Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

2011-06-17: Yet another VIZIO Customer Service encounter. . .this time FRUITLESS! I spent over 30 minutes with customer service and they refused to acknowledge that the following problem is with the TV. I have a new camera that shoots HD (1080P) video and audio. It has standard HDMI output. There are no settings on the camera to change the type of HDMI output, it is just HDMI industry standard. I connect a HDMI cable to the camera and attach to our VIZIO 22" TV or a friend's Samsung HDTV and the video and audio play perfectly. I attach the same camera, and the same cable, to this XVT373SV and the video plays fine, but no audio. I have tried all the HDMI inputs, even the one through which a Blu-ray was playing seconds before and the VIZIO plays no audio. I've cold booted the TV and they confirmed I have the last Firmware update installed. I called VIZIO Customer support, worked with them for over 30 minutes and they blamed the problem totally on the camera. They said that I needed to get into the camera settings and change the output to something different to get the 373 to play it. There are NO tweaks in the camera that can be changed to something different to accomodate the 373's technical problem. Yet, VIZIO insists the problem is the fault of the camera and that I need to contact the manufacturer and find out how to change, hack, or tweak it's output to meet the needs of the 373. Of course that might then make the camera incompatible with other fully compatible and capable displays, including VIZIO's own models. "Alice in South Dakota, Badge 547" refused to escalate the incident and said there was nothing VIZIO could do to assist me. It will be interesting to see what the camera manufacturer has to say, consindering they are one of the two finest names in their field! My new "Motto" suggestion for VIZIO is "Not My Fault." I am updating the rating I gave them in several related areas after this latest encounter. I would certainly NEVER acquire this VIZIO model used or in the obsolete model market. I also would recommend avoiding VIZIO products having seen how much time it requires to get them to step up to their responsibilities. And then there are the times when they just walk away from addressing an issue. ====== Following is the earlier review, but yo may have already heard enough about VIZIO products ======= NOTE: Numerous UPDATES regarding issues with this model have been moved to the end of this extensive owner experience review. Apologies that the review is long, but it is based on an informed evaluation. If you want something quick and dirty, look elsewhere. You'll find LOTs out there :-) I already know some people have benefited from what I share, especially those to whom this is a major investment and they want to make an informed choice. Of course this is history now, since the 373 seems to have come and gone now. However, I do see that some on the annoying problems of this unit are shared in a variety of VIZIO displays of varying sizes. Some of the areas of concern relative to features and vendor reliability will be of value in future purchases. I don't do comparison reviews or make recommendations since my reviews are in depth of products with which I have extensive experience. I'm NOT a review wonk. Finally, I ended up keeping this model because VIZIO finally provided a new replacement that didn't have the HDMI scrambling problem. No other brand 37" unit was available that would fit in the custom cabinetry. The picture is excellent even if the user interface is poorly designed and executed. My "star" ratings have been updated to reflect the final evaluation. Vendor Service for VIZIO rates two stars. ================= I did not purchase this TV from Amazon but from another online retailer. This TV was top choice for me in a situation where I had to have a device that would fit inside an existing piece of furniture. In the size aspect, this TV rates a "10" for my needs. It fits in a cabinet with an 1/8th to spare on either side! The picture is very good and the overall look is clean. Thin was no big deal for me, but this one rates high in that area. I am writing this review to cover some of the aspects of the XVT373SV 37" RazorLED LCD HDTV (coming from the perspective of an ex-electronics tech and someone very familiar with electronics and user interface capabilities) to give others a balanced idea of overall quality and performance relative to your needs. I have seen a variety of commercial reviews (not comments here) that I think reprint boilerplate and are not based on actual use over time. In many ways this is a good TV, however at the typical price point it is hardly up to snuff when it comes to day to day use by people who read the manual and know the difference between a mediocre picture and one that is set-up properly. Over-the-air HDTV is very good with an appropriate antenna. However, changing channels is a very SLOOOOW process. Maybe that is true with all modern HDTVs with this feature set? The User Interface is horrible in multiple areas. This is very troubling as it is probably the easiest thing to do right since there are good interfaces out there and, theoretically, if can be fixed through a firmware upgrade. It has not been as of Version 3.nnn of the firmware. Next to actually watching something on the unit, the User Interface is where you will spend the largest amount of time. Expect to spend even more time in the VIZIO RazorLED interface unless VIZIO decides to fix numerous problems in the interface design. Here are a couple highlights, or lowlights: Our smaller two year old VIZIO can easily change the screen aspect ratio (Normal, Zoom, etc.) but with the XVT373SV you have to go into the menu system, highlight the option and then choose the correct display. And you are doing with a display reduced in size in some weird manner so until you exit the menu completely you are never certain if you have the correct setting or not. Really annoying, inferior design even compared to older and cheaper VIZIO products. Here is to hoping for a fix in a firmware update. It wasn't in the latest 3.0nnn version, but the startup on-screen logo has changed! Making picture adjustments is incredibly difficult for these times. It is amazing how deep VIZIO's crack software usability team has buried key settings regarding the picture. Those adjustments (color, frame rate, "motion enhancement" etc.) are buried several levels deeper in the user interface than the display aspect ratio settings. AMAZING: Having pressed the MENU button it requires 16 key presses to just get to the listing of items to adjust the picture! If the family wants to watch a movie you will learn to start the movie and do the setup ahead of time to avoid having a very early intermission. Note that this 120 Hz unit can display the "Soap Opera Effect" to a very high degree. (Google it if you don't know what it is.) You'll be watching a superb film but it looks like a much lower-budget, less artistic, video production. You will need to go on a journey through the Advance Picture settings and, from what I have been able to test, make sure the "Smooth Motion Effect" is turned off. I hope that someday more info will be available about "Real Cinema Mode" (see below) and Film Mode. Changing the INPUT is, thankfully, directly accessible from a button on the remote. Why not the display mode? Maybe even an assignable button or two is called for on this "Premium" remote? VIZIO has located Setup options access in two radically different places. One is through the remote's Menu button and another is found in the VIA Dock, the docking menu that appears when you hit the VIA logo button in the middle of the remote. Confession time, I am a manual reader. I want to get the most from any high technology device and I've also written technical documentation for end-users. Just where you need it most, the manual contains virtually "information-free" verbiage. I see the "Real Cinema Mode" option and want to know why I might use it or what it does or how to set it up. Here is what VIZIO shares in the manual: "The Real Cinema Mode option allows selection of the type of compensation used for the Smooth MotionTM Effect option. Choose from Off, Precision and Smooth." Gee, thanks for clearing that up! It is almost as though the writer could not find anyone who knew what the darn thing does. I printed an extra copy of the manual just to make reminder notes! Bugs??? Shortly after getting the TV we added a new Sony Blu-ray. When the Blu-ray and the TV and turned on and I play a DVD or Blu-ray the TV displays a horrible scrambling of the video. This is in 1080P mode. The audio also cuts out in the worst of the scrambling. Thinking the issue was with the Blu-ray (after swapping out the Sony HMDI cable with a higher quality one and also trying different HMDI inputs) I exchanged for a different Sony of the same model but a couple months newer manufacture. To my surprise the problem continued. The VIZIO has NEVER exhibited this problem with any input other than the Sony Blu-ray. I'm left to believe it is a compatibility issue between this model Sony Blu-ray or one of the settings for output and something in the VIZIO. The strangest part is that the problem fades in 3 to 6 minutes and DOES NOT RETURN as long as everything is running. It may be some sort of heat related issue in the VIZIO circuitry. UPDATE: This turned out to be a unit defect, experienced by many others. Eventually VIZIO did swap out this defective unit for a new unit. Feature confusion: Although it is possible to dig deep enough (which I did before making the purchase) material on the VIZIO XVT373SV HDTV, including information on VIZIO's specific product website, is confusing in stating that this unit has smart dimming to enhance black levels. It DOES NOT have local dimming. Local dimming is not supported by the edge lit design in the smaller size units like my 37". The larger models in this RazorLED series do appear to support actual local dimming to further enhance the black levels. On my unit we found the way VIZIO implemented dimming to be annoying and distracting. The only time it seemed to do much was in a full screen credit roll at the end of a Blu-ray movie. In parts where a major credit would leave the screen before the next one appeared the TV would have a little pause, then the backlight would virtually go off and a ½ second later as the next credit appeared the screen would suddenly flash to life making the black level very evident. Since this unit has respectable black levels we just turned that "feature" off. I have seen real local dimming in action and it is a unique way to achieve amazing dynamic range. The USB ports did NOTHING in the first release. One of the later software releases finally sees thumb drives with images and will do a rudimentary slide show. When you end the show it is necessary to unplug and replug the USB drive to see it seen again. The VIA applications (again as of firmware V 3.nnn) are incredibly lame in comparison to a Sony Blu-ray player we were given at Christmas. Having Netflix is nice, especially with the way media content is evolving. The Sony Blu-ray has almost as many CATEGORIES in Internet accessed content as VIA has in individual sources. I haven't counted this but I would estimate that the Sony Internet content interface has 20 to 40 TIMES as many content sources as VIA. Annoyances and quirks: Especially for one that is ballyhooed as a "Premium Remote," the design is only mediocre. The button locations and assignments continually evade me, but maybe that is an individual issue. One nice feature is that you can assign a remote to a specific input and the VIZIO remote will automatically be able to control some basic functions on your Blu-ray, DVD or even Xbox. Why they call this function Device Setup instead of Remote setup is another usability annoyance. Unfortunately, the functionality seems to have been very poorly thought out. I set the VIZIO remote up to control our disc player. When I switched the TV to the disc input it was no longer possible to access the menu of the TV! The MENU button on the VIZIO remote, needed to change almost anything in the screen, video or audio settings, instead made the DVD's Menu pop up for the disc in play! It was IMPOSSIBLE to access the VIZIO TV's menu to change screen aspect ratio or any of the needed settings for various discs! Oops VIZIO! Since the various settings are tied to the input mode, it was not possible to just go to another input, make the change, and return. It was necessary to switch to a different Input, then go to Device Setup for all the inputs and disable it for the disc player! This function is basically unusable. VIZIO does now have a workaround but it makes getting to the TV menu even more cumbersome. Inputs can have custom labels assigned. I do wish they could be longer than 10 characters. There is more than enough room on screen even though the "generic" title of the input continues to appear also. The Auto channel scan seems OK. I do wish I could have a setting there to choose to only include digital (or analog) channels. There is a partial channel search that allows this functionality, BUT it leaves in channels that we previously found and have changes. Being able to receive over-the-air HDTV from both Chicago and Milwaukee it means a lot of rescanning as new channels are always going on line and there has been a lot of shuffling. I'd like a feature to delete all channels and run a selective scan. The remote has a slide out QWERTY keyboard, but it too is mediocre. Most things you do with the keyboard will also require you to go back to the main remote so it really isn't all that convenient. I live by a Smartphone and the keyboard is far inferior, even though 2 to 3 times larger, than any Smartphone I've used. My current small BlackBerry keyboard is far superior to actually type something in. So, at the current version of the updated firmware I would have to say, keeping in mind the typical price point, that this TV is technically average, perhaps above average, but the User interface, access to functionality, and content of the documentation is sadly lacking or flawed. With some major changes, especially through the firmware, this TV could be "a contender." UPDATES CONCERNING UNIT DEFECTS: UPDATE 2011-01-26: A new wrinkle appeared today as VIZIO Technical support finally confirmed (after quite some time testing, re-birthing/resetting my TV to factory defaults and confirming it had the latest firmware) that the problem with Blu-ray distortion is a defect in this VIZIO TV. Three Blu-ray player exchanges later, multiple cable brand tests, and testing of all the HDMI inputs and disconnecting of all other devices. . .it is a problem with a defective VIZIO TV. [A sequence of images showing the problem have been added to the webpage. Click on "View and share related images" below the picture of the VIZIO XVT373SV] Even though this new set is now confirmed defective by VIZIO the most VIZIO will do is "send out a repair person for in-home repair." I told the VIZIO customer service person that I would be much more comfortable with an exchange, even refurbished, than having a the repair person visit and work on repairing it. There was absolutely no willingness on the part of VIZIO to provide customer satisfaction when a lengthy problem turned out to be caused by their defective VIZIO product. That's not what I expected from a company that BRANDS themselves as, "America's Number One Hi-Def TV Company" and "The Home of Entertainment Freedom for All." Maybe that's the difference between "Branding" a company and "Building" a company? To me "Home Entertainment Freedom" now means that in the future be smarter to try a different vendor. I reduced this VIZIO's rating to 1 STAR based on VIZIO's support in correcting this issue. I told the VIZIO Agent I wanted to follow up with Sam's Club On-line before setting up a repair appointment. NO service tech, how qualified or trained, will have access to the resources available when a set is truly "refurbished" and tested at a vendor authorized facility. To me it was paying the "brand spanking new price" for a set but ending up with a repaired unit inferior to a refurbished one! I called Sam's On-line and their customer service didn't hesitate to begin an exchange for a new unit of the same model. I'm impressed that Sam's Club is covering for a failure of VIZIO to deliver Customer Satisfaction. I hope Sam's makes VIZIO pay for their dropping the ball! UPDATE 2011-02-12: A replacement XVT373SV arrived, provided by VIZIO. VIZIO decided than an exchange for a new unit was justified. BTW, I was still waiting for SAM's Online to follow through with their promise when VIZIO contacted me by phone. After a day of testing the replacement from VIZIO does not exhibit the HDMI signal distortion that the first TV does. If you want to see the annotated screenshots of the problem click on "View and share related images" below the picture of the VIZIO XVT373SV. I also plugged a thumbdrive with JPG images on it in one of the USB ports and after a while the TV reported it had found a content source connected to the USB port and presented a menu where I could play the content. The slide show worked fine. Last time I tried this the previous TV didn't ever respond to the insertion of a thumbdrive.