VIZIO 42" 1080p LCD HD TV - VO42L FHDTV

by Vizio

Product Details

• Item Weight: 60 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 60 pounds
• ASIN: B00182DL14
• Item model number: VO42L FHDTV
• Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #90,311 in Electronics (See Top 100 in Electronics)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: January 1, 2008

Product Description

VO42LF_Lava_Thumb VO42LF - 42" Class LCD FHDTV 42" LCD Television 1920 x 1080 2.073 Million Pixels 5000:1 Dynamic Contrast Ratio 16.7 Million Colors 720p, 1080i (HDTV), 1080p (FHDTV) 4x HDMI, 2x Component, 1x RF 40.4"W x 27.6"H x 9.6"D VO42LF - 42" Class LCD FHDTV VIZIO's Evolution with the most advanced technology offers true 1080p performance available. Perfectly displaying more than 16 Million colors with incredible contrast ratios and brightness levels, your living room will become your new home theater

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Better than than the VU - Tuner Tips, August 31, 2008

By 

Legna (MD) - See all my reviews

This review is from: VIZIO 42" 1080p LCD HD TV - VO42L FHDTV (Electronics)

This is a better than average set. The feature set is excellent 4xHDMI etc.
Compared to the VU42 (which we had also), this has a nicer picture and much more control through the menus for Picture and Sound tweaking.

The HDMI worked perfectly with our laptops and good screen controls allows you to adjust margins to use the full screen.

I've had many HD sets over the years, for the money this is a good deal.

Tuner Tip: In our area, Cable doesn't scramble many digital channels, but many are just sound, duplicates or unwanted. This set seems to have a cap of 500+ channels, because while we could tune in more channels, The Channel skip did not show them. But this set has "Partial channel search", which allowed us to manually seek ranges of channels and customize the channels the way we wanted. The VU did not have this and forced us to flip through 50 or so "bad" channels with no way to remove them.

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars solid picture, November 21, 2008

By 

Evan Eberhardt - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: VIZIO 42" 1080p LCD HD TV - VO42L FHDTV (Electronics)

The HD picture on this set is very good. Do not be fooled by the price. The SD DVD progressive scan picture (480p) is also quite good. Regular SD (480i) is pretty ho-hum. In fact, if you have a sizable tube and are not planning on upgrading to HD service (although major networks are free with an antenna and look great), you might as well hold off. This is the case for any HD LCD. They are designed for HD and all of them just look so-so with standard definition.

The sound is also solid, very impressive for a flat panel. It also has ample inputs, although the ones on the underside are a pain to hook stuff up to (prepare to be cranking your head sideways to see just where the HDMI plugs in).

The remote is the weakest point of the set. It has a layout that in not intuitive. I still keep looking for the 'menu' button to play with the picture and features forgetting that you have to press the orange 'V' in the middle.

All around though, the set is a good value. If Sony or Samsung are not in your budget, you will not be disappointed by this Vizio. One more thing; I think the 120hz feature is not a must have, at least for films. I haven't seen it for video games, but for movies it just doesn't look quite right to me. Some blur is natural. So, don't be lured away by that as it is a feature I would rarely have used anyway.

Update: This Vizio set has held up now for about 22 months. There has been one extremely annoying issue though. On occasion (a few times a month, randomly) when watching broadcast TV via an antenna the set freezes with the speakers blaring static noise at max volume. This of course scares anybody in the room half to death...which has become quite tiresome (to the point that a new HDTV will be purchased in the near future and this set is going to a bedroom). The remote has no effect when this happens, so the only fix is to unplug the set (with the noise blaring in my ears as I do so). It only does this with the TV tuner, so the issue is clearly with that part of the set. On all the other inputs, HDMI, component, AV, RGB, it has been fine. The picture has been excellent on this set though, which has left me ambivalent about Vizio. Obviously Vizio must cut costs somewhere to be more affordable and unfortunately for me it has caused this problem that I have never had happen on other sets. So, it is something to consider in the future when buying a TV. Sony, Samsung, and other makers cost more but I suspect they probably have more thorough quality control than Vizio, which prevents bizarre issue like this one. I sent two emails to Vizio tech support wondering if there was a simple fix like a reset procedure, but never got a reply. And since the set is out of warranty I know a fix will cost more than this annoyance is worth and that money will be better spent on a new HDTV. I have not ruled Vizio out for a new TV, but I am not as gung-ho for them as I used to be.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Exceptional value, December 15, 2008

By 

Beechwood Knoll "beechwoodknoll" (Wollaston, MA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: VIZIO 42" 1080p LCD HD TV - VO42L FHDTV (Electronics)

This is my second Vizio set. We were so happy with our first set, Vizio was always a contender when we looked for a second HDTV. This set comes with picture in picture, which was a requirement for me. Visio appear to be the only manufacturer that supplies this option in sets in the price range. We are very happy with our selection. And of course the fact that the set comes with one year "in home" warranty makes this a hands down winner! Excellent picture, great contrast. I definitely recommend this tv.