Vizio P50HDTV10A 50" HDTV Plasma TV

The 50" VIZIO P50HDTV10A Plasma HDTV is currently the second largest model in Vizio's line of LCD and Plasma flat screen TV's, a model lineup which has been getting good reviews by providing solid performance at prices lower than most of the competition. Vizio is a new brand, only around for 3 years, but will make up 10% of the US flat panel TV market this year. Vizio primarily offers the most competitively priced models in the high end of the HDTV market, large LCD and Plasma screen TV's. Some articles I've read indicate that Vizio's list prices provide smaller margins to stores that other brands, which leaves Vizio HDTV's to most often be sold in low margin stores like Sams Club and Costco (although Circuit City does carry some models). When I decided to upgrade to a large HDTV in my den late last year, I first read many reviews, checked out lots of store models, and studied feature lists, all of which led me to purchase a Vizio P50HDTV10A.

I considered purchasing an LCD model, at that time, but the largest affordable LCD's at the time were 42", and the picture quality was a step behind the quality Plasma TV's provided. The Vizio model was an update to their popular P50HDM model, and most reviews indicated that this newer model added features and addressed a few weaknesses in the earlier model. The features and specs that led me to purchase this model included:

50" wide screen display
Integrated NTSC (broadcast standard TV), ATSC (broadcast HDTV), analog and QAM (digital) cable tuners
1366 x 768 native resolution, supports up to 1080i format
Two HDMI ports (with HDCP, two is the bare minimum you should look for, you can't have too many HDMI ports)
DCDi by Faroudja Low Angle De-interlacing
Brightness 1000 cd/m2
10,000:1 contrast ratio
VGA port (though I regret the lack of a DVI port)
2 Component inputs

There are a couple of other spec's to keep in mind for this model. This TV is heavy, weighing 130 lbs, and draws up to 440W. For comparison, Vizio's new 47" LCD TV draws a maximum of only 280W. Having mounted this TV on our den wall by myself, I can confirm that the 130 lb weight is very real. I also plugged the TV into a "Kill A WATT" electrical meter, and found that the power usage varied from 250 to 430 watts, depending on how the TV was being used, scenes with lots of light; bright colors drew the most power, but rarely ranged above about 400 watts.

Initial Impressions and Appearances

I purchased plasma TV at Circuit City for $1700 before a $200 rebate. I considered the extended warranty ($517 for 3 years) but decided to self insure. When I went to pick it up, I learned that Plasma TV's shouldn't be set on their side, but should always be standing up, even in the box. This meant it wouldn't fit in my Ford Explorer. I borrowed a minivan with more headroom, removed the seats, and was able it get the TV home. Removing the TV from the box was pretty neat, Vizio designed plastic clips into the box, which, when removed, allowed the top and sides of the box to be lifted away from the base.

Even turned off, the Vizio flat screen TV's look terrific. The screen has a 2" wide polished black border all around. There's a 4" high silver speaker grill (fixed) running across the bottom. There's a single power LED visible on the front of the TV, no other controls are visible. The power buttons and a few other controls are accessible on the right side. The button markings are a little hard to see, but you'll probably be using the remote 99% of the time. All of the many connections, HDMI (2), RGB, component (2), composite (2), S-Video, RF, optical/analog audio, and more, are on the back, facing downward. These inputs are accessible when the TV is wall mounted, but just barely. The headphone jack is also on the back, rather than the side.

The fixed oval base is close coupled to the bottom of the TV, and provides good support for the TV. Its only 12" deep at its deepest. The TV is less than 5" thick without the base.

Setup

After wall mounting my TV, I hooked it up to the following:

Philips 5960 upconverting DVD Player (HDMI)
Motorola DCT6416 dual tuner HD DVR from Cox cable (component)
HP 7674n Desktop PC (VGA)
Logitech Bluetooth wireless headphones (headphone jack)

Though the weight of the TV presented some problems during installation, using the TV is easy, once everything is connected. Once you select the right input you can start watching, and the default settings brightness, color, contrast, video mode, etc look pretty good.

Tuner setup

Although I don't currently use the Vizio's tuners, I did test the analog and digital cable tuner by connecting my cable directly to the coax input on the TV. After letting the TV scan channels provided by my cable system, I was able to view all of the analog channels I could pick up with my old TV, as well as about 15 digital channels. Half of the digital channels were HD, either 720p or 1080i, HD I could get without the use of any cable box, a pleasant surprise. I had feared that all of Cox's digital channels were encrypted, but that clearly wasn't the case.

The remaining digital channels were standard definition, 480i, but looked very good, better than the standard analog channels. Analog channels looked ok, no better than what you'd get from any standard TV from Walmart or Best Buy. I eventually rented a HD DVR/tuner from my cable provider (Cox) so that I could get more HD channels, and no longer use the Vizio built in tuners.

Features and Performance

Audio quality

Audio quality is very good, surprisingly good for a model priced for the low end of the market. The frequency response is good, decent base, excellent mid and high range sounds. The volume can be turned up to easily fill any room in your home, and annoy everybody else in the home too. Reports from users of earlier Vizio models indicated problems with background fan noise, but most report that problem has been fixed in this model; I hear absolutely no background noise from my set. The TV also has analog and digital optical outputs for connecting surround sound and other audio systems.

Viewing angles

Vizio lists viewing angles (left, right, up or down) at listed as > 178 degrees. These are realistic, no matter from which angle you are viewing the screen you see the same image quality, colors are vivid, and the contrast remains constant.

Display Quality

In addition to viewing angles, Vizio lists the brightness at 1000 cd/m2, and a contrast ratio of 10,000:1. The contrast ratio seems incredibly high, most good LCD screens are around 500 to 1, and while I can tell by watching this TV that the contrast ratio is better than LCD TV's (excellent blacks, and better definition in dark areas of the screen), its not 20 times better.

Using a couple of tools for optimizing displays (Displaymate, and the THX Optimizer included on some DVD's; http://www.thx.com/home/dvd/search.html) I've set the brightness at about 60%, and the contrast at 42%. Vizio estimates that this TV will loose half its brightness after 60,000 hours, so eventually I'll need to adjust the brightness, but it won't be for a few years.

At these settings, watching HDTV channels and standard DVD's is a great experience. I'm using an upconverting DVD player, but for testing I turned off the "upconverting" feature, and found the image quality from most DVD's was still much better than they were on standard TV's. The Vizio TV obviously has some "upconverting" software built in that does a very good job. Colors are vivid and bright, you can easily see the fine detail in images, and the image quality is consistent across the entire screen. All colors are accurate, skin colors are very realistic.

I used Displaymate (http://www.displaymate.com/); a software program designed to test and optimize monitors and HDTV screens to further evaluate the Vizio TV. Most of the tests showed image quality was consistent across the entire screen, colors were consistent and accurate, and fine image detail was displayed cleanly everywhere. One of the Displaymate tests indicated this screen does not distinguish between slightly different shades of very bright white quite as well as my Planar and Dell LCD computer monitors, but otherwise I didn't detect any weaknesses.

I occasionally use this TV for web browsing or playing PC games. Small text is displayed cleanly and is easy to read on the screen. I can read web pages at a distance up to about 10' from the screen, up to 12' if I use a browsers' "large text" option, and after that my eyes are not good enough. PC gaming is pretty impressive also, though I worry a little about screen burn in (I've not seen any evidence of this yet, and burn-in is not nearly the problem for recent models as it was 5 years ago). There is a "screen washer" built into the Vizio's menus which displays alternating bands of white and black moving across the screen to address burn in problems.

Some reviews have mentioned "false contouring" being a problem with this TV. Initially, I didn't notice this flaw while watching the TV or even when running any tests. But once I knew to look for it, I did see some evidence of false contouring. On images where small changes of color are displayed across wide areas of the screen, you can detect some color banding rather than smooth color gradients, especially if you are close to the screen. You might notice this looking at a wide area of blue sky, or when the screen is displaying a bright white light. I don't think this will be a problem for most people, especially if you plan to sit 10' or more from the screen.

The Remote

The remote is not backlit, but it's conveniently sized for one hand, larger and sturdier than many. The buttons are fairly well organized, though with so many functions there's only so much you can do. The remote works well 20' from the screen, and the TV responds quickly to inputs. Up to 4 devices can be controlled with the remote.

Conclusion

Vizio TV's are a step behind state of the art, but that's the affordable place to be for most shoppers. Any considering this model will get their money's worth, excellent picture quality, lots of inputs, good sound quality, and over the air and cable digital tuners are built in. But if you are considering one of these, keep in mind that HD display technology is improving quickly, and prices are dropping. A few months ago there were no LCD models that could compete with this TV. Now Vizio offers a 46" 1080p LCD model and a 47" 1080i LCD model that should be considered along side this 50" plasma TV.