1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Great HD Picture With Below Average Audio, January 26, 2011
This review is from: Haier HL19SL2 19-Inch 720p LED-LCD HDTV (Electronics)
I received this as a present, so I didn't spend any of my own money on it, thankfully. I am not saying it is a terrible TV either. I am actually impressed with its HD picture. It has a dot (like a period) under the numbers on the remote and this LED TV can receive HD stations directly through the cable if your cable company broadcasts those channels which are represented as hyphenated channels on the screen display. I do not use the HD cable box with this set that I have placed on my kitchen counter and still can receive the major channels in HD on such NY channels as CBS on 2-1, NBC on 4-1, ABC on 7-1, and also some other channels on 7-2, etc., that I did not even know were in existence directly via cable. This was a pleasant surprise.
The TV is quite nice to look at, so much so that my design engineer son who visited said he really liked it and he designs products like this for a living. It is quite attractive with a shiny black frame with an oval of chromed metal supporting the TV on the black glass stand though the "Haier" name that looks too large and out of place on the bottom of the frame: my son's and my only complaint as to its appearance.
The cons of this TV are first that, although the appearance is nice, including the nice oval glass stand, I did not like having to place the mounting screw against a glass stand to attach it to the TV...hoping it would not crack in the process or break in the future for some reason while moving it. Secondly,it seems that its appearance was a priority for those who put this together (though the Haier name could have easily fit under the small half-oval indent on the bottom of the frame), sacrificing audio quality to keep it so thin and so attractive.
The speakers face down and when I turned the set on, the audio quality was terrible, and increasing the volume only made it worse. I tried all the audio settings (equalizer) to my dismay, so I finally just turned "Off" the equalizer at the audio settings and turned up the volume. So far, with SRS on or off and equalizer off, it is now much easier to hear and not muffled or distorted with echoes, etc. Audio quality really is the biggest downside of this TV.
In summary, it is a great TV for a smaller space, taking up just a little more space than my much smaller LCD TV that it replaced on my kitchen counter/breakfast bar. The older TV had speakers off to the sides and a higher stand with a smaller screen, so this one is actually lower,not much wider and is perfect for my needs. The HD picture quality is quite nice, though any non HD channels look stretched and with less contrast unless you change the "arc" to normal with black bands on sides of the screen. The sound quality could be improved, and although speakers facing downward may look better, in this case, they are not the best.
*At this date I have owned this TV for less than one month.
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11 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Haier HL19SL2 TV - Unacceptable Product, May 12, 2010
This review is from: Haier HL19SL2 19-Inch 720p LED-LCD HDTV (Electronics)
Received this TV yesterday and returned it today.
First impressions were that it looks quite nice, although it feels a bit lightweight and flimsy. Perhaps that's inherent in an inexpensive TV? Picture quality is OK on digital cable channels but poor on analog, with fuzziness and odd color fringing. The remote tends to repeat key presses, turning 2 into 22 and so on. If you're careful to stab the buttons quickly you can mostly avoid this, but hasn't remote control technology advanced beyond such annoyances by now? Apparently not at Haier...
However the deal-breaker is the astonishingly poor sound quality. The built-in speakers, on the bottom of the cabinet and pointing downward, deliver the thinnest and most tinny sound. Think back to your childhood: two tin cans connected by a string. Yes, it's really that bad. No amount of fiddling with the equalizer controls helps even slightly. Turning the volume up simply delivers the same tinny sound plus massive distortion - and all without achieving an adequate volume level, even in our quite small kitchen. Honestly, I've heard laptop computers with much better sound quality. My cellphone's speaker doesn't sound any worse, and it at least has the excuse of fitting in my pocket!
It's really hard to imagine how such a poor product could be offered for sale.
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