New TV. Vizio VP422 (yes, I know)

[painted_klown]

Hey gang,

I have to admit I am pretty psyched. I just upgraded my television from a CRT 30" Philips to a 42" plasma screen!!!

Yes, I am aware that it is a Vizio and I am aware of how people feel about them. I will give all of you my honest, and objective opinion. First let me tell you about how I came about buying this display.

I have an old friend who had recently fell on some hard times and needed some extra cash. He has had the tv for nearly a year now and is constantly hearing me go on and on about how I want to get a big plasma screen tv. Well he called me up a couple of days ago and made me an offer that I could not refuse.

$400.00 for a year old 42" Vizio plasma. I said SOLD!!!

It was half what he paid for it new and it gives me a nice upgrade on the cheap. Plus he REALLY needed the money (and was hoping that I would buy it) so...it was an old friend helping an old friend. A win-win situation. Since is he is an old friend I advised him that if he wakes up one day and regrets selling his t.v. then he could have it back for the same price. No hard feelings. To me it's just a t.v. and I was going to buy something anyway.

Coming this Tuesday I am going to have him and several friends over for a Transformers marathon all day!!! It will be playing all day and all my friends are invited over for a "screening" LOL!!! Should be a rocking good time. I am actually hoping that my local Wal-Mart will get some copies of the first movie as I (and everyone I know) only have dvd copies and I am thinking it would be cool to do both movies back to back all day.

Ok, now for the moment of truth...my honest review of my Vizio t.v.

I do like it. I find the picture to be quite acceptable (not phenominal) and looks better than most non-home theater buffs televisions. Also I have calibrated it (to the best of my extent with the help of cnet, thx dvds, and thx blue filter glasses) and that certainly helps considerably.

The considerable increase in screen size from my 30" is visually impressive from my viewing distance of approximately 12 feet or so. The level of detail is astounding from this distance and watching Men In Black was pure joy. I was able to see every wrinkle, blemish, bump, and hair on the faces of both Mr. Jones and Mr. Smith.

I am, however, a bit dissapointed with the colors on this screen. It's not that I find them to be un-natural or anything like that but it seemed to me that my older t.v. screen "popped" more and gave me more "wow" moments while watching blus. The Vizio has almost a lackluster picture that, while looks nice, fails to really make you take notice with eye popping goodness. On the plus side I did find that this screen has a more "natural" picture when compared to my old one. Also movies with heavy grain (Wizard of Oz, Fifth Element) look really good, extremely film like, and completely natural with no glaring anomolies or annoyances. Or perhaps I am just easily satisfied...

The black level is also a tad dissapointing in my opinion. Going from a 720p/1080i CRT television (that had seriously DEEP blacks) to this screen is a letdown to be sure. I ALWAYS watch movies without any lights on so getting great blacks is a must and makes for a better viewing expeience. This screen does get pretty dark, and if you engage the black extender it gets even deeper, however I am hesitant to leave it engaged as I do not want to lose delineation and detail in shadows. Thus I am left with a "not-quite-black" black level.

All things considered I don't think I did too bad and I really do enjoy having such a large screen size upgrade. Plus I now have time to save of for a 65" Panasonic v10 plasma. LOL...I wish...

So, there it is. My honest and unbiased review and comparison of my new Vizio VP422 plasma screen. Thanks for reading and I hope some of you will find this to be informative, or at least midly entertaining.

EDIT: MY Blu-ray player is a PS3 "fat" 80 GB model connected to my t.v. via a monoprice HDMI cable and set to output 1080p.