Rating:

2D is amazing, and 3D is stunning! I didn’t notice ghosting when viewing native 3D content as compared to the Samsung/LG sets (where ghosting was extremely obvious). Although this is an LCD set, the 3D clarity were similar to the Panasonic plasma sets I also tried. I ended up going with this set because the glasses felt better designed.

Only negative is the limited native 3D content so far… but things should get better by this winter and early next year. Can’t wait for some football on ESPN 3D.

Rating:

This is a wonderful TV set. Without any doubt it is the best TV I’ve ever owned. I couldn’t be happier with the picture, sound, overall quality of the construction and with the capability of this set.

The Vizio VF552XVT comes in a large box, compared to many newer LED LCD TV sets it is both a large box (which is good as it helps prevent shipping damage) and it is a deep (not thin) TV (again compared to many newer TV sets of the same type). On some forums, there are complaints about the thickness of this set. The claim seems to be that Vizio saved money by not redesigning it’s enclosure from earlier similar sized (55″) sets. Personally, I’m pleased with anything Vizio does to lower costs that doesn’t require any compromise on picture or unit quality. If you want a paper thin set, look elsewhere, if you want one of the best sets at about the best price possible, this could very easily be your choice.

Opening the box was easy, there are 4 plastic holders that you squeeze allowing them to be pulled out with one hand. Once removed the top of the box can be pulled vertically up. There is no need for box cutters or any tools to open and pull this set out of it’s box.

The set is well protected by styrofoam, the screen was covered by a styrofoam sheet (not a plastic sheet). The edges around the front screen and base were covered with plastic that had to be removed. Overall, removal and basic set up were easy. This is a two person job, I guess one person could do it, but with such an expensive set, there is too great a potential for damage in my opinion. The box and set are very large pulling the large box up vertically without knocking over the set could be an issue for a single person.

The connectors for power, internet, HDMI and what not in the back are all nicely laid out, easy to find and hook up. There are manual controls on the side of the TV, but most people use remotes. The Vizio VF552XVT has one big remote. Aside from the usual controls, it has a slide out QWERTY Bluetooth keyboard. The Bluetooth keyboard has very small keys, and you need to hold the caps button to get a capital letter on the screen. This was a bit annoying mostly due to the small size of the keyboard.

The picture was brilliant even in a well lit room, and the blacks display better than my other LCD TV’s. The refresh speed, LED backlighting, and the overall design are stunning. Lighting is NOT 100% even with no signal. The bottom corners seem to be a bit lighter than the rest of the set. Once a signal is applied the screen seems very uniformly lit.

I was hoping the Vizio VF552XVT would permit surfing internet directly, as it is network capable, unfortunately it does not. All internet media access is via widgets. New / optional widgets can be downloaded. Vizio chose not to support youtube, or hulu. There are several no free video streaming sites supported by this set. Virtually all video media widget supported sites are fee sites, you have to pay or subscribe to watch content. Each one has a preview or free sample, if you just sign up for a trial and provide credit information.

My expectation was that some free video content could be made available, this doesn’t seem to be the case. My opinion is this set is capable of supporting a web browser and youtube / hulu, but for whatever reason Vizio elected not to support these features / sites.

The Vizio remote is a bit weak hinged, this is very noticeable when the keyboard is open. The remote feels flimsy. When the keyboard is closed, the remote is a bit thick. Supposedly the remote can be a universal remote, that is not my experience at this time. I use a DirecTV HR22 HD DVR, and am unable to get the Vizio remote to fully operate our DirecTV DVR.

Even if the Vizio remote did have the capability to drive my DVR, it doesn’t have the skip forward skip back features. Which we rely on to skip through commercials. Instead it has a forward fast backward fast button. These are nice, but the skip ahead skip back are used by my family all the time. That there is no capability for this on the Vizio remote is a design failure in my opinion. It reflects thinking about how people used to use VCR’s, not how people really use DVR’s. For a company that seems technically on the leading edge of price and performance, this is a significant design flaw in my opinion.

The DirecTV remote is able to turn the set on and off, and is able to control volume, even to mute the TV. Fortunately the input select (used to skip from input source to input source) does work correctly. When pressed, a menu will appear on the TV. The menu will show all the inputs the set has. By repeatedly hitting the TV input button (source select button?) you’ll be able to skip from input to input. Inputs have default names, but users can override them which is very easy due to the Vizio VF552XVT Bluetooth remote full keyboard. The DirecTV HD DVR code for this set is 11758.

Customer support at Vizio was great. It seemed to be from the U.S. The call to support was answered promptly. I called due to concern about the Vizio remote not being able to operate our DVR. It doesn’t appear there will be any resolution with this set, which is an issue as operation of the widgets requires the Vizio remote. That Vizio released a set with a remote control unable to operate the HR2x series of DVR’s from DirecTV is yet another design issue.

We are currently using the free Netflix trial offer that comes with the set, which is very much like the free Netflix offer that comes to anyone who visits netflix.com. However, aside from being able to watch streams on our PC’s, we can watch on our TV set directly. We have only used wired ethernet, and have not tried the wireless N ethernet capability this set supposedly has. With wired ethernet, we were able to get great video streams using the basic Comcast HSI tier (6 Mb down 1 Mb up). One movie (Full Metal Jacket) seemed to have details that exceed normal standard definition. I’m uncertain exactly how Netflix is compressing its video stream, or how Vizio is expanding it, but the result is very close to DVD quality in my opinion. We have paused a number of frames, and have no motion blur and no artifacts. If Netflix ever gets a greater selection of streaming titles, it will be worth having. For now, I’m a bit concerned about the weakness of the Netflix catalog (though they claim it is improving on a weekly basis).

The quality of the video streaming is good on the Vizio set, whatever they do to buffer and compress stuff, the result is a fantastic picture with no hesitation or stalls. In addition Pandora is supported, which allows for personally configured music. Very basic Yahoo information about the stock market, weather and a TV guide application via widgets are helpful but basic even compared to my cell phone.

Set up for Comcast cable was easy, the set scans all the channels, and seems to ignore those that are scrambled. Both SD and HD channels are available. Of all the time spent setting up this set, about half of it was waiting for the scan of our cable system.

The price of the set is very good for the quality, and Amazon did a great job of shipping. Pilot express handled delivery, and they were very professional. They called twice to confirm that the set was coming and to schedule a delivery date. Delivery was ahead of the Amazon estimate. Two men handled the delivery, and they did not drop the set.

The delivery was basic, the folks from Pilot express put the Vizio box on the floor in the room the new TV was going to be set up in, had me sign a receipt, and departed. There was no set up by Pilot, or white glove stuff. This was basic delivery. Which is fine, I had no trouble setting it up myself (aside from the remote control issues). Amazon didn’t promise white glove delivery with this set, and I am content to open and set it up myself.

In my opinion Vizio may wish to spend a bit more time being certain that popular DVR’s such as the DirecTV HR2x series are fully supported by their remotes, and that a skip forward / skip back button is also supported. A learning remote would be amazingly helpful. Within it’s few limitations, this is one of the best sets available, and has an outstanding picture. It uses very little energy and doesn’t get hot as my prior 46″ non LED LCD set did. IF the Vizio remote could operate my DirecTV DVR, IF browsing and youtube / hulu were supported, this would be by far the best set ever made. Lets hope Vizio reads reviews and adds some of the support needed to enhance this set as firmware can be updated via internet.

Rating:

First the Remote. Maybe I was spoiled by the beautifully designed remote from the 551. Great looks, backlit keys, good tactile feedback…it had everything that the remote on the 552 lacks. Start with appearance: it literally looks like a prototype. Cheap black plastic with tiny black rubber keys…I have remotes from $29 DVD players that are better looking. And from a functional standpoint, it commits the 3 cardinal sins of bad remote control design: 1) no backlighting of any of the keys…forget about using it without lights blazing. Kinda ruins the theater experience 2) keys provides tactile feedback without executing their function…this means you’ll press the Chnl Up key, feel the indent beneath your finger and you’ll still be watching the same channel you were. 3) tiny tiny keys…unless you’re an elf, you’ll be fat-fingering. It’s just a bad design. I sincerely hope Vizio provides all of their early-adopters (like me) with a free replacement of the newly designed remote when it’s available (and they WILL redesign this, as this device has no place with their flagship set).

Next, the USB ports…they don’t work! It says so right in the manual (though not in any of Vizio’s promotional literature). I LOVED the single USB port on my 551…plug in a thumbdrive with pictures and music and you had your own custom Slideshow. Can’t do it on my new TV. Tech support says there’ll be a future firmware upgrade to fix ‘em…I ain’t holding my breath.

Another item that’ll be “fixed with a future firmware upgrade” is the ability to turn off the backlighting behind the annoying Tech Logo on the bottom left-hand corner of the set beneath the screen (another menu function my 551 was able to perform that the 552 can’t). Here you have a six inch long, 1 inch tall feature list (i.e. VIA LED LCD 240 HZ 1080P and other stuff) backlit by bright white LEDs…again really annoying when in a darkened setting. Until the “fix” comes in, I have a piece of black electrical tape covering them up on the front of my $2000 TV…irritating (NOTE: the manual SAYS that you can turn this off by navigating to the ‘Help’ portion of the menu system, but the choice does NOT show up on the screen in the list of Help options)

Onto the network connectivity, the reason I bought the set: at this point, I’d say it’s working to Vizio’s advantage more than mine. It gives them a method to ‘upgrade’ the product with automatic firmware updates, which is great. But it also gave them latitude to introduce something that clearly ain’t quite “baked” yet. The Widgets are ‘cute’, but (at this stage) they’re nothing that you can’t get from a feature-laden BluRay player with networking.

More importantly (and more annoyingly), I’ve found that while exploring / navigating some of the Widgets, they will actually make the 552 ‘reboot’ (i.e. shut itself off, then (sometimes) turn itself back on. Other times it just remains ‘off’ and you have to hit the Power button). I can only imagine that the app itself crashed and that the reboot is the equivalent of the old ‘blue screen of death’ in Windows. Again, nothing that a firmware update (or tighter quality control on Widgets) won’t fix, but this thing definitely ain’t ready for prime time…it performs more like a Beta unit

You may think this critique is nitpicking, but keep in mind that i was expecting an “upgrade” from my 551.

Having said all that, it’s still the best bang for your LCD buck. But if you’re a current owner of a 551, there’s no compelling reason to make the switch just yet.

Hope this helps in your buying decision (and in getting me a new remote…anyone from Vizio reading this? ; )

Rating:

As others have said, the remote leaves a lot to be desired. Flimsy, a little clumsy, yeah, it could *probably* use a backlight (not a deal breaker by any means, but it would be nice). The keyboard is a wonderful touch, just wish they spent more time on that hinge.

The audio is acceptable, nothing game changing at all. It provides some pretty room filling sound, though, you’d be better served with a stand alone sound system. Games sound pretty anemic; live sports sound very-very good. It’s exactly what you would expect for HDTV 15w speakers.

So, you bout a 240hz, LED, 55” HDTV for the picture, nothing else. Let’s touch on that. It’s INCREDIBLE. Yes, you can, like I mentioned above, spend thousands more and get a better picture; barely. There is absolutely no sacrifice with this monitor, it does it all and keeps you “oooh’ing” and “awwe’ing” all night. I fought for weeks about what would be the best for my money. What would provide the best experience, what would give me the least amount of buyers remorse (hey, spending this kind of money hurts these days!). This product whole heartedly delivered.

Everything else it provides is the icing on the huge cake! The apps are fantastic, especially the Yahoo integration…oh and Netflix, how can you forget about Netflix?! My 360 is going to be lonely, what, with only playing games on it =P

If you’re on the fence, I can’t really give you anything to sway you one way or another, but really, at this level of consumer electronics, you aren’t going to get anything *bad*, just some better than others. This is one of those that is VERY MUCH better than others, second to very-very few.

Rating:

I do not know what I will be getting but one room is about to have no TV soon…egad!!! I will soon have some pretty upset teenagers in my house.

Updated review 03/08/2010: Since the review below I would like to add some updates for those interested. One reviewer stated something about “stains/shadows” in the right corners but I could not find any on my unit nor the 4″ shadow that from the reviewer’s description would run diagonally across the screen. I am looking but nothing. I still rate the picture a 5 and the audio a solid 4 but the remote though is just too difficult to use in the dark or even in low lighting situations. Given VIZIO’s design for the remote to replace your other remotes it is not useful as that due to lack of a glow button. The remote is still good but only for part of the day and again the remote still is lacking many dedicated “special” feature buttons.

My biggest concern though is the TV “locking up and re-booting” which it seems to do more frequently when I utilized the PIP/POP feature. I have a call in to VIZIO and several e-mails and they are currently researching the issue. I think for the price the TV is a great bargain and while I am no videophile/audiophile I think again for this price range the quality of the audio/video is excellent but they do need to fix certain issues. The re-booting, the missing glow and extra feature buttons on the remote, the side panel toggle switch functions, turning on all the USB ports, and the PIP/POP to better utilize the screen space and fix the audio shutting off from the main screen when you turn off the PIP/POP. The VIA apps rock and really make the TV a joy to use, I hope they add YouTube soon.

Like other reviewers, myself included: BE WARY OF THE REVIEWS ON THE VIZIO SITE.

The TV itself is great but not as slim as I expected it to be given how much slimmer my one year plus old VIZIO SV470XVT1A” LCD is. Let’s start with what is good about the VIZIO 55″. The remote is good and basically takes over all your other remotes and the on screen set-up of the unit is relatively straight forward as well.The wired Ethernet connection worked flawlessly but I can not speak to the wireless capabilities as I did not use that feature. The picture for me was much cleaner and brighter than my VIZIO 47″ and to me needed no further adjustments. The VIA apps were easy to access, use and more are being added such as PANDORA…added 2 days after I got my TV. One of the main reasons I love VIZIO is the PIP and more specifically the Picture outside Picture (POP)capabilities of their TVs. I believe VIZIO is the only company that provides the POP to their TVs. PLEASE NOTE as of 03/01/2010: My earlier review said the volume level needed to be very high to be heard clearly but I now realize I am “deaf” lol and so to me the sound is now very good.The price for features and quality was very good to excellent and really can not be beat but…

This Vizio 55″ was really put out before its time as many items are either not working or will be at a supposedly later time or the design layout was weird and needed to be corrected before being sent out. I think VIZIO skimped on the number of non-HDMI connections giving you just one each of Component and A/V inputs, if your like me you have several legacy non-HDMI components. I say skimped because VIZIO seems to be reducing inputs on its TVs compared to models from less than a year ago, the VF551XVT has 2 components and 2 AV inputs per the online manual. Yes the VF552XVT has Ethernet capability and VIA apps but I mean if they want to continue to be a standout from SAMSUNG and other high ends then they need to keep these extras as well.

What I think is the real design FLAW: the side panel controls in the manual on page 11 shows a logical layout of the controls but the actual TV itself does not look like that layout but rather: Menu and Channel Up are on the same toggle switch; The Channel Down and Volume Up are on the same toggle switch; and the Volume Down and Input are on the same toggle switch. When I called VIZIO (twice) both times they said the manual picture is generic and applies to many of their TVs and the picture is not an accurate reflection of this model but at the same time did acknowledge that the design of the side controls was non-intuitive.

The first time I used Netflix it seemed to lock up my TV and I was unable to turn it off via remote or the side panel off button. I finally unplugged it and called VIZIO who said that the TV can lock up and in the future hold the side power button down for 30 seconds or more, the issue never happened again. UPDATE 03/01/2010: Over the past few days since the NETFLIX LOCKUP the TV will on its own for no reason I can discern “reboot”. I will update if it continues but it has happened now about 5 times. I think it may be because of updates to the apps but I am guessing. I have not called VIZIO yet on this batch of reboots but will if it continues. I am very happy with my VIA apps and the new addition of PANDORA but wish the other apps that already have icons were active, I am greedy lol.

I should also mention that none of the 3 side USB ports are activated as well but I saw that an earlier reviewer says they are but on my TV they are not. I called VIZIO and they said not at this time. This again is weird as the model before this has one USB port and that is active per the on screen manual. If you look at the on-screen manual for the VF551XVT it indicates in the manual the port is active and even has a corresponding button to use the port on the remote control. No such control is on the VF552XVT remote, in fact…

I think the VF552XVT has a good remote and while it does take over many of your other remotes flawlessly, the remote given its size does not have ANY dedicated buttons to call up many of the most used features of the TV. Features such as: changing the TV aspect ratio; changing the PIP size; changing the PIP input source and changing the audio from the Main screen to the PIP input; a mode button to switch between all the pre-set color settings; nor buttons to select the input source. My old VIZIO 47″ remote had ALL THESE EXTRA FEATURE BUTTONS AND MORE, some were used a lot and others not so much but always better to HAVE THAN NOT HAVE. TRUST ME FROM PRIOR EXPERIENCE THE ABILITY TO CHANGE THE PIP INPUT SOURCE AND AUDIO AND SIZE IS FANTASTIC AS WELL AS BEING ABLE TO CHANGE THE TV ASPECT RATIO AND MODE. I believe VIZIO either spent too much on the QWERTY keypad or just went giddy adding the QWERTY keypad and forgot how having these special feature buttons on the remote make using the TV much easier. Easier in that use of…

The on screen menu is fantastic but calling it up blocks out about a 25% of the left side of the screen from top to bottom which is very disconcerting especially if you are trying to make adjustments to the picture. It would have been more prudent if the menu had to be so large to then have the balance of the screen show the movie/broadcast but in “squashed” form without having that portion of the picture covered by the menu. Further the POP feature shows the two images side by side but with black bars top and bottom which reduces the overall size of the POP images by about 40-60%…no kidding. I mean you have a big screen with all this unused space when you utilized the POP feature.

I love the VIZIO TV price point with features but clearly this TV NEEDS the USB ports activated and the side panel issues addressed and many more dedicated buttons on the remote to avoid having to always call up a very distracting on-screen menu. The remote while very good is LACKING A MUCH NEEDED GLOW BUTTON and more separation between the buttons. If you buy the TV you will see what I mean by button separation. Look at the on screen manual for the VF552XVT and look at the remote page (enlarge that page about 300%) and compare it to any remotes you have at home and look at those button separation distance, in the dark you will appreciate those button separation distances especially with no glow button. In addition I think the TV is too thick given these are newer models and should be to me much slimmer. My old VIZIO (47″ LCD) is about 3 1/2″ at its thickest and 2″ at its slimmest while the VF552XVT at its slimmest is over 4″ thick and at its thickest about 5″.

At this time 03/01/2010 I am think of doing more research and maybe getting another LCD brand, SAMSUNG as I like their picture quality but really would like to stay with VIZIO if they can fix the remote issues and USB activation soon. I also hate to give up my POP feature which seems to be unique to VIZIO?

I RATE THE OVERALL TV A 3 BUT PICTURE IS A 5 AND SOUND IS A 4. WOULD I CONTINUE TO BUY VIZIO? YES BUT I WOULD TRY TO CHECK OUT THE FEATURES AND REMOTES NEXT TIME AT A STORE BEFORE BUYING SIGHT UNSEEN. I TRIED TO POST THIS REVIEW AT VIZIO WEBSITE 3 SEPARATE TIMES I ALSO SENT AN EMAIL TO THEIR CUSTOMER SUPPORT AND THEY RESPONDED THAT IT IS IN MODERATION. YET OTHER CUSTOMER REVIEWS ARE BEING POSTED DAILY IF THEY ARE GOOD SO PLEASE BE WARY OF THE REVIEWS AT THE VIZIO SITE. VIZIO SEEMS TO ONLY POST RAVING REVIEWS OF THEIR PRODUCTS ON THEIR SITE. I HOPE THIS HELPS THOSE ABOUT TO PURCHASE. IT IS A GOOD TV BUT GIVEN IT IS THEIR CURRENT FLAGSHIP I THINK IT NEEDS TO BE BETTER ACTIVATED AND MORE BUTTONS ON THE REMOTE AND A GLOW BUTTON TOO. I HAVE UPLOADED IMAGES OF THE SIDE PANEL ISSUE,THE PICTURE OUTSIDE OF PICTURE (POP) ISSUE AND THE ON SCREEN MENU.

Rating:

On first power on, as stated in other posts & forums, watching Standard Definition cable seemed to have some significant delay. This is only because TruMotion is on. Once turned off, SD was in sync, with no issues.

In HD, this, you can indeed turn it back on, to get that dimensional quality some viewers enjoy so much. But its not necessary. And once again. External audio system or internal, this TV functions as it should given a proper run thru the menu. Out of the box, the settings reflect an ideal HD demonstration.

As far as the clarity of this TV, I give it 2 thumbs up. Colors are stunning and pop just enough to make you feel like like your in it. Black remain deep and it looks great in all lighting.

For the price of what your finding here thru the Amazon channels. You really cant get a better TV at the price. Perhaps you could pay 300 more for a sony logo and a but more rugged enclosure. But I dont need a television defense system, just a darn good tv at a darn good price.

If your in the 1k market. Spring for it. You wont be disappointed.