We still have a week to go before Black Friday -- the day after Thanksgiving in the United States when retailers offer some of their best deals of the shopping season -- and Vizio has already announced a one-day price reduction on their 42-inch plasma. The sale at Costco will mark the first time a high-definition-ready set of that size will be sold for less than $1000, which is considered by many analysts to be that magic number where mass adoption will kick off. As the predictions go, once consumers can see the bill for a HDTV starting out with only three digits in it, they will be much more likely to buy a new set to go with that
PlayStation 3, or
HD DVD add-on for the 360, or
HD satellite. The Vizio VP42HDTV is a 42-inch 720p-capable plasma with HDMI, a 10,000:1 max contrast ratio, and an ATSC tuner. It's great news to see the prices for sets of all sizes and styles (CRT RPTVs, plasmas, LCDs, LCoSes, etc.) coming steadily down, and will spur that magical day when you can go to any relative's house for the Superbowl and not have to worry about watching on a standard-def set.
[Via
Electronista]
Postscript: When this article went live, no stats had been released on this newer VP42 model at Vizio's website. As a few commentors have noted, the native resolution on this set is only 1024x768 (as compared to the more-normal 1366x768 for its sibling the P42), which is slightly less than the commonly-accepted resolution of 1280x720 for HDTV, meaning it will scale all your content down to this XGA resolution. This means the pixels also have a 4:3 aspect ratio rather than 16:9. While the set is widescreen, the pixel count will not be, so take that as you will, we just wanted everyone to be informed consumers. Good luck this Friday, and thanks to all the comments that brought this important point to our attention!
posted Nov 16th 2006 6:42PM
if you think this is a deal, you must be a wally's world shopper! LOL!
Rumor has it that Best Buy will also be offering the Westinghouse W4207 (42" 720p LCD HDTV) for $999 on black friday as well...
I actually work at Costco and can tell you...I have had a Vizio 32" LCD, a 37" LCD (sold 32" to brother), and most recently their 42" (current model) plasma. I have never had a single problem with them. For the price, you cannot touch the quality they offer. Yes....the scaler built into these sets isn't the greatest, but it works. The newer model is actually a little different from the one pictured. It has some type of button/bump in the center of the speaker grill. The new model also features DUAL HDMI inputs. We just got them in yesterday morning and we won't be able to put it out and hook it up to see what it looks like until Friday morning. However, if it is anything like their Gallevia series (most recent LCDs), it is sure to impress compared to previous models.
Vizio > Westinghouse.
How much more is a 42" with 1080i? My 65" LCD is 1080i and I hate to go backwards in quality. Even if the smaller size makes the lower quality harder to discern, I would want the better HD.
my Dad just got the 50" plasma, its killin! for the price its great. it is heavee, we almost dropped it, alls well though
1080i actually is 540p...720p is *supposedly* better because of it being progressive scan. I dunno, I have the Westinghouse 42w2 (1080p), so all's well in my household.
Oleveia 42" LCD available NOW (no waiting in line in freezing weather) at buy.com for $980 w/ google checkout, free shipping
1080i is 540p?? who the heck told you that? I work in the entertaniment industry and deal with layoffs and image conversions everyday. 1080i is 1920x1080 interlaced full HD 16x9 resolution. 1080P is simply the same but progressive (non-interlaced) 30fps and, of course , smoother like 1280x720p which many people prefer, even though 1080i TV sets remove the pulldown to play it progressive anyway...hmmm.
Patrick, "1080i actually is 540p...720p is *supposedly* better because of it being progressive scan. I dunno, I have the Westinghouse 42w2 (1080p), so all's well in my household."
1080i is not 540P. While their bandwidth usage may be approximately close there is a big difference you obviously decided wasn't worth noting.
For instance, 1080i has 1080 line in its frame, but they are separated into two groups of 540 called a field. With 540P you have only 540 lines in the frame. Period. I'll take the 1080i over 540P any day of the week.
The 'i' and 'P' determine how the lines of information are shown, but not how many lines there are.
Warning, the Vizio is not a true HD capable display. The two broadcast industry accepted resolutions are 1280 by 720P and 1920 by 1080i. Even the lowest HDTV resolution, 1280 x 720, will be truncated to 1024 by 720 because the native resolution of the plasma panel according to Vizio's website is 1024 by 768, or XGA for those that know computer resolutions.
So, if you feed it 1280 by 720 it will trow away 20% of the lowest HDTV resolution. But, for those that don't really care about being fleeced the Costco nearest me has 20 units ready for Friday.
Vizio is rubbish, Ghost Doggy is correct it isnt even a true HD TV.
A friend purchased two of them one popped and went blank on the second day, the other looked terrible when compared with my XBR2. Yes i could have got 3 Vizios for the price of my Sony, but then thats just to much bad picture to look at. Id rather have 1 really good picutre.
FYI guys i read the article about 1440P coming in 2007, 2160P has been created in Japan already and i hear our eyes cant notice anything above 1280P.
Sweet plasma for a sweet price. I'ld take it over pretty much any LCD on the market
This argument against the plasma not having a 1280x720 or higher resolution is trivial. No 42"/43" Plasma on the market has a 1280x720 resolution. But guess what...the difference in sharpness is negligible. There's a small difference between a 1080p signal viewed on a 720p and 1080p set...what difference do you think there's gonna be between a 1280x720 and 1024x768? None at all.
Deathwish, "But guess what...the difference in sharpness is negligible." You missed the point. No one attacked or question the sharpness. I could have a perfectly sharp 4 by 4 pixel, but that wouldn't be represent the lowest 'resolution' for HDTV. You are confusing sharpness with resolution. They are not the same and never will be, except to you maybe.
And while I haven't gone looking yet, just because no 42" or 43" plasma on the market with true 1280 by 720 native resolution doesn't mean one should be allowed to market as if it does. I'm not knocking Vizio, as I own a Vizio, but I will not let my fellow consumers be duped into misleading news reporting or questionable product marketing if I can ante up a reality check.
For instance, maybe you like the less than HD resolution this particular product. It certainly would have a better image at even XGA resolutions than the old boob tubes of yesterday, but its not capable of display either of the two common HDTV resolutions. It can accept them, truncate them, and give you less than HD is display.
As noted above, this 42" Vizio plasma is NOT a high-definition display. It accepts HD resolutions, but downconverts them to 1024x768 resolution.
(HD resolutions are 1280x720 and 1920x1080.)
Technically no, the Visio plasma is not HD according to standards because of its slightly lower resolution. If anyone reads the specs, it'll say 1024x768 resolution.
And yes, resolution does greatly effect sharpness. It does other things as well like produce more detail, but the difference most people will see first when look at display resolution is the difference in sharpness.
Take the 42" and 50" Vizio plasmas...compare them side by side and tell me there's a noticeable difference between anything other than picture size. You won't.
People are way to caught up in this resolution hype.
I bought the Westinghouse 42" 720p LCD HDTV. IT ROCKS. and it was under 1000 at best buy. Check out my super high res picture of it:
http://playingwithpower.com/2007/05/28/super-high-res-image.aspx
as well as my LCD vs Plasma write up:
http://playingwithpower.com/2007/04/10/lcdvsplasma.aspx
Scratchdisk, how about a better pic to show off the HD? A couple of ghetto characters in a cheap EA game doesn't do it justice.
How about taking a screenshot with Media Player through the PC port playing a 1080p WMV demo? THAT will show everyone the quality.
I got a new 42in 720p 1024x728 pixels Panasonic at Boscov's for $700 yesterday....at 5 feet distance or more the picture is as good as most 1080i sets....to be honest, sports viewed in resolution that looks to sharp look fake....