Customer Reviews

Olevia 337H 37-Inch LCD HD Ready Monitor

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This is my first HD-LCD television, so I did some research before deciding on this unit. The fact that it cost almost half of units by Toshiba/Samsung/Phillips etc really helped in the decision making process :)

Let me start with the specs. This is a 37" LCD flat panel television capable of a max resolution of 780p and 1080i. If you aren't sure what those are, do a bit more research before reading the rest of this review. The native resolution is 1366x768, and displays movies in the 16x9 format. It has a very nice looking silver cabinet, with speakers mounted across the very bottom of the tv. Basic function buttons are located on the far right side of the black strip between the screen and the speakers. They look nice and don't feel cheap or mushy.

On the back of the television you will find all major inputs such as HDMI, Component video, S-video, composite video, USB port, and even a VGA/Component port to use this television as a computer display. However, there is no coaxial cable input on this tv. This is not an issue if you are using it with an HD cable box or similar unit, but if you just watch movies on it and want to hook up your regular cable, you must run the coaxial cable to a VCR or DVD/Receiver, then run a composite video cable to the television.

Since this unit does not have a built-in HD tuner, to watch HD cable you must have a HD cable box (provided by your cable company with HD service). This isn't a drawback, but I wanted you to be aware. HD-ready means it's ready for a tuner but that it is not included.

I hooked this television up to a Samsung upconvert DVD player so I could watch my movies in 720p. The picture is fantastic, and sound is adequate from the regular speakers. I have a small home theater system though, and I much prefer the sound from that instead of the television. The "Big Picture" technology on this tv lets me watch my full screen movies without black bars on the sides, and it has several aspect ratios to choose from at the touch of a button including normal aspect, 1:1 ratio, panoramic, and Zoom 1 and 2.

The menu functions on this tv are also very easy to use and done really well. You can fine tune the picture settings, color temp, cropping, and many other aspects of the picture.

In the box I also got a very easy to read Quick Start sheet, Remote control, and a full users manual on a cd. Olevia prints their 800 number on all their literature and from what I have heard has very good customer service, although I haven't tried it yet.

Like I said, this is my first HD LCD widescreen and I have nothing else to compare it to other than what I've seen in the store. This unit replaced a 32" Toshiba that I was very happy with, but I don't regret my choice. This tv looks fantastic, performs well, and shows quality you wouldn't expect for the price. Olevia (made by Syntax) seems to be doing something right...offering a high quality product at a fair price, not selling a brand name.

One note that has nothing to do with the actual television, but you might want to be aware of with widescreen tv's. If you are an avg user like me you probably weren't aware that widescreen dvd's actually come in a few different aspect ratios. What this means is that some movies, such as Pixar's "Monster's Inc", will show in full widescreen mode because the aspect ratio is 1.85:1 which is made for viewing on 16x9 widescreen tv's. However, other widescreen dvd's, such as Pixar's "Cars", are shown in 2.39:1 which is sometimes called the "theatrical presentation" of widescreen. Please be aware that when viewing movies like this you will still have black bars on the bottom and top of your picture.

I was highly annoyed when I discovered this as I bought the widescreen specifically to eliminate this, but in certain widescreen formats you will still have them. You can eliminate them on this particular tv by zooming in the picture, but you lose quality and some of the screen, which isn't acceptable to me. Again, it's not the tv but just a choice made by someone when they create the DVD. Maybe newer tv's will eventually be able show both aspects without black bars, but for now they are here to stay, in some widescreen movies at least.

Note, this model does not have an analog coaxial cable input. I liked the value in the 37" I bouught last year so so much, we bought this 37" Syntax LCD for our workout room(a less expensive model). Keep in mind that I'm no AV specialist. I used to use analog cable and now we have digital cable. This monitor looks fantastic with HDTV.

Pros
- Syntax models offer the BEST overall value in an LCD's in my opinion.
- The remote control is far better than last year's model which required you practically get straight in front of the sensor to enable.
- it's light (compared to CRT) making adjustments and cleaning very handy.
- the picture is great (especially with DVD's)
- the sound is OK.

Cons
- No analog coaxial cable input
- Color, hate the silver,love the black,
- Questionable customer service

Note that I've bought expensive electronics and I can tell you, the expensive electronics fail just like the cheap ones. I bought this model because it was MUCH less than getting a PANNY or a SONY, etc. It makes NO sense to me to spend thousands when you can spend hundreds for something material that will inevitably drop in value the moment you take it home.

When I first saw this TV, I was a bit skeptical about getting it. After all, it was extremely cheap for what it said it could deliver. I was aware that Olevia is actually the manufacturer for Phillips and LG so I figured that the TV was probably just a stripped down version of one of their LCDs. Instead, what I got was something that looks a heck of a lot better.

Picture:

The picture quality on this LCD is amazing. The LCD has the typical 1366 x 768 that is common with most LCD's under 50" or so. Unlike most LCD's, the picture quality on this TV is more natural than some of the other LCD's from larger brands. The 1600:1 contrast ratio helps the TV produce more realistic blacks than most LCD's of the same price range. One thing to note is that it does not appear as though the TV upconverts standard definition TV. Thus, you can definitely tell that you are watching standard definition on it versus high def programming. Overall, the picture quality is about a 9.

Sound:

The built in speakers on the TV are OK. About a 7 at best. The biggest downfall of this TV is the lack of audio outputs. The only audio output on the TV is through the headphone mini-jack. Fortunately, the mini-jack will transmit Dolby Pro-Logic and Dolby Pro-Logic II signals so you can get a decent surround sound from it. However, don't expect Dolby DTS sound from this TV. Another thing to consider is that the system will only send audio either through the speakers or through the mini-jack so to get audio to come out of the mini-jack, you have to turn off the speakers in the TV's menu.

Inputs:

The TV has a single HDMI port, a single Component Video, a single Composite Video, a VGA port (component maximum), and a single S-Video input. Audio input and audio output are through mini-jacks (one of each). There is also a USB port for firmware upgrades. Essentially, you have enough inputs for a digital cable or satellite box (HDMI input), a decent progressive scan DVD player (component video) or the latest high-def video game system, and one other item that connects via standard composite video (or s-video). If you have two devices that use the same input type, this TV will not have enough inputs for you.

Definitions:

This TV supports 480i/p, 720i/p, and 1080i... at least that is what the box says. After upgrading the firmware to the latest version, I was able to successfully send a 1080p signal to the TV and it accept it. Now, it does appear as though the TV is running in a PC mode (rather than the display saying 1080p HD, it says 1920 x 1080 60Hz). However, it did work. I did notice that the screen flickered slightly on near white colors, but that was due to the 60Hz refresh rate.

Features:

This TV has more features than some of the more expensive LCD's that I have seen. One of the nicest features is the ability to upgrade the LCD's firmware. Thus, as new technologies emerge, the TV can be upgraded to support those technologies.

Overall, this is a pretty nice TV. With the exception of a few minor annoyances (inputs and outputs), this TV is definitely well worth the price.

Due to the ultra low price of this TV I decided to get one for the bedroom. It worked great for about a week now the picture scrolls up and down consistently. All of the inputs starting doing this besides the composite connection. Now it does it also. Even the logo jumps when you first turn the tv on. The volume is another problem. When watching DirecTv, the lowest volume setting is still sometimes too loud and there are no adjustments. I have contacted support about this issue and they said I had to ship the tv to California at my expense. They said if I am worried that the same issue will happen again that I should have bought an extended warranty. I guess you get what you pay for.

Both my wife and I purchased this item because it had a great price and a good Consumer Reports rating, but after watching this television monitor for some time we have decided that this is not just a great budget HDTV. This is a great HDTV at any price! It requires a bit of time reading the manual and adjusting for your inputs, but once it is set up, this a one really great picture!

I had done extensive research before purchasing this TV. I found that Consumer Reports rated this as a "best buy" and also found most of all reviews were very positive, so I took the plunge and I am glad I did. This is a great TV and you would never know it's under $1000. I had my Satellite company come out to install a new DVR and both guys were very impressed with the picture (truly high def). They asked what kind of TV is this? When I told them about my research and cost, they both said they wanted to buy one too. I promise you, this has the quality of a well known brand name. I have had this 3 months now and have had no technial problems at all. Others had mentioned something about the power button on the remote, but I haven't experienced that for the remote that comes with this TV. The only problem I have had, is when we programed my Satellite remote, it wont operate the volume or power. So, I have to use 2 remotes. The Satellite company said because it's such a new model, they don't have codes to allow you to power it up or adjust the volume. But that is not a big deal, because what really matters is what you see and the picture quality is great. Love it and have already recommended it to others. In fact, I just found out earlier today that one of my very good friends had recently purchased one for her husband and has been very happy as well.

I planned on waiting several more months before buying an HDTV to see if prices came down further. This was so cheap and the reviews are good so I bought it last month. I don't have HDTV, but DVDs look great with my player set to 720p. The Incredibles in particular looks spectacular and some of the flaws in older DVDs is revealed vs. my old 32" CRT. I also used Video Essentials to adjust the picture and it helped a lot. Regular TV via cable looked bad until I set the noise reduction setting high. It's not as beautiful as a friends Plasma, but it's also 1/3 the price. I have also learned that right now, there's not a big advantage to 1080p unless you have HDDVD or blue ray and it will be a while until one of them wins and players become cheaper. The only downsides are the 1HDMI connector which doesn't matter to me yet, and that there's no remote code to make other remotes work with it. I emailed tech support with a couple questions about proper settings. They responded quickly but the answers weren't great. Finally, it's thicker than some other LCDs and Plasmas, but it's 600 bucks so I can live with it!

update 12-07. have ownded for 9 months now and still love it. Looks amazing with HD content, including blu-ray. Solved the 1HDMI port issue with a cheap 3 port switcher on amazon. I really recommend this TV!

I have to say that this LCD Monitor is beyond my expectations.

The TV I had before this was a $2200+ Hitachi 42" HDTV Plasma and I have to say that I was leary about buying a smaller no-name monitor such as the Olevia. After reading reviews and being limited this time around on how much I could spend I finally decided on the Olevia 337H 37" LCD.

I have had this set for about a month and I am blown away at the great viewing angles and the sharp and bright picture. It has HD capabilities that will display a 1080i picture and it does a great job doing it. The clarity is equal to my old Hitachi set and I am very pleased with it.

The downsides I can think of compared to a more expensive set are that it has a few less options for the aspect ratios and conversion (compared to my Hitachi anyways), it looks and feels a little cheaper than other sets and the case depth is pretty deep compared to most flat screen tv's.

Overall for the price it is IMPOSSIBLE to go wrong with this Olevia. I looked a long time at TV's and most of the cheaper flat screen tv's in this price range were only 32" max. I could not find a 37" for less that $800-900 at any store! I am so glad I did not settle for a 32" and shopped around and found this one!

I've owned this TV for about a week now and have a fairly technical background. The TV produces sharp, crisp images using the component video input. The color settings are very limited however, and it took quite a bit of tweaking to get skin tones looking alright.

I have not yet tested the HDMI input yet. One cool feature about the tv is that it automatically detects the aspect ratio of what you are watching and sizes it accordingly - but if you want the natural resolution all you have to do is hit the aspect button once.

It's a good thing they don't usually use a good source video in stores, otherwise I think the price for this item would be much higher. It can hold its own against most other tv's when the settings are ideal. Gears of War rocks my socks on the TV. Honestly, its a little too big for my apartment - would suggest this TV for sitting 7-8 feet back rather than the 4-6 feet like in an apartment.

This TV can get very bright and can drown out other colors at too high a level (like most LCD's) and the black tones aren't quite as good as plasma, but the cool factor is way way up on LCD tv's these days.

I would definitely recommend this tv for this price. It's huge.

I purchased this TV for $626 after taxes and fees at Fry's Electronics. It was well worth it. Most flat screens of its size are twice that price. I now have the pleasure of small theater quality viewing with my HDTV cable stations and DVD's. I did have to purchase three adaptor wires for my PS 2, television, and DVD player. Make sure to purchase HDMI cables on Amazon. They are much cheaper than Radio Shack or any other electronics store. There is only one HDTV connector so if I purchase a HD DVD player I will have to switch cords or purchase a splitter if available.

When I was in the store these LCD TVs were flying off the shelf. The only problem I had with this TV was a dysfunctional remote. They replaced it within a short time at no cost. They have excellent customer service via e-mail.