Electronics have come such a long way from high prices and no features to low prices with a great many features that it almost makes it fun to shop for a new TV; Hence, the Vizio 32" LCD High Definition TV I bought yesterday. 

My neighbor had just purchased a 26” LCD for his exercise room, and it made the 17” LCD in my exercise room look even smaller. I had wanted a larger display in this room, even when I bought the 17” Samsung several years ago, but the prices then were much higher, so I settled for a smaller one. Now the prices are so reasonable for some of the larger LCD’s that it is hard to justify not upgrading. Even with that thought, though, I was still buying on price first, features second.

I’ve been window shopping, for a new TV, for quite some time with a few benchmarks in mind such as, at least one HDMI (High Definition MultiMedia Interface-essential for all the future digital rights protected content) connector, a VGA, SVGA or XVGA input (different resolutions for using as a large computer monitor), component video connector (for a slightly better picture than coaxial cable connector), and some decent sounding speakers in the front panel. I found a lot of models that met my needs but when it came time to finally upgrade, I found Costco to be the most competitive as as far as price, selection and good features. The bloggers at ProductWiki agree, they think that Vizio has developed a "pretty decent line of HDTVs, at arguably the best prices on the market".

Upon opening the box, I was pleasantly surprised by the
quality of documentation the manufacturer provided for set up and installation
of the unit. Most of the TV’s that I have bought over the past several years,
including the two other digital HDTV’s, have not been very good at advising the
consumer about which connectors should be used for what. For anyone who has
ever looked at the back panel of a HDTV, you understand what I mean. There are
a multitude of connectors, with varying shapes, colors, coded terms, icons, and
pin counts. Until about two years ago, I had been out of touch with the digital
revolution in television. Since I had bought a Sony 62” rear projection TV in
1996 that had lots of inputs, I had not been tempted (OK, I was tempted, but my
wife removed the temptation and the checkbook) to even look at upgrading to the
plasmas or big screen LCD’s. Vizio has done a great job at simplifying the
connection schemes for the end user by providing a chart explaining what the
connectors are for and which ones provide the best picture from any given
source.

My one and only gripe was that Vizio didn’t mention if the mounting holes on the back of the TV were able to be used with a generic wall mounting kit. Instead, they refer you to their website, to order a Vizio wall mount kit. Even on the website, with all my skill and cunning, I could not tell if their kits were Video Electronics Standards Association compliant. This bothers me, because I had the same issue with a Samsung LCD. I had purchased a VESA wall mount kit, only to find out that it would not work, and I had to purchase a wall mount kit from Samsung for twice as much.  I looked at the Vizio before purchase, and it seemed like a standard kit would fit, but nowhere on the box, the documentation, or on the website did I find this information.

Note to the manufacturers: make all of your flat panel TVs VESA compliant for wall mounting. It is just one less irritating thing for us consumers who have to figure out how to hang the TV on the wall. Oh, Vizio does offer a pay service where they will send someone to your home to do the installation.