CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

[WanMan]

Anyone have anything good, bad, or ugly to say about Vizio or the Vizio GV42L 42" LCD HDTV? http://www.vinc.us/site/products/product_gv42l.html

It norally sells for $1599 at Costco, but there is suppose to be a $300-off coupon for it this week. While I am not expecting the LCD PQ to anything stunning (LCD<Plasma<SED in pq), I thought this could make for a decent family room replacement.

This comes with a built-in NTSC/ATSC/QAM tuner and the other usual features I suppose most flat-panels are shipping with these days. While the 42" is considerably smaller than what is currently in my family room, its 1/4 the weight and wouldn't take up a 5'-wide, 3'-deep, and 5'-high volume the current display consumes.

The one other drawback (next to the LCD aspect) is that it isn't 1080P, but rather 1366x768P. But it does comes with HDMI, RGB, and Component. Tradeoff's galore, I suppose. This would be a $1300+Tax opportunity and a surprise for the wife (seriously!).

[madpoet]

I've got the 42" Vizio plasma. Nice little TV. That's a great price on their LCD, I wish I could grab it . The QAM tuner is fairly weak.

[WanMan]

I didn't know the 42" Plasma had a tuner in it. Or, are you speaking of other people's experiences relating to the 42" LCD's QAM tuner?

EDIT: Isn't QAM just for digital cable? {Illustrating my ignorance, here}

[madpoet]

The newer model Vizio 42" plasma does indeed have a QAM/OTA HD tuner in it.

http://www.vinc.com/site/products/product_p42hdtv.html

And looking at the price now... man has it gotten cheaper . I paid $300 more I believe. Anyway, QAM is indeed for digital cable. The Vizio has a single digital input tuner which can do either QAM or OTA digital. Not both at the same time. The OTA digital tuner is ok but not great. The QAM tuner is very weak and missed a bunch of stations that my other QAM tuners found, so I'm not sure what the deal is there. Anyway, it's a nice TV and I'm sure the LCDs are nice also. VINC is a good company to deal with.

[WanMan]

Wow, my local Costco sold 11 of 18 units they had gotten in this week, and as a result took it off display. While I was unsuccessful at getting them to sell me one today at the special price (for sake of tax-free), the store manager was willing to sell me one today at the normal price and re-ring up the special price next week ($300 savings).

What should I do. What should I do.

BTW, they removed the display unit of this 42" LCD because they sold so fast, and also removed the Toshiba HD DVD because along with selling 11 of these Visio displays they sold all of the Toshibas including their display unit.

[madpoet]

Wow... how much ar ethey selling the HD DVDs for? When the Vizio 42" plasma went on sale a few motnhs ago there were litterally 5 other people in the store buying it at the same time as me, and the door person said she'd seen 8 others already rolled out.

[WanMan]

They HD DVD player was selling for $479. Not a big savings at all. I might stop at Bad Buys tomorrow, or try to get a 10% off at HiFi Lies and then play with them.

[WanMan]

Oops, I should also mention that I bought the GV42L this evening.