232V Viewing Evaluation and Conclusions
In case you've forgotten, I bought this TV with money out of my own family's budget. So, it's been in my home for a while and I have gotten to view a lot of material on it. I'll have to say that while it isn't a TV that has a big "wow" factor in the picture, it is a solid (consistent) display that does a good job with just about any material.
HDTV: Sports
If you spend any amount of time in my house you're going to wind up watching sports. If it's summertime, there's a good chance the sport of choice will be baseball. I love the game. I also love to watch the game in high definition! Great color saturation. Although I did notice some blur and/or ghosting when trying to track the ball. On the other hand, I do not particularly care for golf. But hey if it's in HD, of course I'll make an exception. If for no other purpose than to make sure the display passes the golf ball test, and yes I could make out the dimples of the golf ball lying on the green.
This is a great demo disk for audio and video I picked up for free at last year's Audioholics State of the CE Union. There are some great options on this disc to challenge just about any display. Since I'm a big aviation fan, I particularly enjoyed the rich colors and contrast in One Six Right. The animation in Ghost in the Shell exposed the display's tendency to be a little bit soft.
Recently my wife and children went on a trip and I found myself with the opportunity to watch whatever I wanted. So of course I loaded up the Netflix list with plenty of blood & guts! Yep some good old carnage. 300 delivers plenty of that and it also gave me the opportunity to grab some screen shots with good contrast. As we saw in the bench testing, the display struggles with bright whites, but it still did a good job of reproducing the bright and dark scenes in this movie.
Conclusion
Overall this is a pretty solid display that does a surprisingly good job with any progressive scan source. If you want a better display you can certainly find one. If you want a better display for the money, you'll be able to do that as well - but you'll have to do your homework. While the picture is a little soft at times, the color is pretty close to right on, and I found the overall quality to be very pleasant. Not a standout, but if you need a solid display for a second video room, the office, or the bedroom this display is certainly worth investigating.
The Score Card
The scoring below is based on each piece of equipment doing the duty it is designed for. The numbers are weighed heavily with respect to the individual cost of each unit, thus giving a rating roughly equal to:
Performance × Price Factor/Value = Rating
Audioholics.com note: The ratings indicated below are based on subjective listening and objective testing of the product in question. The rating scale is based on performance/value ratio. If you notice better performing products in future reviews that have lower numbers in certain areas, be aware that the value factor is most likely the culprit. Other Audioholics reviewers may rate products solely based on performance, and each reviewer has his/her own system for ratings.
Audioholics Rating Scale
— Excellent
- — Very Good
- — Good
- — Fair
- — Poor
| Metric | Rating |
|---|---|
| Detail and Resolution | |
| Deinterlacing & Scaling | |
| Contrast and Black Levels | |
| Color Reproduction | |
| Noise Reduction | |
| Calibration Options | |
| Build Quality | |
| Ergonomics & Usability | |
| Ease of Setup | |
| Features | |
| Remote Control | |
| Fit and Finish | |
| Performance | |
| Value | |
Also bought my Pioneer SVX-516V, thanks to Alcoholics review, which I highly recomend to anybody looking for a budget system.
Reaction time is really slow on start up and shut down. It doesn't have discreet codes for universal remotes as far as I've seen, and the black levels are really - really poor. With a good HD signal, you aren't doing to poorly, but with almost anything else, especially so-so SDTV it can look downright awful.
I will double check my model as it could be a 242v or something like that, and this model could be an improvement on what I have.
The one nice thing is that we are using a Crestron control system and the LCD, despite its low price, included a serial port and the protocols were straightforward enough that I was able to integrate power, source select, and volume onto a 10" touchpanel that is easy enough for our three year old to use.
