Customer Reviews

VIZIO VBR200W Full HD Blu-ray Player with VIZIO Internet Apps (VIA)

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(19)

 

 

Great player, very happy.

PRO's:
1. Very easy to set up - plug it in and it works
2. Pandora is awesome! I had to go with a wired connection as the wifi would drop out now and then (I have the same problem with my Apple TV so it's not the unit) but once I went wired it was perfect. I have ATT Uverse and they gave me for free the ethernet plug ins that turn your interior electric cable into a wired connection. Also, when you stream Pandora you do not have commercials like you do on the computer.
3. Netflix streaming is pretty cool, though the image quality is about as good as an analog TV station. But it's free "all you can eat" movies so who's to complain?
4. The sound is incredible on movies. It sends the signal in PCM format to my Pioneer VSX 1019 and the sound is so powerful I actually had to put the amp on Auto Level Control because the explosions and such were so lifelike. Even my wife, who could care less, commented that the sound was a major improvement from my DVD player.
5. Picture quality is Blu Ray - you set the player to HDMI Auto and it automatically gives you the best picture quality and aspect ratio based on the disc. You can also pick your own resolution.
6. Interface on the screen is pretty easy - when it turns on you can choose between Pandora, VUDU, Nexflix, or Disc (as well as setup, etc). Intuitive interface.

CON's
1. Batteries were dead!
2. No HDMI cable as advertised on Amazon, but the box states you only get regular cables so it's an Amazon issue.
3. Logitech Harmony universal remote doesn't recognize this unit yet so you will need the included remote to navigate. Harmony does the basics but is missing a critical "go back" button so once you are in an app (ie Pandora) you cannot return to the main menu without the main remote. I'm sure this will be fixed by Logitech.

CONCLUSION: I love it!

I found my player at walmart, but wanted to include my review since I've read so many negative reviews here.

positives:
+ player is easy to setup and had it connected to my wifi within minutes. All internet apps work great. Netflix loads/streams fast, VUDU is great for movies ($5.99 per movie is a bit much though), and Pandora radio is awesome. No lag and all streamed perfect.
+ the player looks nice and has a nice touch panel on the front of the player. Feels like it is built out of strong material.
+ Now for the most important factor, blu-ray/dvd movie quality. Blu-rays look fantastic on this player in 1080p. Did not find any issues with the video quality. When powered on the player will load what ever is currently in the player. This takes only about 30-45 seconds (if not less) to get into the blu-ray and start playing it. Standard DVDs are also upconverted to 1080p format. I tried out a few DVD movies (LOTR trilogy, Iron Man, and The Little Mermaid). All looked great and were a definite bump up in quality from my standard upconverting dvd player. Have not had any problems with Blu-ray or DVDs.
+ The audio plays through my Onkyo TX-SR607 receiver at outputs 5.1 surround sound. From what I can hear it all sounds superb.
+ The Vizio menu is easy to navigate and has a lot of additional setup options. I have not really reviewed much apart from the default settings.

negatives:
- The remote. Not sure what it is but I sometimes have to push a button 2-3 times for it register. Not sure if it's the remote or the sensor on the blu-ray player. It's big and clunky. I would have given the player a 5/5 star rating if the remote was better.
- usb port is located on the back of the player.

Overall I think this is a great player. If people are having troubles with the wifi connection I wouldn't fault Vizio for this. If you are looking for an affordable blu-ray player that has internet apps this is a great choice.

I ordered this player on March 23rd and it arrived to my house on March 26th.
Took about 5 minutes to set up. I dont like the remote control at all, thats
my only complaint so far. Found my network, connected immediately. Within a few
minutes i was streaming Netflix. That evening, I ordered a movie from VUDU and the
picture was incredible. Next night, ordered another VUDU movie and again, no issues
at all.
Sorry to hear that so many people are having issues with this player. Like I said,
so far, its working great.

The Player was easy to set up. Blu-Ray disks load quick. Wireless networking was quick and easy to set up as well. I have not played with the apps much yet. I am disappointed that it did not come with am HDMI cable as it states in the description. I was also hoping for a QWERTY keyboard like the VIA enableed VIZIO TV's Come with. Over all so far i am happy with the product.

I've had this player for a couple of weeks now. Some of the reviews I've read here are completely contradictory to my experience. Overall, I'd have to say I'm well satisfied with the unit. Connecting to my wifi network was simple. I'm using WPA2 encryption on a Linksys N router and I'm not broadcasting my SSID. All I had to do was go to the manual setup on the menu, type in my network name and then enter in my password key. Connected immediately and haven't had any problems since. I have yet to use Pandora or some of the other streaming options but I have streamed several movies via Netflix...and they've ran flawlessly. No jittering or stuttering. I've not had any issues playing regular DVDs either. I'm currently connected to an older Visio TV that is only rated at 1080i. And yes, I'm connected via an HDMI cable...again with no issues.
The negatives I've encountered are the fact that the player itself is pretty noisy and the remote/IR doesn't seem to be of high quality. You pretty much have to point the remote very directly at the player and it's a bit slow in response. Although that's a little annoying it's not too big of a deal because I usually just hit Play and that's it till the movie is over.
The loading mechanism and tray is far superior to my old player. So I'm rather happy with that.
Keeping in mind that this is a wifi capable player that sells for less than $200 far less than the $400 + competition I would have to say that as far as I'm concerned it is a really good value.

I wanted a quality blu-ray player with wifi capability at a good price - check, check, and check. In fact, at the beginning of my search, I did not anticipate finding such a player for under $200.

Set-up: Done with no hassle in less than 10 minutes from time of taking it out of the box to streaming off of Netflix.

Wifi: The player instantly picked up my router and was streaming all the apps with no problem.

Picture (played on 720p): Blu-ray DVDs look fantastic, regular DVDs and Vudu/Netflix streamed movies both look better than DVDs played on my regular DVD player.

Remote: Cheap, but sufficient.

The player itself is very quiet and looks fantastic. The blu-ray and regular DVDs I have played so far, have done so instantly and played beginning-to-end flawlessly. Whether I streamed movies from Netflix or Vudu, each started within seconds of hitting play. Getting a $17.96 credit with Vudu is a nice extra to this purchase.

Sleek looking and an excellent buy. It would have been great to have had more apps like Amazon and Blockbusters. Like the wi-fi. The remote control is not laid out well: No back light. Print not easy to read. Control buttons are confusing and some are set too close to each other, making interference or wrong choices inevitable. Some of the actions (play, pause etc. are slow to react. Easy to connect to other equipment. Picture quality is good. Plays almost anything you put in it. If it had more apps, I'd buy another.

I've had the VIZIO VBR200W Full HD Blu-ray Player with VIZIO Internet Apps (VIA) for a week now and have put it through it's paces. As a little background on my usage, I bought this player for my bedroom to connect to my Samsung 40" 1080p LCD TV for Netflix streaming and blu-ray disc playback.

- Blu-ray picture quality is very good, not as good as the PS3 but good regardless.
- Tends to skip on blu-rays that aren't borderline perfect.
- DVD upscaling seems fairly weak...could have just been the particular DVDs that I've watched so far so take this comment with a grain of salt.
- Moderately noisy. I can hear it during quiet scenes from 14' away but it's not even close to being unbearable.
- Netflix streaming is easy and the quality is pretty good. Non-HD videos look just as good as they would on any other device but the "HD" videos just don't see up to par with my PS3 or Roku player. Quality seems to vary while the videos are playing unlike the Roku player that sets the quality before the video starts and doesn't vary unless network speed drops significantly.

I'm happy with it and I feel that it is a very good value for the price. Netflix, Pandora, Blu-Ray playback, and wireless N for ~$200 shipped. I will update this review if there are any quality issues down the road but so far so good.

FURTHER UPDATE!
For two weeks Vizio has maintained a new machine is on its way.

Now they say there is no record of ever receiving the defective player even though I have the tracking information showing it was received where the thousands of dead VBR200s wind up to be cremated!

Amazon would be wise to show caution in offering products from this company to its loyal customers!

UPDATE!

After having the VBR 200 since April of 2010, my love affair with Vizio has cooled somewhat.

Seems the Player has slowed considerably, yet the images are still fabulous.

However, the wireless has pretty much fizzled to where it is mostly inoperative. My Roku leaves it standing in the dust!

After nearly a week of getting nowhere with tech support, Vizio finally agreed to send me a brand new unit.
At least they are TRYING to do the right thing, so am willing to take another chance, because when the machine is working, it is superb.

Hopefully the new machine will perform to specs and enable me to author a "thumbs up" update.

I have been anxiously waiting for this new player and as some of the bad reviews came in I became a bit nervous. Well I received mine last night and I love it!

It was easy to set up, the picture quality is amazing, Pandora couldn't be easier to use, both VUDU & Netflix are quite simple to use, found my wifi instantly.

I put my own batteries in from the start to avoid the battery hassle.

If you don't have a high def resolution television I'm not sure why you would buy this product. It would seem that some of the bad reviews don't necessarily have the new tv's with great resolution; thus their problem- Blu Ray is meant for great picture quality but that starts with your tv.

If you have a good tv, you will love this product.