you with its performance.

However, you can still pick up a fifty inch Vizio HDTV for about a mere two thousand dollars that comes with remote control PIP and good contrast, which is why more people consider this as a serious option when they are shopping for HDTV’s.

Great Buys On Sylvania HDTV Sets

March 31st, 2008    Subscribe To Our Feed

Sylvania makes great HDTV sets. Just check online reviews of their latest models to see what consumers who have HDTVs are saying about them.

Sylvania Model No. 155SL8P 15″ LCD HDTV

This HDTV, priced between $200 and $300, is HDTV-compatible, which means you will need a set top box and a cable or satellite subscription to operate it.

Some of the many features included in this model of Sylvania HDTV are: 1024×768 screen resolution; The Multi Channel Television Sound decoder on the 6626LDG model gives you great stereo sound and lets you pick up Spanish language programming provided under the Secondary Audio Program broadcast system.

Overall, this model was rated four stars out of five, with eight users rating the model.

Sylvania Model No. 6626LG 26″ LCD HDTV

You should expect to pay around $350 for this popular Sylvania HDTV. This model has an integrated ATSC tuner to receive on-air HDTV signals.

Screen resolution for this model is 1366×768, with two five-watt bottom-mounted stereo speakers that put out a great big sound for an HDTV that fits in small spaces.

This model is rated four stars on amazon, with 45 customers publishing online reviews for this Sylvania HDTV. E. Parkinson recommended this model for customers who are upgrading from standard definition to high definition TV.

Frank Forest of Northern California described this model as a “solid performer at a reasonable price.” He also recommended this Sylvania HDTV as a game console monitor.

Many customers raved about how they were able to fit this 26″ screen into a space that previously only held a 19″ or 21″ standard tube TV. Because the monitor is so flat, this TV will fit in small spaces. You can put that big entertainment center out on the curb when you purchase this Sylvania HDTV.

Sylvania HDTV Model No. LC320SL8 32″ WXGA LCD HDTV

This is the top rated Sylvania HDTV on amazon, according to customer reviews. This Sylvania HDTV retails for just $450, only $100 more than the 26″ Sylvania HDTV.

George Moy Jr., of Falls Church, Virginia, writes that he did a side-by-side comparison of this model with a competitor in the store, and he chose the Sylvania because its picture was so sharp and its colors were so bright.

B. Harper, of Jacksonville, Florida, writes that he tried this Sylvania HDTV with his Xbox 360. He liked it so much, he bought a second one.

This Sylvania HDTV boasts a 176-degree viewing angle, so you can see the clear, sharp picture from anywhere in the room.

Sony LCD HDTV – Best In Class

March 29th, 2008    Subscribe To Our Feed

It’s hard to imagine a more respected brand in home electronics than Sony. Sony LCD HDTV sets dominate the market in LCD HDTVs, no doubt because of the strength of the Sony brand.

Sony History

Sony’s rich history in the electronics industry is one reason the Sony LCD HDTV brand is so strong. The Sony Corporation began in 1945, when Masaru Ibuka and his colleague Akio Morita overcame the adversity that faced the Japanese at the end of the Second World War and started a radio repair and tape recorder business called Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo K.K. An approximate English translation of the company name is “Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Corporation.”

The partners continued to develop radio technology throughout the 1950s, successfully convincing Bell Labs to license transistor technology to their company. Ibuka’s company made transistor radios commercially successful for communication to the mass civilian market. The first pocket-sized transistor radio was manufactured by the company in about 1957, and ten years later the company was making 5 million units. The portable music that we take for granted today was pioneered by Sony.

Name Change Problems

Sony may be a great brand now, but it was far from an obvious choice for Ibuka and Morita. As they began looking for a more marketable name, they considered “TTK,” an acronym for their company’s name “Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo,” but a railway company, Tokyo Kyuko, was already well known by those three initials.

Another name they considered was “Totsuko” – until they discovered that Americans found the name hard to pronounce. “Tokyo Teletech,” another name the partners looked at, had a nice ring to it, but it was already in use as a brand name by another American company.

At Last, A Brand Is Born

Finally, in 1955, the partners decided to call their company “SONY,” combining the latin word “son” with the familiar term for a little boy, “sonny.”

Sony’s bank urged the partners to add another word, like “Telecommunications” or “Electronics,” to their company name, but Morita insisted the brand be known simply as Sony. Morita did not want the company’s name to restrict it to doing business in any single product line or category of product.

Sony LCD HDTVs

All these years later, the Sony brand has held up very well indeed. Today consumers can find Sony LCD HDTVs in screen sizes from the smallest LCD HDTV screen Sony makes, a 12 inch Location-free TV that lets you watch TV wirelessly in any room of the house, to the largest Sony LCD HDTV screen, a Sony Bravia 52 inch model, the Sony brand stands for the highest in quality.

Sony HDTV Reviews

March 27th, 2008    Subscribe To Our Feed

In looking at Sony HDTV reviews, one thing is clear: the Sony HDTVs that have the biggest screens get the best ratings. That means that consumers who get large screen Sony HDTVs are more satisfied with their purchasing choice than consumers who buy smaller screen TVs.

If you are in the market for a Sony HDTV, buy the biggest screen size you can afford. That huge screen is going to give you the biggest bang for your buck, and you’re more likely to be satisfied with your purchase than if you buy a smaller screen.

That said, let’s look at some recent Sony HDTV reviews. These reviews are all about the highest-rated Sony HDTV models, so it goes without saying that they are all for 40, 50, 60, and even 70 inch screens.

Sony KDF 46E2000 46″ Projection HDTV

This Sony HDTV is currently the highest rated model available on amazon. Out of 15 reviews, 12 reviewers, or 80%, gave this Sony HDTV a five-star rating.

J. McIntyre of Iowa City, Iowa, really liked the accuracy of the color reproduction and the deep black levels on this set. The on-screen navigation menus were very easy for him to use, and he found the system was great for video games. He had no lag at all with an original Xbox.

This model is a rear projection style TV, and J. McIntyre experienced some problems with what is known as the “silk screen effect” with his Sony HDTV. The silk screen effect causes a shimmering effect on the screen when bright, pure colors are being displayed. This is apparently a problem, to some degree or other, on all projection TVs. However, this issue did not keep Mr. McIntyre from giving this Sony HDTV a five-star rating.

Other High Rated Sony Projection Models

As expected, the second and third highest rated sets on amazon are big screen TVs. The second place rating went to the Sony KDS-R70XBR2, which has a 70 inch screen. Third place goes to the Sony KF60WE610 model, which has a 60 inch screen.

Sony KDL-40V2500 40″ Bravia LCD HDTV

This is Sony’s highest rated non-projection TV. With 148 customer reviews, this Sony HDTV is a surprisingly popular set, when you consider that it only has a 40 inch screen.

Sonya Giniger gave this model a five-star review. She said she was shocked at the excellent picture quality on the LCD, especially when comparing it to a plasma model. This is a valuable review, because many reviewers are comparing HDTV to an old analog TV picture, and of course they are blown away by high definition quality.

The Sharp HDTV Range Provides A Number Of Useful And Affordable Options

March 25th, 2008    Subscribe To Our Feed

Though it is not possible to find Sharp HDTV in the Plasma range, there no doubts the fact that among the LCD arena, there is a lot of variety available ranging from the excellent twenty-six inch Sharp HDTV to the much bigger models which are as large as sixty-five inches. In fact, even if you opt for the lesser models in the Sharp HDTV range, you would still find excellent options with impressive specifications to satisfy your viewing needs.

Comparison Specs

One of the other advantages of choosing the Sharp HDTV is that the company provides you with accurate and detailed comparison specs for each of their models which will let you find out for yourself what you are sure to get from Sharp Electronics that is not available in other competing makes. In addition, the Sharp HDTV will come with excellent contrast as well as a picture that is capable of providing excellent deep black, which are significant features that make for better television pictures.

You also won’t find low contrast ratios in the Sharp HDTV and so you can be assured that your HDTV won’t provide washed out images as is the case with most LCD computer monitors. In fact, as you choose from the upper end of the Sharp HDTV range you will come across something known as ‘full HD’ or 1920 x 1080 resolution as well as wide enough viewing angles. In addition, another advantage to opting for a Sharp HDTV is that response times in their models are very low and thus, you won’t have to contend with blurry pictures.

Perhaps, the best example of the Sharp HDTV range is its sixty-five inches TV that boasts of 1200:1 contrast ration as well as rapid response time of as little as 6ms that is certainly outstanding in TVs with such large screens. In addition, this model comes with 1920 x 1080 resolution as well as complete support for 1080p which means you are assured of getting nothing less than outstanding pictures.

The sixty-five inch Sharp HDTV is also equipped with a CableCard that means that you won’t need external cable box. In addition, it comes with ten watts of sound output along with Dolby stereo reproduction and in addition there are a number of ports which allow you to connect an optical digital output that will enable you to get the most outstanding audio experience.

Thus, you can safely put your money down on any Sharp HDTV and get value for money, and since many of their models are affordable, there should be nothing stopping you from even buying one for your kids’ room as well.

Reviewing Samsung HDTV Reviews

March 23rd, 2008    Subscribe To Our Feed

Samsung HDTVs are some of the highest rated, most affordable high definition television sets made. Don’t take my word for it, though; check out what other Samsung HDTV owners have to say about Samsung’s picture quality, reliability, and other features of their Samsung HDTV.

I must, however, warn you to beware of online reviews. These days, there are companies that pay freelance writers to log on to popular electronics sales and review sites and write reviews praising certain products, raising the level of buzz around a product. These paid product reviews are a marketing tool that HDTV manufacturers and web site developers use to generate excitement about their products and the sites on which they are sold.

There is no way you can tell that a reviewer is paid when you read the review, but there is one way to decide which reviews may be suspicious. Most paid product reviews are required to have a minimum word count – usually 25 or 30 words. If you see a lot of short, vague reviews written by people with anonymous screen names for one particular product, keep in mind as you read those reviews that they might have been written for pay.

One way to spot genuine reviews is to look for reviewers who use their real names. Although there may be security issues associated with using one’s real name online, a review written by someone who uses their real name has a sense of transparency and honesty that other reviews may not have.

Just because a company pays its product reviewers doesn’t mean the product is no good. In fact, a smaller company may have an outstanding product that would never get noticed were it not for paid product reviews. But take online reviews with a grain of salt, and never base a purchasing decision on online reviews alone.

That being said, let’s evaluate some Samsung HDTV reviews.

Samsung HDTV Model No. LNS3251D 32″ LCD

This Samsung HDTV is perhaps the highest rated model Samsung makes. Of 236 customer reviews, 168 customers, or 71% of customer reviewers, gave this Samsung HDTV a five-star rating. A product with a lot of reviews usually means the reviews are more believable than a product with just one or two reviews.

Vadims Kosolapovs, who writes reviews under his real name, reviewed this Samsung HDTV after he had owned it for nine months. Overall, Mr. Kosolapovs was very satisfied with the quality of the picture and the style of this Samsung HDTV, but he also mentioned some features that were not as well thought out, warning other potential purchasers about them. That is the purpose of an online review, so his review was very useful.

To summarize, do consult Samsung HDTV reviews before you buy your next Samsung HDTV, but don’t make online reviews the only factor in deciding which Samsung HDTV to buy.

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