VIZIO VA370M 37-Inch Full HD 1080p LCD HDTV

Lowest Price

: 579.99

Brand

: Vizio

Model

: VA370M

Reviewer: Stephen R. Spurgin| Date:2010-01-25

I was ready to purchase this set on 2/1/2010. I put it in my cart on January 22. At that time the TV was $469.00. It had been as low as $399.00 before Christmas. At $469.00 I still thought this TV was worth the price. However, the price has gone up to $649.00 as of the 24th of January. After only two days in my cart, Amazon now refuses to honor the lower price. I give this set one star because it is no longer available at a reasonable price. At the higher price, I recommend shopping Samsung or Sony at Walmart or Best Buy online. To Amazon's credit, I have purchased more than one TV set in the past, and many other products. Amazon has always been quick to fix any order, return, or any problem I have had in every way. Until now. How is it that a TV is worth $180.00 more today than it was yesterday? I have shopped the competitors, and I have never seen such a price hike on any item in any retail outlet, ever... S.Spurgin

Review from Review from Amazon

Reviewer: B. Meek| Date:2010-01-23

I was satsified with the picture and sound quality of the Vizio VA370M, a great value for the money, but I was sad to discover that the Vizio name, front and center beneath the picture, is constantly lit whenever the unit is plugged in. There is no way to turn it off short of unplugging the set.

The lit Vizio logo is a too-bright white color when the TV is on (distracting but tolerable), and a constant amber light when the TV is powered off (sigh...). The manual and the Vizio Web site ignore this feature, while a Web search reveals the consumer concensus that the light can't be turned off - folks either cover it with something, unplug the set when it's not in use, or live with it.

I went ahead and called Vizio tech support and a nice guy named James explained that the light on some new models can be turned off through the on-screen menu. He then researched the situation and confirmed there's no way to turn it off on this model (VIZIO VA370M). At least the Vizio marketing folks seem to have heard the message.

I bought this set for the bedroom, and while the mere presence of a big TV hanging on the wall is intrusive enough, a bright amber "Vizio" floating in the dark is unacceptable. Since I can't be bothered to come up with an asthetically-acceptable cover to hide this light, the set is going back. My official reason for the return was that the "product is not as described on Amazon", since this night-light feature was not clearly disclosed. I hope Amazon can be reimbursed by Vizio for the return shipping ('cause Amazon graciously agreed not to charge me for it).

Buyer beware...

Review from Review from Amazon

Reviewer: S. A. Green| Date:2010-01-07

My Vizio 37" 1080p HDTV is the best. The first thing I liked was the price...Even cheaper than Walmart, if you can believe that! My next purchase will be another Vizio HDTV for the bedroom. Great job, Vizio!

Review from Review from Amazon

Reviewer: kb-hunter| Date:2010-01-06

This TV is an excellent TV marred by a dumb and short-sighted design choice.

Vizio doesn't make it easy to compare across models with their seemingly pointless array of models with overlapping audiences. Their website is also quite poor in that regard. When I couldn't find the "compare" button on their website after adding various models to the "compare list" I called their 1-800 number. Their rep also couldn't find the button!! It's been that way for the past two weeks.

Coming back to this TV -- the picture, sound, the looks everything is great with this TV. But I am really mad that they decided to leave out a simple analog Audio-out for such a high-end TV. It has FOUR HDMI inputs, two composite inputs, and a component input, and an RGB input -- going quite overboard as far as the inputs are concerned if you ask me, but inexplicably skimps on when it comes to the output side.

The USB input, which is functional in this model instead of "service only" as in many other comparable models, is okay for an occasional slideshow of a photo album or something. But keeping a drive (thumb drive, or hard drive) connected all the time would require you to press "okay" for a prompt every time you turn the TV on. Quite annoying.

I haven't had much luck with the pause-live feature which allows you to pause live-TV similar to Tivo if you plug in a blank USB drive. I am hoping it is because of some issue with the speed of the thumb-drive; Even then, if it means having to press okay every time I turn the TV on I would much rather skip using that. Please see above.

The lack of analog out, in my opinion, is very irritating, annoying, and frustrating. In fact, I have some choice words for the people responsible for this decision at Vizio, but Amazon would not print the review if I include that.

Because of this I cannot connect my wireless headphones which I would use for all my late night TV watching. This model does have a headphone out, but plugging anything in that disconnects the main audio. So it is all or nothing, and hence not usable for connecting something permanently. Now, I have to look for a digital to analog converter which retails around 70-80 bucks.

It is well known that many people hook up these TV's to home audio systems. Given that it is quite audacious on Vizio's part to assume that a single optical digital out is all is needed. So I am giving this otherwise very fine TV only 3 stars.

Review from Review from Amazon

Reviewer: Clark Miller| Date:2010-01-03

I have had this tv for about a month now and I like it. I use this tv with a small hd over the air antenna and the hd picture that comes in with just that is remarkably clear. This tv is user friendly and has lots of inputs for other devices to be added to it. The sound is not very loud but sounds pretty good. The only real problem that I have is that while this tv does have a usb port for a flash drive to be hooked up to it, when you first turn on the tv it has to take the time to "read" all of the files that are on it before it will display anything, that is very annoying to me because I wanted to leave the external drive hooked up to it all the time but because of this I have to unplug it when not in use.

Review from Review from Amazon