Customer Reviews

VIZIO E420VL 42-inch Class LCD HDTV 120Hz 1080p

5 star:		(42)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I began my quest for a tv at walmart with a budget of $600-700. I first noticed that this tv's image quality was superior to any of the other standard lcds and superior to most of the LED tvs that were hanging on the wall at twice the price. Since it was Walmart, and they are notorious for having crappy tv feeds, I took this with a grain of salt and decided I would visit another walmart to see if the quality differences were the same. They were. I couldn't believe how natural the sharpness of the E420VL was at this pricepoint. I'm a photographer so my eye is trained to spot sharpening artifacts (halos, etc) and this tv had none. The picture had awesome definition with the sharpness set to 1, which is fantastic. Another thing I noticed were the natural looking reds. One thing I've never liked about LCD tvs is the over-blown reds that are almost fluorescent looking. The colors of this Vizio looked like a CRT monitor. I thought to myself "the image quality is good but how will it handle blu-ray or fast-moving video?" I got online and found only positive reviews so I decided to check out more tvs at Sam's and BestBuy before making a final decision. After looking at both places, I just couldn't find a TV with better image quality for under $1500 bucks. Even some of the "higher-end" vizios didn't have the picture quality that E420VL has. I'm a very skeptical person so I just found it really hard to swallow that this TV would have look this good at this price point. I was aware of Vizio's quality control issues in the past but having read a lot of reviews on this particular model, I couldn't find the negative reviews that have plagued certain Vizio models. To make a long story short, I went back to Wal-Mart and bought the E420VL for under $600 bucks. A few tweaks later, I love this thing. Here are a couple of settings that I use on my to get a phenomenal picture:

Picture Mode: Movie
Brightness: 47

under Advanced Picture:
Smooth Motion Effect: Low
Real Cinema Mode: Precision (The combo of low Motion Effect and Precision reduces the Soap Opera Effect inherent to 120hz or higher TVs)
Adaptive Luma: Extend (more detail in dark areas; this combined with 47 brightness created a natural-looking high-contrast picture)

I work for a Cable TV company installing so ive seen LCD tv's at there best and worst. This is definetly a top tier tv. 480 analog and digital pics have very little distortion and blur. The hi def is amazing. So crisp and vivid. I am very impressed with the tv for its price, and image quality.

I generally only write a review if I'm either incredibly disappointed or incredibly impressed with something... Fortunately, this TV falls into the later category... I am definitely very impressed with this TV. I didn't buy it from Amazon (it was $600 at Costco when I got it), so I can't comment on delivery/etc, but I can comment on the quality of the product. It's amazing. I've connected multiple devices to the TV; Blu-Ray, PS3, XBox360, Upconverted DVD, HD Cable, etc... Everything looks great. The menus are very easily navigable, and I've haven't had to adjust anything since the first day that I've had it. 1080p sources really do look amazing (and 720p is NOTHING to sneeze at)... I really have nothing bad to say about this TV. My PS3 and XBox360 look incredible. Highly recommended, man!

I really like the TV. It is easy to operate and has a fantastic picture. But lately (about 4 months post purchase) my TV has been acting up insofar as the remote control. I, of course, put in fresh batteries and I also have a universal that does the same thing, which is...

The TV occasionally doesn't react to the remote at all, occasionally reacts so-so to the remote, and occasionally acts as expected with the remote. Initially, it had perfect as expected remote control response.

It's semi-tolerable, but somewhat irritating to have the push the vol. or channel button repeatedly to get a reaction. So far, it eventually reacts every time, with the number of button presses between 1 and 5 times. As I write this, I'm realizing that it's wearing pretty thin.

I Googled the problem and it has been documented on some Vizio TVs, but I didn't find any solutions, including a failed attempt at a replacement remote control from Vizio.

The only other complaint I can think of is that the PIP kind of sucks. One can't "swap" the pictures and it's slow and clumsy to maneuver through the menu to exchange the PIP and main picture if you're channel surfing while waiting for your program to continue.

I'm probably going to take the TV back and exchange for the same TV and give it another try, as I really do like the TV, and think it was a great purchase.

UPDATE 12/6/11 Still have the TV. Repairman has been out 2x due to remote issues and now they seem to be starting up again a bit. He replaced the motherboard the first time, and the infrared sensor the second time. I bought it at Costco so it had a 2 year warranty which is up in February, 2012. I'm trying to decide whether to spend the money to extend the warranty, but with TVs coming down so far in price, it's hard to justify. It is still working great other than the remote issue (which is kind of hit or miss--is fine tonight) and the picture still rocks. All in all, I'm quite happy with this TV.

I was initially a little reluctant to buy this television because it's not a Samsung, LG or other such highline name brand, but I'm so glad I bought it. Big screen, bright/distinct/clear picture and just love it! Great price, great shipping. Highly recommend this tv. Fast "recovery" when changing channels and great HD picture. What more could you ask for?

When I was looking for a fairly large screen TV, I did not care about the sound from the TV just the picture. The picture is just awesome with 3 HDMI inputs and one component and a PC input. My neighbor has a 40" Samsung LED TV and we compared the 2 TVs and really couldn't tell much difference. The was a $350 difference though. The only thing I don't like about this is the remote. I like using the pip feature and you have to hit 3 buttons to use this feature. The remote could have been much better. You might be able to purchase a better remote for this TV though.

The sound from the TV is only fair, but I use a home theater system and rarely use the TV's sound.

For the price I don't think you can do any better than this.

I gave this a 5 star rating because of the great VALUE, what you get for your money. Of course there are "better" TVs out there, but we just do not have that kind of money. In this price range, this TV deserves a 5. Only one small issue with sound that was easily resolved.
This is our first LCD and Flat Screen. Our previous TV was a 32" tube TV. Obviously, any upgrade would be impressive to us, but I did quite a significant amount of research before buying this one. I am very happy with my purchase. The other TV I was looking at was a Samsung, which also had great reviews, but I saved more money with the Vizio and our purse strings are tight.
It arrived in the original Vizio box well packaged and shipped. Set up directions are easy to follow and everything worked right away when we hooked it up. The next day we lost sound. I had read about this issue in other reviews. Vizio customer service was very helpful and talked us through the steps of unplugging TV, waiting 30 seconds, then holding down the POWER (on/off) button on the TV (not the remote) for a full 30 seconds (all while the TV is unplugged). This is the process that resets the sound settings. You can reset audio in the on-screen menu, but the guy said this did something else as well. Then we plugged it back in and it worked fine. He said sometimes things just have to be reset.
The problems with losing sound we have had since then all relate to the CABLE BOX and NOT to the TV itself. We have a TV, AV receiver, cable box, DVD player, and CD player all hooked up to one system. Most sound issues resolved once we hooked things through the RECEIVER. The last remaining issues that popped up with losing sound related to the settings on the CABLE BOX system. Something with Cable and the HDMI cable make things hard to interpret from what I have read, and that seems to be the case. Once I knew the TV was fine, I went to the audio settings on the cable box and switched them from STEREO to STEREO SURROUND. And Voila! Sound on the TV and the additional speaker system we have as well.
The bottom line is that this TV has great picture, sound is "normal" (nothing spectacular, but nothing to complain about), and it is a great value.
We had no issues after resetting the TV. The issues are with how the other devices and cables communicate with each other and from my internet searches, these issues are well known. I recommend this TV to anyone looking for a LCD Flat Screen at a great price. Of course, there are higher priced models with "better backlighting" - but I am not a video expert! I can't tell the difference when you take it down to that level! I'm a Nurse Practitioner and a mother of 2 small children and I just want to watch TV with a nice picture. This is it! And that comment is coming from a very picky critical care nurse, mind you! :-)

I recently purchase my first flat panel LED HDTV and was very satisfied all around. Amazon was on schedule, setting up and installing the TV was easy as Vizio' instruction for installation was very good. The picture quality was exceptional and certainly worth the purchase price. I would, without a doubt, recommend this TV to my friends.

I purchased this as a secondary HDTV. Mostly for my kids and PS3/Wii. It has the basic features I wanted, semi-matte screen, 120hz, higher contrast ratio. The unit shipped without a number of parts - including remote and power cord! Amazon was helpful in getting me in touch with Vizio which shipped out the parts, but I was a bit concerned over this thinking Amazon sent me a refurb or return unit. After adjusting the picture settings (custom + autodim off) I was okay with the picture quality. As most reviews have said this is a good HDTV for the price. However, since we have a top of the line LG LED unit as our main HDTV I am a bit spoiled and can see the difference in quality. Bottom line - as a value HDTV I think this is among the best models for the money.

I can't speak for the longevity or durability of this product just yet, but I can say that my first impression is "Wow." The picture looks great, even with standard programming. On the stand, this TV seems sturdy and it looks nice enough--it's simple and doesn't detract from the display. If you don't have a surround sound system, like me, then the audio isn't too impressive, but that's just to be expected. My husband and I debated between this particular brand and another for the same price, but with a lower refresh rate. The 120 Hz does make a difference in viewing quality, so this is definitely the better deal.

It would have been nice to have an S-video jack for my older game systems and an extra composite input, but overall this seems like a good quality product for the price.