Customer Reviews

VIZIO VL260M 26-Inch Full HD 1080p LCD HDTV

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Just picked this new Vizio up and love it! I was looking for a new TV for the bedroom and this fits the bill perfectly. The case comes in a new color Java which I was a little worried about initially. After having seen it in person before purchasing it and now having it in the house, I feel its a great color. It matches my dark merlot furniture very well. Setup was a breeze and I was watching TV in just a few minutes after getting it out of the box.

In the busy market of small TV's the personal reasons I went for the Vizio are:

1. One of the few 26" 1080p TV's (even though I understand most programming isn't offered in 1080)

2. Price point. Vizio is the best bargain out there for quality LCD TV's. I had considered the Samsung 22" that got great reviews, but for only a few dollars more, I got this TV that is 4" larger and is 1080p. Plus I have known folks to have issues with Samsung.

3. Style. I like the way the TV looks. Very sleek looking. Java is a neat color that isn't offered by anyone else. I'm sure other brands will start offering new colors now.


Overall the picture is amazing. I thought buying a Vizio meant compromising on picture quality to get a better price, but with this TV I didn't have to. Watching this TV right next to its competitors in the store really showed that Vizio offers a top notch product. Again the price can't be beat!

I recently purchased this vizio 1080p lcd from sams and brought it home to test it out. let me first say that i really had no intention of buying a different tv and was surprised at the quality after getting it home. All of my testing is with a samsung blu ray player 1600 in 1080p over hdmi. The black levels were the biggest fault in this tv. It was very difficult to enjoy almost any blu ray or standard dvd on this tv. There was jitter present also when watching movies and a strange up and down of the contrast levels on its own that was very annoying. I can only come to the conclusion that the people who have reviewed this set earlier dont know what to look for. I bought the sony 26 inch lcd at best buy and it has none of the above mentioned problems and the black levels are much much better. Movies look like they should and upscaling is awesome. It is totally worth the extra 50 bucks or so to get the sony if a 26 inch is the right size. I really wanted this vizio to work out, and have never owned a sony before. After reading the reviews i decided to give the vizio a try and can honestly say its not worth it. I dont think the samsung or panasonic 26 inchers are necessarily any better than the vizio from the reviews, but for me, the black levels were very important. This tv has great colors and sharpness but just doesnt look realistic in movies. I tested every possible correction i could think of and read about with the back light, contract, brightness etc, it was just not in the same league as the sony. sorry guys, nice try but the 1080p and 50,000 to 1 contrast ratio make no difference with the flaws that this has. keep coming back vizio :( wish i didnt have to return because im surely no sony fan, but i wanted the best lcd for the size and it blows it away.

This is one of the few 1080p sets made in 26"; a perfect size for my home office. I am using feed from AT&T Uverse and the picture is excellent; stunning. The remote is very basic, but adequate. The case is supposedly a dark chocolate (java) color, but it's not obviously different from black. The case also has the Vizio name that glows amber when the set is off and turns white when on. It's not a distraction to me. The set meets and exceeds Energy Star requirements.

I had been waiting on this set for quite some time. Release from Vizio was delayed, but I was finally able to have one shipped from Sam's Club. I am not aware of any retail store where you can see one of these yet. I think I paid $368 plus shipping and handling.

If you're looking for a high quality 26"television, I recommend you consider this one.

My wife and I went to Best Buy today hoping to walk out of the store with the Sony BRAVIA 26-inch tv, which sold for about $389.99. When we arrived, this model was no longer available. Best Buy wasn't even pushing their own line, which is Insignia. Instead, the sales people were pushing me to upgrade to a 32-inch Sony. The intent of this new purchase was to install the tv into a bedroom and all we had was about 28-inches of reasonable space to install the tv on the wall. Even though the 32-inch Sony would be a great picture, we knew it would not fit in the wall space. We looked at the Insignia 26-inch 720p DVD Combo unit for about $329.99 and were ready to walk out the door with it, but hesitated and decided to check out BJ's Wholesale before.

When we walked into BJ's, we immediately saw the Vizio 26-inch VL260M LCD HDTV for about $319 and thought it was a great buy. Then we noticed with amaze that it was a Full HD 1080P. That is what made us decide on the purchase and walked out the door with it.

First off, there is no comparison between the Vizio 1080P versus the Best Buy Insignia 720P. The differences were in favor of the Vizio because of the higher pixels of 1080P; plus the price was about $10 cheaper for a better quality picture and brand.

Now, let me fill you in on a little secret. Even though I have a technical background, I am not up to par with the LCD tv's. This is my first LCD tv, upgrading from a big bulky tube tv. I really didn't know what the differences were until I started researching, only to discover that the 1080P meant the tv had 1080 pixels, versus the 720P. What this meant was the with 1080P, the clarity of the picture would be cleaner and crispier. For the $319 price at BJ's, I thought it was a steal.

I also purchased the Sylvania Wall Mount for 18" - 40" Plasma/LCD TVs for about $80 at BJ's. I wanted a heavy mount and one that would have full motion for me to move the screen from out of the corner to a good area where I could view the picture. This wall mount was also purchased at BJ's. Best Buy wanted to sell me a wall mount for $99 that would only allow the tv to move from left to right and not swivel or move up or down. If I wanted that feature, I would have to pay at least another $50 more. Instead, I saved and feel I got a very good mount for the Vizio tv.

Now onto the Vizio tv. Installation was simple. After mounting the wall mount bracket, I had to mount the tv onto the back of it and then it slid right into the bracket on the wall. Piece of cake. The tv is packaged in the box with the stand bracket, but I removed it to give a sleeker look when mounted on the wall.

Since I only bought the tv a few hours ago, I haven't quite got into all the audio and video hookups yet. That's my project for tomorrow, to hook up the speakers and other external devices. But, once you plug in the cable line to the back of the tv and turn it on, the setup mode is active. After you make your proper selections, choosing cable, the system will then do a search for all channels available, showing both the number of digital and analog channels while searching. The search takes about 5 minutes or so, but it runs by itself. After it is done, you are finished. It's that simple.

You don't need to be a technical wizard to install this tv, especially on a wall mount. I was planning on having my electrician mount the tv and set everything up, but that would have cost me more money. I thought that as long as I followed the directions, I could install it myself, which I did.

I also compared the Vizio to the Samsung and liked the sleeker look of the Vizio. It has more of a flat look to it, rather than the bulky Samsung shape. The deal at BJ's Wholesale was great, especially where now I am seeing normal retail prices for about $350. So, I saved a few bucks at a wholesale club. Either way, I would have spent the $350 for this tv because the clarity is incredible.

This model is beautifully styled with what Vizio calls a "dark java brown finish". I really don't know what drak java brown looks like but it's pretty close to black, IMO. The 1080p resolution displays razor sharp images and has a 50,000:1 contrast ratio for deep blacks and bright, vibrant colors. One of its features, which I have yet to experience is the SRS Trusurround HD(tm). I have a Bose surround system I intend to install on this and am sure with the SRS Truurround feature, it'll blow me out of the room.

There is another nice feature on this TV I am looking forward to experiencing. It is the capability of supporting connectivity to a computer via RGB to VGA connectivity. This is a feature I was looking for because having the ability to experience what I see on my computer, I can probably do the same with this TV.

The downside is there is no USB hookup, but if I can get my computer hooked up to it, who needs the USB port. It also does not have a built in DVD player, but then again, who needs it. You can buy a simple Sony dvd player for about $50 and plug it into the back of this TV. I am not really a big fan of builtins like the DVD player because if there is a problem with it, that's the end of it period. If the DVD player breaks or stops working, it's useless and you can't remove it and replace with a new one.

Overall, I would definitely recommend this Vizio model to anyone who is looking for an inexpensive and quality product. I think you will agree that the clarity on this LCD is pretty close to a Sony. Believe me that you will enjoy the TV experience.

I'm pretty sure the naysayers of this product are the type of people that order a cheeseburger deluxe with no lettuce, tomato, pickles, onions, or cheese. Then they want you to cut it in half for them and will get snippy if the slightest detail is overlooked. I give 5 stars for this product"s endurance. 7 days a week these TVs are on for 20 hours and not one problem with the picture or sound has occured for the better part of a year. I think these hours of operation far exceed the 2 year expectations of one particular reviewer. This is a good TV at a very reasonable price.

GREAT BUY AT 318.00 FROM SAMS CLUB AND VARIOUS SITES! I like this TV so much I BOUGHT TWO (my 1st purchased on 12/06/09 and 2nd purchase on 12/14/09) I been shopping extensively for the last 2-3 yrs. trying to learn and understand the flat screens. TRUST ME! THIS IS A GREAT PRICE FOR A TV WITH 50,000:1 CONTRASTING HDTV 1080P. I have found when you go down to smaller screens you end up with 720p and 800:1 contrasting and if you are lucky may be 3000:1. THIS IS 1080P ,8MS ,60HZ HDTV WITH 50,000:1. GREAT PICTURE, WATCHED A COUPLE FOOTBALL GAMES to see the action speed GREAT! NO PROBLEM

CAN'T BEAT THE PRICE FOR THE QUALITY. I FEEL LIKE I BOUGHT THIS TV OFF THE BACK OF A TRUCK(if you know what I mean).

Bottom line:
A great TV and a great value (for my bedroom). But it is missing one essential button on the remote (Picture Size). See the "Cons:" section for an update/resolution.

Pros:
A simple, streamlined remote which is easily manipulated by touch in the dark -- just what I wanted for my bedroom. A great picture (full HD, 1080P). An acceptable internal speaker system. A headphone jack (for late night viewing). Very ergonomic button placement (just behind the outside of the left edge on the TV). There are 7 buttons -- only 3 of which I ever use. I quickly adapted to feeling out which button I wanted. I strongly prefer these mechanical buttons over the essentially useless touch screen style buttons on all Samsungs (which I also own).

Cons:
The remote control is missing one essential button -- a one click means of manipulating the picture size. Most remotes (even other Vizio remotes) include this button. This remote requires a minimum of 6 clicks to adjust the picture size. This is not a deal breaker, just an inconvenience. Again, even these 6 clicks are easily done by feel in the dark. But, I would happily trade the "Input" button on the remote for a "Wide" button. Channel surfers in today's Cable TV world need to frequently adjust the screen size. In my case, I will NEVER need to adjust the "Input" -- I use only one "Input" (the cable TV coax).

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5/15/10 Update - I just verified that the "aspect" button on my RCA universal remote allows for a single click means of changing the picture size:
RCA 8 Device Remote with Advanced DVR, DVD and HDTV Functions RCR812N
===========>

I assume this issue could probably be resolved by using any universal remote with an appropriate button.

Audio/Speakers Comment:
Contrary to other assertions, this TV includes an acceptable internal pair of speakers. Those who complain may be listening to the news with the Surround Sound simulator turned on (something you never want to do). The Surround Sound simulator is -- by factory default -- turned on. Personally, I suggest never using this feature -- it's a joke. First, turn off the Surround Sound simulator. Then, tweak other audio adjustments -- including the equalizer bands -- and you'll get acceptable sound (within the natural constraints of internal TV speakers).

Surround Sound Comment:
I use this TV in my bedroom. I don't care about Surround Sound in there. But, anybody who -- on their primary TV -- is not using a 5.1 Dolby Digital capable external receiver/amplifier coupled with a full complement of external 5.1 surround sound speakers is REALLY missing out on the HDTV experience! Do it -- and don't skimp on quality!

Headphones Comment:
Most TVs lack a headphone jack, but include -- instead -- a pair of red and white RCA audio out jacks. With a headphone jack, the internal speakers are automatically muted when the headphones are plugged in. Additionally, the remote control will control the volume of the headphones. The RCA audio out jacks have a set volume level which cannot be changed. However, most wireless headphones include their own volume controls and the associated transmitter can be plugged into the RCA audio out jacks. When using the RCA audio out jacks, the user has to use the menu options to mute the internal speakers and has to fumble with the tiny volume controls built into the headphones. I prefer the convenience offered by the headphone jack built into this TV. That convenience was a major factor in making this purchase.

I purchased my set last year from another well known retailer because at that time it was one of the few sets in a 26" that had an 1080p native resolution, making it useful as a PC monitor. It has a fine picture, as good as any in its size group; that includes the Sony & Samsung (I also own a Samsung 40" LCD), but if my experience is any indication, it will require a lot adjustment to get the picture just right.

Out of the box, none of the factory pre-set modes, sport, etc.. had a picture that had what I felt were the correct colours or black levels. I ended up in the custom settings and spent a fair amount of time adjusting the various settings to come up with a picture that was the best overall setting for all modes. It is a very good picture now and it is a decent buy, given the price point. Also the manual doesn't give much information about setting up the remote for operating other brands of electronic items and the customer support is only fair at best.

It does work reasonably well as a computer monitor as well; though, I say that a stand alone PC monitor might work better... but then you'd have two items not just one. It's response time is just fast enough to play most games on a PC, but my machine isn't the fastest PC around. (Its based upon a AMD X2 chip).

In summary, its a good value, works ok as a PC monitor, but probably isn't the best choice for someone unwilling to spend time making various adjustments to come up with the best picture quality.

Frequently when I 'return' to Channel 2-1, after viewing one of the other channels, the picture is scrambled; i.e., the picture has horizontal lines across the entire picture. If I leave the setting on Channel 2-1, turn Off the TV and wait for a couple of hours, then turn the TV back On, Channel 2-1 comes in clear.

If I disconnect this TV and connect another TV, I do not have this problem.

I get my TV signal via a large outdoor antenna.

I will be contacting Amazon do determine how to address this problem.

Other than the above issue, the delivery was prompt and the picture is very good.

I purchased a Vizio (VL260) 26" HD TV 2 weeks ago for my living room. Since installing it I have been very impressed by the overall picture quality. The screen is bright, images are sharp and detailed, and black levels appear satisfyingly deep. In fact, even after lowering the brightness level to 50% and color saturation to 40%, the display still looks quite good. The screen loses some brightness as your viewing angle moves away from dead center. But, it's not very noticeable until you move to a fairly large angle which is not a problem for me. The audio through the TV's front speakers is satisfactory, but I prefer to pipe it into my stereo receiver through the optical audio jack. This greatly improves audio liveliness and realiam. I am very happy with my purchase and think it's a great value for the money.