An insane bargain for what used to be a VERY expensive technology
Written: Mar 23 '06 (Updated Mar 23 '06)
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Pros: Incredible price for what you get, Excellent color/resolution, Near reference quality picture, 2 HDMI inputs.
Cons: No integrated tuner or cablecard slot. No DVI inputs.
The Bottom Line: You will be hard-pressed to find a 50" Plasma set of this quality for anywhere NEAR its price. Buy this set.
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| kweckstrom's Full Review: Vizio P50HDM 50 in. TV |
This review marks my first epinion in at least a year. Real life stepped in and made my life somewhat difficult for a while, but now I’m back - and ready to jump right back into the review pool.
Bear in mind that this purchase was a difficult one for me. I am including a lot of "back-story" here before getting to the actual P50 review because I feel it's very relevant to anyone purchasing an HDTV today. Bear with me, please.
For some time I was agonizing about what kind of TV to buy. In the past I have owned just about all other types of TV sets out there. Direct-view tubes, LCD's, Rear Projection, etc. My favorite set of old was a Pioneer 50" Rear Projection CRT, though I sold it during one of my moves. For some time, HDTV seemed to be in limbo and wasn't going anywhere. But recently we've seen an advent of new products and services finally giving HDTV its due. My local Time Warner outfit is now serving up HDTV for local stations as well as premiums. In addition, I have their PVR service which also allows me to record HDTV content.
I tried out a Westinghouse 37" LCD 1080p monitor as a TV for a while. I initially purchased it as a PC monitor (what can I say, I have a certain kind of "envy"). But as it made its way into my living room, my family would start using it as an HDTV monitor as well. Then I purchased an Xbox 360. As a gamer, anything to make my experience more "larger than life" is a big plus for me. And if it's cheap - all the better. The Westinghouse was a great deal for what it is - $1600 for a 37" wide 1920x1080 Progressive Scan monitor with a Faroudja DCDI De-interlacer/Line Doubler with 3:2 Inverse Pulldown. It was a STELLAR PC monitor - but HDTV content was a mixed bag. Why?
The very specification that made it incredibly attractive (1080p) made a lot of HDTV content look less than stellar. Upconversion artifacts made a lot of HDTV content exhibit jaggy lines, blurry areas and other imperfections which make it a less-than-perfect choice for HDTV - particularly Xbox 360 content which renders everything internally at 720p. Also, its 37" size makes the Westinghouse a huge PC monitor - but it's only a moderate size for a living room.
One thing you should note here - always mind your subject matter. HDTV is always more friendly towards content that is closest to its native "broadcast resolution". The 2 most popular ones are 720p (720 lines, progressive scan), and 1080i (1080 lines, interlaced, but often upconverted from a merged '540p' or downconverted to 720i). Xbox 360 renders everything at 1280x720p internally. So in purchasing a new TV, I wanted to get something as close as possible within my budget to get a set that was both large enough for my living room and had a native resolution close to 1280x720. That would cover the majority of "just about everything" I'd be throwing at it.
I started looking around at all the different HDTV technologies available. I went to a variety of stores to see how each would look. Best Buy stores tended to be more dark, making each technology look viable. Circuit City stores were kind of "in between". But to be honest, I wanted to see a set AT ITS WORST. It wasn't until I took a ride to Costco that I learned just how imperfect some of these technologies could be. For instance, for some time I was DEAD SET on getting a DLP projection set. They were cheaper, and mostly all of them had a straight-up native resolution of 1280x720.
But my trip to Costco proved that DLP was out.
Costco stores are very brightly lit, and they will show any kind of deficiencies in brightness or contrast. These sets are also just strewn about the sales floor - and most had remotes allowing me to change settings to see just what they were capable of.
Essentially my research led me to ruling out the following technologies:
CRT: Bright enough only in a darkened room.
DLP: Brighter, but not bright enough under pressure... No match for competing technology.
DLP Front Projector: Cables, cables, everywhere! And I rent.
LCOS/D-ILA: Brighter than DLP, but the screendooring turned me off.
LCD: None are large enough. Those that are wind up being too expensive.
The only sets that consistently held up well in a brightly lit costco were ALL plasma sets. While not PERFECT under pressure, they definitely did a better job of all the other technologies I considered. After I settled on a plasma screen, I was faced with two dilemmas. First, which one should I buy. Second, how do I buy one without having my wife murder me while I sleep because of the COST of these things.
Now, I sit around on a chat medium called "IRC" (Internet Relay Chat, efnet specifically, nick is 'karl'). I sit in a channel loaded with gamers and other technophiles, and we're always going on and on about TV technologies, particularly after the release of the Xbox 360. I was discussing my dismay at the price of these 50" Plasma sets when someone sent me a private msg saying 'hey, if you can't afford the Panasonic, you MIGHT want to look into a Vizio P50 HDM.'
He then pointed me to a thread on the AVS Forums, one of the most respected AV Science/Home Theater Technology forums on the internet - if not THE most respected. I read a thread regarding this P50 and decided I had to find one myself. At $2599 this set seemed like one major bargain, and I didn't need an integrated tuner anyway.
See, now here's the problem with Costco. At the Costco I visited to do my testing, they didn't have the Vizio 50" model. They DID have the 42" model, but I didn't want that. Seems like all the 42" plasma models out there have a native resolution of 1024x768 - which is odd to me since that's a 4:3 aspect ratio with a 16:9 PHYSICAL aspect on the set. Are the pixels rectangular or something?
I went to check their website for the P50. Nothing there either. Just the 42" model. In NJ, we have roughly 5 or 6 Costcos in a 20 mile radius. Since I had been doing my research over my lunch breaks further west, I started looking at the Costcos near my home. My first visit to Costco in Hackensack NJ turned up a P50. AND WHAT DO YA KNOW! It was $2299!
I played with the controls a bit to get the picture to my liking. While the black leves aren't as great as a high-end CRT, they were DEFINITELY better than any LCD I've used, including the Westinghouse 37" and the high-end Dell 2405FPW PC monitor I've used. Colors were incredibly well-saturated - if not a bit TOO saturated. The set definitely had a lot of "Pop". It was easily tunable though by dialing down the saturation to a more reasonable level.
The source content they were playing at Costco had a lot of artefacts. I knew for sure I wasn't going to be able to REALLY judge this set until I could get it home. The first thing I did was call my wife. My wife agreed to meet me at Costco to check it out, and a buddy of mine agreed to help me get it home in his truck. My wife looked at it and said, "Yep, it's a nice TV" with her usual non-commital tone.
However, I know this is a big nod "yes," since the usual response from my wife when i'm about to buy an expensive piece of technology is, "You don't need that."
So, I got the set home. Over the weekend I set it up. To make a long story EVEN LONGER, here are my findings:
Build/Construction
One of the first things you will notice about this set when you open the box is that it is remarkably thin - i'd say 4 to 5 inches. Do NOT underestimate this set's ability to give you what is referred to in strict medical circles as "A Hernia the size of Louisiana." At 122lb, my wife was NOT happy about being the only person around to help me lift it onto the TV stand. Yours will not be either unless she is from the German Olympic Swim Team.
The unit is all black, front and back, with peel-off cellophane protecting the outer bezel of the display during transport. There is also a big orange sticker on the front showing off the set's specs. It's important to note that this set includes a stereo set of speakers that I do NOT use. All my sound is routed through my receiver. It's also important to note that the speakers are NOT removable.
All TV-mounted controls are located on the right side of the display, including an oversized power button to make finding the darned thing easier. But who uses those when you have a remote?
On the back there are 2 fans that in the past have been criticized as being unnecessarily noisy. On my set they don't seem to make any noise at all.
Now, let's talk about the inputs.
For digital inputs, this set has 2 HDMI inputs - each of which support HDCP - High Definition Copy Protection - the latest in anti-consumer/pro-large-corporation technology aimed at making sure your high definition experience will, at the very minimum, become a hassle in the future. Note that if you have a component/dvd player/cable tuner that outputs DVI and you wish to use this digital signal, you will need to buy a cable that converts your DVI-D signal over to HDMI. These are incredibly expensive - in upwards of $200 - if you have the IQ of a small kitchen appliance and purchase one at Best Buy (Motto: Would you like an extended warranty with that cable for only $49.95?)
The rest of us get one for around $15 on ebay. Since HDMI includes a set of pins for audio, no separate audio inputs are included.
The next 2 sets of inputs are what the set refers to as "Analog HDTV", known to the rest of the world as "Component" or "YPbPr" inputs. These inputs are the most common these days, included with most progressive scan DVD players, cable tuners and of course the Xbox 360. These inputs will accept both a Progressive Scan signal OR an Interlaced signal. Truth be told, I have a DVD player that will output both an interlaced signal or a progressive signal which you toggle with a switch. You'll find out later which looks better. This set of inputs includes L/R Stereo RCA connectors for audio.
Also included is an RGB input - known to the computer world as a Fifteen Pin VGA D-Sub connector (i'll come up with a cute acronym later, this review is already approaching the length of 'Ivanhoe'.) I've discovered that this is the best connector to use for my Xbox 360 - although the default settings for this connector make the color look washed out. But with a few minor adjustments on the TV's menu, this connector outputs the closest to its native resolution. This input also includes a 1/8" input for a stereo connection common with PC's.
Rounding out the connectors are two sets of Svideo and Composite connectors. These are for your older Standard definition components, such as the musty VCR you haven't used since the Reagan administration or the Camcorder you used to make those videos of little Billy throwing up all over the place on his 4th birthday after ingesting approximately 17.5 pints of Chocolate Frosting. Make sure you show people that video no fewer than 22 times per visit. They all love it.
Bottom line: The only input type this set sacrifices is DVI, which you can easily convert to HDMI with the correct cable.
Features
The first feature of note is this set's native resolution: 1366x768. With a set of this price, the first thing you would expect them to skimp on is its native res. I would have expected a set of this size to be more of an EDTV 480p resolution. But no. The Vizio guys are using an actual High-def capable display.
The second feature of note is its integrated line doubler/scaler. It uses a Faroudja DCDI, which is one of the best in the business. This is also the same DCDI that is used in my Westinghouse 37" set, so I will make a lot of comparisons in the "Performance" section. They certainly didn't skimp here.
A remote is included. However, I won't really judge it since I use a Harmony remote for my home theater setup.
The ONLY thing missing here is a tuner. There is absolutely no tuner in this unit. No SDTV tuner. No HDTV tuner. No cablecard slot. Nothing. This is the ONLY area where they skimped. How big of a deal is this? Well, let's look at it from my point of view. I record all my TV shows. This means I'm kind of bound to a PVR in some form. I have yet to see a TV that integrates a PVR, so I need one of these anyway. My PVR is an HDTV capable PVR/HDTV Tuner from Time Warner (the Scientific Atlanta Explorer 8300HD). Since I already need the cable box, having an integrated tuner means nothing to me. If I were to use a Cablecard, I would STILL need a unit to record my shows. Since my PVR unit is both that AND a tuner, for me the lack of a tuner in my TV is a non-event.
So, how does this $2300 set PERFORM?
Bottom line: If you don't need a TV tuner, this TV offers an impressive list of features for its price.
Performance
Let's talk about the on-screen menus first. The menus on this set are very well done compared to other sets. There are a few things that are done "wrong", but on the whole everything is where it should be. Every input has its own set of "remembered" settings. For instance, with my Cable Box/PVR, I like having my contrast set to around 40 with my brightness higher up the scale. I also configure my "Saturation" to a value of around 60 and "Sharpness" to around 2. However, on my VGA input for the Xbox 360, I crank my brightness down to around 30 and crank my contrast WAY up high to get around the deficiencies of the Xbox 360's vga cable. By default it looks very washed out. These settings are saved for each input you use, saving the trouble of having to redo them every time you change inputs.
One of the things i've noticed in other reviews is that there is no "color temperature" setting. This is not true. If you look through the menus for the VGA input, there IS a color temperature setting - and it appears to globally affect all the inputs. This is not necessarily a bad thing, as I noticed that by default grescale sequences tend to favor "blue", whereas changing my color temperature setting to the netural value made them "dead on".
That's about it for Menus, since once you set these values once, people tend to not adjust them anymore.
Picture Quality on this set is absolutely stunning under ideal conditions. In fact, I would consider it reference quality. I consider something to be of "reference quality" when you can use it to spot flaws or inconsistencies in your source media. On this set, I can see which channels take HD seriously, which channels don't, and which ones use subtle little tricks to make their content look better.
Case in point, A channel in my lineup called "UNIHD" (Universal's HDTV channel) appears to take a very purist stance on HDTV. Films they show are very neutral in color. Nothing much is overblown, content is scaled best it can be, older content shows flaws from its filming. I watched the 1970's classic "The Andromeda Strain" from start to finish and saw excellent color rendition with only the standard film artefacts you expect to see.
This is in stark contrast to what you'll see on CBS's lineup. If you have ever watched CSI:Miami, you will easy see that they INTENTIONALLY overblow the colors to make them WAY more vibrant than normal. It's almost as if the city flyby sequences are made up of models made entirely of Day-Glo Lego blocks. While cranking down the saturation levels on your set helps to an extent, you can clearly see they're using overblown and overly-agressive color saturation in the source media.
All of this will lead everyone to the same obvious question about the CSI: Miami content; "What recreational drugs were the CSI writers using when they gave a red-headed blue-eyed main character a Latino name of 'Horatio'?"
That remains to be seen. But at the end of the day, I will consider this set of reference quality for TV signals because it easily shows the tips and tricks broadcasters will use to make you "prefer" a type of programming over another.
And no, I don't use any recreational drugs unless Beer counts.
As for standard definition content, this is where the Faroudja scaler does its work. On the 37” Westinghouse, the upscaling artifacts are obvious. Scaling from 640x480 to 1920x1080 is a big job. This makes the Westinghouse far less usable as an everyday TV. But for the Vizio? Child’s play. While resolution of an SDTV source is obvious on this set, it is far better than I have ever seen on any other set to date. In fact, its quality sometimes approaches that of the “barely HD” channels I’ve seen, such as a lot of content on TNT.
Using my older DVD player that outputs both Progressive Scan and Interlaced, setting it to Interlaced gives me a better result. Why? I can only assume it’s the Faroudja line doubler doing its magic. However, I don’t normally output with this unit since the Xbox 360 does a far better job of playing DVD’s. At some point I may actually try out a DVD player that outputs 720p natively just to see how it looks.
Xbox 360 content is so right on the money, it's scary. Using the VGA cable, I get excellent accuracy and no visible scaling artifacts when output is configured to 1360x768. However, using the included component cable gave me less than stellar results. See, the component cable outputs at 2 relevant resolutions: 1280x720 (720p) and 1920x540 (1080i). At this point I see visible scaling artifacts. While they aren’t HORRIBLE, they don’t look as good as 1360x768 using the VGA cable. This is pretty much expected. The only caveat here is that the Xbox 360 VGA cable output is less saturated than the component cable, leaving you to tweak your TV’s settings to get decent output. Even if I couldn’t tweak my TV’s settings, I’d still prefer the VGA cable for its accuracy over its color rendition. Luckily with this set, it’s not a sacrifice anyone needs to make.
Note that I didn’t test the composite or s-video outputs – since quite frankly, we’ve all moved on, right?
Bottom Line: Arguably, this set has what I would consider to be reference quality by my own definition. Purists may argue about that, but I personally don’t care. This set looks absolutely stellar, and the fact that you paid $1000 or more less for it just sweetens the deal. Note that you can only buy this set at Sams Club and Costco according to Vizio.
CONCLUSION: If you don’t need an integrated tuner, I have three words for you. Buy this set.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 2399
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Epinions.com ID:
kweckstrom
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Member: Karl Weckstrom
Location: Emerson, NJ
Reviews written: 100
Trusted by: 99 members
About Me:
Voted "Most Likely to be Photographed as a Bigfoot Sighting" by his senior class.
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