Vizio VO47LF LCD HDTV

The latest Vizio VO47LF LCD HDTV comes like a bolt out of the blue with its impressive image quality and affordable price.

At 47-inches, this TV lives up to the Vizio HDTV tradition of presenting premium image quality for a cost that blows the competition right out of the water. Not to say Vizio VO47LF is faultless. A common drawback to the Vizio line is its difficult set-up procedure, not to mention the non-movable stand and the obvious absence of multimedia USB ports.

Including a stand would have been a good idea considering the fact that these types of televisions sets can be difficult to swivel and pivot when you want to reach the back hookups. Another reason to add a good base that can move is to allow consumers to set up their home entertainment centers anyway they please with a minimum of fuss. A swiveled base would make this easy as you would not have to drag the entire set back and forth to find that perfect view.

Making it easier to setup would have also been a grand idea. While its not the most difficult HDTV ever to get up and running, its lack of clear instructions and many connectors can and will leave some consumers absolutely confused and how to attach certain wires. This could require them to pay large sums of money to have an outside company set it up for them.

 The design is decidedly simple; however, someone's lack of foresight might have resulted in the VO47LF's input panel to be located at the back and faced down, which can be inconvenient. The accessible screen on the menu can has a hard-to-read blue interface accompanied with blue text. Certain modification on screen can also be frustrating, such as the adjustable tint not allowing complete color customization.

The good news is that fiddling with the input plugs of various devices and color set-ups are no longer necessary. The bad news is that switching between your DVD player, cable connection, and VCR still requires regular input changes. A button on the VO47LF's remote control allows you to chose which appliance you want to use from a list-even the inactive sources-and must be bypassed every time. The Vizio remote has buttons can let you access different input types despite having indirect button commands.

A more or less average remote so far, but the backlighting feature does more than make up for it. Losing the remote in the dark becomes a thing of the past. The remote controls the set although that's about it. There aren't any programmable features otherwise.

Fortunately, the instructions manual helps customers dive into the VO47LF experience with relative ease. The quick-start guide comes in the form of a large back-to-back fold-out poster. All of the manual's 76 pages are in English, easy to read and decipher.

There isn't much in the way of extra features. The VO47LF is decidedly Spartan with its picture-in-picture option and a free HDMI cable. But for a high definition TV in the classic sense, the Vizio VO47LF remains true to its cause and delivers excellent picture quality.

Once put to our tests, the VO47LF grabbed itself a handful of Goods, a spattering of Fairs, and absolutely no Poors. It even scored quite a bit of Superiors-a ranking that doesn't come easily from our esoteric standards.

The VO4LF's strength comes in its sound quality which easily surpasses its competition. Dialogue is crisp and music clips come out packing a punch.

All in all, the Vizio VO47LF carries with it terrific image quality for a package price no one should miss.