Customer Reviews

Westinghouse 26" LCD HDTV - SK-26H730S, Refurbished

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

 

 

Pros: Great picture, easy setup, full-featured remote

Cons: Background noise at low volume

Initially, we were very pleased with this television, just as we have been with our two-year-old 32" Westinghouse. Picture quality was superb. Setup was a breeze; for instance, unlike some others, the auto-channel-scan kept only those digital cable channels with programming and discarded the hundreds of blank ones, saving us the tedious chore of deleting them later. The user menus were intuitive. The remote had features others don't, such as one-touch buttons for your three favorite channels (no more pressing 1-1-4-dot-1-enter for cable HD channel 7).

This TV would have been a keeper, except for one flaw we couldn't live with. When the volume is turned down low, the background noise (hiss) is quite loud. Exchanging it for another didn't help; the second unit had the same problem and even worse, although the model number was identical, the firmware was apparently different and the menus were less user-friendly.

In summary, if we didn't need to listen to this television at low volume, we would have been very happy with it. But, for a quiet environment, it simply wasn't up to the task.

We bought this television as a Christmas present. Earlier this year we were re-arranging furniture and had to disconnect this TV. When we reconnected, the picture quality went from decent to flat out awful, unless you like the color blue a lot.

We have tried numerous times to get help from Westinghouse without any luck. I would never buy another one of their TV's simply for the lack of responsiveness when we asked for help.

There aren't too many reviews for this TV. But take a look at the other Westinghouse TV's reviewed at Amazon and you'll see there are a lot of dissatisfied customers.

when my first westinghouse flatscreen tv lost audio, it took over 9 weeks to get a replacement refurb unit. the new unit promptly lost the picture.

in the interim, the company has switched to a non-human farce of a "customer support" system. it's a telephone message that promises a response to email inquiries within 24 hours. well, i'm on 5 days and counting - no response to the web form, email or phone messages.

still waiting for that response from westinghouse, as well as tv #3.

there are other brands out there, folks. don't go with westinghouse if you know what's good for you. it would be worth twice what i paid for the tv to have avoided dealing with westinghouse customer service, not to mention a whole series of non-functional televisions.

We've had the TV for two weeks now and it's worked great! Easy set-up out of the box and channel set-up a big plus. During the auto-channel-scan it selected only those digital cable channels with programming and discarded the blank ones. I've spent (frustrating) time deleting them later from our 40 inch Sony.
Nice LCD for a bedroom or smaller room. Sound is OK but I haven't found a LCD that has rocked me back on my seat yet.
Running with basic cable and a few HD channels.

it makes a great 1080i/hdmi gaming tv for my ps3, but when using to watch tv, i have directv, i dont know if that matters, but it will randomly lose signal for a couple seconds, but only about once or twice a day, and another problem is that it randomly goes black and white a couple times a day as well, and the last problem i have with it at AND below volume level 3 it has a high pitched buzzing noise which gets louder with levels 2 and 1, i got it on sale at black friday at target, so i got what i paid for, save your money for a better tv, but of course its better than the standard deffinition tv i had before it

Television worked perfectly out of the box. The brightness and color levels were scaled for home viewing, which is not meant to look its best inside the box store. Better to work from this home setting than to tweak away from a factory preset box store "show room" setting - saved me 20 minutes of mucking about with the controls. Kudos to Westinghouse.

Normal non-hdtv looks like tv. Let me put this into perspective, many people stretch their tv picture to fill the whole screen. Faces look fatter, and all the images are distorted. Beyond this observation I won't psychoanalyze customer motives. Some tv's work out of the box stretching images too big. Beyond this observation I won't psychoanalyze manufacturer motives. Kudos to Westinghouse for setting a normal tv aspect at the factory.

The Westinghouse remote is simple to use. The three step aspect ratio toggle works well, though I won't much touch it much because the tv senses the correct setting most of the time.

The Television's sound is adequate for most purposes most of the time. If I want to hear hi-fi I'll turn on my stereo.

If I ever purchase a larger hdtv it pleases me the 26" will work as a computer monitor. And like a computer monitor I protect it with a surge protector, but I digress.

We thought this tv was a great buy, so we bought two of them. If constant hi-frequecy noises when the set is "off" bothers you, it won't make a very good bedroom tv, which was the rooms we bought them for. Both sets make the noise. We put them further away from the beds, so we wouldn't hear it as much. Sound quality when the sets are "on" is adequite, though not as nice as the cheaper Dynex we have in the downstairs bedroom. Picture quality is good, and the remote is easy to use. All in all, we were happy with them until recently. The sets are just about 2 years old now. They are only used about 15-30 minutes at night as we are falling asleep, using the "sleep timers."

I began waking up in the night because the tv was on. I'd switch it off, and it would pop back on again a few minutes later. I'd come home from work and the tv would be "on." Now, sometimes it turns itself "on and off" repeatedly unless I unplug it. I'm worried about leaving it plugged in when I'm at work, and I can't sleep with it turning itself "on" during the night. I have to get up out of bed and unplug it before I fall asleep. IT MIGHT BE A FIRE HAZARD!

I wrote Westinghouse about the problem, they responded with a "canned" general solution for a totally different tv, even though I gave them all the model number, size, and etc. I have contacted them 3 more times, and they simply don't respond at all.

I have researched the noise problem, and the problem with the "on-off" electronics on line, and many others are having the same problems and worse. I checked with my local repair shop, they said it would cost more to repair than just buying a new tv. Run! Do not buy this television. Westinghouse "customer service" is none existant. Run!....I can't repeat that enough.

I bought this TV over the summer and absolutely love it. I primarily play Xbox 360 on it but also use it for regular TV and to play movies off my MacBook Pro. All around it's awesome. I wish it came with a better remote but other than that I've never had any problem with it. The picture quality is excellent, it sounds very clear, and has been an excellent purchase. My parents have a 32" Westinghouse LCD and they're very happy with it. As a whole I'm impressed with Westinghouse as a company and would definitely recommend them!

I am reading some of the other reviews here and some I couldnt disagree with more. Perhaps they got the dud of the batch, dont know... But lets be honest the TV is in the Sub-$300 category. (Even as low as 199.99 in some places on sale.) Its a basic 720P LCD with a fairly clean picture. Its a fantastic LCD for the price. There is sound is little low, I will agree to that. But they never put great effort into the sound because they expect you to plug it into a reciever anyway. Yes, even one as small as this. But once again great value at great price.

We bought a Westinghouse flat screen TV about two years ago. It was about 2/3 of the price of the other models. We figured the picture quality might not be as good, but we're not serious TV watchers, so the price break was huge for us. Now we're watching and the thing essentially turns itself off and won't turn on again for several minutes. Shell out a few more bucks and get a TV from a quality manufacturer. We're wishing we had.