Vizio SV471XVT 47-inch LCD TV Review

SV471XVT Features Build Quality

Some TVs allow you to set every little control to the nth degree. Calibrators like myself love it and we enjoy getting into the nitty gritty of the menu system and service menu and really having our way with a television set. While the Vizio SV471XVT LCD television most certainly has a service menu, it is a remarkable TV in that it has a pleasing image right out of the box. It's not nearly accurate in terms that a video-geek would be satisfied with, but it can be tweaked well-enough to satisfy most users, If it were a subwoofer I'd say it had an in-room measurement of +/- 5dB, not perfect, but certainly pleasing.

All tech-speak aside, I've always respected the Vizio brand for its value – and for not being some cheap junky TV that slaps a label onto something without any real design work going into the device (think Polaroid and Westinghouse LCD televisions of days past). Vizio is now exiting its second quarter as the #1 LCD television manufacturer in North America in terms of sales volume. That makes them officially a big deal – and with their value-oriented approach and penchant for introducing the latest features at lower prices than the competition it's no wonder they are finding success.

This Fall Vizio will introduce some new televisions with LED backlighting and Bluetooth remotes with an integrated QWERTY keyboard. The TVs will be internet-connected with 802.11n dual-band wireless and will be able to access Accedo Broadband, Amazon Video On Demand, Blockbuster On Demand, Flickr, Netflix, Pandora and Rhapsody and more. For now, however, Vizio is still king of value with the SV471XVT 47-inch LCD offering 240Hz SPS (Scenes per Second) and plenty of options for getting a nice picture.

Features

The Vizio SV470XVT has a nice list of new and possibly compelling features:

• 240Hz SPS with "Smooth Motion" processing
• 4 HDMI and 2 YPbPr inputs (one of each is located on the side)
• Integrated Digital/QAM television tuner
• SRS TruSurround & SRS TruVolume
• 4 ms stated response time

Build Quality

The Vizio SV471XVT LCD television is attractive and looks identical to the SV470XVT, featuring the same piano gloss black bezel and speakers that are located below the screen. The silver central accent area is still present, though it no longer has the option to be a center channel speaker – all thoughts of surround sound having been replaced by the SRS TruSurround and optional HD Sound Bar and Wireless Sub.

We once again took the Vizio 47-inch LCD and mounted it to our reference StudioTech DP-2 TV stand which has two vertical supports and integrated flat panel mount. This TV looks great, and while it isn't exactly super-thin, it still looks beautiful when lifted from the shackles of its integrated tabletop stand. In terms of super-thin, this seems to be the feature everyone is touting, but almost no one (save Hitachi's tuner-less models) is shipping as of yet.

Plenty of inputs available

The rear of the Vizio SV471XVT has been redesigned to place the inputs in a rectangular recessed area on the backside of the panel, rather than orienting the inputs horizontally so they connect from the bottom. I'm not partial to a particular method, provided you can hang the panel flush against the wall. With the new design you'll need approximately 2-inches of space behind the television in order to clear the bend in a typical HDMI cable. For most mounts this will be fine, but if you are going for an against-the-wall look you may need to utilize a more expensive recessed mount like the Peerless IM760PU which we reviewed last year.

Side inputs include HDMI, component, composite and USB

The presence of three HDMI inputs on back is a welcome addition and shows that Vizio is listening to somebody as the former model had two inputs on the side. The remaining HDMI side input is extremely practical, especially if you plan to connect your laptop to your TV on occasion for use as a home theater PC or media streaming device for Netflix or Hulu. In addition to HDMI, Vizio includes two component video inputs (one on the side), an HD15/VGA/RGB PC input, and a composite/S-video input. All of the analogue video inputs have an associated stereo audio input (RCA for most and stereo mini connection for the 15-pin PC connection).

SV471XVT Audio, Menu & Remote Control

There is an optical TOSlink output for connecting the audio output of the television to your A/V receiver. We used this as it allowed us to tune in digital channels on our television and experience up to 5.1 surround through our A/V system. The speakers included with the Vizio are adequate for obtaining basic sound ad dialogue, but they are no match for even the most basic of dedicated speakers and a subwoofer. We experimented with the TruSuround mode and found it to be novel, and expect individual room acoustics to play a large part in whether users leave it on or off. For us, the default audio tends to render "boxy" dialogue, though it is well-anchored to the screen and quite present. Engaging TruSurround diminished the dialogue somewhat into the mix, but also eliminated the boxiness. It also added a somewhat phasey texture to the sound as it spread out the soundstage and simulated a surround presentation. Overall we liked the sound better with TruSurround off and the EQ slightly adjusted to drop the midband by 3dB and with the 5k band slightly elevated. TruVolume was effective at leveling out the sound, however it also limits the maximum volume of the television, so if you are going for a high level of output you will be truncated in what you can achieve unless you disable this option.

Menu System

The menu system is largely unchanged from the SV470XVT model, so see that review for a more detailed explanation of functions. We don't like how each of the settings are made with the non-translucent menu always on the screen. The menu takes up valuable screen real estate and you can't move it around. Additionally, the individual settings don't, as they do in other displays, cause the main menu to go away while a smaller slider appears at the bottom of the screen. Instead, you make the changes right in the bulky menu – which of course interferes greatly when you are attempting to calibrate or set correct Black and White levels.

The Advanced Video menu is where you'll find the most significant changes from the SV470XVT. Here, Vizio has added the Smooth Motion II system that adds a new Real Cinema Mode to the existing Smooth Motion Effect submenu. Real Cinema Mode, as far as we could tell, is what controls the backlight scanning function. It actually makes a big difference in terms of the perceived judder during video playback of DVDs and Blu-ray discs. There are two settings and we could not tell a big difference between Smooth and Precision. Smooth Motion, on the other hand, applies 120Hz video frame interpolation (creating a new frame digitally between the existing 60Hz frames). It has three modes: High, Middle and Low. What we noticed right off the bat was that Smooth Motion had little or no visible effects without Real Cinema Mode being engaged. Once both were engaged the images on the screen quickly took on the look of a live HDTV broadcast. Especially vibrant were any outdoor scenes or scenes with well-lit faces and items that were in motion.

These technical advances are not without their limitations. We spotted a ton of motion adaptive artifacting around a woman's hair as the scene panned around her, the background composed of green bushes and trees. The artifacting was quite pronounced, forming a dense and thick halo around her head. The only way to eliminate it was to turn off Smooth Motion altogether. This is more or less a result of the system having to deal with a combination of existing encoding artifacts, motion blur and he intensive video processing involved in rendering a new frame on the fly at these incredible speeds (I can't even blink this fast and my TV is creating a new frame of video every 1/60th of a second). Increased artifacts is something that users will need to decide if they can live with in order to reduce judder and motion blur with these new features. Overall it is a pleasing effect and is only disturbed by fast pans and more difficult scenes with complex edge detail.

Remote Control

If I liked the look of the SV470XVT remote, this one puts my former comments to shame. The new remote is beautiful and picks up some additional helpful features. For one, it is fully backlit – making it extremely useful and practical since televisions are typically being watched in darkened rooms. The remote also is programmable – a first for Vizio. You can program three additional devices into it, including your DVD or Blu-ray player (we programmed in the Samsung BD-P2500 without any problems), an A/V receiver, and a cable/satellite box. The remote is very beautiful and works well. We liked the styling, particularly for the central menu/control ring and the way they differentiated the position and shape of the buttons. Sources are at top followed by the keypad, menu, volume/channel controls, input selection and navigation controls. The input selection is still not entirely discrete. You must press the HDMI button 4 times to cycle through all of the HDMI inputs. We would have welcomed a second row below the first in order to access each input directly. Overall a good remote and much improved over the last model. Vizio is purported to be introducing a new Bluetooth remove with QWERTY keyboard in its next generation Internet-connected models. That should really turn up the heat for competitors.

SV471XVT Calibration & Benchmarks Tests

Calibrating the Television

We were excited to break out our new CalMAN Professional Software with NIST Certified Chroma5 meter and get to work on the Vizio to see how well it performed. What we found was that the display looked pretty decent out of the box, with a green emphasis across the mid and high ranges. That's not the preferred deviation (though it looks great for sports in general) so we set to work on tweaking the display as best we could. Setting the correct Black and White levels were key (we now use the excellent Spears & Munsil HD Benchmark) and we began all of our calibrations from the Movie Mode.

CIE Chart – Color Reproduction & Saturation Potential

After measuring the primaries of the SV471XVT, we noted that it performed a little better than the SV470XVT, however we also were aware that we were using a different meter and calibration system to test it. With that said, we simply are going to acknowledge that our current system is known to be highly reliable and accurate.

In comparing the CIE charts of the current SV471XVT vs the SV470XVT, we can see that our measurements indicate a very nice ability for the Vizio to achieve near-reference color. 

Vizio SV470XVT (left) and SV471XVT (right)

ANSI contrast came in at 935:1 with Color Temp set to "Normal" and with Contrast and Brightness correctly set for night time viewing. The backlight was also set to 20. We found that adjusting the backlight really didn't do much to effect the contrast ratio, it merely raised the black level reads while simultaneously raising the peak white level measurement. As a result, feel free to crank up the backlight to 100 during the day and then bring it all the way down to 0 at night. Even in Vivid mode the ANSI Contrast measured just 1040:1, though the peak white level was much higher, allowing for easier viewing in daylight hours or in rooms where light control is not practical or possible. To achieve the correct levels we set Brightness to 51 and Contrast to 51 and set Color Temp to Normal. Color temperature was best in Movie mode, with it coming in almost right on D65. Vivid, Game, and the 4 Sports modes all had color temperatures in excess of 10000K. Standard mode was around 6700K and provided only a slightly more visible picture than Movie mode.

With our Chroma5 colorimeter in place, we calibrated the set and were able to get the following results:

Not bad considering there are no individual Gain/Cut controls

Gamma ranged, but averaged around 2.25 through the midband

Calibration overall is only possible in a limited way. Beside the fact that Vizio doesn't provide RGB Gain/Bias controls in the user interface, the HDMI inputs are partially shared, so even settings like Brightness, Contrast, Color, Tint and Sharpness cannot be changed on a per-input basis as we'd prefer. The way it works is that HDMI 1 has its own settings and then HDMI 2, 3, and 4 are tied together. It's an obvious cost-savings decision and we can't fault them for that given the price.

Audioholics/HQV Bench Testing Summary of Test Results

Perfect Score is 130
Vizio SV471XVT Benchmark Score: 95 (rock on!)

* Tested using 480i via component video and HDMI inputs

Comments on Calibration and Bench Testing

Sharpness was defaulted at 4 and this time around we felt that this was OK, seeing very little difference between any of the settings from 4 and below. Any higher and you get edge artifacts or ringing around high contrast areas.

Smooth motion is starting to grow on me, however it is still plagued with an inability to accurately and sufficiently generate interframe information for quickly moving objects that pan across the screen. My continuing determination is that it should probably be left off, though we encourage users to play with it and determine if they like it.

SV471XVT Viewing Tests & Conclusion

This TV looks excellent, and lots of people will go crazy over how good Blu-ray and DVDs can look with the Smooth Motion and 240Hz SPS features. Colors popped and skin tones were realistic. The color temperature was quite accurate for a set priced this inexpensively and we appreciated the black levels that were achieved when the backlight was set down low. The television looked excellent during the day or at night and the following images will help paint the possibilities:

BD: The Happening
This is a rather dark movie... in terms of its content, that is. In looking at the picture quality it was soft and washed out – which actually made it perfect for Smooth Motion. Enabling this mode caused some of the apparent detail to increase and provided a lot more perceived resolution. It was this movie where I saw the greatest amount of artifacting when using Smooth Motion, however. This was partially due to the artifacts already present on the disc, which the 120Hz interpolation processing simply made worse (the screen blanking portion of the 240Hz SPS system has no deleterious effects on picture quality that we could perceive).

Smooth motion helped this film, but also accentuated certain artifacts

BD: Torchwood - The Complete Second Season
Being a Dr. Who fan, it was no big leap to pick up Torchwood when this series came on television. The thing about Torchwood is that it is shot in high definition and looks absolutely gorgeous in Blu-ray. We're renting the discs from Netflix and I have to say it's one of the best reference televisions shows I've seen. On occasion you can see they drop down to a difficult shot that didn't get enough lighting to render it perfectly, but on the whole the A-team does a great job on exterior shots and getting all the action sequences in incredible detail. I found the black levels to be very pleasing and all of the available contrast was made available throughout the series as they constantly juxtapose bright point-source lighting with deep shadows and recesses.

Even the nighttime exterior shots are beautifully done

BD: The Fifth Element (The "We Didn't Screw It Up This Time" Edition)
I typically throw this disc in as a reference since it's such a great film and I have a decent familiarity with the content. Colors popped and blacks were deep. Despite the rapid motion prevalent in the opening minutes of the film, Smooth Motion did a bang-up job of keeping up with the sequences, only "skipping" from time to time as the action seemingly overloaded the processing capabilities. Incidentally, the menu of this disc is a great place to test the split screen Smooth Motion demo mode. You can see its effects on the flying cars immediately as they pass from one side of the screen to the other.

Conclusion

Vizio is king of North America these days and with future products integrating 802.11n, Bluetooth and Internet connectivity, they may be out to conquer the world. For now, though their latest Smooth Motion 240Hz set is a nice step up from the SV470XVT we tested a couple years ago. We continue to like the simple but elegant stylings and if you don't mind the limited calibration and eccentric menu system, aren't into network features, or already have them on your Blu-ray player or Roku box then this is an excellent option to consider when shopping for a television. Retailing at just $1499 it's going to be hard to beat.

Vizio SV471XVT
$1499

About Vizio Inc
VIZIO, Inc. "Where Vision Meets Value," headquartered in Irvine, California, is America’s fastest-growing HDTV and consumer electronics company. In only a few short years, VIZIO quickly skyrocketed to the top by becoming the #1 selling brand of flat panel HDTV’s in North America and became the first American brand in over a decade to lead major categories in 2007 U.S. TV sales. VIZIO has sold more than 5-Million flat panel televisions in the U.S. alone. By listening intently to our customers and reacting to the ever-growing needs of flat panel television enthusiasts, VIZIO continues to offer feature-rich flat panel televisions and consumer electronics solutions to market at a value through practical innovation.

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