Customer Reviews

Olevia 27" LCD TV SideSpk ATSC

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

UPDATE: SOFTWARE PROBLEMS WITH THE QAM TURNER.
We bought this TV a long time ago, but didn't need the QAM turner until this month, when our cable company moved most channels off of analog and on to digital. There are major software problems with the TV. I don't know if you can update the software on this TV. It is something I might look into.

THE PROBLEM: The TV scans for the channels without a problem. It finds all of the analog channels (we have 31) and all of the digital channels (we have 300). But, the TV will not page through all of the digital channels. It only pages through about half of them. In order to see the digital channels, you have to punch the exact channel into the remote (like channel 128.10). This is a big problem if you don't already know what the channels are because our cable company won't tell us what they are (we have other TVs with QAM tuners, so we know what the channel numbers are).

THE ORIGINAL REVIEW:

Really, it is hard to go wrong when purchasing an LCD TV. Just look for something that is HD, has at least 800:1 contrast ratio and 8 msec refresh rate and is as cheap as possible. This is a very good TV, with a very good picture, and a very low price.

The only major downside with this TV is that is only 720p or 1080i, instead of 1080p. 720p and 1080i are fine for most applications, including HDTV. But if you want to look to future, you might want a 1080p TV. The newer HD DVD systems (Blue Ray and HDDVD) and Play Station 3 require 1080p for the best picture. Personally, I don't think HD DVD will really take off (but I could be wrong) and I am not going to get a Play Station 3, but I would still get a 1080p TV, just in case. However, I don't think you will find a 1080p LCD TV anywhere close to this price range.

The other minor downside to this TV is that it is a little confusing to setup. It comes with a sheet of quick setup instructions, but there is no paper owners manual. The owners manual is on CD, or you go online to view it.

The default mode on this TV is that the normal antenna connection that you would use for cable TV is disabled. So, you have to go through the menus on the TV to figure out how to enable the antenna hookup. After that, you have to instruct the TV to do a channel search, both analog and digital.

The TV comes with an ASTC tuner, so that you can get HD channels off the air (for free). However, getting HD channels off the air can be difficult. If you get poor reception in your area, then you won't be able to get the HD channels. Locking on the HD channels is more difficult than the old analog channels. If you don't have a rooftop antenna on you house, then you need to get rabbit ears. Then it is like being back in the 1960's with screwing around with antenna placement to get a signal. I get the best signal with old rabbit ears that my kids broke off, and touching them to a wrought iron stand. I have been thinking of bringing out the aluminum foil.

The TV also has a QOM tuner, so that you can get the HD channels directly off of cable, without getting a special cable box. For most cable systems, you can pick up all the local HD stations they offer on basic cable (in the Bay Area, it is only 5 of the 12 local stations). You can pick up ESPN in HD if you have the expanded basic service. The only thing you can't get is the premium channels like HBO. For HBO in HD you will still need a cablebox.

On most LCD TV's you get right now, the default setup for the picture quality is not optimally set up. This is especially true for standard analog TV. When you first hook up an LCD TV, the picture can look pretty bad. You will need to go in and adjust the color, contrast and other settings to get the best picture quality. Although the defaults on the Olevia were better than some others I have seen.

Although Syntax and Olevia are relatively new names they are recognized as one of the leaders in LCD TV's. It is hard to go wrong with this TV.

In the end, I recommend choosing the size TV you need, deciding if you really need 1080p, and then buying the cheapest TV you can find.

At first, I was admittedly reluctant to purchase this set because I had never heard of the brand. However, I couldn't resist, and didn't think I could beat, the price of $595 (no tax or delivery charges) at Beach Camera online. They are an alternate buying choice here on Amazon's Website.

That said, and to be truthful, this is not one of those sets you can just plug in, power on and expect to look good. It takes some diligent tweaking. However, once you get it right, you are rewarded with a really great picture and overall well-performing TV that to my mind, and eye, can at times give the "Big Boys" (Sony, Panasonic, etc.) a run for their money. I will concede that, as stated in previous reviews, the remote is just bare-bones basic at best. Multi-Brand Remote codes are virtually non-existant for this model/brand. Even the codes the company says will work (RCA, LG, etc.) mostly do not. At least not in my experience.

I purchased the Monster 600(?) HDMI wire ($99.99 from RadioShack) to connect the TV to the Scientific-Atlantic 8300HD cable box provided by Time Warner Cable, NYC. UPDATE: It's true! You don't have to pay expensive prices for good quality HDMI wire. I recently bought one, online, for a second HDTV, and only paid $10.83 incl. tax and delivery. So, shop around and get your best deal. All HDMI wires work EXACTLY the same way to get the signal from the source to the TV. Price, in this case, is NOT indicative of quality. So, don't be fooled into thinking that it is!

The addition of just that one wire made a world of difference in picture quality because, frankly, out of the box, the picture was worse than bad..After using the wire, the picture was GREAT! In short, if your budget allows for it, buy the HDMI wire. It's well worth the expense.

I still had to have the Cable Guy come to my house, though, because my local HD stations were coming in pixelated (Due to a low signal output from the cable box. Not a fault of the TV.) After the guy replaced all the connectors on the wiring in my apartment, which boosted the signal to the box, everything fell into place and has been working fine ever since. Now the TV is operating at peak performance.

Also, I have found that you don't necessarily have to invest in a professional LCD TV Calibration DVD. Just go to one of the online tech websites (CNET, PCWORLD, etc.) and watch one of their How-To videos to learn some basic "Do-It-Yourself" tips on making the necessary adjustments. While none of these online videos will leave you with as perfect a picture as you can get from following a purchased DVD, any one of them will certainly give you a better picture than most sets of this type do, untouched, right out of the box. The resulting picture will be one that is really very good for normal everyday viewing enjoyment.

Again, it takes work. BUT, if you're willing/able to invest the time and diligence to do it, you will end up with a picture that's well worth the effort and looks like it cost alot more to get than it actually did!

A lot of TV for little money. Great picture, and the refresh rate is fast enough to prevent most of the blurring that you tend to see on low end LCD's. Initial setup can be tricky because Olevia chose to include a CD version of the operators manual, though you can print a paper version from the CD or Olevia website. Better than average sound, but the side speakers add a bit to the overall width. After tweaking the factory settings we achieved a nice color balance without any of the black level problems that plague many LCD's. If you're using it in a bedroom you'll most likely be annoyed by the very bright on/off light on the front panel. Rear panel connections are intuitive and easily accessible, and wall-hanging was a breeze. Looked at many LCD televisions and there are better choices for sure, but it's hard to beat the performance of this set at the low price. Highly satisfied!

I got this Tv a few days ago and so far i am very pleased. The picture in HD is very good , and rivals some of my friend's sony lcds. Setting up as a PC monitor is shaky, but once you get the settings right, it is very cool(except sitting to close for a long period of time is quite uncomforable). I am a little displeased with the dvd quality, my other Hdtv looked much better with the same player and component cables. I have heard that the tv will not automatically upscale component images only those from the HDMI input, which would explain this. I plan on buying an HDMI capable dvd player to see if this fixes the issue. Either way the picture is a large improvement over my old crt. I would give this item 5 stars except for the tedious setup in order to get everthing working and the picture refined. I would deffinately recommend this item especially because of its built in hd tuner.

This TV is an incredible value! I've owned it for over 6 months and never one problem. Initially, I installed my subwoofer to it, but the sound from the speakers that come with the set is so good I rarely turn on the subwoofer. Picture is excellent from all angles. People who see this always assume I paid much more for it. Yes, you'd probably get better by paying 5 times this price ... but the technology improves so quickly (and this one can be upgraded with downloads), why pay more. I have mine in living room since I sit closer to the TV there. For my bedroom, which is larger and I'm further from TV, I'd probably go up to next largest size. I love that this one is lightweight enough to move with ease ... by myself. And it is a world of improvement if you are still watching TV on one of those large square box, heavy weight TVs. Price low enough that when new technology requires me to replace it, I'll feel as if I've gotten great value for the money spent and move to the next upgrade.

OK, im a 13 year old guy and have been saving my allowance for over 6 months due to all the new video games out now. I was lucky enough to be able to buy myself a PS3 2 days before Christmas and was very excited, because I had saved for almost 3 months- I was so frugal I wouldn't spend 5 dollars at the movies with my friends. So I finally had an HD capable machine, but no HDTV. I looked on the internet for a good deal and came across Olevia. I bought this HDTV a week before my 14th Birthday and it came in the day before. I hooked it up via HDMI cable to my PS3 and it looks amazing. Other people have said you must spend time tuning everything like color and contrast, etc. But I went to a few websites and looked at their tuning tips so I'd know how, but the TV was already tuned. I screwed with all the adjustments, but couldn't get a better picture, so that was good. The price for this HD is WAY under the competitors, but not in a bad reason. It looks just as good as any Sony or Toshiba that you could spend $1000's for.I bought it for just under $500, which I thought was fair. Overnight, the price rose $60.This TV looks very slick, and Resistance: Fall of Man looks unbelievable. I recommend this set to anyone wishing to jump to HD, cause its worth every penny.

This is a really good deal on a really decent HDTV. This TV really excells at showing HD content (HD gaming, Blu-ray etc.) it has one big problem though. Standard defintion images comes in looking blurry and alil washed. This is not a problem if, like me, your only gonna use this as a PC monitor or if your only gonna watch HD content.

When I first got this home had a problem with the remote being slow. Seemed every time you press a button it would take a second or two for the tv to respond. But after mounting the tv higher off the ground the remote worked nicely. The menu also felt problematic when trying to scroll one way it goes just the opposite. But the main functions that you access through the menu are conveniently located right on the remote with a touch of a button. Although we have cable with standard def the image quality looks very respectable. Where this tv comes alive is when watching movies and gaming in high definition. At 720p and 1080i the images are pretty amazing. The tv also has decent stand alone audio and we have ours hooked up to a desktop stereo. The audio connection is a simple hook up and within a minute we had surround sound. I have tried using the built in tuners for HD and the channels look incredible. The problem here though is that if we run the cable directly to the tv and not the box than we can't use the cable remote with its handy features and menu options. Although we can get HD through the box it cost more. So in the meantime I'm sacrificing free HD channels so that I keep using the cable remote which is alright because as mentioned the chanels look pretty good as is. Would recommend.

I was in the market for a while looking for a hd tv for my PS3. I spent $650 on the system an $50 on a sony hdmi cord so this tv was at a good price for what it does. Let start off with the cons of the olevia 527. The menu system is not the best but after a good 30-40 minutes I got the hang of it. The remote controll needs to be pointed directly at the tv and it has a lag between input. When watching regular television without a hd signal like over the air channels the olevia does not display these channels vey well but this is a minor thing seeing as how most people have cable that send a hd signal the television.

The pros are what make this set shines. When playing games on my PS3 the olevia looks equal to a Sony Bravia or a Samsung. The sound is pretty good and the tv also looks good with the PS3 side by side. Watching blu-rays on this set is amazing. My first blu-ray purchase was casino royal and since this set can't do 1080p it displays in 1080i and I was completely blown away by how good it looked. I definetly recommend this television to a PS3 owner and even 360 owners that are on a budget but still want to experience HD gaming at its best. Again this is a basic hd tv and you get what you pay for which is good start into the hd world. I really recommend this set for gamers that are on a budget.

I have had this model for 4 months now and am still thrilled. The system, while not cutting edge in the ever moving HD world, has performed better than I expected.
I have it as the end of a small, inexpensive HD system, and the picture is amazing. I am getting a DVI to HDMI cable to increase the resolution even a bit more and have just bought a HD Optimizing DVD to tweak it even better.
I highly reccomend this TV, especially in light of the price/value.