Customer Reviews

Westinghouse SK-32H240S 32-Inch LCD HDTV

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(38)

 

 

I scored my 32" Westinghouse LCD HDTV at my local Best Buy. It was on sale for $599, plus the guy getting it for me accidentally brought me an open box, so it came out to about $529 after tax. I got an absolutely CRAZY deal, I would have been more than willing to pay full price for this TV.

One thing that I really like about this TV are the avaliable hook ups. It two HDMI has two composite hookups (pretty much the standard thing for most DVD players and video game systems) and two component hookups (pretty much a high definition hook up, I use it for video games, it looks super clear) as well as an RF adapter for the antenna , and if you have an old video game system like a SNES in my case, you can hook that up through the RF too.

Another thing I really like is that it has an audio out. You can hook up external speakers, and it also allows you to select the internal speakers, external speakers, or BOTH. Both is something I really wanted, because I can get better surround sound with the use of both the internal speakers, and my external stereo speakers. Though the internal speakers aren't bad, and certainly do their job, external speakers will ALWAYS sound better. :P

For actually using the TV, I purchased a HD antenna, which ran about $60. When I was in the process of setting the TV up, I plugged it in and it automatically turned on, so BEFORE I plugged the antenna in, I flipped through a few channels, they were all pretty clear, though the intenna did help a TINY bit, I think something cheaper would have done just as well.

The LCD is nice and crisp, on HD broadcasted TV stations and video games (both S-video and Comp.) everything looked like it was real and was super crisp. Overall I have absolutely no complaints, and I am very pleased with this product.

Review Westinghouse SK-32H240S 32" LCD HDTV HDMI PIP

Great job Westinghouse! Excellent picture for a 720 (1080s are better but much more$$).

Has 2 HDM inputs!! DO NOT buy a TV with fewer than two HDMI inputs. Later you will inevitably end up with at least a DVD & Satellite if not other HDMI devices. One great feature is that one of the HDMI inputs has a separate analog audio input. Normally, the HDMI carries its own audio, but if you run a Dolby 5.1 amp with center channel, you can run the center channel directly to the TV as your center channel with the HDMI analog audio input!! The TV has excellent speakers with great Bass & Treble controls and two 10watt amps.

All the cords run down the sides of the back of the TV so they do not get smashed against the wall. This means you can purchase a $20 HDMI cable from Belkin @ WalMart instead of an $80 HDMI MonsterCable at BestBuy. Furthermore, the side access makes it easy to access your hookups while the TV is against the wall.

The TV does have PIP (Picture in Picture) which is not always present on entry level HD TVs. Unfortunately, it seems that only the VGA (PC input) works as a second source for PIP. By the way, the VGA looks phenomenal with your PC. Run the VGA at 1280x768 or whatever has closest proportions to 16:9. I hookup my notebook computer and let my digital pictures play on the TV on my wall... just gorgeous. Also, work on your PC while using a small PIP window to watch TV (but you will not be able to use the HDMI in PIP so will need to use alternate inputs on the TV to accomplish this).

This TV has a Great remote control to boot.

In summary: Compared to other TVs in the same price range:
1) Better Picture
2) More inputs/outputs
3) More features
4) Better remote

EXCELLENT PURCHASE!!

I purchased this TV from a big box retailer in July of 2007. I chose this one after looking at the picture and color compared with the others in the store and I was very impressed. It worked get for the first six months. Easy to set up and to use with all my different components (dvd, vcr, sound system, cablebox).
However, six months later, I have been having some horrible problems with it. It scrambles and has some horrible color problems (whites are showing up pink and blown out details). I started calling Westinghouse after the first of the year and got the run around. I had the cable company out to check the signal, switched out 2 cable boxes, and did the factory reset a couple of hundred times. It took calling every week for a month to get them working on this. Finally, I was able to get them to send me a box and now its been sitting with them to make whatever decision they are going to make.
Although this may have been a rare problem with my particular tv, I feel the way in which it was being dealt with was inexcusable. If a product has a warranty, it should be dealt with in a swift manner. This is a lot of money to be messing with. I would look elsewhere for a better company who respects their customers.

My wife and I could not be more pleased with this TV. The picture is simply beautiful, whether you're viewing something in HD or not. When we were picking it out, we compared this TV with other models with the same size, and our choice was obvious. Everything priced above this model was priced WAY above it, because those models were the top brands like Sony and Sharp. Everything priced similarly to this model, or below, had clearly lower picture quality.

We have used this TV for over a month and have experienced no problems whatever. The "overfill" mode for non-HD TV stations works great, and the sound quality is what you would expect for built-in TV speakers. I honestly have no complaints about this TV!

If you don't want to fork over the money for the top brands but want a high-quality TV whose picture looks pretty much the same as the top brands, you should give this Westinghouse TV some serious thought.

We purchased this from an online retailer and as soon as we hooked it up it wouldn't work. The remote control worked for about 1 minute then nothing. Unplug the set, wait 30 seconds, plug in again and it would work. For 1 minute. We shipped it to Westinghouse at our expense ($50), and waited 2 months before receiving a replacement. Pay the extra $100-$200 and get a better set. It's worth it (I would have too).

Samson. You do realize that this television has a 1 year limited warranty on defects. Westinghouse will repair it for free provided you registered the tv when you bought it and you have your reciept.

This television is great. I've not been happier with any purchase of a television. The only downside is that standard cable looks grainy but thats to be expected with an HDTV. It has a standard tuner for standard cable/airwave broadcast but the television was designed for HD so its an acceptable trade off. I don't use a cable box in my room where this tv is and it picks up a ton of channels, standard and digital. HD is absolutely incredible on this set. I am finding details in movies that i've never seen before on a SDTV. I.E. dust flakes, powder dust flying in the air when people put on medical gloves, stuff like that. I have to say that the only real thing I don't like is that the bass and treble controls don't go through when you're using the external audio but it still sounds good.

The other day my sound went out on the tv for the external audio. I was a bit concerned but I just unplugged the TV for about a minute and plugged it back in and it works fine. If you're planning on doing a firmware update, make sure that your USB flash drive is compatible with the tv. I tried to do it but the tv didn't even see the drive.

All in all i would recommend this tv to anyone who wants a lower priced 32" LCD TV thats packed full of features. This definately won't break the bank for the quality and performance you get. I paid $499 for this TV from Best Buy online and even at its full price now, its worth it.

Purchased this TV from a big retail store in Nov 2007, several months later, the TV was having problems with the sound coming through the HDMI cable. I called westinghouse, and after trying to troubleshoot over the phone, they agreed to set up a repair order. Got it shipped to them, did not get it back for several weeks. Then technician calls and says he has the TV, but he doesn't see anything wrong with it. He finally says he can't duplicate the problem, so just sends it back.

2 months later, October 2008 (1 month before the warranty expires), I call them again due to more problems, this time with picture freezing (not the cable company's problem). They refuse to send it in because it MUST be something else wrong with the TV.

Now, it is October 30th, they still refuse to repair the tv, and the color seems to be going out.

I don't have any other option but to try to get them to fix it, or just run it over with my car and leave it for the trash collector.

Frustrating to pay $550 for a TV, then have it break under manufacturer's warranty, then to have the manufacturer refuse to fix it.

Like a lot of people I've been reading about, I started having problems with my Westinghouse LCD television only a few months after purchasing it. Unfortunately, my problems are sporadic and, not noticing them when viewing cable television, I assumed that this problem was caused by the other input source I used on it (a video game console). I had that unit serviced twice, and by the time I realized that the problem was with the television and not the input source, the unit was out of warranty by about 3 months. Despite having documentation to show that my problems began only a few months after buying their product, their customer disservice department basically told me I was up poop creek. I guess it was crazy of me to expect a $600 television to work properly for a whole year and a half. Thanks for nothing, Westinghouse! Next time, I'll go with Toshiba or Samsung, and I would encourage anyone else to do the same.

Pros
Lots of inputs, is still semi-functional a whole 15 months after purchase.

Cons
Discolored static on areas of uniform color (esp. white and red), framerate drops (bad for gaming), customer service is unresponsive and will allegedly make you pay out of your own pocket for any service they grudgingly provide, other customers have reported sets going dead entirely.

A lot of people come on Amazon to complain about their one instance of a bad product, or bad service. Sometimes, these just represent one single data point, and aren't that relevant. My experience, however, leads me to believe that Westinghouse KNOWS that this television is very prone to failure, and I hope others will appreciate hearing about it.
I bought this item on sale and got a great deal, and for six months it worked brilliantly. Then, it simply stopped coming on. Westinghouse's warranty service first sent me to a local repair shop, which was unable to fix the tv because Westinghouse, unlike ANY OTHER MANUFACTURER, does not directly sell parts, even to THEIR OWN LICENSED WARRANTY REPAIR TECHS. I then had to ship the TV back to Westinghouse AT MY OWN EXPENSE (one fourth the cost of the TV!) and have been waiting over four weeks for them to do anything with it. They tell me that this model is so prone to failure that they do not have the inventory to replace them!
Had I just spent the money I have now spent on shipping I could have gotten a higher quality TV, or even a larger one. That is what I suggest you do. This television WILL FAIL. If you are lucky, it will fail under warranty and you will deal with weeks of frustration, if you are not lucky you will be out the full cost of the TV or a hefty repair bill.

We originally chose the Westinghouse SK-32H240S over other brands because the in-store picture was great and the set was affordable. I think it may have even been on sale so we really got a deal... or so we thought. Unfortunately, our problems with the tv started almost immediately.

Soon after purchasing it, we experienced the following:
1. The tv would not turn on. Sometimes it would turn on and then immediately shut itself off.
2. A black line developed down the length of the screen. This was not burn-in from watching standard aspect ratio as the line was more toward the center. Eventually the line went away.

Then, after about a year of use (conveniently after the warantee ran out), the tv started blooming - white backgrounds developed a bluish-tint. The tv would self-correct after a while, but we are now at the point where it's a constant problem and the picture is practically unwatchable.

We have checked everything - the video game components, cable box, dvd player, etc. We have replaced cords and adjusted color/brightness/sharpness levels. The tv is simply defective and now we are faced with shelling out another $800+ for a tv that will actually work.

Please do not buy this product. I have read a lot of reviews here and elsewhere that clearly state Westinghouse knows this tv is defective.