Vizio 37" HDTV

This Vizio 37" HDTV , the imaginatively titled, L37HDTV, has been around since the end of 2005 and has garnered rave reviews for its combination of budget price, currently less than $1000 on Amazon, and good picture quality.

One thing's for sure though, this Vizio 37" HDTV won't win any awards for its looks. Its not ugly, just not as sleek and sexy as current offerings from the likes of Sony, Samsung, and Philips.

Still, if you're more interested than what's on the screen than what's around it, there's plenty here to like: a 1366 x 768 pixel display with a response time of 8ms and a contrast ratio of 600:1, HDMI, component, and VGA inputs, a built-in NTSC tuner, 20 Watt stereo speakers, and a picture-in-picture function.

In its review, Cnet, perhaps the most well-respected technology site on the web, described this Vizio 37" HDTV, the L37HDTV, as having "competent video quality, enough features, and styling that passes muster--for a price that's really difficult to beat." Cnet was particularly impressed with th L37HDTV's color accuracy and sharp picture at 720p, although it did note that the puicture was slilghtly softer at 1080i. Whilst noting that the Vizio produced deeper blaxks than most other budget HDTVs, Cnet did notice one glitch — false contouring. False contouring cause areas that should appear as smooth, gradual gradations of color to appear as splotchy distinct sections. This is also known as polarization or posterization.

The bottom line is that the Vizio L37HDTV is a good budget buy. You don't get the styling of a more expensive TV, but there's very little compromise in picture quality, which, in our view, is the most important factor. At less than a thousand bucks for a 37" LCD with both HDMI and component connectors (so you can hook-up yur HDTV tuner and still connect your DVD player or Xbox 360 to a progressive scan input) it's definitely something of a bargain.