#1 What is the height of the tv on its stand?
My experience with Vizio's TV's is better than most
reviewers. They are obviously observing the TV's in well
lit rooms, usually commercial overhead fluorescent or
equivalent lighting. TV's designed and constructed for
indoors do not generally possess the level of brightness
for a commercial brightness situation. TV's are made for
dimly lit rooms with some shading, venetian blinds or
curtains that reduce ambient light. No one I know has a
living room or den illuminated like an office. Properly
adjusted, the "so called" "dim" TV's with lower light
intensity look great in a domestic light controlled room.
There are more expensive models that will put out twice
the light or more and they always get rated highly so
there is a "brightness" bias in the ratings. But if you like
a darkened room, those TV's will be too bright but they
do great in a room with expansive windows and sun
streaming into the room in the daytime. I principally
watch TV at night like most people. With regard to how
the Vizio panel looks from the side: its a VA panel
(vertically aligned) which has superior contrast and
black levels with comparable color to the more
expensive IPS (in-plane switching) panels you can buy.
They are without variation when observed from a 45
degree angle to either side. If you get well to the side
you can observe light reductions and also loss of stereo
effect from the speakers. As long as you watch from
angles comparable to the seats in a movie theater, you
won't be disappointed. But any TV. including the most
expensive of them, will look their best when viewed
from the front. not the side and the sound will be stereo,
not out of channel phase cacophony. In stores, I
observed the Vizio V series had superior contrast
compared to LG and Samsung at this price level, thanks
to the VA panel which is used a lot in computer
monitors where contrast, color and black level accuracy
is highly prized. You cannot judge TVs made for a
normal domestic environment in a retail store because
of the overly bright lighting. It makes really accurate
TV's look like they are too dim but the overhead lighting
has closed the iris of your eye. FWIW, we have a Vizio
LCD TV and a Panasonic Plasma. Both are calibrated for
domestic viewing in dim light and both produce
excellent color, contrast and black levels.
