Customer Reviews

Vizio VO370M 37" LCD TV 1080p HDTV

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

 

 

I'm editing this review on January 12, 2010. I originally gave this TV a 4 star review, although it's very slow on startup. I figured, for the price I could live with that, because the picture quality was good, and I had no other problems with the set.

Well, that's over. I'm glad I haven't discarded the box this TV came in. This morning, it earned itself a return trip to Costco. After a few minutes of use, the picture fades to black! Audio continues, and I've checked that this is not a malfunction of the cable box, but of the TV. The picture returns either (a) on its own after a few minutes, or (b) when I hit the "guide" button on the TV remote. Thank goodness for Costco's reasonable return policies. I certainly got a dud. Slow at startup, I could live with. But not spontaneous "fade to black and then return to life" picture!

I will still consider buying a Vizio, as I've had great performance for more than a year, from another model VIzio LCD HDTV, and it's been a reliable brand for friends of mine for longer than that. But I'm certainly going to continue my habit of not tossing out the box right after buying a big ticket electronic item!

I selected the Vizio V0370M because of its low energy consumption and its reasonable (low) price. I received a product with a level of quality consistent with the low price paid.

Pros: Great energy consumption at 110W. Attractive case design. Bright screen with vibrant colors. Simple, easy to use remote. Good quality picture with 1080 signal.

Cons: Takes 10 seconds to power on and become fully functional. Sound quality is mediocre. Suffers from a software/firmware issue, which manifests when using the remote's "Guide" button. Use of the "Guide" button can lock out all control from the remote, and all but the power button on the TV (which is fortunate, since the only way to clear the problem is a power cycle). Poor quality rendering of any signal that is not 1080. If using a VCR or standard definition DVD player, expect the picture to look worse than with an old 480 CRT. Skin tones are frequently purple in spite of every effort to adjust controls (including utilizing numerous default settings and custom options). Color issues are generally worse with non-1080 signal sources. No screen aspect ratio button on remote (requires that one go through menus to change setting).

Who knew trying to be "green" and save some green would require such sacrifice.

With respect to all who may have a finer ear for sound and eye for picture perfection, I can find no fault with anything concerning my VO1370M. For me, I fail to understand how the sound could be better or the picture more outstanding. Seriously, anyone finding fault with this set must have received a faulty one. One feature which I have not noticed being covered in the reviews is the Quickstart Guide. Geez, this is a mega-guide. It measures over 31 x 22 inches, in full color, on both sides. This guide is outstanding. It even color codes the path between each back control panel input and the corresponding remote control button, i.e., which button controls which set of plugs on the back or side panel. It pictures, in color, each of the type input plugs and shows, in color, exactly where they plug into the control panels, and prioritizes, again in color, the best, good, etc., possible connections for components. As it turned out, all I had to do was plug the set in, attach the video cable, turn the set on and let it set itself up. No modifications, tuning, etc., were necessary on my part for a perfect picture. The remote is also not only very good looking but very clear and easy to use. Perhaps I was lucky, but I have no hesitation to rate this set five stars.

I had hear that VIZIO a subdivision of Toshiba provided a HIGH quality HDTV. So I bought the Vizio VO370M. It was easy to set up. I noticed that the auto tuner was finding less channels then my SAMSUNG. I also noticed how much larger the 37" Vizio's screen was when compaired to the 32" Samsung. I was looking forward to a bigger screen and great TV viewing. The sound quality was excellent. Then came the Vizio picture. I expected the analog transmission channels to be less then crystal chear. But the "HIGH DEFINITION" channels were all a tremendous disappointment. The picture quality was VERY POOR. The imaging was fuzzy and the colors were bleeding. So I called the seller and was told to "simply adjust it to your liking". I said give it "One More Try".

After spending two hours trying to adjust all the channels I gave up and went out for lunch and to look at other models of HDTVs. I returned four hours later and the picture seemed to have improved. Letting the HDTV run seemed to improve the picture. The images were sharp and the colors were clean and sharp. Long ago, flat panel computer monitors required a "burn in" period when they had not been tested at the factory. Seems that the picture quality continues to improve with use. Which indicates that the VO370M was actually new and not a return.

In all fairness, I can now recommend the Vizio VO370M or the Vizio VO420E. The quality of the picture is there, BUT it does take time for all the pixels to become luminated. Maybe, others did not wait long enough for all full system quality to activate. I don't know. Note the actual size of the screen is 37.2" and the power use is actually less then advertised in the documentation. This is a very good HDTV. I can not give it 5 stars because the documentation leaves a lot to be desired and the "burn in" period is frustrating for we who want instant on perfection. Also the lighted VIZIO symbol on the front of the TV is quite bright even when the TV is in standby. But all things considered, after giving a lot of time to set the screen image, sound quality, backlighting, etc, etc, etc, this is a REALLY Great HDTV.

The set worked fine while it worked. When it failed 11 months in, I contacted Vizio Customer Service to see what we needed to do to resolve the problem. I won't go into detail on the problem here, as I understand that electronics can and do fail. The main issue I have is with Vizio's customer service. I provided a detailed email (pictures included) describing the problem with the picture. Had to call them no less than 5 times, and each time it was as if they had no prior information. I had to refer their techs to the email, line by line. Email described the problem in detail as well as the steps I had taken in an effort to resolve them. I fully believe the failure of this set after 11 months of use is an exception. If the company had provided even marginally satisfactory customer service, I would likely buy Vizio again down the road, but now that I have been exposed to their CSR's and Techs, and their cumbersome procedures, I will not purchase, or recommend their products. They weren't even close to meeting my expectations of reasonable cuatomer service. Probably a good product, but a bad choice if you need service support.

Before you start using this HDTV you must go through the setup menus and change ALL zany settings to "off". Why, is because the manufacturer tried to be too smart with it's firmware and there are a lot of picture-auto-adjustment features that don't work properly. This is the cause of the black-outs experienced by the other reviewer: it probably has something to do with automatic backlight/contrast/brightness adjustment. Setting all menu options to "off" is a simple workaround and also shows your DVD just as the director intended. This set has a nice feature of "variable" line-out as well as the ability to turn the speakers to "off" - this means you can use an external amplifier and the Vizio remote will control the volume (dunno if other HDTV sets can do this - *shrug*). I recommend "AudioSource AMP-100" and some good speakers to go with it - which I would really do for any HDTV. Having said that it's great value for money because the set was marked down in stores (probably because of this problem.)

We have had this for 2 days and it is fine when turned on but screen fades to black. Have sound but no picture. Scanning the internet this seems to be a big problem.

TV was great until the display suddenly quit working (out of warranty, of course). Remote works, sound works, but no picture. Try Googling "Vizio black screen of death" before you purchase this or any Vizio TV.

This is a great LCD television. As one reviewer noted, and I had read elsewhere, we did notice that the picture quality improved after the set ran for several days. Standard DirecTV programming is an improvement over our old set, DVD's are much better, and Blu-ray is simply incredible. Do yourself a favor and buy one of the high rated (we use Consumer Reports online) Blu-ray players that are now under $100, you will not regret it! You don't need 120Mhz, or LED to enjoy HDTV. We read a lot of reviews and asked store clerks about returns, and made our decisions based on this information. Viewing an LCD in the store is at best a long shot - rarely have any of sets been adjusted, and with the bright overhead lighting, there is virtually no way to make a decent comparison. Oh and about the sound, we had a high-end 5.1 home theater setup on our last TV and decided to simplify when we bought this TV. Really, we don't miss it and I doubt most of you will either.

The VO370M was a great TV for me!
Vizio VO370M 37" LCD TV 1080p HDTV

It has a digital tuner built right in and could easily scan both analog and digital signals and allowed for one or both signals be used.
That's very useful when there are both available and being able to just select the higher quality digital which the VO370M makes great use of!

It displays digital signals in beautiful 1080p and decoded audio in 5.1 sound with both optical and coaxial digital audio outputs.

It had all the RCA and HDMI connections I needed and played great TV from my Comcast cable and audio/video from the HDMI on my computer.

Overall, a great TV and from what I've seen from the LG and Phillips and maybe a few others, I'll stick with Sony...

My only complaints is that as in most TVs, receivers, etc is that it's still using the decades old IR remote controls and not RF.

It could also use a swivel stand which some other TVs do have.

I'll probably step up to the Sony Bravia series next time when I get my next TV.