VIZIO M701d-A3R 70-Inch 1080p 240Hz 3D Smart LED HDTV

VIZIO M651d-A2R 65-Inch 1080p 240Hz 3D Smart LED HDTV, June 11, 2013

Went to Best Buy the other day to check out this new Vizio tv on display. The salesmen wouldn’t stop talking about how amazing the picture was on the new Sony 4K tv they had on display. The guy then proceeded to show me the images on the Sony provided USB drive and how much better this Sony could show the images than the Samsung across from it which he said was in his opinion one of the next best tv’s out there. The images showed the tv’s ability to display different colors as well as the ability to distinguish between different grays ranging from white to black. Also it’s ability to display different Reds on an image similar to a vision test for color blindness.

On each of these images the samsung struggled and couldn’t display differences for about 1/3 of the color and gray bars. The Sonly 4K could. Then on the color blindness image it couldn’t display a discernible image at all. It wasn’t even visible.

I said “ok, well I’m really interested in this new Vizio, can you show me how it performs on the same test?” “Sure, but it probably won’t do to well” the salesman said. They hadn’t had a chance to really mess with it yet.

He ran through all the same images and to his amazement, every single image looked almost identical to the Sony 4K’s image. His reaction was total astonishment, it was hilarious!! He couldn’t believe his eyes. I told him thanks, that test only proved you don’t have to spend crazy money to get an amazing picture!!
These new Vizio’s are an amazing bang for the buck. In my opinion, anyone that spends their hard earned money on anything else just for a better known name is crazy.

Hope this helps some of you that are still nervous about the Vizio name being an entry level type of tv as I was, they have really stepped up their game!!

I have purchased this TV myself and I love it. The only think I don’t like is the remote SUCKS big time. It is the most aggrivating remote I have ever used!!! How can you make such an awesome TV and include such a trashy remote? Oh well. Just have to program my universal one to cover all it’s functions that I can.

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COMPUTER USERS – Read my review!, June 26, 2013

First off, I am primarily a computer user. I value frames per second (refresh rate) and motion fluidity over other features like apps. My greatest discovery with this TV in regards to getting the smooth motion to work as close to perfect as possible when viewing videos on your computer can be found near the end of this review. It’s pretty much the last paragraph.

Bought from Walmart for 799 before tax. The box was in horrible condition. I had it shipped site to store. I was worried I got a refurbished model or something it was so bad, but everything was in good working order inside. Hooked it up without any issue.

CONTROLLER: is pretty horrible. I had a previous Vizio model which had the same issues with the controller. It’s like you have to press hard on the keys and hold them for longer to get it to respond. Not sure if it’s a controller issue what, but it is annoying.

SOUND: The sound I consider pretty good for a TV. The problem is, that they have the annoying sound leveling feature which turns up volume in low parts of the movie and you hear a bunch of fuzz. If you turn it off, it seems that you can barely hear the conversations over the background effects and music. A solution to this would be send the audio out to an external system. I don’t have an external system, so I figured I’d use a pair of computer speakers. Unfortunately, this is the first TV that doesn’t have a 3.5mm mini-jack (headphone) for audio out. Frankly I’m surprised they’ve held on this long, but now that it’s gone, I miss it. The only audio out are RCA and optical for this TV

FIRMWARE: Mine came out of the box with firmware version 1.29xxxx. This is the “old” firmware. The new is 1.4xxx. I followed the instructions of another review to get the firmware to update. Mind you, after registering, hooking up to your home network, and hitting the service call option in the system settings, the firmware will update when you have your TV turned OFF. I turned it off for about 15 minutes and came back, and it didn’t update. Turned it off, and went to the computer to open a Chat with Vizio support, and during that time, it had updated the firmware. To be safe, I would say, let your TV remain off for a half an hour and you should see something if you’re lucky like me.

PICTURE QUALITY: is great, it comes out of the box with the screen temperature on the cool side. I like mine a little more towards the warm side and changing it was a breeze. Apps are fine. I really have nothing to compare it too though, as most vizios I assume are alike, and my only other experience with a smart TV was a vizio as well. The “standard” preset for picture settings has the sharpness turned up to 70/100. This is much higher than what you would see on most screens. Normal for me was around 40/100. Other than that, I feel that the picture quality is great. Love the thin bezel.

LET’S GET TO WHAT REALLY MATTERS!!! Smooth motion, frames per second, 3D, and can you force 3D and smooth motion effects when viewing a signal sent from your pc through HDMI. So let’s start off with it’s 240hz claim. Using the online chat support through the vizio website, I talked to a rep about this who really didn’t know her stuff. What I wanted to know was what was the true refresh rate of the TV, and what was interpolated. I don’t completely understand how the TV’s do what they do, but I know enough to be dangerous. The rep knew less than I did. Through educating myself online and what little knowledge I learned from her, I can tell you that there are no “TV”s in the US that accept a signal input of greater than 60hz. The only way a TV in the US can claim to output a frame rate higher than 60hz is to take the existing 60 frames, and create frames in between them that are an average of the two frames. This is called interpolation. This doubles the frames per second and makes motion look more fluid. Long story short, the rep told me that they interpolate up to 120hz, and the 240hz is only used during 3D. So I suppose the advantage for this model is that you can view the smooth motion effect during 3D where you couldn’t before. I don’t know if this is fact, but it is what I assume at this point. I was really hoping that the TV could accept 120hz signal from my computer but that is not the case, and it looks like won’t be the case for another decade.

I am very happy to report that AFTER the firmware update, I can turn the 3D on and off whenever and wherever I want. With my last vizio 3D tv and before the firmware update of this one, I could only turn on 3D when the TV decided it was appropriate, which is crazy for many reason which you can read about in other reviews. Also with this firmware update, the smooth motion options seem to work at all times with a signal from HDMI. Before, it would only turn on smooth motion when I was viewing a video in full screen that had a…

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Awesome!, June 9, 2013

By 

J. Haindel “Jay” (Louisiana) –

  

Customer Video Review Length:: 0:24 Mins

First, I would like to say, We love this Television! We have had it a couple of days now, and I can find very little to complain about. The set came 3 days earlier than what was estimated and the delivery men set it up making sure the set was working properly before they left. The TV set up was easy without a hitch.

This purchase came with a price guarantee for 14 days. There was a price drop and Amazon came through on that too, reimbursing me the difference. What a company!

The picture quality is unbelievable. The blacks are really BLACK with even more than enough brightness, contrast and color saturation than necessary. Someone said, it was like the characters on the program were in the room. In 3D, I have to agree.
The screen is very glossy though. Many people complained about this on last year’s model, but I love it. There is a discernible picture quality increase with a glossy screen, in my opinion. I even chose this kind of screen for my computer monitor and have never regretted it, but if you watch TV during the day and have light coming from in back of you, there will definitely be reflections. I think the discernible increase in picture quality outweighs the reflection problem.

There is some light bleed around the bottom edges of the screen on a total black picture. It is not noticeable on normal viewing, however.

The remote is nice but only works for the TV. It is sometimes a little slow and sporadic reacting but tolerable. If you have satellite, a DVD player or some other device you will have to be swapping remotes or opting for a universal remote. Too bad this is not something supplied considering the cost of the TV and how inexpensive the programmable remotes are these days.

The internet works great and was easy to set up. Netflix has some 3D content now and gives even more entertainment. The 3D is something you will just have to see to appreciate! It is the best we have seen yet. Even my 21 year old grandson, who hates 3D in the movie theater (said it makes him sick), marveled over the quality of the 3D picture. It is displayed in 720 though, not 1080 for reasons, I am not sure why. Maybe all of the sets do the same. I could not tell the difference from 1080 though. They are both stunningly clear.

This TV replaced our old plasma TV we have had for several years. On the old set, you could feel the heat anywhere around it. This one runs perfectly cool burning very little electricity as well as not heating up the room.

The viewing angle is reported as 179 degrees. It does fade from extreme angles however, much to my surprise, I still got great 3D even from 50 degrees to the right and left of the center, a total of 100 degrees. The direct center is the sweet spot with a slightly better picture though.

The sound quality is fine. No deep base but fine for voice, much clearer than my old TV. I am not real fond of the “surround sound” feature as it sounds kind of hollow.

The glasses are fine, all 8 of them. I think they are a little better quality than the movie theater variety and seem to be a little lighter in weight which is nice on the nose. By the way, the movie glasses work just fine with this television and are often given away at the theaters.

We could not be happier with this Television. It is great entertainment that, compared to most other sources of entertainment, it is a real bargain. I highly recommend this television.

7/17/2013

Had this TV for over a month now and still as happy as when we first bought it. To get rid of most of the light bleeding, we solved this by turning down the back lighting. This actually improved the picture. It is now set to 53. The remote problem was solved by taping a 2″ by 1″ piece of aluminum foil to the back of the TV, angled to the front , to reflect the IR signal to the sensor, which is below the “on” light on the left side of the TV. The remote works fine now.

For the 65″ model, we found these settings to be best for us. (I tried them all and this one is right on, in my opinion):

(Calibrated Dark) Back Light 53 Brightness 51 Contrast 77 Color 50 Tint 0 Sharpness 60 Color Temp Cool Smart dimming On The other color settings were left as is.

The only deficit is voice sync with Netflix. I think it is a problem with their services and is only noticeable on their 3D movies. We love this TV!

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