Westinghouse VK-40F580D LCD embodies HD's divided state
By Steven Kim 
posted May 25th 2008 6:29PM
posted May 25th 2008 6:29PM
It's some strange times in HD-land, and all that strangeness is brought together in the Westinghouse VK-40F580D LCD. Things start off pretty good with a 40-inch, 1080p LCD with NTSC, ATSC, and clear QAM tuning. Our eyebrows arched when we saw that Westinghouse also builds a DVD player into mix. We know that Westinghouse had a price point to hit with this unit, so we're not disappointed to see Blu-ray left out. But the real stick in the eye is that the DVD player does not upscale. So here we have a 1080p display that is both helped (in convenience) and hurt (in performance) by its built-in player. This is exactly the sort of thing that will keep consumers confused and/or disappointed with their $1149 purchase. The word "separates" usually has a snooty connotation, but here's a case where we think it's easy and affordable enough for everyone.
So what if it doesn't have an upconverter built into the DVD player? The screen is 1080p, the internal scaler of the TV will convert the signal from the dvd player to 1080p. The scalers in newer TVs have proven to have comparable performance to upconverting players. Even my early 1080p Westinghouse set did a great job with it's scaler. Everyone raved about the performance of the upconverter in the HD-A1 at the time, and I could see no difference between using it's abilities or the TV's.
With or without the DVD player, the TV will still suck.
For the money, it should be a good TV just like all other Westinghouse products. Not everyone can spend (or wants to spend) double or even one and half times more for a HDTV.
I am not keen on the built in DVD player, don't like multi-purpose devices like that.
Why? Based on?
This will really only be a problem for the woman who thought her laptop's disc drive was a cup-holder....she'll think the DVD drive in this Westinghouse unit is a pop-out clothes hook.