Customer Reviews

Olevia 747i 47-Inch 1080p LCD HDTV

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

First the bad: It's very heavy. My unit weighs about 160lbs and is very difficult to move around on the stand. That said, the delivery guys took care of moving it. Now that its set up, weight is of no consiquence.

The Amazing: The up conversion of Standard Definition TV. I researched the Hollywood Quality Video Chipset and read extensively on its websites about how the Television will integrate the upconversion to near-HD on Standard Definition TV. Now that its on my TV stand, its simply amazing to watch both HD and Standard Def TV

The Fabulous: The Quality of HD is flawless. The black definition is enough for me. The Menu is very easy to use, so easy I've never had to consult the manual. The crisp sharpness of the 1080i HD Channels is brilliant and in my eyes compared with my LG television, it's gotta be 1080p I'm watching as it really looks like an open window.

I was Sold When: I found out the price. For high quality HQV Chipset + Size + Warranty the Price was a bargain and I couldn't be happier.

I'd recommend this TV or any Olevia TV to friends and families. The Delivery guy who helped me to install commented his impression with the unit and wrote down the brand and website i got it from when I told him the price because he said he was going to order one... that's how good this TV is, one look and your sold.

I bought it sight unseen online based on the Consumer Reports and couldn't be happier.

Lastly, Olevia is an American Owned American Made company and that was just icing on the cake at the end of the day.

Having owned this TV for around a month its one of the best TVs I have ever owned. All my previous TVs were Sony's and yes its right there with them or above them.
I paid $1300 delivered to the door what a bargain! Out of the box its pretty close to perfect. The only adjustments I did was to lower the brightness and set the advanced black level enhancer to on, the lighting was set to dark room, this TV has plenty of brightness turning it down a little will extend the life of the LCD and also improve the picture giving better black levels. Some pro reviews have stated that the black level performance was average, lowering the brightness will improve that.

There is still a lot of standard definition out there and this set performs much better than I expected and better than any other LCD Ive seen, probably due to the excellent Silicon Optix HQV processor it up-scales the tuner to what looks like standard DVD. DVDs look close to 720p HD and that's without an up converting DVD player. If you are watching SD TV you can be hard pressed to think its HD that is until you go to a HD station.
HD is simply stunning its like looking out a window very few Hdtvs can achieve this, color quality is excellent. Color temp is user adjustable at 6500 or 9200 but it's not necessary to adjust 6500 is fine in my opinion. It has PIP which I use often for sports, and a nice function called channel surfing it will display several channels at once so you can choose the one you want. it also has Split screen.
The Menu is good once you master it, it could drive some people crazy at first though because of the rotating menu. The remote has several small buttons which when viewing in the dark are hard to find despite the fact that it back lit, you have to memorize the ones you need to use like favs sleep view etc, that's about the only thing I can complain about oh it is heavy at 130lbs but once you get it into place that not an issue other thing in researching this TV I heard what I thought was a ridiculous complaint about an egg shaped image when the TV was switching input or in very dark scenes, I saw it too but it disappeared after a week or so, Maybe it had to break in whatever its gone,
Sound quality is very good with 25 watts per channel and nice sounding speakers, it has a lot of sound enhancements such as wide sound deep bass and idfa which is preset eq settings for Movie live speech etc.
The fact that Olevia is a new company I give them a lot of credit getting to top of the heap so quick. I own a 32" and 27" Olevia I had a problem with the 32 but Circuit City replaced it and the new one it working great. I would recommend that you buy warranty protection for it being we know little about its reliability. I purchased one on the net for $150 for 5 years at Teds unlimited there are other company's that you can go with as well. So for $1450 I have a great TV with a 5 year warranty.
I almost felt guilty for not buying a Sony but their 40" Bravia was several hundred dollars more. So Instead I have Sony quality with a Olevia price. I recommend this TV highly walk run or surf and get one before the price go's up. FM

Once the television arrived, it was an easy set up. HDMI connections x 2 let us attach the cable box and the Blu-ray player directly. Then we turned it on and we were dazzled by the great color and fantastic detail. Only down side is that Olevia uses codes for its remote that are too new to be in many "universal remotes" so we end up with two controllers - one for the TV and one for everything else. This is our second Olevia LCD TV.

Other then the fact this TV is 160 pound range there is absolutely nothing I can complain about with this TV. The picture quality is excellent. What really made this TV was the Game Mode feature for me. Trying to play Guitar hero 3 for my Wii was challenging before turning on Game Mode; because of the TV trying to upconvert to 1080p.

For 47" LCD at 1300$ shipped is a price range that cant really be touched by most other TV's at the moment.

If you are looking for a superb HD picture, the best SD upconverting, aesthetics and theater quality sound, this one is for you. This is not your standard Olevia model. It was launched with a 3499 MSRP to compete with the Soy XBR4 and high end Sharps. Professional reviews rate the PQ higher than those TVs. 50 Watt speakers are superior to anything you'll find attached to other bezels. It's a big risk buying sight unseen which most will do with this model. You won't be sorry.

This TV's Silicon Optics HQV video processor is as good as advertised. It's easy to make HD content look amazing, but most HD TVs do a crappy job of displaying SD content. If the SD content is good quality, it's often hard to tell that you're not watching a HD channel.

The negative of this TV is the weight and glass front.

I have owned this model of Olevia TV for 2 years and 3 months. I liked it a lot. Tonight no imagery of any kind, whether originating externally or internally, would appear after the Olevia start-up screen. When I went to contact support, I found the olevia.com website no longer exists! I also learned that the manufacturer, Syntax-Brillian Corporation, has gone belly-up (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syntax-Brillian_Corporation) and that its assets, including the Olevia brand name, were sold, in May 2009, to the Emerson Radio Corp. whose website does not list any Olevia products or Olevia product support whatsoever. Googling "Olevia TV", "Syntax-Brillian", and "Syntax Olevia" brought up either old materials or content that reinforced the previously stated facts. So the TVs being sold here appear to be the remains from the last manufacturing runs of a long defunct company.

*While I recommend this television highly at $1000, I say pass at any price much higher than that.

I purchased an Olevia 747i for one of my classrooms and would happily purchase more.

I poured through hundreds of television reviews and forums to find a good television. I finally chose the Olevia 747i based on these qualifiers:

1. Cost - I paid slightly under $1000 for mine. I had to keep the purchase under $1000, so many good candidates were immediately disqualified (though I don't believe they would have been any better for class settings). You can find deals through Amazon and Tiger Direct.

2. Burn-in - There will be plenty of PowerPoint presentations shown on our television and I wanted to be sure that no images would be burned in due to prolonged display of static images. Television station logos are a concern if you're watching programming. Older plasmas can get burn-in. Newer (more expensive) models don't have that problem. LCDs (like the 747i) are largely unaffected.

3. Sturdiness - The 747i has a THICK pane of glass protecting the face. This is considered a negative on many of the forums due to the increased weight, but it is perfect for classrooms. The glass can be easily removed if you're feeling brave.

4. Size - This was the only 47 inch television I could find for less than $1000. Most TVs in that category are 42" or less.

5. Available inputs - I needed a VGA or DVi connection. This TV has a VGA.

BONUS - Audio. The speakers that come stock on this TV are actually very good and appropriate for most classroom settings. You'll be able to remove them if you are connecting this to an existing speaker setup.

The only real issue I have had with this model is the input selection. I only need 1 HDMI and 1 VGA. There are 10-12 inputs and you need to either scroll through them sequentially by hitting the input button or select it from the menu (which is about 3 selections deep). You can get the discreet codes and program a high end remote (like the Harmony One), but that increases the cost another $100 or so and introduces a delicate and easily "misplaced" element to your setup.

I had read the reviews and had one of Olevia's computer monitors and so was well aware of the brand.

The set is huge, has great contrast, color, incredible sharpness and very goodsound. I plugged in a powered subwoofer and it felt likeI was in a theatre.

The set is very heavy. They put a thick piece of glass in front of the LCD panel. Makes cleaning much safer and easier than most LCD TVs. Makes it eay to clean and looking sharp, but it does add a lot of weight.

Don't be afraid that it is not a "brand name".

Save yourself several nundred dollars and get a set that no one can claim that their's is better.

Love 2 of my Olevia TV's. American owned but still made in China. The only bad thing is their customer service. Is it because it's an American owned? Sony has better customer service, if that's what you're looking for.