New VIZIO Plasmas Starting at $599

[McBain]

Press release:

VIZIO Introduces New HDTV Plasmas Starting At Only $599

Irvine, CA – June 25, 2008 - VIZIO, the fastest growing brand of flat panel HDTVs in North America, announced the release of two new plasma models, the VP422 ($799) and VP322 ($599), offering next generation plasma performance with a remarkable contrast ratio of 30,000:1, providing super deep blacks and brilliant colors. Both models offer extremely fluid and uninterrupted motion, making them a great choice for viewing sporting events, playing fastpaced video games or watching action-packed movies.

Both models provide superb high-definition 720p native resolution with enhanced picture controls, multiple color temperature settings and independent Red/Green/Blue adjustment to optimize video performance to any source. Component video, RGB PC and 3 HDMI (1 side panel HD Game Port) inputs for connecting high definition sources directly to the TV accompany standard definition inputs along with an ATSC/QAM/NTSC tuner. These two midsized HDTVs are perfect for consumers who want to start enjoying HD broadcasts and Blu-ray discs or even for a large multi-use TV/monitor for PC use and gaming.

Plasma TVs continue to offer many performance advantages for HDTV with better black levels, higher contrast ratios and fast refresh rates for sports, games and action movies. The VP322 and VP422 are VIZIO’s newest models using the latest generation glass that provides increased brightness levels for viewing in high ambient light conditions and a 60,000-hour half-life to ensure many years of enjoyment. Now more consumers can enjoy the videophile-quality of plasma HDTVs in their homes with the attractively priced VP322 ($599.99) and VP422 ($799.99).

Additionally, according to Tamaryn Pratt of Quixel Research, VIZIO had North America’s #1 top selling plasma* along with the best-selling 32” and 37” LCD TVs in the first quarter of 2008. “In a traditionally slow quarter VIZIO charged forward with their VP50HDTV outselling all other plasma TVs in the category and was the only manufacturer to increase unit sales quarter-toquarter, stated Pratt. “The company’s earlier plasma success and their new lineup of 32” and 42” models puts VIZIO well on their way to increasing plasma market share again 2008. Their 32” plasma TV pricing is ‘spot on’ and offers consumers an option at the 32” screen size where they are very familiar with VIZIO because of their best selling LCD TVs,” Pratt concluded.

"America’s consumers have made the 32 and 37” LCD HDTVs their best sellers," said Laynie Newsome, Vice President of Sales and Marketing at VIZIO. "With these mid-sized plasmas now available from VIZIO and Wal-Mart, combined with our traditionally best-selling 50” plasmas, we are looking for significant growth in this category for 2008. We just love the look and picture quality of plasma HDTVs. When they find their way into American homes, we should see many new VIZIO plasma fans."

Wal-Mart has been instrumental in expanding VIZIO's national distribution and an ideal retail partner due to their shared values, where the success of both companies is based on reputations for providing customers quality products and service at remarkable prices. In fact Wal-Mart named VIZIO their “Electronics Supplier of the Year” in 2007. Highlighting this success, VIZIO was ranked recently as North America’s fastest growing and the #2 ranked brand of flat panel
HDTVs in the first quarter of 2008 by both DisplaySearch** and iSuppli Research.

The new VIZIO VP322 and VP422 plasma HDTVs started shipping in May at all 3,400 North American Wal-Mart locations.

About VIZIO
VIZIO, Inc. "Where Vision Meets Value," headquartered in Irvine, California, is America’s #1 LCD HDTV Company**. The VIZIO brand has been seen and heard on TV and radio, including NBC's Today Show, ABC's Good Morning America, Dr. Phil, The Ellen Show and Live with Regis and Kelly, won numerous awards from leading publications including a #1 Ranking in the Inc. 500 for Top Companies in Computers and Electronics, Good Housekeeping's Best Big-Screens, CNET's Top 10 Holiday Gifts, PC World's Best Buy, Sound & Vision's Editors Choice, Home Theater Magazine's Rave Award, PC Magazine's Editors Choice, AVRev.com's #1 Product We Love the Best and The Perfect Vision's Products of the Year. VIZIO is bringing vision to the consumer electronics market through practical innovation. VIZIO products offer customers advanced technologies at the most affordable value. Products include the VIZIO, Maximvs and Gallevia lines of Plasma and LCD HDTVs. Many of these products can be found at BJ's Wholesale, Circuit City, Costco Wholesale, Sam's Club, Sears, Wal-Mart, and other retailers nationwide along with authorized online partners. For more information, please call 888-VIZIOCE or visit on the web at www.VIZIO.com.

The V, VIZIO, Gallevia, Maximvs, Where Vision Meets Value names, phrase and symbols are trademarks or registered trademarks of VIZIO, Inc. All other trademarks may be the property of their respective holders.

*Quixel Research reports VIZIO had North America’s #1 and #2 best-selling plasma HDTV’s in Q’1 2008.
** DisplaySearch research for 20”+ LCD HDTVs in year end 2007.

[Xerious]

Originally Posted by McBain

Press release:

bah, no thanx. vizio is trash.

[stockstar1138]

I know that food and oil prices have been rising, but poop prices too?

[dobyblue]

Regardless, Vizio lead all manufacturers in LCD sales in Q2/07 - if they can bring HDTV to a wider market it will help with Blu-ray adoption.

There will always be budget TV's, they just will rarely appeal to people posting on A/V forums which I believe this section of Blu-ray.com appeals to.

[Beta Man]

a 42" for 8 Bills???? cheap.... don't expect much quality wise, but for an extra "above the bar" t.v. or for a den etc... that's a steal.

[stockstar1138]

Originally Posted by dobyblue

Regardless, Vizio lead all manufacturers in LCD sales in Q2/07 - if they can bring HDTV to a wider market it will help with Blu-ray adoption.

There will always be budget TV's, they just will rarely appeal to people posting on A/V forums which I believe this section of Blu-ray.com appeals to.

i have a big concern with this mentality. and i know there is going to be somebody tell me otherwise, but this is what i believe, so i don't care.

these crappy little vizios that are 720p for $500 are going to make people make the jump to HD correct? yep and thats swell.

Now they are going to hook up a blu-ray player with Casino Royale or something and from 15 feet away from their 32 inch, 720p vizio go, hmmm.....blu-ray doesn't look any better than dvd, i guess its just a marketing gimmick.

and then they are going to tell their friends that blu-ray is all hype and its not that great, and that dvd is fine, and blah! blah! blah! and it WILL hurt adoption.

i know somebody is gonna be like, Blu-ray looks so much better than DVD on my 27 inch Element that i sit 10 feet a way from, you don't know what im talking about stockstar1138. and you know what, those people are trying to justify the fact that they don't see a difference.

i have a 40 inch, not huge by any means, I have 20/20 vision and even when i sit more than 10 feet away from my HDTV, i have a hard time seeing a big difference between blu-ray and dvd. I just don't see how people with HDTVs less than my 40 inch can see a difference unless they are right on top of the TV. Note, I sit 3-4 feet away from my TV normally, so yes, i am right on top of my TV.

seriously, if i had a tv that crappy, i wouldn't bother with blu-ray. I almost bought a 40 inch 1080p westinghouse and i am so happy i found blu-ray.com and didnt.

[arush5268d]

That's a lot of pay for a load of manure.

[JJ]

Picking one up for my bedroom - can't go wrong with Vizio, from my experience owning them. Plasma? Sold.

[arush5268d]

Originally Posted by JJxiv1215

Picking one up for my bedroom - can't go wrong with Vizio, from my experience owning them. Plasma? Sold.

I'm buying 4

[JJ]

Originally Posted by arush5268d

I'm buying 4

Send some of those sarcastic remarks...err, imaginary money...my way.

[stockstar1138]

one thing thats nice about vizios, is they don't have any black bars on any movies.

instead you get grey bars!!!

[Layd Dly]

People seem to forget that not all companies cater to the elite snobs like ourselves. The mainstream doesnt give a crap about 720P 1080i or 1080P They just see HDTV and thats it marketing at its finest. And at the end of the day Vizio is still laughing all the way to the bank.

[JJ]

Originally Posted by stockstar1138

one thing thats nice about vizios, is they don't have any black bars on any movies.

instead you get grey bars!!!

30,000 contrast ratio on these plasmas? Heck, all LCDs get grey bars.

[JJ]

Eh, this thread is about to devolve into Vizio hate again. ::goes off::

[LOTR07]

Originally Posted by stockstar1138

i have a big concern with this mentality. and i know there is going to be somebody tell me otherwise, but this is what i believe, so i don't care.

these crappy little vizios that are 720p for $500 are going to make people make the jump to HD correct? yep and thats swell.

Now they are going to hook up a blu-ray player with Casino Royale or something and from 15 feet away from their 32 inch, 720p vizio go, hmmm.....blu-ray doesn't look any better than dvd, i guess its just a marketing gimmick.

and then they are going to tell their friends that blu-ray is all hype and its not that great, and that dvd is fine, and blah! blah! blah! and it WILL hurt adoption.

i know somebody is gonna be like, Blu-ray looks so much better than DVD on my 27 inch Element that i sit 10 feet a way from, you don't know what im talking about stockstar1138. and you know what, those people are trying to justify the fact that they don't see a difference.

i have a 40 inch, not huge by any means, I have 20/20 vision and even when i sit more than 10 feet away from my HDTV, i have a hard time seeing a big difference between blu-ray and dvd. I just don't see how people with HDTVs less than my 40 inch can see a difference unless they are right on top of the TV. Note, I sit 3-4 feet away from my TV normally, so yes, i am right on top of my TV.

seriously, if i had a tv that crappy, i wouldn't bother with blu-ray. I almost bought a 40 inch 1080p westinghouse and i am so happy i found blu-ray.com and didnt.

I think i have to disagree in a way.....I own an 52XBR in the family room and a 42 Vizio in the bedroom both of which are hooked up to PS3. Even on the Vizio you can see the difference between standard and Blu. If anything the vizio makes the standard look worse and Blu that much better IMO. In the bedroom we watch at least 8 foot away and you can tell a big difference between the two....but you are correct also inthat some people just don't care about any kind of quality just what can i get right now.......my $0.02

[stockstar1138]

Originally Posted by JJxiv1215

30,000 contrast ratio on these plasmas? Heck, all LCDs get grey bars.

guraenteed thats dynamic.

there is absolutely no standard whatsoever for measuring contrast ratios. they are some of the most bs statitistics out there.

i would bet that a sony xbr4, samsung 6,7, or 8 series which are lcds beat out this plasma in terms of contrast. despite all but the 81 series samsungs having lower contrast ratings on their spec sheets.

[Beta Man]

Originally Posted by stockstar1138;978686.

Now they are going to hook up a blu-ray player with Casino Royale or something and from 15 feet away from their 32 inch, 720p vizio go, hmmm.....blu-ray doesn't look any better than dvd, i guess its just a marketing gimmick.

The only way for your average Wal*Mart Consumer to sit 15 feet from their T.V. will be to sit outside

[stockstar1138]

Originally Posted by LOTR07

I think i have to disagree in a way.....I own an 52XBR in the family room and a 42 Vizio in the bedroom both of which are hooked up to PS3. Even on the Vizio you can see the difference between standard and Blu. If anything the vizio makes the standard look worse and Blu that much better IMO. In the bedroom we watch at least 8 foot away and you can tell a big difference between the two....but you are correct also inthat some people just don't care about any kind of quality just what can i get right now.......my $0.02

not talking about the 42 incher, im talking about the 32 incher. which is the one the thread title is about.

most lcds (even the article said it) are between 32 and 37 inches, which personally i think is a bad thing for blu-ray.

also, you are a HT enthusist, most families (if they have an HDTV) its in their living room, very few non-ht enthusisits, have HDTVs of decent size in their bedrooms, much less a BD player.

[JJ]

Originally Posted by stockstar1138

guraenteed thats dynamic.

there is absolutely no standard whatsoever for measuring contrast ratios. they are some of the most bs statitistics out there.

i would bet that a sony xbr4, samsung 6,7, or 8 series which are lcds beat out this plasma in terms of contrast. despite all but the 81 series samsungs having lower contrast ratings on their spec sheets.

Probably dynamic. And I do agree with you that contrast ratios are a bs stat. In any case - Vizios are not meant for us. Remember this. We call them all BS, yet most of us have never even used them. I have, and had no problems with the two sets I owned. Or the few people I know who have them. But I stand by what I say about most LCDs having grey bars.

We just need to forget about Vizio and stop turning into barbarians every time they are mentioned. Not everyone can afford the nice TVs (good god, this point is brought up every time Vizio is said) - in any case, what is wrong with it? Small size, big size, 720p, 1080p - the difference between Blu-ray and DVD is noticeable. I noticed a huge dif when I made the move from DVD to Blu-ray - on a 32" 720p Vizio LCD. It's hugely obvious. People don't move their sofas or seats back when they get a new TV. Argh.

And yes, Wicky, Vizio are horrible people for not paying royalties and have horrible return rates, I've heard you every time this brand is mentioned.

[stockstar1138]

Originally Posted by JJxiv1215

Probably dynamic. And I do agree with you that contrast ratios are a bs stat. In any case - Vizios are not meant for us. Remember this. We call them all BS, yet most of us have never even used them. I have, and had no problems with the two sets I owned. Or the few people I know who have them. But I stand by what I say about most LCDs having grey bars.
We just need to forget about Vizio and stop turning into barbarians every time they are mentioned. Not everyone can afford the nice TVs (good god, this point is brought up every time Vizio is said) - in any case, what is wrong with it? Small size, big size, 720p, 1080p - the difference between Blu-ray and DVD is noticeable. I noticed a huge dif when I made the move from DVD to Blu-ray - on a 32" 720p Vizio LCD. It's hugely obvious. People don't move their sofas or seats back when they get a new TV. Argh.

sony xbr8