On Fri, 3 Feb 2012 02:38:28 -0800, "William Sommerwerck"
wrote:

Google turned up several sources, all in the US.
On another note, I was at Wal-Mart this evening, and saw a Vizio combo
pack.
It contained a 42" 3D-capable LCD TV, with Vizio bluray, also 3D ready,
and
four pairs of polarized glasses. Cost was $780, and the 3D demo was
rather
impressive. I'd watch it, and I'm picky.
No wonder Vizio is the #1 selling brand in America.

I'm viewing this e-mail on a ViewSonic CRT monitor, which was recommended by
a friend, and turned out to be better than any Sony I'd owned. (It uses a
Mitsubishi Trinitron.) Vizio was founded by the same man who founded
ViewSonic.

I was surprised at the "unkind" remarks about Vizio. I bought a 32" Vizio
for my den several years ago, and it is startlingly good. (For example, the
horizontal viewing angle is 179 degrees.) My living room display is a 60"
KURO, and the Vizio /does not/ provoke a "yuck" reaction in comparison. With
good program material (especially NBC), the Vizio is a knockout. This sort
of quality does not happen by accident.

Perhaps you haven't explored the process of manufacturing a plasma or
LCD tv. Vizio, Philips, Panasonic, Sony all follow the same general
process. They buy an LCD panel from one of the limited numbers of
companies which manufacture them (Samsung, LG Electronics, Sharp are
major suppliers). That panel includes the tcon and backlight system
(CCFLs and inverter, or LEDs and LED driver). The TV manufacturer
then adds a power supply, main board (which includes video processing
and control components, tuners and inputs), speakers, etc. and puts it
in a case. Thus the difference between a Vizio LCD TV built around a
Samsung panel and a Sony built around the identical panel is the main
board, the case, and other incidental parts. Even the major parts of
the main board come from a very limited number of suppliers.

When receiving a digital broadcase the signal is received as digital,
is processed, and sent to the tcon where the digital information is
directed to the appropriate pixels at the proper time. Other than the
component and composite inputs everything is digital. There is no
difference in the way the signal is processed.

I would expect that TVs built with identical panels would produce
identical quality pictures when adjusted to the user's preferences.
So where does the difference between Vizio and LG Electronics lie?

1. The components on the power supply and main board, in particular
the capacitors. Vizio is notorious for using cheap Chinese caps in
their power supply. Capxon Elite, and Lelon are popular brands.
Capxon is popularly known as Crapxon, the other brands are even worse.
A bad filter cap in the power supply will not affect the picture until
it deteriorates to the point the main board will not function.

2. The warranty, warranty service, and especially out of warranty
service. Vizio does not want to see your TV ones it leaves their
factory. They will grudginly replace a TV that fails within the
warranty period. The usual replacement is a 'refurbished' model;
under some circumstnces they have required the owner to return the
failed TV at the owners expense. Once it is out of warranty, they do
not want to have anything to do with it. All you can do is take it to
an independent shop and hope they can repair it without schematics.

PlainBill