gak0090 wrote:Here is another interesting point on the high refresh rates:

Actually, this effect can produce a distinctly artificial, unnatural feel to video. Motion can appear too smooth, almost dreamlike compared with the films and television shows we've spent decades teaching our brains to enjoy. Action can seem just slightly sped up to the point of looking unreal, and it can take you out of the experience quicker than any judder. Indeed, to many videophiles judder is just as natural as film grain, and a subtle but necessary part of watching TV and movies.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2379206,00.asp


It's funny because I remember watching a Bluray of The Avengers in a store one day, and I remember thinking distinctly that it looked like I was watching a video-taped soap opera.

totally agree with this. Every movie you play looks like a soap opera. It's horrendous. I can't believe people can watch a movie like that. I can imagine sports games look awesome though. But I don't think its cool enough to sacrifice movies.

sparkerjc wrote:The biggest argument I have always heard is motion blur in 60hz TVs specifically while watching things like football.

However, I think its BS.

quote: "When flat-panel HDTVs were in their infancy, they suffered from motion blur. LCDs in particular tended to display distinct blurriness during very fast on-screen movements because of "ghosting," or the afterimage left after the image on the screen has changed. LCD technology has progressed a great deal over the past several years, and now ghosting and motion blur have been all but eliminated. If you've purchased an LCD HDTV in the last two years, it probably won't show noticeable blur at its standard 60Hz refresh rate."

Source: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2379206,00.asp

If you watch a lot of sports it matters. I does not really for anything else.

Vizio is a great American brand company. Excellent quality. This is not like those cheap Chinese brand companies

gak0090 wrote:I bought the 60" Visio E601i-A3 from Sam's club 2 weeks ago for $970. I love the TV. Very impressed with the quality. Razor LED with a cool remote that you flip over and it has a qwerty keyboard on the other side.

Same here. Love it. Got mine for $698 on BF @ Sam's Club, which was a steal.

If you can save up the extra bills, you should get a NEW E601i-A3 from Sam's Club for $998 (I think). For starters, it's the newest model, it is a "smart" TV, meaning netflix, amazon, hulu, etc. and built-in wifi with lots of HDMI inputs and connections make for an outstanding value. The first batch of the E601i-A3 TVs had a fatal problem with the video board, but Vizio has fixed the problem in later manufacturing runs, and is replacing or field repairing anyone with one of those early TVs. I know, I was one of them. Vizio could not have done a better job in customer service and standing behind their product. No charge at all for the replacement TV - they shipped it out, delivered/installed it, and packed up the old unit to go back to Vizio. The customer service rep I talked to was a guy in Des Moines, so no British accented Mumbai off-shore call center for Vizio.

I was and continue to be a loyal Vizio customer, because of that outstanding customer support/warranty issue. They admitted they had a problem with certain units, had a toll-free number to call, a dedicated logistics team to replace the defective units, and made me whole within two weeks. I had zero difficulty with them on the replacement, and will continue to be a loyal customer. Manufacturing defects happen, and sometimes on the first batch(es) of a product. Kudos to Vizio for getting it right.

Anyway, I'd trust a refurb from Vizio, but as I said, if I could save up the extra bones to get the newer model and new-in-box, it's worth it.

BTW, Vizio, was founded by William Wang in 2008 for $600K. He previously founded MAG Innovision which primarily PC sold monitors to Gateway, before starting Vizio in the TV space.

seulater wrote:A LCD TV is useless at 60hz. Fast action movies suck at 60hz, need 120hz.

Fast action movies are shot at 24 frames per second just like slow boring movies. Any other number is just made up.

asjxvii wrote:Vizio is a great American brand company. Excellent quality. This is not like those cheap Chinese brand companies

I have the Visio E601i-A3 and it's made in China (and I love it by the way). A HUGE percentage of all your electronics are made primarily in China, Korea, Taiwan and some still in Japan. There may be some lower quality stuff coming out of China also- but consider what price point it is selling at also. Stuff like Westinghouse, RCA that use to be respectable American companies are now nameplates for cheap Chinese manufacturers. But the funny thing is, even though they started out as "junk" they are getting to be better quality now and even have decent reviews. I think if someone came in and took away all the electronics I have that are made in China (partly or entirely) there would be nothing left. I bet if you looked around your house, you would realize the same thing.

mike808 wrote:Same here. Love it. Got mine for $698 on BF @ Sam's Club, which was a steal.

If you can save up the extra bills, you should get a NEW E601i-A3 from Sam's Club for $998 (I think). For starters, it's the newest model, it is a "smart" TV, meaning netflix, amazon, hulu, etc. and built-in wifi with lots of HDMI inputs and connections make for an outstanding value. The first batch of the E601i-A3 TVs had a fatal problem with the video board, but Vizio has fixed the problem in later manufacturing runs, and is replacing or field repairing anyone with one of those early TVs. I know, I was one of them. Vizio could not have done a better job in customer service and standing behind their product. No charge at all for the replacement TV - they shipped it out, delivered/installed it, and packed up the old unit to go back to Vizio. The customer service rep I talked to was a guy in Des Moines, so no British accented Mumbai off-shore call center for Vizio.

I was and continue to be a loyal Vizio customer, because of that outstanding customer support/warranty issue. They admitted they had a problem with certain units, had a toll-free number to call, a dedicated logistics team to replace the defective units, and made me whole within two weeks. I had zero difficulty with them on the replacement, and will continue to be a loyal customer. Manufacturing defects happen, and sometimes on the first batch(es) of a product. Kudos to Vizio for getting it right.

Anyway, I'd trust a refurb from Vizio, but as I said, if I could save up the extra bones to get the newer model and new-in-box, it's worth it.

BTW, Vizio, was founded by William Wang in 2008 for $600K. He previously founded MAG Innovision which primarily PC sold monitors to Gateway, before starting Vizio in the TV space.

I heard that there were some of those sets sold around black friday that had issues, but on most reviews Visio was real good about fixing/replacing the sets. I love mine, even at $970 it was a deal- what you paid was a steal.

This might interest you- these are calibration settings I found for the set:

http://forums.cnet.com/7723-19410_102-574831/vizio-e601i-a3-picture-settings/

Costco is selling this same TV in the "smart" version (model E502AR) for $499. I love it. But... we bought the first one in Dec. and in late Jan. it began randomly shutting itself off. We returned it to Costco and got a new one.
Very happy with picture, and the "smart" features are great. You can plug a USB stick in and navigate the files to watch HD movies (.avi, .mp4), listen to Mp3's, and view photos (.jpg). Those are the only file types I've tried.
Also includes built-in wi-fi which works great. Has maybe 100 downloadable apps. Netfilix is excellent. Facebook sucks. YouTube app is pretty good. Haven't tried others like Amazon Video, Hulu, etc.
I don't mean to review a diff product than is for sale... just saying you can get a LOT better TV for $50 more at Costco.

Orion62 wrote:Agreed. I have watched 240 hz units and my eyes "dance". I have to look away. 120 is fine and I watch sports on my 42", 60 Hz LG with none of the dreaded "blur". Most likely typical ad hype.
Buy this NOW! Your 60 Hz version is obsolete.

I totally agree. What most people don't understand (and probably never will) is most "motion blurr is because of the severe data compression from the Satellite providers and Cable. YES! This is absolutely true! Watch a movie or network TV program using an antenna and the blurr magically goes away. That is because the bandwidth is so narrow and limited with satellite and cable providers so they can fit all those channels. Watching an over the air program with a 60hz TV has basically no motion blurr.

I really wish the marketing folks would be honest with us about how long we can expect to get from these televisions these days. Growing up, my mom bought a color tv - a 20" - from Sears, for about $320, and it lasted through 13 years and three kids before it needed service - and the service it finally needed was under $100, including the trip to the house, after which it lasted ANOTHER ten years before dying completely. By comparison, I am sitting on a 42" Philips that is on it's last legs - a surge through the cable box this past summer took out three of the four HDMI inputs - and this TV is only 3 years old. Are we now looking at a 3 to 4 year useful life for televisions today? Certainly seems so, from everyone that I've known.

This 50" Visio seems like a good buy, but they haven't been around long enough to know how well they perform under regular usage. It seems to me that if a manufacturer makes a television worth owning, they would offer an optional ten-year warranty at an additional cost. Of course, many people wouldn't choose to purchase that additional protection, but the offering of it would speak volumes about their faith in their own products. Most TVs today have only 1 year parts/labor, and even on a big TV it's depot service (meaning you have to pack, box & ship it for repairs), and some makers only offer 90 days!!! We've taken something that was a once or twice a lifetime purchase, and turned it into another disposable piece of inadequately sturdy technology. I guess refrigerators will be the next to fall.

Sorry if I rambled a bit - these are just my musings and meanderings. I won't be buying this TV, because I think it's too big & heavy to successfully be shipped to me without being dropped at least a few times - and that is damage I'll never know about, but it'll turn up in 18 months when some board or another shorts out because shipment loosened it.

Somewhat related: Just got an LG Smart TV in January...To me, the picture is not nearly as 'crisp' as I believe it should be. Can this be due to needing an 'upgraded' cable that runs from the TV to the cable wall 'outlet'? I have Comcast Cable but just cannot figure out why the picture (DVD or sports or cable show) doesn't seem very sharp. It's a 55" LED LG Smart TV. Thoughts? I'm an electrical/technological Huckleberry Hound.

Ringo4422 wrote:I totally agree. What most people don't understand (and probably never will) is most "motion blurr is because of the severe data compression from the Satellite providers and Cable. YES! This is absolutely true! Watch a movie or network TV program using an antenna and the blurr magically goes away. That is because the bandwidth is so narrow and limited with satellite and cable providers so they can fit all those channels. Watching an over the air program with a 60hz TV has basically no motion blurr.

Finally someone gets the real truth! If you are watching satelite, cable, netflix, hulu, 60hz is fine as long as the refresh rate is good. Most of the poor picture quality of sports is from the compression that the carrier and even network (my local FOX affiliate) uses to transmit the signal.

The only time more than 60hz is valid is for BLU-ray as previous posters have mentioned. The 60 frames can't be properly distributed by a 60hz TV. HOWEVER, if your BLU-ray playey, or TV has a very good processor that can handle how the set displays these frames it can be hard to notice.

A 240hz TV will essentially gain you nothing. It will show the same frame of a BLU-ray 10 times before it shows the next 10 times. Now refresh rate and other aspects of the TV can effect it just as much. Overscan is something most people never correct and it can effect your image more than a lot of other factors.

jpiles2010 wrote:Stop watching 8 hours of TV every day. If you see the TV screen and eat hoagies, then its not excersize

Wow,whatever that means !

Received today. Screen has massive damage.

Screen arrived today. Remember the crack on Amy's wall in Doctor Who? Yeah, I've got that on my tv when I turn it on. Everything is black except the crack in the wall... err lcd screen.

Already submitted a fix request via http://consumerservicerefurbish.com/ but thinking about calling them at 562-946-3531 for faster RMA process.

Received My TV today. The screen has a huge crack in it.

Just recieved my Vizio 50 inch and I get nothing! No channels, no menu, no sound, no nothing. The screen looks like someone kicked it and cracked it all the way across. It's not cracked I don't think, it just looks like it. Can't believe I paid real money for this!!! SOOOOOOO DISAPPOINTED! Sent email to that consumer refurbished place. I don't see how in the world it can be fixed. I better not have to pay shipping to return it!!!!!

I got mine, it was completely unusable, put in a ticket, awaiting a response. I was really hoping to have one for easter as i'm hosting. No response from woot yet and as per the faq i called the manufacturer... they said tough luck since it was damaged in shipping. This purchase is leaving a sour taste in my mouth and is pushing me away from making big purchases on woot.