Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A nice set that won't work with Dish's old remote control - you have to upgrade to HD, October 4, 2009
I bought my Sylvania LC320SLX expecting an average quality television. It looked pretty good in the store, and the price was right. Unfortunately, Sylvania for some reason didn't choose to make it compatible with many existing Dish (and from what I've seen on the Web, DirectTV) remote controls. Now, admittedly, the Dish receiver we had when we bought the Sylvania was not really capable of taking full advantage of the LC320SLX's capabilities (no HDMI port, for example), so our picture quality on rabbit ears was higher than from the old Dish DVR/tuner box (standard analog NTSC video/audio).
I expected to be able to control my new Sylvania LCD TV with the same remote that has controlled several other televisions, VCRs and DVD player/recorders with no trouble whatsoever. I was disappointed. I went through every code in the Dish satellite receiver manual, in their web site, and I scanned all of the codes in the remote using the procedure in the Dish receiver manual.
I called Dish technical support, who at least tried to work through the issue with me, to no avail. Then they gave me a technical support number for Sylvania, which turned out to be not for the TV I just bought. Calling the technical support number in the TV's service manual, I was told forthrightly that it was not Sylvania's problem that their TV won't work with a standard Dish remote control. Wrong. When you make and sell a TV set you're responsible for seeing that the remotes already on the market wiil operate it.
Sylvania should - at the very least - warn prospective purchasers that the TV comes in that this television is not compatible with non-HD Dish or DirectTV remote control systems. Most people don't spend $400 after taxes to get a TV that mostly works.
A few days after buying the Sylvania LCD set, we went over to Dish HD (high-definition) service. After we input the remote TV code 672 from the NEW HD satellite receiver manual, our NEW Dish remote DOES control our new Sylvania LC320SLX LCD television. This still doesn't excuse Sylvania for marketing a television that won't work with many satellite TV receivers in the US market. Consumers should still be warned of this.
Now that the problem with the Dish remote has been resolved, I can say that the television has a very clear picture; it has a very good selection of jacks which will allow the user to connect three HDMI accessories (say, a Dish or Direct TV satellite receiver, a late-model video game console and a DVD player/recorder, or a home computer) at once.
In addition, there are connectors for S-Video, component-level and composite analog video, and several sets of analog audio (as well as a digital audio line). There's also an audio-out line which, connected to our living room stereo amplifier, allows us to improvise a home theater very well. But the audio "in" jacks associated with the secondary or tertiary HDMI ports wouldn't work when I tried to play dowmloaded movies back from my laptop (which has both HDMI and S-Video outputs on its backplane). No amount of trying would get the audio output from my laptop (which worked fine through my home theater amplifier and my headphones) to play through the Sylvania's built-in speakers and audio amplifier.
The ease of use of the remote controls for adjusting picture and sound quality are above average - there's even an on-screen "equalizer" to allow adjustment of the built-in audio amplifier and speaker system, and several pre-set groups of settings for picture quality you can select with a few keystrokes. The screws which hold the chintzy stand on the television (you need to use it if you're not going to hang the Sylvania on your wall) are easy to lose, so if you see them, hang on to them. We STILL haven't found the AAA batteries for the remote control.
The Sylvania LC320SLX is a very well-laid out and executed system, and certainly worth the $379.95 (before taxes) I paid for it at our local Target store. Don't buy any cables if you plan to upgrade your satellite or cable system to HD, because your service provider will probably have the needed cables and install them for you for free.
And be sure NOT to spend $26-$30 for HDMI cables at the store where you buy your television until you've checked Amazon's affiliated stores. They sold me two HDMI cables of the same quality or better for $3.58 combined. Even with $5.96 shipping and handling, the total cost was just under $10 - well worth taking the time to shop amazon.com first. These cables allow me to connect my laptop and DVD recorder/player to the Sylvania LC320SLX HDMI input ports.
And don't buy the set unless you have access to lots of HD channels over the air (here in Denver we have around 30 over-the-air digital channels, about half of them HD, although a third of those are either televangelist or Spanish-language stations) or over your cable or satellite connections, because you won't be able to take advantage of all the digital goodness of the Sylvania LC320SLX.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good Value For The Price, October 14, 2009
Pros: Picture looks great, sound is ok, programs really well, HDMI connection is a plus.
Cons: Can't get Cox Cable remote to program to operate TV.
I see other people have had problems w/ other systems trying to get remote to operate TV. After a call to Cox and one to Sylvania, and not getting anywhere, i did the following. I programed the Cox Box to only power the the AC outlet on the back of the box to only get power, when the cable box is on. That took care of the on/off of the TV. Next had the Cox Box control the TV volume through it and that took care of the volume. Now i don't need the TV remote to operate the TV. Hope this may help someone.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
good quality for the price, July 20, 2009
this is a great tv, i was surprised at the weight of these tv's. easy to move to keep clean around your set, unlike the old set that weighed a ton and recieved less dusting because of it, i also found that i can not use cable remote to control volume or turn off the set, so far now i use 2 remotes. if any one has the solution to this problem please let us know
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