Seriously folks... Sony lcd sales down 43% from last year???? LOL!!!!!

When will you PS3 fanboys admit it... you screwed-up and picked the wrong horse???? It is not to late to jump on the XBOX 360 / HDDVD wagon... come on boys, we won't say "I TOLD YOU SO!".

Stupid Firefox spell checker didn't catch THAT one... my bad!

People just buy vizios because they are cheap but they still look cool. They are flat panel TV's and thats what everyone has when you watch cribs on MTV. Someone with any knowledge of LCD's and Plasmas would know Vizios are cheap and not quality. You get what you pay for...

My friend bought a vizio, and yes i too can agree that it looks cheap and has bad picture quality but i guess for those on a budget its okay but honestly even the westinghouse i saw looked better than the vizio.

Friend and I bought a 37" Refurbished Vizio for $500 not to long ago. Yes they are cheap and I don't expect everything to be perfect but for the price and from the picture quality they are still pretty good and awesome for the price.

agreed with the other post. people just go into sams or wal-mart, see the cheap hd tv, and think it's good. they don't realize they are buying crap products. these are the same people that don't realize that thier ps3 plays blu-ray mvoies, assuming they even know that that is.

The way that Chinese junk starts breaks down and they have no authorized repair centers. They'll be in bankruptcy faster than they came out of nowhere. I'm in the TV repair business. Polaroid is the same way. No service.

VIZIO VP50HDTV10A
VP50HDTV - 50" Plasma HDTV - $1499.99

FWD-50PX2/B 50"
High Definition (WXGA) Plasma - $3,459.00

I bought a Maxent 42" Plasma 1080i (720p native) for $1700 two years ago before Vizio was getting going. It still looks fantastic! All you are doing is buying plasma / lcd panels that are a generation or so out of date. So what?

With technology getting better and prices dropping so steep so quick you are stupid to buy high end in the HDTV market... just like PCs in the early 90s, the best bang for the buck is buying cheap cheap cheap.

because they have the lowest contrast ratio's.
I never even see any over 2,000:1.
I bought my Samsung LCD 1080p over a year ago and its 6,000:1 contrast ratio and today thats considered old school. If it isn't at least 10,000:1 contrast in today's standard, you got an outdated LCD.

Visio is able to sell so cheap because of such low contrast ratio. Consumers aren't smart enought to know about it because no one advertises VISIO's contrast ratios.

by now anyone that reads tomshardware and has a brain should know that claimed lcd response times and contrast ratio's are bogus and shouldn't be used as the basis to judge a set's picture quality.

I currently own a 37" 720p Vizio, and I'd say it was worth it. Very clear for movies. Surprisingly good black level, and the contrast is great for the money.

They are cheap, but their Quality per Dollar is outstanding.

I have to disagree with most of you on this forum. I have a Vizio 37" LCD, and I compared it with Sony, Philips, Westinghouse, and Pioneer. I found that, for me, the picture quality was fairly close to those other, much more expensive sets. Price for price, there's no good argument for spending far more money. In most cases, the limiting factor to your picture quality will be your source material. With standard definition brodcast TV, there's not much to choose from between sets, it's all crap. HD-DVD and Blue Ray are still in their infancy, so chasing them will cost you long green. In the meantime, with a decent DVD player that'll upconvert to 1080i, you'll get a darned good front-end for, all up, around $1k. So what if the TV's junk in three years? It'll be time to upgrade to the newest, latest, coolest by then anyway.

Get a plasma. I recently purchased two Vizio plasmas: 42" and 60". Both look fantastic playing back HDTV OTA. Prime-time shows and NFL games look sweet in HD. My Xbox 360 games also look awesome as well as 720P movie trailer downloads.

I could not see the difference between a Panasonic 58" and the Vizio 60" side by side in the store... maybe it's my eyes but @ 12 ft they both looked darn good with a native 720P source. Granted the Panasonic probably has higher quality components but I purchased an extended warranty (third party) so I'm set for 4 years for each TV.

I didn't see the difference between 1080P and 720P when I stood 10 ft away... so that's not an issue for me.

Sony's got some nite stuff.
Check out the new SXRD Bravia 1080p and then their verson of motion vector compensation stuff.
That is the only NEW thing i've seen in TV.
Getting the LCD when it comes out.

Yes, if you stand two LCDs side by side the Sony's Bravia and others are better, but Vizio is almost there. (Bravia and panasonic seem to be the sharpest image) For the price different, Vizio is better then anything out there. I wouldn't have jumped to LCD HDTV if it was not for their pricing. Also the images are much closer when you have HDMI output or use the PS3. Most LCD are made by one or two companies in Asia. It the chip sony use that has better hz.

Read up on their reviews and they hang with the best of em. They may not have all the bells and whistles but their picture is pretty good for the price.

I have owned several LCD and a single plasma and i can say without a doubt my vizio 47" 1080p has been the best bang for the buck. You really cant judge it by the models you see in Costco or any other store because every single one is set to default settings with a crappy signal. Once i brought it home and tweaked the settings from a few early suggestions at avsforum, it looked as good as anything in HD. Yes, my Sharp did process the SD stuff better. 1500.00 better? NO. There is no SD content worth the extra 1500.00. As for contrast ratios, 10000:1? buddy, you are drinking the coolaid on their "dynamic" contrast voodoo. Yes there are other sets with better contrast, but just not worth the savings I have had with my vizio.

As for the company itself. i have never had to call them. i know the early batches of my model had a speaker hum issue from the PSU, but every single case i have heard of has had a replacement TV or quick repair.

Yes cheap does mean fewer features, but it does not necessarily mean crap.

15000:1 dynamic contrast ratio, 1080p, 100mhz, 8ms response time, 3hdmi ports. samsung is, by far, the best lcd manufacturer, and is cheaper than several other other "major" brands(in europe at least).

All the cheap comments here are not really suprising, no one wants to think they overpaid for something.
I have a 47" Vizio on my Den wall. Black levels at 480 are not the best but then what LCD screen is at that resolution. It looks great at 1080, HDTV shows and HDDVD viewing is what you expect.
I have a 46" Sony on my Living room wall and it also looks like crap at 480 but at 1080 it looks good also.
The thing I notice between the two is that the Vizio has deeper/richer looking color than the Sony. It may be the lighting in the different rooms but even in showrooms I have noticed a difference between the Vizio and other brands, not just the Sony.
So some may say cheap and I won't know myself for a few years as to whch one has the better service or which one breaks down or screen burn, but if I was to purchase another it would be a Vizio due to cost. Best bang for the buc as they say, and Vizio so far delivers it for me.

Anyone know who makes the actual panel in Vizio's? or the video processor? That's what really determines the quality.

People are just mad that they spent over 2k on tv's that vizio's are selling for 1k and have the same picture quality so they come in here and bash on vizo. My vizio 42 inch LCD 1080P kicks much a$$

for those who didn't know the vizio vp42 panel is made by LG...so they may be cheap but they aren't made using cheap parts.

To everyone bashing Vizio just go read the reviews, it usually ranks fairly high in picture quality. Of course it doesn't rank as high as a sony or panasonic, but those usually cost twice as much. I personally love my Vizio, when I can afford it I will probably get a more expensive panel but until then it's the vizio. Oh, and if you're worried about reliability, you can get an extended in home five year warranty for $150 through Vizio.

Sure a lot of refurbished Vizio LCDs for sale out there. Not sure what that says about their quality. Only a 1 year warranty. Seems low but maybe that is standard for TVs these days.

LOL, 52" VIZIO just went up for sale at Costco yesterday. THey had it right next to a Sharp Auous for 2799. Side by side you can seem some difference in color. I was told that they moved 10 of them in the first 10' the store was open. 1/2 the stock was already gone by lunch time.

Is there a subtle difference in color side by side, sure. But I walked around to compare it against the Sony Bravia 40" selling for 1499. You'd be hard pressed to say once was truely better.

Sure you can pay 800 more for a Sharp or 1500 more for a Bravia. You can impress your friends with that fancy nameplate hanging on the wall, but there are lots of people walking around wiht thousands more in their wallet.

Its like the BMW owner so proud he spent 20K more for the ultimate driving machine compared to a Honda

vizio lcd's actually look nice. as a custom installer, i install many. they wow'ed me, and made me think about getting one myself. definitely better than samsungs in my eyes.

My primary tv is a Panasonic 50" plasma; that goes in the living room. In the bedroom (where our work out equipment is) I mounted a 37" Vizio on the wall. You know, for the money and my eyes, it's a really good tv. I've always been a resolution and video junky, and I've never been unhappy watching the Vizio. It's been up there on the wall now for about a year; no problems, no dead pixels, the display is fine and it even looks good on the wall. If the difference in price between the Vizio and a brand like Panasonic and Pioneer means something to you, get the cheaper tv; the differences are very subtle. Three or four years from now you'll probably upgrade it anyway regardless of what you get now. Will I get a Vizio for my living room next time? If I can get a substantially larger tv for the same money... quite possibly. As a secondary tv? Absolutely, without a second thought.

people don't want to spend 1000 on an lcd or plasma tv when they know they are going to use it for a quick fix of entertainment. i don't know about you, but who the hell would spend so much money on a television set that is worth 5000 just for the sake of watching tv, movies or playing video games when you spend about 2-3 hours on it. you can spend less then 1000 dollars on an lcd and use the rest of the 4000 dollar saved for a vacation or saving it or purchasing more 360/ps3/wii games, etc..

it's just like a computer, nobody know a days spend 1000 on a computer when most of us will be using it for basic use [surfing, etc,] and playing light games[not playing games 24hrs 7days a week like some of the people here].

btw, the best manufacturer is probably samsung. it offers quality and pricing, but they are moderately priced.

if people aren't willing to spend so much money on television, then that might suggest that people aren't willing to spend so much money on hd players that are too expensive, blu-ray. blu-ray is the most expensive stand alone player selling for 500 dollas while hd dvd stand alone player is sold for 300 dollars. with hd dvd players being cheap, it'll more then likely win the hd race.

yea panasonic doesn't sell many LCDs but they control market with plasmas..... Now that's a contrast ratio. the reason why i still own an xbox, because it looks amazing on it

Although Sony's TV sales are shabby at best... you're applying that to the 360? Don't make me laugh... we've only begun to see what the PS3 is capable of and if you read other articles on this site, the PS3 is murdering HD DVD in terms of movie sales.

So I say to you sir, 'lol'.

When I went to CC, they had all the TVs on the wall side by side running the same feed so you could really compare the quality. In the end, I chose Samsung because I really appreciated the quality of the picture.

Personally, I would not go out and buy a TV based on reviews or what people say in these posts. That's just ridiculous and stupid! Just because someone says it has great picture doesn't mean that it's true! It's only their opinion and people have different opinions. And it's not that they are right or wrong - it's just the way they see things. I'm sure most people would buy a $299 80" TV just for bragging rights. But in the end... you can only buy what you're willing to pay for.

Sony makes some of the best premium TVs money can buy and they do fail at times - it's just the way it is. My first Sony failed in the 1st year. It cost $125 to repair (mostly labor). It's been running 7 years since then and counting.



And if yo

Hey ONE, You my sir better re-check your facts......Blu-Ray discs maybe outselling HD-DVD 2 to 1 but HD-DVD players are outselling Blu-Ray players 6 to 1. You mention your over-priced PS3 as just beginning to show what it can do....did you mean the 30FPS it dazzled us all with on Madden08? LOL After this Christmas when HD-DVD players are being sold for under $200 bucks and their merchandised right next to the HD-DVD exclusive "Transformers" the boys over at Sony are gonna get real nervous. Talk about celebrating too early. Too bad Sony already took a 2 billion dollar loss on the PS3 and is bleeding red ink out the arse because they are gonna wish they had enough resources to take a loss on their Blu-Ray players to keep up with HD-DVD in another year. All you Sony fanboys who got bent over for 600 bucks are pissed about the Paramount deal because without Blu-Ray your PS3 is a pile of high tech doo doo. Everybody knows the majority of games are garbage and the developers don't want to waste too many rescources programming games on the CORE processor. You all cry foul over Paramount/Universal getting paid 150 million to go HD-DVD exclusive and yet Sony has to give away their product to the tune of a 2 billion dollar loss to get anywhere. Who is being the bigger whore to promote their format? Who is the desperate company? I'll give you a hint....they have already failed 6 times in the past trying to bring their superior media storage format to the masses...yep SONY!!!! Don't make me laugh.

Lol at you John.

Vizio's are great bargains with good Picture Quality. I use them in my Network Operations Center because they look good and the price from Costco is unbeatable. Replaced my Samsung 32" with a Vizio 42" in the bedroom, the picture is superior and the price was 50% less than the Samsung. The samsung is in the kids room now.

After 12 months the picture got bad, after 24 months it broke completely. Won't turn on at all. Company was no help whatsoever. They told me to take it to a repair shop. Never again Vizio. Never.

For some of us the #1 priority when buying a TV is not "bang for your buck". Some of us actually want a quality display. That is why I will never buy a Vizio because there are a myriad brands that offer superior quality to that of the Vizio sets. So if you are buying a TV to keep up with the Joneses then I guess Vizio is OK for you. But for those of you that actually consider an HDTV as a long term investment Vizios are not the way to go. Samsung and Sharp AQUOS offer superior models. Remember "YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR"!!!!!

After my 1st year of ownership, the TV expired just as quickly as my 1 yr warranty. The TV is a $999 brick...won't even turn on. A call to support ended up with a repair quote of over $500! My advice...spend a little more and buy a quality television...don't waste your money or time with Vizio!

WTF is up with everyone's spelling? How is it possible to leave out letters in a word or replace them with something else? Perhaps everyone who I am referring to is just as cheap as vizio?

Anyway, I guess some of you dont know that even though a big name company produces a product, that doesnt mean it is as high of quality as the rest of their line. Take car manufactures for example, Chevy makes a high-end corvette as well as a POS cavalier/cobalt, one is using cheaper components that is more affordable for the poor/lower class community... you wouldnt find a corvette at walmart but you would find a few hundred cobalts. Ford/Lincoln/Mercury might make a nice Lincoln LS or a reproduction GT-500 but they still make tauruses/fivehundreds.

Most electronics like Cell phones and TVs (speaking in general) are typically made by one manufacturer then rebranded. Most cell phones come from CECT who cell their own models (copied off phones they produce for big named companies) for FAR cheaper than the one they created. You can manufacture rich expensive LCD panels everyday and call them LG or you can cut cost and remove a few hundred pounds of chemicals per 1000 LCDs and sell them a bit cheaper and still make profit.

Humans are just morons anyway, you can tell by these stupid posts. Do you like the fracking picture? If so then buy it, if not just walk away. Who the frack cares what you bought, is it their money or something. Look its everyone's responsability to research stuff before you buy it especially on an LCD. Do you have A/C line filters? How many Joules are you protected from? Cable filter? What about a good ground? Wonder why your cheap PSU is failing? Perhaps it was manufactured for 116volts but you give it 118 then with typical line spikes it just pops? You wouldnt hang the tv on the wall using a clothes hanger and a nail right? Of course not because it would fall, so research power requirements and protect your input voltages.

We are in a very unique time in history that many dont understand because they are too busy posting dumb comments about why they like or dislike a particular rebranded tv set. Do you people even comprehend what technology break throughs will happen in the next five years? Do you know that we are producing around 400 lumens from an LED at around an AMP? Apple has illuminated their LCDs for a while using LED technology. I cant believe I though about even posting knowledge for you people, its like 4 am where I am and I'm tired as hell but at least I can frackin spell.

Vizio is about like motorola from 2003 - present. Cheaply made with cheaply made electronic components with cheap software made my cheaply paid people to sell as a cheap phone.