Vizio Plasma TV – A Brief Review

We have written a short overview of the 42″ HD Vizio plasma TV.  This is an older model Vizio plasma TV that has received a lot of attention lately due to significant price drops. You can find this television for sale at Costco, Target, Sam’s Club in addition to many online retailers. 

Vizio plasma TV Overview

The 42” Vizio plasma TV has a resolution of 1024 by 768 pixels. A remote, integrated NTSC/ATSC tuner with removable side mounted speakers is currently included. The only color offered on this model is black. The price is attractive and the features sound good but when compared to other high quality TV’s the pricing becomes apparent. This HDTV is at the top of the list of budget plasma TV’s.  

Right away you will notice the inferior picture quality. Although the colors are not as clear they are acceptable for a bargain plasma TV. After working on the color settings on the Vizio plasma TV it was impossible to equal the clarity of the newer and more costly plasmas available. 

This television also exhibited problems with false shading, an effect where colors band together as opposed to slight shading. A novice could detect the picture quality as not being the best. While most of the features included in the Vizio plasma TV were not impressive the picture quality was sufficient for that price range. A distinct lack of ways to input HD sources to this television was the most glaring omission. 

Users are left with only DVI inputs to connect your components and these are only capable of carrying a 480p signal. Newer high end TV’s have 1080p which is where this TV seiously lags far behind. This TV’s picture within picture quality is sub-par. While you can have two television channels up simultaneously, you are completely unable to have images from another source – DVD, VCR, Video Game, etcetera – up at the same time.

This renders the picture in picture pretty much useless.  With its low cost it does stand out. This model is not as highly rated as some but it also costs quite a bit less. We would cautiously recommend the Vizio as it is the best TV in its price range.

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