Westinghouse UW40TC1W 40-Inch 1080p 120Hz LED HDTV

A hard working over achiever, August 23, 2012

By 

Damodar Chetty (Minnesota, US [www.swengsol.com]) –

  

  

This Westinghouse is one surprising TV. It delivers great performance in a slender package and at a decent price point.

What works well?
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++ TV is ultra thin, and attractive, with a really unobtrusive bezel with a nice knurled finish.
++ Setup was a breeze. Fasten the base using 4 screws, connect your input devices, and power up!
++ Uses a faster refresh rate of 120Hz to reduce motion blur.
++ Default picture settings were more than adequate.
++ The control menus are very intuitive (except for a couple of picture controls found in the Power Settings menu).
++ Impressive array of connection options. You have a coax input, a VGA input, 2 HDMI inputs, and even a composite video input.
++ Excellent remote design. There are a ton of hard buttons for common uses – which means less hunting through menus. You can pick the input, turn on CC, change the aspect ratio, display the program guide, mute audio, and more, just using these hard buttons.

So what doesn’t work well?
##################

— Sound output is its Achilles heel. As with most other flat panel TVs, you really need an external amplifier.
— Its controls provide only a limited range, which is a problem if you are really picky about your picture.
— No component video input.

Conclusion
########

Overall, its picture impressed us – right out of the box. Colors were natural, black levels looked spot on, and even the color temperature looked just fine. We are using this in our fitness area, where it works great. Given what it delivers, this is definitely a 4-star product. Slightly better audio and more video control range would have made this a truly exceptional TV.

Notes
####

# I am using the Paper Thin Leaf Indoor HDTV Antenna to receive over-the-air HDTV channels.
# I was a bit upset by its distracting power light, but was overjoyed to discover that I could turn it off! Another example of great usability design by Westinghouse’s engineers.
# Another nod to usability is when changing the setting of any control, such as brightness, contrast, etc. In addition to the usual bar that shows the current setting as you change it, the TV also displays the original value before you began making your changes – allowing you to easily undo changes.

Happy TV Viewing!
~Damodar

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 Comments (4)

Solid, Nice Looking, LED TV, September 9, 2012

By 

prisrob “pris,” (New England USA) –

  

  

Overall this Westinghouse LED TV seems like a pretty decent TV. The picture quality is quite nice. The sound is not quite where It should be. Wouldn’t say it’s bad but it sounds a bit tinny and voices can be low while other sounds are loud. The speakers are rated at 10watts each.

One odd thing has to do with the physical screen depth. It has a very thin profile on the upper half as most LED backlit TVs do, but the lower half ends up being quite fat because of the speaker housings. The top is about 3/4″ thick, while the bottom balloons out to 2-3/4″. This may not sound like much but if you planned to mount it to a wall and wanted a very flush look, this set is not for you. Not a problem if mounted to the table stand, however. The listing claims a ‘super slim 1.5″ edge profile, with a Maximum thickness of 1.5″ for an easy fit in any space or on any wall’.

My son noted that it comes with a very primitive remote control. It has all the functions you might want, but it will only control the TV (not other devices as some do) and it is not an example of good ergonomic design. It also feels quite flimsy and may not hold up well to heavy use. It’ll do the job, but not much more.

While on the subject of remotes, my son has used one of the well regarded Logitech Harmony universal remotes and has setup many different devices on it in the last 3 or 4 years with not a single bit of trouble. With this Westinghouse TV however he was unable to get the Power button to function at all with theHarmony 600 remote. All other functions from the original remote work just fine when programmed into the Harmony, but not power, which quite obviously is a very necessary feature. After some web research it became apparent this is a common problem with Westinghouse TVs and there does appear to be a work-around, though it requires the help of Logitech Support personnel, and he has not yet worked his way through their support backlog. If his web research is correct then he should get this working within a few days. Others would have given up in frustration.

The set has a decent, though not extravagant, selection of inputs. I needed HDMI and Component inputs for the devices I wanted to connect. HDMI was no problem as the TV has 2 of those, but even though the listing claims it there are no Component inputs. So I had to settle for Composite (of which it has 1). It also offers one each of VGA and RF inputs along with a single analog audio out.

The on-screen menu is graphically pretty but has just the basic set of options. You get the standard array of picture controls including Brightness, Contrast, Saturation, Sharpness, Color Temp and Hue, along with 4 presets. For audio you get Bass, Treble, Balance and the ability to turn the speaker or the SS3D feature off entirely as well as some presets. There are also general settings for Date, Display Timeout, Language, Power Light control, Dynamic Contrast control and Backlight settings.

Basic is probably the word I would use to describe this TV set in general. It covers all the basics and does them fairly well. If you are looking for a solid nice looking LED TV at a reasonable price then this set will likely fit the bill.

The pricing on this television seems to change. Before I received the set, the price was $499, then it went down to $399, and now it is $429. So, check before you purchase to get the best price.

Addendum related to the Logitech Harmony Universal Remote: It took a lot of back and forth with Logitech support and they had to fix the problem on their end, but they finally got it corrected. You will have to get Logitech to apply the same change to their account.

Recommended. prisrob 09-09-12

Westinghouse LD-4655VX 46″ Edge-lit LED HDTV

Original Brand New Westinghouse LCD HDTV RMC-02 Remote Control (5041811800) for SK26H590 SK26H590D SK32H540S SK32H590 SK32H590D SK32H590DA SK40H590D VK40F580D VK40H580D Ships from and sold by WennoW

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 Comments (6)

This is a great TV, September 1, 2012

I’ve had this tv for about 6 months and it’s great! No problems, no worries. One thing I would mention though is that Target also sells this TV, I got it on sale for $330, so there are better prices around (normally I think it’s $370).

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