Customer Reviews

Olevia 65-Inch 1080p LCD HDTV

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I bought this TV (from SC) because it is simply the best large (65") flat screen TV for the money. Period. Not without flaws, blacks could be blacker, backlight uniformity could be better, heavy as heck, not the thinnest flat panel of this size... but it has a high end video processor built in, it is very well built, and unless we are talking dark and murky scenes, a terrifically detailed image (as long as the source signal is good) with excellent color rendition. The screen has a factory calibrated 6500k color temperature setting, but for some crazy reason, it isn't the factory default. A few of the usual adjustments after chooisng the 6500k setting such as turning the brightness down and adjusting the contrast, football looks fantastic.

I chose this TV after considering the Panasonic 65" 1080p plasma, the Samsung 63" plasma, and the Sharp 65" LCD. Since this isn't in a dedicated home theater, reflections and light pollution are negatives on the plasma side of the equation. The Sharp 65" was a lot more money and the value equation landed firmly on the side of this Olevia 65" LCD. After two weeks, I have yet to find a single bad pixel. After 11 years of working in A/V technology at a university, I can say that finding a few bad pixels is on an LCD display is an all too common occurrence. Olevia obviously means to become a player in the industry and I would say if this TV is an example of their ability to ship a first rate quality product out the door, then they are well on their way to doing so.

I don't understand 2 of the 3 negatives reviews. The third was hardware related and is understandable. First, I believe the 2 negative reviews in question were written by the same person because of similiar grammer. The knocks included weight, picture quality, and black level. The the author(s) said they bought or recommended 60 " plasma tvs. First if they wanted a 60 inch tv don't look at this one because it is a 65 inch. Since at 1080P all sets have the same number of Pixels, the 65 inch pixels will be bigger therefore the sharpness will not be the same. Also, a 65 inch tv weighs more than a 60 inch. As to plasma, there is a reason plasma tv's are disappearing from the market place.

But my thoughts. This TV is a great value. Bought one at SC for under 3,000. They had 12 TV's lined up in two rows so it was relatively easy to compare. Of the 12, the 65 inch Olevia had the 2nd best picture. The best picture was from a 52 inch Sony. Considering the size, this is outstanding. And the Sony cost more. Weight is not an issue once the unit is placed. Yes the blacks could be better but when viewing the TV by itself, they look fine.

After I installed this unit for a relative, several non tv and tv types viewed the unit and gave very positive non solicited comments. What more can one ask for.

I don't like the remote but that is a minor issue.

Are their better TV's. Probably. The only other 65 inch LCD that I'm aware of is the Sharp. This TV is less than 1/2 its price. Therefore, this is a no brainer.

We bought this 220lb TV in late August and after we got it set up and out of the packaging it didn't even turn on. We called Olevia's customer service, (who sound like the most depressed people ever) and they told us that they would replace it in a few days. They would send someone to pick up the old one in 2 days, and they would send a new one. All we had to was fax them the receipt which we did that day. Well, I'm looking at the old tv still sitting in front of me weeks later. Olevia's tech supports gives us the run around and hung up on me after I asked to talk to a manager. In the future I will stick with Samsung.

I felt obliged to post a review to correct an obvious deception posted by a previous reviewer Lee A. Dye.
The fact that he states that the company filed for Bankruptcy (which is NOT TRUE), makes me doubt sincerity of his review....


Before this one had two more Olevia's for very long time, and they work very well, without any reduction of picture quality.

The 65" is terrific, and value is great. Only drawback is that it is heavy, but why should it matter much? Once it finds its proper place, it will never move. It is not an ipod, that you carry in your pocket or a portable boom box that you carry with you to different places.

Highly recommended.

P.S. If someone read my other reviews will see that I had never refered to other reviewer. But this time it is so blatantly obvious and vicious, that I could not help, but correct the error. I was expecting this rediculous guy (Lee A. Dye) to retaliate, but I had to correct his lies. In my original post I euphemistically mentioned that I doubt his sincerity, but I am now convinced he his an imposter. Anybody who cares, can go to finance.yahoo.com and check the ticker BRLC, and will be convinced that Syntax DIDN'T FILE FOR BANCRUPTCY. Now I know he is an imposter, because as I exptected, he gave my original posting six "not helpful" votes in a matter of several hours of my posting, to confuse potencial buyers of Olevia even more. Well, I don't care how many more negative votes he will orchestrate, for me what is important is, to tell anyone considering 65", they should definitely give it a try. Price is phenomenal and has absolutely no competition. On smaller screens, of course, VIZIO is quite comparable.

I purchased this TV 3 weeks back. paid 2326 + tax+ shipping on SC Auctions. Was little skeptical about the purchase, hence didn't commit to the payment. The local SC didn't have a display of this TV hence travelled 70-miles to see the TV before committing to pay. The TV was displayed with 12-13 TVs and probably looked better than most except Sony 52-inch, which was only marginally better probably due to its smaller size. It's no brainer that a same pic-feed will look better on a smaller display. Well after playing with the remote, I decided to go for it.

Some people have mentioned about the company having financial trouble. Well, let me tell you that this flat panel industry is very competitive and many good brands are making losses. Olevia is a reputed brand and once had the best LCOS TV, even better than Sony SXRD. In fact Olevia are the official owners for LCOS technology.JVC IDLA, Sony SXRD, Canon LCOS projectors are based on this same technology.

Coming to the performance of the TV- probably has the best video-processing even comparable to Sony and Pioneer. The processor is by SiliconOptix Realta HQV which is one of the best in the industry. There is no banding, no dead pixel. The picture is crisp and beautiful. The screen has matte finish hence almost no light reflections. The Olevia marketing team is really done a poor job. Put this TV in Best-buy, Circuit city and this TVs are going to disappear within no time. The only drawback this unit, I could think of is, very minimal backlight bleeding from the corners, which is not at all distracting. This is only visible if you are watching during night or in dark room and if the pic is widescreen. The contrast ratio is good; But not as good as plasma or LED Backlight LCDs. The TV is bright and no problem watching with lights on. I have tried blue-ray and HD-DVDs and both look awesome. I have seen Sharp 65-inch TV (both have same LCD panel) and this TV has better video-processing and is half the cost.

This is my 3rd flat panel, and I can say that this is the best one. I have never written a review before, but after reading few reviews on this website, which, I think are unfair for this great TV, I decided to write.

This TV is very heavy but really well built. I wouldn't consider this a weakness. A 65-inch TV is not going to be moved from place to place. You will need a real good stand or a strong wall-mount and help from at least 2-3 friends.

My suggestion to all, don't make your decision based on big brand names. Go to Sam's Club and see this TV yourself and make your decision. Don't blame this TV if you are not able to properly set it up. Some times setting up HDMI is confusing and many times one gets stuck, many times its only a minor issue, please don't blame this TV for your ignorance.


UPDATE
Its more than 1 year I have owned this TV. No problems so far.No dead pixel,no banding or any other problems. One thing I have noticed is , if you want watch DVDs the best way to do it is , hook up a PC to this TV and use Cyberlink powerDVD9 Ultra as your DVD player.It has excellent upscaling and dynamic lighting/contrast features. Many people have noticed too much noise with its upscaling, but Olevia has one of the best video processor 'SiliconOptix Realta HQV ' which has inbuilt noise reduction. If you use the TVs noise reduction to highest level, you wont find any noise with powerDvd upscaling.Also, the dynamic lighting/contrast feature of the software gives extra 'punch' to the movie. Most movies look almost high def.I have compared the pic quality with XDE500 and other DVD players, so far PowerDVD gave me the best results.And I know this is partly because of the TV's Silicon Optic processing.


UPDATE (11/26/2010)
2.5 years still going strong.
I love this TV.

The first one had a very annoying horizontal line across the middle. I returned it which is tough as it is too heavy for me alone. The second one was better.

The good about this set; large and cheap

The bad about this set; a lot of backlight bleed through , color is not accurate, and blacks could use improvement. LCD panels have light bulbs in the back that light them up whereas on plasmas each pixel is either on or off. The problem is the bulb back bleed through the sides on panels which creates false light and this unit is very bad here. If you have a cheap laptop you know what I mean just on a larger scale.


Set is not 120mhz and only 60mhz. The new stuff is 120mhz which makes a huge improvement in the picture. This is my fault because I assumed a brane new panel these days would be 120mhz. Nope, I was wrong.

very heavy. 240lbs.

I read elsewhere the company is in serious straights. Just use a search engine for Syntax or Olevia.

Menu is funny as many items in the manual are not in the menu itself

Menu is also layed out strange. Take some getting used to.

HD pictures are ok but I could not get the image to come in like my Panasonic 58" plasma.

All in all this is a ok tv unit but it not the top of the line. It uses old Sharp panels and mine had 3 stuck pixels on it.

I ended up refunding my unit and still shopping around for another large panel set. The Sharp 65" is very pricey but the price is coming down so I may wait for that to unit before pulling the trigger.

The t.v. has a great picture but the remote is useless. We even tried buying the universal remote specifically made for this t.v. and still no joy. After we power on the t.v., if we press any other button, on any of the three remotes that have supposedly been programmed for use with this t.v. then we can't control the t.v. at all. We have to manually turn off the power on the back of the t.v. to turn it off. Then to turn it back on, we have to disconnect the power supply, wait 15 seconds then plug it back in and power up the t.v. No other way works. Even soem other item besided the t.v. is the chosen item to be controlled, touching any buttons on any of the three remotes makes everythign dealing wiht the t.v. nofunctional (all buttons on the two olevia remotes are non-funcitonal, the buttons on the t.v. itself are non-functional, and the t.v. controller items on the satellite dish remote also are non-functional.) We deal with the problem by leaving the t.v. on the same channel all the time and leaving the volume at the same setting all the time.
What a pain!!
Did I mention the great picture?

I heard and read a lot about HDTV's before I took the plung and finally bought what has become one of the most smart and best moves that I have ever taken for a TV set. Do I like the picture? It's a fantastic image quality playback device. Only limited by the source material, and maybe making sure you set up the image according to your likings, I could not ask for any more! Olevia filed for chapter 11 in 2008, but is now doing business at [...]and is being sold in stores such as Walmart, that should tell you enough right there. The price for the performance is amazing, and you can buy an extended warrentee for a very good price is you desire to do so. Olevia 65-Inch 1080p LCD HDTV Do I reccommend this product, without a doubt, buy it. I compared the Olevia with every other highend brands before I purchased it. Pioneer, Panasonic, Sharp, Sony, etc., others compared, but none matched or beat the performance for the cost of the Olevia, not to say that cost was the main factor, but it was a concern when buying a 65-inch HDTV. A friend of mine who fancies himself a videophile, sat down and I played him a HD cable channel movie and his reaction was, "Oh my God, this is theater quality!". Need I say any more.

Pros: Bright, Clear, Solid, Inputs, US Company (bailed out of bankruptcy from a China company,)In home warranty repair.

Cons: If you don't know it's heavy you haven't read a review on it yet, but that is what makes it solid! 1st lvl Support is out of India.

I have owned this set for 6 months and love it more every day.

We got this TV in August. No regrets. We had been looking for an LCD and I knew my prices. My hubby walked into BJ Wholesale and saw this Olevia- (new to us) on the floor. Floor model- was $1,999. It has been perfect. Heavy for sure and it took 3 neighbors to help. But perfect everyday since we have had it. I want another- but that price was meant to be.