Westinghouse Electric SK-26H240S 26" HDTV LCD TV

INTRODUCTION: MY REQUIREMENTS

After over 14 years, I decided it was time to get a new TV. Not that there was anything wrong with the 20" Sanyo workhorse I bought back in 1994; I wanted a TV with newer features, including RCA inputs, a wide screen, and HDTV capability. Also, although I am a cable viewer, the impending demise of analog TV was part of my rationale for going shopping.

I have been casually looking for several months, but it was only after the holidays that I made the decision to shop seriously. I looked at a number of brands at a minimum of four retailers, and only major brands. (Since Samsung has screwed me over in the past, I did not consider them a major brand. I still don't.) I saw newer names like Olevia and Vizio, as well as familiar names like Sharp and Sanyo. I saw lots of different sizes and styles of TV's – plasma, LCD, projection, etc.

I would have liked to have purchased a plasma TV, but there weren't many smaller than 26" diagonal, and I wasn't about to lug an enormous rear-projection TV home (not in my little Chevy sedan), so that left me with large-screen LCD's. I wanted to spend about $500. Since my living room is small, I didn't need one of the 40" or larger TV's; I wouldn't be able to fit in the room! Also, I wanted a TV that I could physically lift by myself. So I decided on either a 26" or 32" diagonal.

After visiting Target, Circuit City, Comp USA and Micro Center, I walked into Best Buy and scanned the 26" aisle. One TV brand, Westinghouse, caught my eye. I had seen a 26" unit with an integrated DVD player at Target, but it was close to $600. The one at Best Buy was just the TV, and it was going for about $450 – a substantial savings. I liked the picture enough and the cabinet design was appealing enough. The sales clerk walking the aisle told me that Westinghouse had pretty high customer satisfaction. Considering Best Buy clerks are non-commissioned, that carried a little weight. So I slid one of the Westinghouse TV's off the shelf and happily walked to the checkouts.


PREFACE

As you read the rest of my review, try to keep in mind that the migration to HDTV is huge – a historically significant change of video technology. Not everything will look the same as it did before – some things will look better, other things will look about the same, and for a few of you, some things will look a little worse. You'll have new concepts you'll hear about, and new terminology. Don't be overwhelmed. Keep an open mind. No new technology is without its share of glitches and as of the original date this review was written (Jan. 2008), things may improve as we approach the Feb. 2009 switching off of analog television. I can tell you, though, from my early experiences with this Westinghouse unit and HDTV in general, the TV watching experience has changed for the better, producing pictures that rival or are superior to those offered by your cable company. (Take THAT, Comcast!)


FIRST IMPRESSIONS

The SK-26H240S (hereafter, the "Westinghouse" for brevity) comes in a box that weighs about 30 lbs. If you're on the short side or have short arms, get some help carrying this to your car. The rest of you shouldn't have many major problems.

Inside the box, the TV has two molded pieces of Styrofoam to hold the TV in place for shipment. Other contents of the box include the quick start guide, user's guide, warranty registration card, remote, 2 AAA batteries, power cord (which is just like the ones for a desktop computer), the TV base (if you want to watch it on a stand rather than attached to a wall), and a very pleasant surprise – a Philips-head screwdriver! You will not have to run to the tool drawer or fish around for something to affix the screws to the TV. Very thoughtful touch, and the screwdriver couldn't have cost too much to include – a smart decision by Westinghouse.

I wanted to watch the Westinghouse on its base, so I took the four included screws and attached them to the TV, and placed the TV on my short TV stand which currently holds a DVD recorder, a VCR, and a digital cable box.

Since I was eager to get rolling, I didn't bother reading the user's guide (which wasn't a bad thing since it's not very good; more on that below), and set about attaching the coaxial cable to the back of the TV. In this day and age, I was rather surprised that any digital TV's have coaxial jacks; I thought those would die out with the use of the tri-colored RCA jacks. I unscrewed the coaxial jack from the back of my old TV and attached it to the Westinghouse.

The remote is quite nice. It's a large remote, about 8" long with decent sized buttons. Everything on the remote is intelligently laid out. There are 8 video inputs, all of which you can directly switch to with its own button. No looping through all the inputs like you had to do with on VCR's of years ago. Just push a button and go.

I pushed the on button and the Westinghouse "W" logo appeared for a couple of seconds, and then the picture popped into view. For my home, I'm talking about a picture from a digital cable system, going through a coaxial cable (in other words, an analog representation of a digital signal).

The picture is about what I expected for a digital cable signal – which is not to be confused with an HD signal nor an HDMI one. Although I have digital cable service, the picture has the typical "jaggies" one would see even on an analog set. Beyond that, the picture on the Westinghouse is good.

But within the first hour of use, I had a surprise. While watching Larry King Live on CNN, the broadcast was interrupted by what I could only describe as a "seizure". The guest's face froze on screen, and the audio sounded like a scratched CD, skipping endlessly. I pressed the power button to turn the set off, and then turned it on again. I wasn't worried about losing any video, because my DVD recorder was capturing it all. But it was still weird.

About five minutes later, it happened again – another seizure. Again, I powered the unit off and on, and it came back. Then it behaved for about another 20 minutes before another seizure occurred.

I am pretty technically literate, and wondered if there might be some problem in converting an analog signal to a digital one and having the TV read it properly and accurately. Or whether the result was due to the use of the coaxial input rather than the RCA jack input. I have since reached the conclusion that that's what it was. I connected the TV to the DVD recorder by way of RCA composite jacks and an HDMI cable (a Sony cable was on sale for $45 at Target; not too shabby!) and have not had any such problems since. If you buy this TV, I would suggest you get RCA composite cables to test your cable connection (unless you have HD service).


SOUND

The initial sound was on the tinny side at first, so I fiddled with the audio controls - accessible through on-screen menus, and flipped the bass all the way up. The sound is rich and deep with the bass cranked; if you buy this TV, turn up the bass. Those of you wanting even deeper, richer sound will have to spring for larger speakers or a more elaborate audio set-up. But for casual audiophiles like me, this TV sounds good.


PICTURE QUALITY

Because the Westinghouse has so many different operational modes, I will go mode by mode.

Cable Mode: I have digital cable service through a local provider. The picture is good, but not great, and that's what I was expecting, and that's what you should expect, too. Remember that you're taking an analog signal (even though I have a digital cable signal it's not digital in the pure 0's and 1's sense that HD looks for) and running it into a digital device. There's going to be some loss of quality in that case, but the picture is far from unwatchable – you'll have to let your eyes get used to it. For regular cable broadcasts, the picture will be in 4:3 mode (this is the mode that's close to square but not quite), as in conventional TV sets. Through the controls you can stretch the picture to fill the entire screen but, as you can imagine, everyone will look wider. Most of the time you'll see a vertical space on either side of the picture.

Video Mode: This mode is what you use when watching a VCR (videotape recorder), a low-res game system, or anything else you plug in with RCA jacks. For Video Mode, you'll get a good picture but (again) not a great picture, and for the same reason I mentioned above: taking an analog picture and converting it to digital won't produce the results many of you are expecting. There is no way that this or any other HDTV will "magically" convert your over-the-air broadcast of "Wheel Of Fortune" into something that looks visually perfect. That's not the way the technology works. Adjust your expectations.

HDTV Mode: When you attach an OTA (over-the-air) antenna, that is when this HDTV receiver shines the most. The picture is bright and pretty sharp, but since this is not a top-of-the-line unit, there are other sets on the market that are sharper (but not as good a value). The channel display shows how strong your HD signal is, and that should cue you as to how to adjust the antenna.
VGA Mode: Because the Westinghouse is a digital device, it can be used as a computer monitor. And is it beautiful! While my wide-screen laptop's image isn't perfectly crisp (there's very faint ghosting but it's not bothersome), it is bright and pretty well defined. All you need to take advantage of this mode is a VGA cable (female connectors on both ends). If you have a wide-screen laptop, set your resolution to 1280 x 800 and it will look correct on the Westinghouse. Years ago, to send a signal from your computer, I had to send it through a special device. Now, you just attach a plug. Will wonders never cease!

HDMI Device Mode: HDMI stands for High Definition Multimedia Interface, and it's a communication standard that flows the highest amount of digital image and audio data, more than composite or component connections. If you have an "upconverting" DVD player or recorder (like me), take a look at the back; you'll probably see a HDMI jack. An HDMI cable is not included with the Westinghouse; you can snap one up from Sony for about $50 (or less, if it's on sale). And one other thing – the picture in HDMI mode always fills the entire screen, even if your video source is 4:3 (regular format) – meaning it's gonna be stretched. Best bet: if you have a 4:3 TV show or movie you want to watch, watch it using the Video Mode, not HDMI.

Also, allow me to point out what the pictures look like for different types of video.

Movies: Most people won't have any major problems with movies. Movies on DVD will look better than movies on videotape, of course. You will be able to see film grain more on this TV (and any other HD units).

Sports: Watching sporting events where there's a lot of fast motion – such as football, basketball, or hockey, you may notice some "jaggies". Remember, this is a digital device – some of that is unavoidable on most units. The Westinghouse has a refresh rate of 0.8 milliseconds. The best device on the market is about half that at 0.4 milliseconds. Some of you will hate this, some of you won't. My advice – get the thing home and try it for yourself. I watched a portion of the Fiesta Bowl football game in HD on Fox and was impressed with what I saw.

Homemade Video: Unless you have an HD camcorder, expect your video to look average to decent. Not spectacular, though.


ON-SCREEN DISPLAYS

The on-screen displays are nice and crisp, although I would like to suggest to manufacturers of all HD TV's that the channel number should be the largest thing on any of these displays. Make the channel number or video source at least three times the size of any other text.

The Westinghouse shows which video source you're viewing, as well as the strength of the signal. My cable signal only produced a line showing 50% strength; maybe that's one source of the seizures.


ADJUSTING THE PICTURE

Adjustments on the Westinghouse are made with on-screen menus. As with any conventional TV, you can adjust contrast, brightness, color intensity, hue, and sharpness. But with this HD unit you can also adjust how bright the backlight is, saturation (how deep colors are; it's a photography term), and something called "color temperature". You might want to adjust the color temperature setting from its lowest setting up to either Normal or High. In one video I viewed, the people looked posterized – blotches of pink and lighter colors. Adjusting the color temperature fixed that just fine – I moved the control up to Normal.

For older video (shows recorded in VHS, mini DV movies, etc.), I would suggest turning down the Sharpness. This will "dither" the picture and get you closer to the sort of picture you'd see on an older TV set.

With different video standards, folks new to HD have some new terminology to learn. So I'm going to attempt to explain the different standards.

The lowest level of resolution is 480 – '480' being the number of vertical lines of resolution. This is the equivalent of our outgoing over-the-air broadcast quality, and the mode in which you'll be watching VHS movies, 8mm videos, and anything else made a long time ago. It's also the mode in which you'll be watching non-HD cable television channels.

The next level of resolution is 720, for 720 lines of resolution. You will also notice a lower-case "p" or "i" following this number. "P" stands for Progressive Scan, while "I" stands for Interlaced Scan. You don't really need to concern yourself with whether you're watching a progressive or interlaced picture; just know that the picture is clearer and sharper than 480. (I think the progressive standard is a little sharper than interlaced.)

The highest (in my observation) level of resolution is 1080, for 1080 lines of resolution. Again, there's a lower-case "p" or "i" after the 1080, with the same meanings as for 720. Programs recorded at 1080 vertical lines are going to be eye-poppingly detailed.
Part of why this discussion of numbers matters is that many of you will probably acquire what's known as an "upconverting DVD player". As I understand it, this rather fancy name just means it will take a video picture and make it look good at one of the higher resolutions (720 or 1080).

If you're really curious about the technical details of HD TV, I'd suggest visiting Wikipedia's web site (http://www.wikipedia.org) and do a search on "HDTV".


USER'S GUIDE LACKING TIPS, READ MINE

The user's guide for this Westinghouse HDTV is not very helpful. There are screen shots of the menu structure, but none of the different options are explained in any detail. I wonder if the manual was an afterthought. There's not that much that's useful in the manual if you want to learn how to adjust the picture. So here are my tips and suggestions for getting more out of this TV:

* If your TV picture ever seizes up or freezes (much like a Windows computer) then (as on a Windows computer) press and hold the power button for five seconds until the TV switches off. Then you can switch it on again.
Freezes and seizures may be a result of a weak video signal. Punch the channel information button and look at the number of bars. If you see only one or two, you may experience problems. Five bars or more and you should be fine.

* The newest video source that comes online takes precedence. Example: If you have a DVD recorder like me, one minute before it begins recording a scheduled program, it does a kind of "soft" power on. The signal sent by this soft power on is picked up by the Westinghouse. If you happen to be watching another video source, the TV will appear to go black. Just push the button for the video source you were watching before. This is not a bug, but a feature called "AutoSource". Some of you may be annoyed by it while others will see it as a convenience (not having to push another button for the video source you just switched on).

* To punch in digital channels, use the decimal point button on the remote. For example, where I live, the HD channel for CBS is 11.1. So on the remote I punch in "11", then the "." button, and then "ENT" (for Enter).


POTENTIAL IRRITANTS

Switching on the TV doesn't put a live picture on your screen right away. You'll see the "W" Westinghouse logo for a second or two before the picture comes up. Those of you accustomed to an "instant on" TV may be annoyed by this.

Switching from video input mode to video input mode is not instantaneous. There may be a delay of as much as 3 seconds while the new signal "takes".

Not much else to complain about, though.


FINAL VERDICT

If you do decide to buy this TV, SAVE YOUR RECEIPT and get a service plan. Best Buy has a 4-year service plan for $60 and it's probably going to be worthwhile as HD technology works itself out over the next few years. And buy from a retailer that doesn't hit you with a restocking penalty, since you'll be out at least $50 if you take it back.

Westinghouse has put together a good TV in the SK-26H240S –it's a decent value (especially if you catch a sale), and I bypassed a LOT of other TV's to choose it. At a street price of under $500 it's really hard to complain and the pictures are splendid. I haven't covered everything about this TV; I would suggest you go buy one and try it yourself at home; you won't know whether it "fits" your living room or bedroom looking at it on a store shelf.