Lcd & Flat Panel Televisions

I bought this TV back in June, so I’ve had some good experience with it. Overall, I’m very happy with it.

I almost bought the prior model version - the 5060/5061 (depending on whether you bought it from Best Buy or anywhere else), but held off until the newer models were released, and what do you know - the price actually dropped! I don’t know how Pioneer did it, but kudos to you! I compared this set extensively to the Panasonic’s in the store and believed that these two units were the best among the plasma tv’s I could see. The Panasonic was actually lower in price, but what swayed me to the Pioneer was that it was a nice-looking black shiny bezel, whereas the Panasonic had a cheap looking silver bezel. Seems like a small feature, but it makes all the difference mounted on the wall.

Welcome to the Jetsons age!

I have always had regular televisions without frills. And once I have a tv, I keep it until the screen turns green. I am more of an outdoor sporty type than a true techie, but even I know when it is time for out with the old and in with the new! I found this dvd on clearance by pure dumb luck. I was shopping for some computer programs and just happened to notice this display model marked down from $525.00 to $420.00 as is. If you have ever purchased a display model from any electronics store, you know that what you see is what you get. I was lucky that it had the users manual still with it as well as the remote. The clerk rang it up for me and I was on my way. I wasn’t really in the market for a new tv, but I have always wanted a wide screen lucid screen, and this was a great deal, seeing as it came with the dvd player already built in.

I decided, after years of hemming and hawing, to purchase my first HD television. I had researched the subject, constantly following up new leads and learning as much as I could (Epinions was a Godsend in this regard).

I live in a very small apartment so space is at a premium and I am on a rather small income too, so the television would have to be both small and affordable.

After filing my income tax return for this year, I started searching for a television that would fit in my budget and home requirements: I couldn’t spend more than $275 and I had decided I wanted a LCD television since it would take up significantly less space than a similar-sized CRT model.

Impressions

Picked up for $700 with free shipping at Buy.com, I really didn’t get too much to do much research. A quick scan had good praises regarding picture quality “for the price”, so I decided to check it out. It was about time to get rid of our 17 year old 27″ Sharp TV any ways.

After receiving it, I found that 32″ wide screen is actually slightly shorter than our old 27″ - just wider. This means it didn’t really look bigger than our old TV. Thankfully, it was big enough for comfortable viewing.

I’ve had the TV for a little over a week & love it. I had a sony 27″ 4.3 ratio trinitron HDTV for 3 years & there is no comparison the the Komodo. I purchased it from Micro-Center for $900.00. Menu features are very user friendly compared to a few others I tried (bravia, aquos, olevia , vizio)Funny thing is that I know the salesman in the AV dept & he told me they sell the Sceptre 3 to 1 compared to the Sony/Sharp/Phillips (of course the price is a big factor). The ironic thing is that he said the other 3 get returned more often than the Sceptre. All in all the features compare very well against the “brand name” companies with a much better price. He even let me get my hands on the direct TV remote to browse through the HD channels @ my leisure (switches all tv’s together)Compared to the 12 other brands around the same size the Sceptre held its own pretty well especially for almost half the price of some. Feel free to comment with questions Etc. I’ll be happy to answer them. Here are some of the specs on the TV & I’ll do another update as time goes by.

I wanted my next HD TV to last for at least 10 years; well, they don’t come as cheap. So, I waited for one year to buy a 1080p (later on that) LCD TV. When I saw a 1080p labeled 47′ toshiba (yes lowercase) LCD TV in a show room, I thought that was it.

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

Vidikron has been one of the top names in video for quite some time, far before plasma technology had even evolved. Now in the forefront on video, plasma has quickly become one of the most sought after luxuries, and as we all know, they are not cheap! Vidikron has brought to market an absolutely incredible product, and it has done so because Runco bought the name and has brought to market what is clear destined to be a stellar success story.

“Reports of my demise are highly exaggerated”….

A few years ago,plasma TVs were out of most people’s budgetary reach. They “burned-in” (or so the story went), they ran hot, had poor black levels, and relatively small screen sizes compared to rear-projectors. The obituary was written and the pundits waited for the death certificate.

The plasma-makers responded with dramatic improvements….better blacks, lower power consumption and some debunking of burn-in, lifespan and other persistent plasma-rumours.

So I Bought a Plasma!Why?

Standard television is very good. My father has a Panasonic plasma, which is supposed to be one of the best for SDTV and this looks better than his. There is no ghosting or any artifacts. For those who say it looks bad, chances are you are too close, or the picture settings aren’t tuned right. Obviously no matter what there will be issues going from SDTV resolution to HDTV resolution, the pixels have to be filled in somehow.

HD televison blows me away. I sometimes find myself watching golf just because of how amazing it looks! While I can’t compare to any other tv’s, I can for sure say that being a quality freak, this is everything and more that I hoped for.

The menu system looks neat and I find it easy to navigate. If you need closed captions, you’ll go bonkers over this tv. I haven’t tried them, but there are plenty of settings. Font, color, background color, etc can all be changed. The remote isn’t the greatest though. I find myself having to use two hands quite often. Not a huge deal but I like remote s that you can use from almost any angle but this one is about 90 degrees limited. It has great range too.

Inputs aren’t the greatest. It has every type you will need but just not very many. Two of everything is what I like to see, but hey this isn’t an expensive tv.

Speakers-I don’t use them and if you really care about the audio you should already have external speakers.