Customer Reviews

Zenith C32V23 32-Inch Flat-Screen Integrated HDTV

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

 

 

This TV is a bit of a coup for Zenith: it's the price leader for direct-view High Definition televisions with built-in HDTV tuners. Without a built-in tuner, you're going to have to spring for an external one to plug into a "HDTV Monitor", and these tuners ain't cheap. Buying the pieces separately puts you over Zenith's price point.

There's some real flexibility in the unit as well: it comes with two F-connector coaxial inputs (for instance, cable TV and a DTV antenna) that can tune independently, three composite/S-Video video inputs, and a composite Monitor output. Then there's the real selling points: a component input labeled "DVD" and another labeled "HDTV". ...

The "HDTV" input is for 1080i signals, which is the highest resolution described in the ATSC/HDTV specification. This is the input you'd use for an external HDTV tuner, a digital sattelite tuner, etc. It's an interlaced signal, but the resolution is so high you'd never care. However, unlike certain competing products, the 1080i input will not "upsample" lower resolution signals like 480i, 480p and 720p. "Upsampling" means creating a high-resolution signal from a lower one, doubling lines when neccesary. Upsampled signals don't look better than their originals; they're only used for compatibility & convenience. So if you intend to have a variety of component-input type devices using a variety of resolutions, you'll probably want a home theater-type receiver that can do the upsampling.

My initial review panned the unit for a perceived "flaw" - the unit was either damaged in shipping or was calibrated incorrectly, resulting in strange picture distortions that become jarring to the eye. Circuit City replaced the unit (within the 30-day limit - wish I'd bought the extended warranty) and the picture is much better than my initial perception. It's actually a beautiful, sharp and bright picture; HD signals over the air have precision and color fidelity that will take your breath away, and DVDs look superb in the DVD component input. Most suprising is the fact that you can pick out picture artifacts from the MPEG-2 encoding process, which you'll probably never notice with a less precise composite input on a smaller TV. I've added a star to my review because of the stunning quality of a working unit, but it still gets only 4 because, well, obviously not all the units that shipped are "working".

This TV displays all signals digitally. Analog signals are digitized first then displayed. This is what you would expect from any digital TV, probably for the forseeable future. In this conversion process, a delay is introduced inbetween input and display. If you set this TV side by side with a plain ol' analog TV and tuned them to the same source, the analog TV displays signals earlier. This is also normal.

However, what about the instances when synchronization is critical? Home theater audio is one of these instances. Audio _MUST_ be kept in sync with video, obviously. Here's where the real weakness shines through.

Take this as an example: you have a composite only DVD player and a receiver that only decodes Dolby Surround, which is recreated using the stereo audio output of your DVD player.You plug these into one of the composite inputs on the C32V23, then you plug the TV's stereo audio output component of the "Monitor Output" section into your home theater Dolby Surround receiver. There is a delay induced between your DVD player and receiver (by the TV), but since the TV delays audio to keep in sync with its video delay, you experience no problem.

Now substitute a higher-end component DVD player. You'll want to plug this into the TV's component input labeled "DVD", right? You'll also want to plug in your analog stereo audio pair into the audio inputs in the TV's DVD input as well. And you'll want the Monitor Out section to pass the audio along to your home theater receiver too, right? Wait a minute - there's sound coming out of the TV speakers, but no signal at all coming into your receiver! That's right, you've found the rub. The Zenith manual says that the Monitor Out section (video and audio) don't work at all with the DVD In and HD In sections. This fact is omitted from all marketing material for this TV.

Well, instead of plugging that DVD audio output into the TV, you can just run it to your receiver and cut out the middleman, right? Ahhh, that's right - there's a delay in the time it takes to display the video signal! All the audio coming in to your receiver comes out earlier than the video signal!

How do you deal with this? You'll need an audio delay line, but good luck buying one of these at Best Buy.

Now imagine having one of those hi-tech digital audio receivers that can decode 5.1/7.1 Dolby Digital. I may have a cheapo analog delay line hanging around my house, but I definitely don't have a digital one with optical inputs. You're talking $bux$ there.

Certain home theater receivers have variable delay units built in (I'm thinking of Denon receivers here), which are usually used to compensate for giant screening rooms. My older-model Denon's delay only goes up to 30miliseconds, though, which isn't quite enough to do the trick. I don't expect that any manufacturer would produce a unit to compensate for this delay. I don't know if other digital televisions have this problem, but the obvious solution is for the TV to treat all sources equally in the output section.

This HDTV has a phenomenal picture and the ability to change the aspect ratio between 4:3 and 16:9 is great. The souund is ok, but it would sound much better with a surround sound system. The picture is bright and the resolution and clarity are some of the best I have seen. One of the drawbacks with this HDTV is that it does not support progressive scan components. Therefore you cannot hook up and utilize a progressive scan DVD player. All in all a great buy and well worth the money.

After reading Amazon.com's editorial review that said the Zenith C32V23 had a 480p progressive scan composite input, I was very disappointed to open mine up and see a "480i" input on the back, along with a message saying that this HDTV does not handle 480p at all, and to switch your DVD player to interlaced mode. Huh? Isn't this one of the most basic things an HDTV should be able to do? Between that and the audio delay problem hinted at by others, I'm basically left with an HDTV that can't play DVDs. Well, it can play them, but I can't use my surround-sound stereo, and can't use progressive scan. So I'd be better off using a regular TV perhaps? At least then my audio would be in synch with the video.

The other bummer is that it doesn't upsample 720p shows, so shows from several of the networks, which are already in 4:3 aspect ratio, show up with black on the top, bottom and both sides, effectively giving us a smaller picture (albeit higher resolution) than the 27" TV we were replacing.

It's a pretty picture, but it's silly that such basic functionality isn't there. I think I'll take it back and wait for HDTV to grow up, or look for a model that isn't cutting so many corners.

I purchased this T.V. because I liked the image. I've had it for 4 years now without any problems. My only complaint is that it is very heavy (Approx. 200 lbs.) I cannot move it my myself. Otherwise it is a good buy.

I've had this T.V. for over a year with no problems. To the people who gave it a poor review based on the fact that it did not work remember that between 1% and 2% of all new items are defective regardless of the brand. It is a bad item if it has many recalls.

We bought a Zenith in Nov of 2003, the first set we brought home the case of the set was dented and cracked. Best buy replaced it and delivered the second set 12/11/2003. In Nov of this year the picture started going dark or it would strobe. Called Zenith and they said it was the Dish recievers. Replaced the Dish recievers and by the time they arrived picture was totally black and the new recievers were of no help. Tried to get a service tech but no one wants to come here to fix it. The tv is too heavy for us to take to them. Finally found someone willing to come for $70.00 to look at it. All the service tech's I spoke to said it was more than likely a module that needs replacing, $500 with labor and parts. Now do we pay $500 to fix and save us the trouble of finding a place to dump the old one as well as having to pay for delivery on a new set or go ahead and pay $1000 for a new set plus delivery charges??? Quality of the product and service are very questionable. I did speak to a supervisor at Zenith who said they would extend the warrenty on the picture tube, but as this is most likely not the problem it is little consulation. She did help in getting a service tech to come out to us. Hopefully will be here next week. I would try another brand. Zenith now isn't the Zenith that was the product of years past that you could depend upon.

After reading the other reviews, I wish I had purchased the extended warranty! However, after one week, I'd rate ours 5 stars if it wasn't for the owner's manual. Picture is very clear and bright - and this is only with "rabbit ears" antenna (Houston area). Works very well with Zenith progressive DVD Player. Pulls in lots of stations well, both digital and analog. The nice thing about this unit is that it is fully integrated - you don't have to have cable or satellite if you don't want to.

We have not yet tried it with the home theater unit, so perhaps we'll downgrade the rating after we try to hook that up (see the long customer review).

My only complaint so far is that the manual is minimal - adequate but minimal.

Bought this TV as a Christmas gift for my family. From the time of purchase to the time I finally rearranged my family room to accomidate this new unit it was over a month. I get the unit in place and turn it on only to find that the entire screen is not working. Needless to say I am extremeely disappointed. Now waiting for a part. If I had my way I would send it back and get a Sony like I should have.
I consider this very poor quality control for such a large corporation. Stay tuned, you might see it on ebay.

Unit failed after 2 hours. Zenith internet expert no help and can't even tell where to take to have serviced. Zenith customer service promised to return telephone call but been waiting 3 days. Zenith implied no guarantee if purchaed on line. Made in Mexico, not famous for high tech. My recommendation: wait 2 more years and buy Phillips or Sony.