I wanted a very small 32″ LCD, and was having trouble finding anything under about 32 inches wide. Unfortunately for my budget, the first TV I encountered was the Samsung 32″ LCD, which is absolutely gorgeous, but costs twice as much as this ILO set. I’ve been selling electronics for wal-mart for a little over five years, but I’ve never encountered this TV in a store, so I could only base my decision on the TV’s specifications and a large amount of faith in Wal-Mart’s return policy. I had no intention to keep this TV if I didn’t like it. Enough backstory, though.
Probably the most important thing to note is that the dimensions on Wal-Mart’s website are incorrect. The actual dimensions are (without stand) 31″ W x 21.75″ H x 3.75″ D or (with stand) 31″ W x 25.25″ H x 9″ D.
Setting up the TV is relatively easy, and the jacks are accessible under one of two removable panels on the rear of the television. The panels help hide cabling and there is also a cutout on the rear of the TV for routing the cabling. For a dirt-cheap LCD, I was surprised to see “nice” touches like that.
The color on the TV is extremely vibrant, and it took me a while to get the picture adjusted satisfactorily. I was getting a little frustrated trying to remove just the right amount of saturation and still have a somewhat natural looking picture. I’m more than a bit picky, and I probably spent about 25 minutes playing with the picture (using my Xbox 360 as the source through component video cables @ 720p) before I was satisfied. The “natural” setting seems to be best for most situations if you care to use one of the picture presets.
The TV does not have a built-in HD tuner, but I rarely watch TV, and really needed a monitor for my Xbox 360. I did connect an antenna to the RF IN on the Ilo 3200 and ran a channel search. The sensitivity of the tuner was surprising. I honestly think that the overall reception is a lot better than my beloved Philips 27″ I’ve been using for the last few years. Even without an HD tuner, the TV reception is surprisingly good. The LCDs that we have on display at Wal-Mart have an immense number of artifacts when displaying a picture over the air or cable, and I won’t try to deceive you, it is a normal occurrence for an LCD, and it happens on the Ilo 3200 as well, but it is minimal compared to the other LCDs I’ve used.
The TV has a few different picture shapes. It can stretch a 4:3 image to fit the 16:9 screen, zoom in on a 4:3 image to fill the screen (due to the nature of this zooming, information is lost on the top and bottom of the picture), display a 4:3 image completely on the screen without filling it (results in “black bars” on the right and left of picture), or do a combination of the previous two (a little clipping and smaller black bars)
The audio quality on the TV was significantly better than I expected. The speakers actually have some bass response, and can put out a pretty good amount of sound. I wouldn’t recommend trying to impress your neighbors with your awesome new sound system, but as far as televisions go, it’s acceptable, and especially when compared to speakers on other LCD TVs, these are pretty good.
It’s not *all* good, however. The stand for the TV is a bit wobbly. It doesn’t feel unstable or that it’s likely to fall off, but the TV is simply too heavy to have such a small junction between the TV’s body and the stand. The stand itself is big enough, but the joint allows the TV to move a little if force is applied. After I stopped working with it, it didn’t wobble or slide or fall down, but I think that the stand could have been a little better. Another minor disappointment on the TV is the contrast. It’s definitely better than most of the LCD’s I’ve seen, but it has nothing on high-dollar panels like the aforementioned Samsung 32″, and at half the price, I’m quite pleased with my decision. The audio pops a bit when changing channels if the TV is connected to a Home Theater Reciever (or other audio device with RCA inputs), which is mildly obnoxious, but i found that after a few minutes I didn’t notice it as much. Also, the buttons on the TV aren’t spectacular, particularly the ON/OFF button. For that matter, the remote is a little on the cheap side, but it does have a reasonable assortment of functions, and it would be relatively easy to replace it with a more aesthetically pleasing learning remote if desired.
Currently, Wal-Mart doesn’t seem to have its website together, so that’s a little aggravating. I wish the dimensions on the TV were proper and that the listing of inputs was more detailed. For what it’s worth, the TV has one set of component inputs (480i/480p/720p/1080i), two sets of composite/S-Video inputs, one pair stereo RCA audio out, one pair of powered speaker outputs (which I have not yet tried), eighth-inch audio in (for PC), VGA in, and an HDMI input labeled HDMI/DVI.
Oh, and one last thing. The Warranty on this TV is 1 year parts/90 days labor, but Wal-Mart offers a 2-year service plan for $58.88. That *extends* the warranty by two years, covers annual cleanings, damage due to acts of God, and some other nice stuff. Gambling $1000 on a “cheap” LCD is a lot less of a gamble if you can get some sort of peace of mind, and as long as Wal-Mart holds up their end of the bargain (They just started offering them, and nobody’s manufacturer’s warranty has expired yet, so I can’t say how good they are at fixing stuff because nobody has had an opportunity to use the service yet), it would be tough to go wrong with this TV if you’re on a budget (and especially if you’re pressed for space. This is the smallest (width-wise) 32″ LCD I’ve found, and I can’t express how pleased I am that my assumption that Wal-Mart’s dimensions were wrong was right.
$986 - $98.60 (Associate Discount) MO Tax Shipping = 974.12, but without discount it’d be around $1075
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