Friday, August 13, 2010

VIZIO M220VA 22-inch Full HD 1080p LED LCD HDTV REVIEW

By Jonathan C. Huang
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I recently purchased the new VIZIO M220VA 22-inch LED TV, and so far it seems to be a solid performer. Of course, I feel that it is my obligation to point out that this model is NOT meant to be a high-end set. If you purchase this with such an expectation, you will be disappointed. However, if you are looking for a good, affordable LED LCD TV with great picture quality, you would have a difficult time finding a better bang for your buck than this.

Let me start by expressing how very annoyed I get when I read reviews that get so caught up in only pointing out superficial flaws and never even touch upon the most important aspects - picture and sound quality. Yes, this TV does have it's quirks: the remote is a little stiff and can be a little fickle sometimes. The stand is difficult to put on and literally took me a good 15 minutes to figure it out. However, despite these flaws, this television does deliver where it matters.

Picture quality is quite good, especially for a TV in its price range. Standard definition content looks sub-optimal, but this is due to the nature of how SD video is scaled by HDTVs in general, and nothing to do with this model specifically. High-definition content looks excellent, and I have had good experiences watching 720p/1080p movies from my laptop (through the VGA output). The picture is bright, crisp, and contrast is great. Blacks are rich and solid, without losing the subtle detail in the content. Keep in mind, though, that in order to get the most mileage, you will need to spend some time to calibrate the settings to give you an optimal picture quality. Games look great and there is no ghosting with the TV's fast 5ms response time.

The screen has a matte finish, which is great if your environment has lots of lighting, as the matte surface will suffer far less from glare than a glossy screen would. There is a never-ending debate over whether one type of screen surface is better than the other, but I'll leave that for another day.

Sound quality on the other hand is nothing to write home about. The speakers are a bit weak, but this is easily solved by using a set of external speakers. I am currently using an old set of computer speakers hooked up via the headphone jack on the TV, and they sound infinitely better than the TV speakers after turning off the "SRS TruSurround" option (some sort of faux-surround sound simulator).

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The VIZIO has a decent number of inputs in the back, with 1x Composite, 1x Component, 2x HDMI, 1x VGA w/ Audio, 1x USB (for photos), and an optical input for a home theater sound system. It is worth noting that HDMI and component inputs are located directly on the back of the model (composite inputs are on the side), so if you are planning on wall-mounting it, it may be difficult to plug in the necessary connections if you don't leave enough room between the wall and the TV.

Also, it is worth noting that the previous reviewer stated that there is no way to remove unwanted channels individually. This is FALSE. Under the "Master Channels" menu, you have the options to "Mark All", and "Unmark All" channels. Hitting right on the controller allows you to move up and down on the list to select individual channels to add/remove.

All in all, this is a good TV. It is certainly not perfect, and if you have more money to spend I would encourage you to shoot for a higher-end model. But for what it's worth, the VIZIO M220VA is a tough beast to beat in its division.