Customer Reviews

Syntax Olevia LT42HVi 42-Inch HD-Ready Flat-Panel LCD TV

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

 

 

I've had this TV for two weeks now, and I love it. The picture quality is outstanding. My panel has no dead pixels that I can see, which is great. They put a lot of thought behind the design of this TV. The input panel is on the back of the tv, but on the side, so you don't have to get behind the set to hook up components. They also have a built-in light to light up the panel. The set has two HDMI ports, which is nice so you can hook up a DVD player as well as your satellite or cable box.

The HD broadcasts are beautiful. The picture is smooth as glass, and the increased resolution of the LCD over a plasma screen is obvious to my eyes, anyhow. Watching "LOST" in HD the other night, I thought I was sitting on the beach with all of them. The Standard Def picture off of the DTV satellite is fair, but the local off-air broadcasts look pretty good even in Standard Def.

The other unique feature of this TV is the sound system. They include two 25w speakers, which really sound great. It has a virtual surround sound setting which really works well for concert DVD's. Although they don't equal a top-notch surround sound home-theater system, they are MUCH better than anything I've seen included with other TV's in this price range. I was going to buy a home theater system with the TV, but I'll hold off and save up some money first. It's really a great value for the money.

The two downsides to the TV are the remote control, which seems to be very finicky and needs to be pointed right down towards the lower right hand corner of the set, in order to work. The other minor downside is that while the viewing angles on LCD sets have improved dramatically recently, and the viewing angles on this set are much better than those I've seen on projection TV's, it still doesn't quite equal a plasma TV. But, you really have to move off to a severe angle to notice a difference.

I had one initial problem during setup that really turned me off momentarily, but after that I've come to love this television. My problem was that when I went to remove the protective coating on the screen the pull-tabs came off instantly and when I tried to get the coating off ended up pulling up a portion of the anti-glare screen before I noticed what was happening. As the anti-glare screen is attached extremely securely normally it was very odd to have it come up with the protective layer. And by the time I noticed what was happening, it was too late as the anti-glare layer cannot simply be re-attached and smoothed down. I had to completely remove the anti-glare coating, which left adhesive streaks that had to be cleaned from the glass. (And boy was all that a REAL pain. Removing the rest of the anti-glare coating AND the adhesive streaks left behind.) Be VERY careful that you only begin pulling off the VERY thin protective coating if you have problems with the pull-tabs.

Despite that issue during installation, I have little problems with glare (even without the coating) and the picture is absolutely gorgeous with my Xbox 360 and when watching HDTV content over my satellite.

The remote is definitely of a simple, efficient design. And comes off as a bit "cheap". Especially when trying to operate the television. (It must be aimed at the lower, right-hand corner as others have stated.) But the slide-panel on the bottom end of the remote hides away a lot of the more advanced options for one-touch operation (such as switching instantly between different types of connections such as just your component inputs or just between your HDMI and VGA inputs) that make it a lot more user-friendly than some of the other remotes I've come into contact with.

For the price, the features, and the quality... I don't think you'll find a better flat-panel LCD display than this one. My only regret is that this didn't come in a 1920x1080 resolution. (I have another HDTV that has a native resolution of 1920x1080 and I can notice a slight difference in the detail because of it. A comparable style of TV with a higher resolution is prohibitively expensive, though. And only worth the extra expense if you really want to get that highest amount of detail possible from your HD content and are the sort of videophile that _REALLY_ pays attention to detail issues like that. But (ugh) the cost is horrendous compared to this TV which I really love.)

The price finally became right and we plunged into HDTV with the Olevia 42". Great packaging for shipping and very easy set-up. Of course, the red pull tabs for the protective screen practically fell off in my hand. Called tech support (only waited about 12 minutes to get someone) who told me that the protective screen probably was never put on. However, I e-mailed tech support and the next day got someone who told me it definitely was there and to carefully start from one corner and just slowly peel. I e-mailed back that it couldn't possibly be there. After several back and forths he convinced me to try. Sure enough, I caught the corner and off it came! The guy was very patient. We are hooked up to HD cable so we use their remote so there's no problem there (one code for Syntax when setting your remote is 004). The picture is awesome -- even on standard def with Zoom 1 to fill the screen. The sound is terrific as well. The viewing angle is truly 175 degrees without wash-out. You can count the leaves on a tree or the hairs on a head with the high def. Great picture, great color, all pixels accounted for -- I highly recommend Olevia by Syntax. And tech support isn't as bad as they say.

Very nice, bright monitor/TV. Only one dead pixel on my new screen (replacement terms require 7+ dead pixels). No DVI input, so I connect to a PC using VGA. Native resolution is 1366 X 768. Most graphics cards don't support that resolution. I use an ATI card running at 1280 X 768 and it looks really good. CableTV looks surprisingly good. For the price, nothing else comes close to the Syntax series of LCD's.

My Tv started to have sound problems and I sent off an email to Olevia. No response. Then tried calling support - had to leave a message.

Days later after no response I called and transferred to sales - helpful guy and wanted all the details but again he could not help and would have tech support call me back - NO LUCK with call back

3 weeks go by and now I am getting rather ticked at the no response. So rewrote email again - no response.

Called tech support and left my number - no response.

Again called sales and got another person.
Got a live body - Yaaahoo! - could not help but forwarded me to customer service (to give me the service at home number). Customer service could not help and said Tech support were the ones to talk to. After an hour plus on hold I get to talk to a tech. 1/2 hour later he came to the conclusion that I needed service.

I liked the TV when I bought it but this support issue is really bad. My recomendation is call them yourself before you buy the TV.

Oh, and Good Luck!!!!

PROS: Nice looking LCD 42" TV with easy to use controls and very clear remote. Switching between different sources is simple. I'm using a Panasonic up-converting DVD player and the DVD images are terrific through the HDMI connector. Over the air regular TV looks very nice through the ANT coax connector and HD TV looks pretty hot too. Digital TV over the air is amazing through the DTV coax connector. The "VGA" connection to my laptop shows much better quality than the laptop screen itself. Price is pretty nice for this high quality LCD TV.

CONS: Image contrast for viewing JPEGs is different than the settings appropriate for TV, DTV and DVDs. JPEGs appear a bit contrasty at settings that are good for the other modes. The remote does need to be pointed at the lower right corner of the screen to work properly. However, I found that the Panisonic remote for my DVD player, once programmed for the TV (setting #15) did a better job than the remote that came with the TV. It even can change source as well as power, volume and channel. Tech Support was extremely difficult to reach - they don't seem to have any kind of phone handling system beyond a secretary and ringing through to a particular person's desk (!!). Way uncool. The manual scan setting for finding DTV stations does not work. Period. You can use the auto-finding option, but finetuning the pointing your attenna for DTV signals would be much easier using the manual scan setting. Company acknowledged the problem but would not committ to solving it . . . Sound output from the TV's speakers is okay, or maybe good at best.

I bought this TV from Beach Camera three weeks ago. I was very surprised to see the TV arrived in less than 24h after my order, the fastest online order I ever got. Just have one concern, comcast cable TV already there just after I first turn it on without channel search. I may got a display model? Any one has any idea on this, I would appreciate.
SDTV is good, the picture of HDTV and DVD are great! The sound system is one of the best I ever seen from a TV. I do not see a signifcant difference between this non-brand TV and other big name TV, such as Sharp, Sony, Samsung. I did cmpare them several times in CompUSA, alrough the color decoding is a little bit weak, the over all quality of this TV is just great, give the much cheaper price. I got it at $ 1995 after rebate ($200) with free shiping. If I can get rebate from Syntax, if the life time of this TV can last more than 10 years, I'm more than 100% satisfied with this purchase after several months researching.

After several months of exhaustive research, and seemingly endless trips to BB and CC to compare models directly, I finally ended up purchasing this set.

Amazingly, I have no regrets whatsoever. That's right, zero buyer's remorse! For the money (see the Target pricing in other reviews), you simply cannot do better than this set. SD satellite is surprisingly good--even compared to my previous CRT. After calibration DVDs are stunning. HDTV finally gives me that 'looking out a window' feeling.

Minor quibbles: The remote is indeed very cheap. I use an all-in-one learning remote anyway, so that's not an issue. Some people don't like the glass in front of the screen; it does have an anti-glare coating, but it will give you some reflections depending on your viewing area (as will CRTs, and plasma). Some people have reported problems with the image turning green occasionally when using the HDMI input. Tech support will send you a new input box (easily swapped out with a couple of screws) that corrects the problem. A few people have reported their sharpness setting not "sticking" on the component inputs. I haven't had either of these issues.

If you have a surround sound system, you can remove the factory speakers (below the screen in the image above), and lower it on its stand, so that it looks much more sleek, and plasma-like. Careful though--this thing is heavy!

I love this set. Now that I've got it dialed in it looks better than any HDTV I've personally seen--regardless of price!

Great tv for the price, no major complaints. I thought maybe Samsung had a slightly better picture, but not drastically so, and defn not worth spending the extra money. Had a decent experience with Syntax customer service. Mine only came with a power cable and I wrote to them and they shipped me a VGA cable. They said it does not officially come with any other types of cables, so if you get them, it's some kind of a secret bonus. Only complaint is the remote control, which is not always very responsive. I am considering getting a universal remote. By the way, to program the tv into your dvd remote, I used the LG code, since Syntax was not listed, and it worked. This is my first LCD tv, and I've become a regular at Blockbuster since getting it (warning-- you might become a movie junkie just because the picture looks SO good!). I do not have digital cable but the analog cable line looks okay, not too terrible. Using HDMI for dvd player gave me best picture, slightly better than component cables. Plenty of inputs in the back for all your components, just about 2 of each kind. Speakers sound loud, clear, and have a lot of audio settings to play around with. I'm a tough critic, but so far I have not been disappointed with this tv. I'm only minusing one star for the flimsy almost-good-for-nothing remote.

Edited to add: I didn't like the Toshiba SD-4990 dvd player so I exchanged it for the RCA DRC255N. The RCA gave me the green screen issues some people had reported. Before totally panicking that I broke my tv, I got yet another DVD player -- the Samsung HD860 -- and it worked fine, no green screen. I used the same HDMI cable for all three, and only had issue with the RCA unit. Btw, Samsung was the best player of the 3 I tried... no confusing set up for hdmi output like toshiba, just plug in and it auto-detects your settings.

I also took the plunge on this set and do not regret it at all.
A friend of mine has had this set for almost a year with no
trouble, he paid $2200. I did a lot of research and must say
the remote was the bigest concern as its on the weak side. I
use my cable remote and it works fine. By the way use the LG
codes when setting up your aftermarket remotes and you'll be
all set. I love this set, get it while they last, a new model will
replace it this fall. I understand the new one will look about
the same with extra features.


Mine came with all the cables including HDMI to HDMI 6'

2/6/07 UPDATE
Just letting you all know I still love this TV, its been trouble free
and I'm still amazed with the HD picture. Even with non-HD
it offers a very good picture. I'm glad it has 2 HDMI inputs, one for
my cable box the other for my Upconverting DVD player. DVD's
looks so close to HD that I'll wait for the HD DVD players to come down
in price. The Sony DVPNS75H, by the way is an excellent choice.
I use a universal remote thats a big improvment over the factory unit,
thats the weakest part of this set.

7/3/07 Update
More than a year in service and I've been very happy with this set!
Everyone who see this TV is blown away, my Brother in Law paid
twice this for his Sony and he's had nothing but trouble with it.
He'd rather watch my TV because the HD picture is better than his
Sony. I'm not saying Sony is a bad TV but who needs to spend the
extra when a product like this offers so much, it's a very good value!

3/2008 Update
This TV is running strong with the same top picture it started out with.
I have to first say this set is on for at least 5 to 8 hours every day with
ZERO problems. For the money I couldn't of made a better choice. My
Brother in Law has a Sony bought about the same time, He's had so many problems
that He won't talk about it anymore, guess it can happen with any brand but
so far with many hours under its belt the 42" Olevia has preformed perfectly!
No regrets going with this well made brand.