Westinghouse UW40T2BW 40-Inch 1080p 120HZ Slim LED HDTV

Good looking TV–very basic in features. Other review is false., October 30, 2012

I would like to start my review by commenting on the other review. I viewed the TV at Costco and it is, in fact, NOT the same TV. It has the same specs, but is not in fact the same model number. The TV at Costco had a much more dull, inaccurate color to it as well. I think this is the difference between this tv and the UW40TC1W.

On the TV itself: The TV’s picture is really good for the money. I am using a Dish Satellite with a Joey Hopper and it looks great. I use it in my bedroom and lie about 8-10 feet away (head to screen). I hooked up my BR Drive and the picture was clear and crisp (not vivid or exciting like a Samsung, but still very good). (Make sure your input is set to 1080p–I was watching 480p until I realized there was a difference in my Dish Joey settings).

Pros: Price, picture, size, LED, 120Hz, 1080p, calibration presets

Cons: Basic remote, lackluster feature set (hard to adjust and calibrate picture, but see above), not smart TV, and no “smooth motion setting”

Overall, the TV is priced right, but not a 5 start TV at all. Given the price, I can only knock one star. It is what it is and it’s not trying to be anything it isn’t. See cons.

Update: Wanted to add that I have not attempted to mount this. The TV is breaking in some and looks better every week to me. I have used it with my HP DV7 to play Bluray and they look pretty darned good. I also hooked it up to my desktop via my GTX295 and enjoyed COD4 and BFBC2 with lots of immersion. I have always wanted to play on something this large. Paired with the GTX295 and an HDMI cable, games look great with little screen lag.

Side note: I received the TV with absolutely 0 dead pixels or any other cosmetic issues. I might just be lucky, but in the some 12 devices I have owned with flat panels, only my PSP had a single dead pixel. I feel terribly sorry for those with as many as 5-6 with any given brand, but no issues at all here!

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No Frills, Crazy Wall Mount, High Value, November 24, 2012

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Nerd Alert (USA) –

  

My first HDTV was a Westinghouse, and I was thrilled! It was around 8 years ago, and things have changed quite a bit. Standards are higher and prices are lower. With so many companies trying to get our attention, can Westinghouse still compete in the low end market?

BUILD

My first impression of this TV was, “This is a Westinghouse? It looks fancy.” The bezel is nicely understated and pretty thin, and the TV is very slim considering the low price. Compared to the Seiki TV I recently reviewed, this TV looks like it is from the future. It does not look like a $1000+ TV, but it doesn’t look cheap.

The USB port can’t be used for pictures or movies. It is for firmware updates, if the TV ever needs them, and would most likely be used only by a repair technician. The port does provide the 5V signal if you need it for a peripheral such as a USB Wii sensor bar.

The Westinghouse I bought 8 years ago was built like a tank. When it recently died, I took it apart and it was full of thick metal. Similarly, the stand was very heavy duty. The stand for the UW40T2BW is pretty flimsy in comparison, though I think it will hold up decently. The TV does easily wobble and needs to be somewhere very stable, though there is an included hole to screw it to the furniture if that is an option. My TV stand has a glass top.

PICTURE QUALITY

If you want chromaticity diagrams of the standard color spaces, I have uploaded them to the image gallery. If you don’t know what they mean, the gist is that the color reproduction is pretty standard to better than average for a low end TV. However, some areas look a bit blotchy. This is probably not the panel’s inadequacy, but some sort of processing that is done to the picture. Unfortunately, processing can not be turned off on this TV. Still, I was very happy with the picture quality for the most part after calibration, and 1080p movies looked great.

LCD TVs used to be awful with quick motion, such as a camera panning across a scene. My old TV left a smeary trail. This is not an issue with most newer TVs, but still is in some at the lowest price range. Thankfully, the UW40T2BW had no such issues. The only problem is that there are no options for the way it converts standard frame rates to 120 Hz (motion interpolation, etc.). Sound like techno babble? If you’ve seen a fancy TV make everything look a bit sped up, you’ve seen a perhaps overdone version of motion interpolation. Some people love it after they adapt, while others hate it. Most TVs have an option to adjust it, but the UW40T2BW has one setting, which is pretty subtle.

If you are planning to use a TV as a computer monitor, I think it is worth considering this one. It has a true 1:1 mode, so there is no issue with overscan. However, with black text on grey, there is sometimes a garbled color field around the text. This may be the result of the same processing that makes some imagery look a bit smeared. It is not an issue for most webpages I viewed.

EDIT: I forgot to mention that this TV has wide viewing angles. I can look at it from a pretty sharp angle before the picture washes out, and even then it looks pretty good.

WALL MOUNTING

I would generally not include anything about mounting in my reviews, since I’ve mounted many TVs and the process is always the same. However, looking at the back of this TV will give you an immediate migraine if you are planning to mount it. It is almost like they intentionally sabotaged anyone who would dare try. The screw holes are place next to a recessed area, so you won’t have access to them without building out some strange structure with spacers.

While I’m sure that where there is a will, there is a way, I highly suggest looking elsewhere if you plan to mount your TV. Even if you figure out a way to do it, it will probably look like a mess.

EDIT: There was a will and a way. Joshua Merrill wrote a review in which he describes the issues with wall mounting. The size is not the standard one in Amazon’s description. He found that the Sanus AMF112-B1 did the trick. If you plan to mount the TV, I suggest reading his review and giving him a helpful vote. I don’t know why Westinghouse made it so difficult/specific, but at least there is a solution. The downside is that this is not an ultra flush type mount. Those are both cheap and look really nice on thin TVs like this one. Ah well.

Big_G also let me know that he was able to do it in the comments, and I am hoping he will give us pictures and more information. His approach seems to be more DIY (just buy longer screws and add spacers/shims until it works). If you go this route, make sure to properly match the threading of the screws to avoid making a return trip to the hardware store.

SOUND

Like most modern HDTVs, the speakers on the UW40T2BW do…

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