Vizio Gallevia GV42LF 42" LCD TV

UPDATED: 3/25/08

Posted Mar 26, 2008 - UPDATE: 3/25/08: I love this TV. I paid 20.00 at walmart for 2 fluorescent bias lights and wow, the contrast ratio on my TV now looks like a samsung. Google bias lighting and you will see that it tricks your eyes, hence improving contrast and reducing eyestrain. Check the pictures out if you don't believe me. This is how Samsung's make their picture look so nice. That is why those TV's are SOOOO bright. The Vizio actually looks natural and with bias lighting makes the perfect balance of natural tones and good blacks. Also I have had this now for 5 months and still going strong. Will update in 6 months! I bought this from a local retailer last week and I must say that I am impressed. I wanted one of the top name LCD's but then I asked myself is it really worth it? With LCD technology the way it is, next year, this set will be outdated anyway so why spend the extra money for the top names. Vizio beats them by far in price. I payed around nine hundred compared to the three "S" manufacturers who were charging five hundred more for the same thing. Blacks are pretty black for this set. I must say that I am impressed. Another thing is that sometimes, the higher end makers make it look so sharp that the picture is pixelized. There is no pixelization on this TV at all. I hooked it up to my PC and it looks flawless through VGA at 1080p. SD looks okay; HD looks very nice. However, the thing that really justifies this TV is when looking at true HD content(1080p). This is because the TV is not scaling nor interpreting the signal in anyway, it is a true 1:1 ratio which makes the image extremely crisp and clear. Prior to purchasing this set, I learned a lot more including that the only reason Vizio is cheaper is because they use older technology parts from the top makers. The panel is also a top tier panel(this was documented by Vizio themselves when they stated they cannot give out names but the consumers would easily recognize the manufacturer if they announced it). So pretty much, you are getting the name without paying for it. I also read somewhere that they can keep prices low because since they use pre researched parts, your not paying for the Research and development of the newer panels/technology. I would recommend this TV if you meet at least one of the conditions: -You plan on upgrading your TV every 2-3 years -You will have a 1080P device hooked up(PS3) -You get it for under a grand

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Fantastic deal

Posted Jan 29, 2008 - This is a great TV for the price. I've had it for almost 6 months now and no complaints what so ever!! I will say that it is no better than an LG or Samsung, but when you consider your possible savings of $400-$600 it looks a lot better then. I use it with a PS3 and man the graphics are super amazing when playing games. I've also used to for DVDs that are upconverted on the PS3 and those look pretty darn good too. I found one tiny dent near the base of the TV but it was so small it took me a month to notice it. The item that looked 'most used' was the remote, but oh well it had 2 little scratches on it. BUY BUY BUY... thats my opinion

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1080p LCD VIZIO Gallevia GV42LF

Posted Jan 1, 2008 - I have wanted to get an LCD TV for quite some time but with the prices dropping daily it was hard to find the right time to bite the bullet. For the past several months I have been reading reviews and checking prices and Vizio kept coming up as a price leader and received high regards from its owners. I checked several LCD TV's out in the stores and I was impressed with the picture. I know the stores usually do not tweak the picture settings but this Vizio looked great even with the standard "out of the box" settings. I purchased this TV, brought it home and had it set up in less than 10 minutes. I just have regular cable TV so I hooked up the single cable TV wire and plugged in the set. I popped the included batteries into the remote and hit the power button. The TV prompts you to auto scan the channels and I just followed the on-screen prompts. It took about five minutes to scan all of the channels and I was surprised to see all of the additional channels I now have! My old TV has just a plain analog tuner and I never went to my cable company for an additional box to receive the channels above what my analog tuner can receive. The Vizio has the analog and digital tuners built in and I now receive some digital cable channels along with some HD channels. The Vizio looks great even on the standard definition channels and although some of the reviews I have read stated that the sound wasn't that good I could not find fault with the sound. The speakers are detachable but I like them right where they are. If you do decide to remove the speakers to spread them out you will need to buy additional cables. The speakers just plug into the bottom of the TV and adding additional cable would not be a problem. I am waiting for a wall mount to arrive since I plan on installing the Vizio on the wall. I found a wall mount online for far less than what the stores want to charge. Think of it as adding undercoating to a new car - pure profit for the dealer. You can do better online. Well, other reviewers have covered the technical details of this TV so I won't repeat what has already been said. The Vizio looks great right out of the box even with the power off. The only tweaks I made were to set the TV on wide screen, set the color temperature to cool and turn down the backlight a little. I am very satisfied with the picture quality and the sound. Now, only time will tell if the life span of this TV will justify the initial cost.

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Vizio Gallevia GV42LF 42" LCD TV

Posted Dec 3, 2007 - I was a little skeptical when my husband wanted to purchase a second tv, however, we were able to purchase this product for about $680 and I feel it was well worth it. The size doesn't take up a bunch of space in my living room and it looks nice

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Couldn't ask for a better set!

Posted Oct 1, 2007 - I'm a film editor, and very picky about my picture and sound. This is the best deal out there for the money. I haven't even received my rebate yet and I'm already writing this review so you can take advantage of the same great deal we got. I had been pricing out HDTVs for a couple months now and the specs for this set were the best to match the price. Before ordering i went down to sears and took a look at the same model and size (there priced for $1200) and was pleased with the picture. We ordered it and choose the cheapest shipping method and had it within a week (ordered saturday, delivered friday afternoon). The box looked like it had seen better days upon delivery, but the TV inside is pristine. There's not a scratch to be found on the exterior. The picture is great even with just an SD dvd player hooked up progressive scan thru component cabeling. The HDMI hookups are of course the best and look it. You can even get full rich sound out of the front speakers if you switch them from the factory default setting of simulated surround to off. Or if you want to supplement your existing home theatre system leave them turned on and it will fill in any holes that your 5.1 system leaves in the room. Long story short if you want picture that is larger than life, completely customizable in terms of picture setup, and something that will take guests breath away when they walk into the room, this is it. Hell i was just taking the box out to the dumpster when some guy saw it and was jealous. 42" is huge, but when it comes to tv's size does matter!! ;-)

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GREAT DEAL!!!!!

Posted Oct 3, 2007 - I actually bought one of the vizio hd's about a year ago from tiger direct for our bedroom loved it so much we started pricing a larger unit for the family room we had already zeroed in on this 1 at sears on sale for 1200.00 got it here for 699.00. mine showed up like new not a scratch on it so go for it!!

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Good TV Rebate is a Joke

Posted Oct 30, 2007 - TV is a Quality TV no question about it. The Rebate.. well no rebate form arrived it's been 3 weeks and now it has to be psot marked tomorrow.. So do not purchase if the rebate helps to justify the price.

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Fantastic Picture Quality & Good Connectivity

Posted Dec 22, 2007 - This is a very shape, nice looking 1080p panel. I really like the detachable speakers and the piano black finish around the display. The TV literally looks like it is floating above the TV stand as the speakers/stand blend in with my cream wall color. Picture quality is excellent and the set goes a great job of handling 1080i/p inputs. I have Toshiba HD-A3 connected on HDMI 1. The picture quality for HD DVDs and 720p/1080i ATSC broadcasts is fantastic. The on-board NTSC and ATSC tuners were able to get more channel than my former 37" Olevia. The program guide information for ATSC broadcasts is nicely laid out and renders quickly -- much better than my old standalone Samsung ATSC decoder and the Olevia. I don't have cable so I was not able to test the unit's QAM capabilities. I also have the unit connected to a HTPC via both the VGA and HDMI. Both run at 1080p and honestly I cannot tell the difference in picture quality. Pixels are mapped 1:1 and not tweaks are required from my Nvidia Geforce card. The remote is annoying since there is no dedicated input button for VGA ... you have to go scroll through the input menu so I tend to use the HDMI connection. I think Vizio needs to do some work on the onscreen menus ... they are not intuitive, not very easy to navigate, and actually quite small. Fortunately, once you adjust the setting you typically don't need to go back. All in all I'm really pleased with my unit. I got from Sears for < $800 at their Friends & Family Sale. There were no issues or surprises out of the box. Great connectivity and fantastic picture quality especially if you can get it for < $1K.

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Very nice for the price

Posted Feb 6, 2008 - I bought one of these from onsale.com a few months ago. It is fantastic. Visio is going places. Its not as well know as say Samsung, but I sure they soon will be. The picture quality is outstandin

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Buy this TV

Posted Jan 14, 2008 - This TV is worth every penny. I've had it for 6 months now and it works great. HD looks better than any rear project TV and a MediaCenter looks even better. Buy one of these.

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