Customer Reviews

VIZIO VM190XVT 19-Inch XVT-Series 720p LED LCD HDTV

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

I agree with the other reviews, but would add a warning about the TV tuner.

On the plus side, the 720p and 1080i HD picture quality is amazing, very bright and sharp with good contrast. The sound is perhaps the best I've ever heard from a low end TV, with more volume than I could ever use. I haven't had a chance to try the digital photo frame feature or the pause live TV feature, but they are both nice to have if they work as advertised. The remote control allows you to access all features.

However, I will be returning the set because of problems with the TV tuner. As I read on another web site, the tuner is annoyingly slow when changing channels. Each time you use channel up or channel down the screen goes blue for about 2 seconds, and sometimes 3 before the new channel is displayed. If you jump to a channel by entering the number from the remote's keypad you will stare at the blue screen for 4 to 5 seconds.

If slow channel changes were the only problem I would just learn to live with it due to the amazing HD picture and sound. Unfortunately there are two other tuner problems, one of which is a too much for me.

First, there is a minor issue where if you punch in a non-existent channel number by accident the input buffer is not cleared until some period of time well after the unit has gone back to displaying the current channel number. I.e., you punch in a wrong number, the unit eventually reverts to displaying the current number, but then when you try to enter a correct number again the digits from the previous attempt are still in the input buffer and they get added to the new number you are trying to enter. You end up having to just sit and wait for some period of time (10 - 20 seconds) before you can enter a new channel number.

I suppose I could also learn to live with that. But what I can't live with is a completely broken 'last' feature. On the VM190XVT they should call this feature the 'Las Vegas' button because when you press it you are just rolling the dice and you have no way of knowing which previous channel it will revert to.

I've spent around 2 hours trying to figure out how to beat this error. At first I thought 'last' worked correctly for channels you went to by using the channel up/channel down buttons, but not for direct entry. This wasn't true. Then I thought it was related to the period of time between channel changes. Perhaps if I left each channel selected for some minimum period of time between changes I could get the feature to work. Not true. Then I tried direct channel entry only, both with me triggering the channel change by pressing 'Ok', and with the TV deciding when it was time to jump to the new channel. Still broken. Then I thought perhaps it had problems with 'dash' channels, like '13-1', but not with base channels like '13', so I tried base channels only. Made no difference. Over a long period of time I tried many combinations of all of the above. Nothing worked reliably. 'Last' will sometimes revert to the most recent previous channel, but most of the time it doesn't. It will also become stuck on a channel for no obvious reason. It then stays stuck until you select a new channel while viewing the stuck channel. Weird.

I would be interested to hear about other people's experience with 'last' on the VM190VXT. I don't know if this is a general problem, or if I just have a buggy tuner. Regardless, this unit is going back.

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Update: I spent 20 minutes on the phone with Vizio tech support. It is their opinion that the problems I see are caused by a bad remote control and they offered to send a replacement. I may or may not pursue that option. I have no desire to get stuck with this unit if that doesn't fix the problem and my return window closes.

Those that are experiencing the menu pop-up problem should see if it always happens after you have used the remote. The remote could be causing the problem.

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Final update: The replacement remote came in the mail today. It didn't fix anything, all problems listed above with the 'Last' feature and direct channel entry are still exactly the same. I give up, this unit has permanent problems and I am returning it for a refund before I get stuck with it.

I originally gave this TV a Five star rating because of the picture but since then I have had to reconsider.

As I said in my original review I returned this TV because the screen was too small and bought the 23" model instead. They are virtually the same with the same owner's manual and the problems are the same as well. The following is the experience I had with the 23" model:

The sound is terrible and would occasionally get gargled or go out completely. I would have to turn it off and back on the get the sound back to its terrible norm. I returned it to Vizio for replacement and the replacement was just as bad.

I decided to live with it and hooked up a boom box through the headset jack, (It has no analogue audio out), and the sound was OK but the garbling and loss problem still existed.

After about eight months the sound went out completely so I called to get it repaired or replaced under warrantee. I will not write a book on the problems I had with Vizio warrantee service but rest assured it was a real pain. After better than three weeks I finally got a replacement. It was not my repaired one so I expect it was refurbished because the clear wrap was not on the screen and other parts.

I am using it now and the sound is still terrible! So far it appears the garbling and loss problems are gone, but time will only tell.

Whatever the case this TV has a great picture once you adjust the settings, but the sound is the worst I have ever heard. I have a 19" Sanyo that has much better sound and the picture was great right out of the box.

If I had it to do over I would have bought the Samsung XL-2370-1 but it was not out until after I bought this one. It is about the same price and it couldn't be worse if it tried!

My original review follows:

I bought this TV because my 20" LG that I use in my home office was going out. I figured that if I was going to buy a new TV I might as well get the latest technology. I picked this one because of Vizio's reputation. When I hooked it up I was truly amazed at the picture quality. I own 4 HDTVs and have replace all of them at least once, so I have owned at different times 1 projection LCD, 1 Plasma, and 6 CCFL backlight LCD TVs. The picture on this TV is truly great. The standard definition channels look almost as good as the HD channels did on any other HD TV I have owned and the high definition looks so real one would think they were looking out a window. I remember how impressed I was with my first HD TV, well this TV made an equal impression on me over my prior HD TVs.

I only rated this TV 4 stars because of two facts. The first is mentioned in the title. That is the fact that it really only has a 18.5" screen. I figured stepping down from a 20" to a 19" would not be too big a sacrifice but stepping down to an 18.5" proved to be too much so I returned it and bought the 23" Vizio LED LCD HDTV instead. It is virtually identical to this one except for the larger screen, (in fact they use the same owner's manual), and the fact that it is 1080P where this one is 720P. The second annoyance with both models is the fact that the volume bar does not go away when the sound is muted. I remains until you un-mute the TV. This annoys me, but is livable considering everything else.

The biggest advantages to LED LCD over CCFL LCD are the power consumption, the expected life of the backlight, and the picture quality. This TV is advertised as only drawing 23W but my UPS tells me it only draws 18W. The weakest link to a CCFL LCD TV is the backlight. It is what goes first most of the time, but LEDs last virtually forever so I will have to see what the next weakest link will be that will cause me to have to replace this TV. I expect this TV to last for at least five years before needing replacement, but time will only tell.

I bought this back in Feb 10 so we would have something to entertain the kids til our stuff got here when we moved. This is now used in our spare bedroom as a TV/ Computer monitor. Wasn't sure if it would be a good deal or not with all the bad reviews BUT when you actually read most of the complaints people need to realize what they have. A 19" LED TV for under $200. I will say it again a 19" LED TV for under $200.

Here are my views on everyone's gripes
1. Menu keeps popping up. Yes mine does this. They have the sensor to close the the screen so when you get bright pictures or the sun hits it it comes up annoying yes a little but it was $200.

2. Sound quality bad. I don't know how most people are getting their channels but i have mine going straight from cable outlet. Sound is GREAT i rarely have it above 2 even my digital channels sound good.

3. Slow channel changes. I don't know what type of TV's everyone has but i have a 40" Sony and a 46" Samsung both are LCD's bought within the last 2 1/2 years. Both setup through cable box with HDMI cable and BOTH take a couple seconds to change channels. I Have a CRT that you can roll right through the channels but when i am watching on any other TV i do what they say Adapt and over come. Just a reminder in case you have forgotten $200 TV.

I have tried the DVR function which is pretty neat for a $200 TV Without a DVR cable box/ satellite box. It is a little choppy every couple seconds but i cannot complain BECAUSE I PAID $200. I understand $200 is $200. I am not rich by any means but i do know that you get what you pay for. You cannot expect a $200 tv to work like a $1000 tv. This thing is picking up all the digital channels as well as my basic cable channels. Needless to say the digital are a lot better quality. I love the picture quality. I have this running on a 1500Va battery backup, during our last power outage run time said 87 Mins 15 mins later it said 87 mins left. Nothing else was plugged into the battery side just the TV. If you are still reading this review just remember to take all reviews with a grain of salt. like another reviewer said you expect the space shuttle from $200.

1. Vizio on screen controls lower left, keep popping up, stay 15-30 seconds on
screen, then pop off screen for 1-5 seconds, then just keeps repeating.
This activity is inconsistant, seems to be triggered when using exit
button. Also, the exit button does not clear this control but it eventual
stops, only to return when turning TV back on.
2. all channels above 100 have extensions, ie 101-2311, 102-49,102-5011 etc.
does not recognize the cable designations and cannot have name assigned to

3. 3 second channel change exccesive
4. no ability to create favorites menu for quick access to channel
5. cannot enter channels above 99 on remote
6. this is first remote i've used that does not have a designated "menu" button.
Using "OK" to access menus is annoying and confusing. put Menu and Exit
buttons just under the OK cross, better for true one hand operation
7. I know the TV is a Vizio, i don't need the Vizio LOGO for 5 seconds at turn
on.
While the HD picture is perfect, having great video on a kitchen TV just
isn't worth the irritation factor This is a return, unless Vizio has a
firmware upgrade that is easily installed and that solves these problems

after getting out of box, physical setup of that great picture I saw in the store a bit time consuming. You have to play around with the video settings to get everything looking great. Default picture wasnt too good compared to now..I fiddled around for about 20-30 minutes with contrast etc. Now set up great TV; it does come with remote, but not very reactive

So we bought two of these thinking we would replace a couple of the other TV's. I spent hours on the phone with VIZIO before I was able to talk to upper level technicians. Part of the problem is getting past the first level customer service people. Though they mean well, sometimes they just don't have the solutions.

1. I had the TV's connected to cable and unlike my other VIZIO, channel 708 is shown as 708--2 and I cannot directly enter the channel number. VIZIO convinced me it was a cable company issue. So I went after the cable company and was told it was a TV issue. I ended up call the Corporation commmission and the Network Cable engineer called me and we had many discussion over the next week. They even connected one of these up at their facility. He said it was a Vizio issue. I contacted Vizio's director of customer service and asked for them to contact the cable engineer. Emails and telephone calls continued for more than 60 days, a total of more than 90 days. Vizio kept promising me that there engineers would contact the cable engineer. I finally requested to return the TV's to Vizio for a refund. They did refund my money but it tooks weeks after they had received the TV's from me and it took another phone call. I would not own another VIZIO if it was the only TV I could watch. I went for three Samsungs, two 19" and one 40" and love all three. A little more money, but well worth it.

2. If I am on channel 708--2 and go to channel 62 then press LAST, it goes to channel 6.

***(This issue was resolved on 3-30-2010. VIZIO did a firmware upgrade and all is well. There was another issue the upgrade fixed. When you change channels either by direct entry through the remote or through channel up/down, the TV displays the channel information at the top right part of the screen. If you tried to directly enter another channel from the remote before the information disappeared from the screen, it would add the digits to the channel already shown. So if it was showing channel 3 and you tried to enter channel 10, it would become 310.)***

I was hesitant to buy this tv because of some of the other reviews but had seen it in a store and decided to give it a try; I was prepared to take it back if I didn't like it. I was looking for something for the kitchen that wouldn't have a large footprint but would be big enough to see the screen and loud enough to hear. I liked the sleek look of the Vizio and it fit under my kitchen cabinets when I wanted to push it out of the way. The picture in the store was fabulous but new it wouldn't necessarily be good at home. We are very happy and I would definitely buy another. The original remote didn't work and fortunately I had a universal remote I could use. I called Vizio and without hesitation they sent me a new remote that I received 5 business days later.

Since the switch to digital we found there were certain shows we could barely hear, even with the volume turned all the way up. The audio on this tv is much better than our previous one, although I wish there were a few more options to set. But for a tv this size, the video, audio, and price are very good.

The Vizio VM190XVT is so close but no cigar. Amazing pictures at the price point FAR superior to the competition but Vizio fumbles the ball at the one yard line.

No STANDBY provision when used as a computer monitor. When computer goes to sleep the monitor shows a bright BLUE screen. Not energy conscious.

The power cord supplied with the Vizio VM190XVT has a BRICK to drop line current down to the low voltage this TV requires. Rather than place the brick in the middle of the power cord where it won't interfere it was placed on the end precluding it's use in many power strips, UPS units, and outlets.

No excuse for the power cord brick other than inadequate field testing prior to release and no standby mode is laughable when you claim to be GREEN.

Great TV BUT..... This TV has front panel with proximity sensor so when you put your hand in front of the TV the menu appears. Nice... BUT it happens all the time. While watching TV it appears with no one near the TV VERY ANNOYING! Returned TV after reading that there is no way to fix this problem!

I love my new vizio 19inch tv. The only thing i dont like about it is the no touch menu. Everytime your hand goes in front of the the tv the menu popps up kinda annoying.