vizio vo370m lcd panel made in china

The front of the Vizio VO370M is dominated by the 37-inch LCD display. The display is surrounded by a black bezel that goes from glossy to textured. Below the display is a Vizio logo that also acts as an indicator light.

On the back of the Vizio VO370M you"ll find you"ll find the power input, most of the ports for the television and mounting points for mounting the television on the wall. For information about the ports on the back of the Vizio VO370M see our Connectivity section.

The right side of the Vizio VO370M doesn"t have any features. On the left side you"ll find a small selection of ports and the on-tv controls. For information about the ports on the back of the Vizio VO370M see our Connectivity section.

The VO370M"s on-tv controls are found on the left side, just above a collection of ports. The buttons are glossy black plastic that look something like piano keys.

The Vizio VO370M"s remote control is a simple glossy black plastic affair that"s small and curved on the back to make it easier to hold. It"s also rather ugly.

The Vizio VO370M ships with a manual, remote control and batteries. Ther"s no cleaning cloth or HDMI cable included. There is some assembly required, but it"s not ardous. Simply slot the display into the stand and use a single included screw to hold it in place.

The Vizio VO370M is not a particularly attractive television. There"s just really no design flourishes here that will make it stand out as an object of praise. It"s not overly ugly, however, and it should blend into your decor.

The VO370M had slightly high black levels: we measured the deepest black that the display could produce at 0.35 cd/m2. This means that black areas of images on the screen won"t look like a true black; instead, they will look slightly greyish. This isn"t unusual in cheaper models like this, though; deeper blacks are typically only found on more expensive models, and the similarly priced LG 37HH30 had similar black levels.

The VO370M had bright whites, though; with the backlight cranked up to the maximum, we measured the brightness of the whites at a bright 338.99 cd/m2. That"s a decent score that is in line with what we typically see for TVs at this size. Althoug

Vizio splashes the number of 15,000:1 on the box, but is careful to describe this as a "dynamic 15000:1 contrast ratio". That"s because the display offers a feature called DCR (Dynamic Contrast Ratio) that dims the backlight on dark scenes, creating a darker black. We tested with this feature disabled, because we found that it didn"t come into effect in normal use; it only worked when nearly the entire screen was black,which doesn"t happen often.

The flip side of this is what happens to the whites; does the brightness of the whites remain constant as there is more and more white on the screen? Again, we didn"t see a problem here with the VO370M; the level of the whites remained mostly constant  as we increased the amount of white from 5% right up to a completely white screen.

The screen of the VO370M had some issues with unifromity; in our tests loking at pure white and black screens, we noticed some problems. On black screens, the corners of the screens were significantly ligher than the center, and on white screens the left side of the screen was darker than the rest. We don"t expect a display to be perfect, but the differences were significant, and could be seen when watching a normal video.

Gamma is a measurement of how quickly the display goes from black to white. If the gamma is too high, the image will look overly bright because the display is exagerating the brightness of the greys. The ideal we look for is between 2.1 and 2.2, but the VO370M was somewhat off from that; we measured the Gamma at 3.13. This means that the greys will look rather on the bright side if you were to look at this display next to one with a more ideal gamma.

The VO370M is a full 1080p display, but it doesn"t always have the luxury of being able to work with this highest of all HD resolution signals. Instead, it often has to display a lower resolution signal, which is why we test it with a number of different signals to see how well it can upscale them to fit onto the screen.

The VO370M did a decent job with 480p signals (such as those prodcued by standard definition DVD players with HDMI outputs): the images were overscanned by about 3%, which is normal, and we saw no major problems with the upscaling that the display did.

As part of our calibration process, we try and get the color temperature of the whites as close as possible to 6500k. For the VO370M, the closest we could get was about 6800k using the Normal color temp mode. But we also look at how consistent the whites are as they fade to grey; some displays have problems that mean that greys turn blue or orange. The VO370M didn"t have a problem here; we found that the whites remained very constant as the intensity fell, so most users won"t see any color cast to greys on the screen. the on;y exception to this is when the disply is almost black; we saw a significant shift with these greys.

The VO370M had a few minor issues here: as you can see the response curves are slightly bumpy, and both the red and blue curves show peaking, where the display doesn"t reproduce changes at the high end because it is already showing the brightest color it cam. What this can mean is that very bright objects (such as a bright flower or a bright uniform) will get lost, because the display can"t reproduce the differences between the bright colors.

The color gamut of a display is the range of colors that it can represent. The range of colors that a HD signal should contain is defined in a standard called Rec.709, and a good HDTV should be able to show approximately the same range of colors. That"s what we test here, and we found that the color gamut of the VO370M was a little off; the blue in particular was some way off from the ideal. What this means is that some colors (particularly the blues and reds) will look different to what the filmamker intended. This may not be a serious problem, but we do wish that the manufacturers paid closer attention to this.

The VO370M doesn"t have the 120Hz or 240Hz motion processing that many other models have, and this shows in the motion, which looks jerky and jumpy next to a model with better processing. Motion just wasn"t smooth; anything that moved at high speed across the screen, and the subtle details were lost. One of our tests uses a series of grey lines moving across the screen, and these just collapsed into each other; the pattern turned into a grey mush.

Mnay broadcasters use a system called 3:2 pulldown to give their TV shows a more filmic look, and the VO370M had no problem detecting and processing this effect in our tests; we saw smooth results, and only an occasional glitch in the image that indicated that it was having an issue. Overall, it did a very decent job; the resulting video have an attractive, clean look. The VO370M also had no problem displaying a true 24 frames per second image produced by a high-end DVD player.

The viewing angle of the VO370M was rather disappointing; we test this by finding the angle at which the black to white contrast ratio falls below 50% of the maximum, and this happened here at just 21 degrees. That"s a significantly smaller angle than some; this didn"t happen with the  JVC LT-42P300 until 38 degrees off axis. However, this is another curse of the cheap HDTV: we saw similar performance from the LG 37LH30 and the Samsung LN32B360 was even worse.

The VO370M includes a number of features that are designed to improve the aulity of images on the screen or to enhance low quality signals. We looked at each of these below.

As usual with features of this type, none of the features were of any real use. The DCR feature seems to exist purely to allow Vizio to put a bigger contrast ratio number on the box.

The remote that comes with the VO370M is a small, plastic device that is a lot simpler than most remotes. The curved hand fits well into the hand, but it feels like it is made out of cheap plastic that could easily break if you dropped it on a hard surface.

There are a much smaller number of buttons on the remote than most: just 29 against the 50-60 that we see on many remotes. That"s because the VO370M is a simpler TV than most; there are no media or other features that often add buttons to the remote, and it can"t be programmed to control other devices. The most commonly used buttons (the volume and channel ones) fall conveniently under the thumb, and we had no problem reaching down to input a channel number directly with the thumb without shifting the remote in the hand. If you want to access the on-screen menu or switch between inputs, you do have to shift your hand, though; the input buttons at the top are out of the reach of all but the longest-fingered users without using the other hand.

The VO370M is not blessed with a huge number of inputs, but it has a decent selection. There are three HDMI port (two on the back and one on the side) and a good number of analog inputs. There are composite, S-Video and component inputs on the back, plus additional composite and component inputs on the side. These inputs also come with accompanying analog video inputs, so you can connect up a number of analog video devices without having to swap cables all the time. There"s also a VGA input (again with accompanying analog audio input) and another set of analog audio inputs that are associated with one of the HDMI ports for connecting devices such as PCs that don"t send audio over the HDMI connection.

The ports on the VO370M are well placed; the back ports are slightly recessed so the cables don"t stick out too far, and the side ports are easy to find. Because they are pretty deeply recessed, you do have to lean around to be able to see which port is which, though; you couldn"t plug a cable in by touch alone.

The speakers built into the front of the VO370M had plenty of volume, but not a lot of kick; although the sound quality was good overall, the bass was lacking. Although there are several different sound modes on offer, none of them did much to add the sort of thumping bass that can make a movie come alive. A pseudo-surround sound mode called SRS TruSurround HD is also included, but this had only limited success: although it did produce a wider sound field, it didn"t have the all-encompassing effect that you get from a proper surround sound system. The bottom line is that the speakers on the VO370M are adequate for general use, but movie fanatics will want to invest in a decent surround sound speaker system to run alongside it.

The VO370M uses the same menu structure as most Vizio displays, which is simple and straightforward to use. When you hit the menu button in the middle of the directinal pad on the remote, you are presented with options for Picture, Audio, TV and Setup. Each of these options contains a number of sub-options (such as brightness, backlight, contrast, etc on the picture menu), and some also lead into sub-pages with more options (such as Advanced Video on the Picture page). Fortunately, some common options are put up front, such as changing picture mode, which can be done by simply hitting the left and right buttons of the directional pad from the top menu when the Picture option is selected, or changing the audio mode by hitting left or right when the Audio Mode option is highlighted.

Fitting in with the eco theme of this model, the manual for the VO370M is printed on recycled paper. The content is fresh, though; the manual does a good job of showing how to set up and use the display.  Also included is a good setup sheet that details all of the basic connections required to get the display up and running. Vizio has not yet made this manual available for downloading, but it should be available here soon.

The VO370M is a full 1080p screen that has a resolution of 1920 by 1080 pixels, so it can display every pixel of the highest resolution HD signals that are in common use today. It can also handle lower resolution signals, from analog standard definition up to the 480p, 720p and 1080i signals  that many cable boxes and other HD devices produce.

The Internet doesn"t exist for the VO370M; it has no way to show streaming music or video unless you connect it to a computer and let it do the clever stuff.

Both displays are around the same price point: the Vizio costs about $600, while the LG is around $720. Both displays represent good value for money for 37-inch screens, but the Vizio is a bit more aggressively priced.

The LG had a slight edge when it came to motion; although neither display has particularly attractive motion, the LG looked smoother and had fewer problems. We saw issues with fast moving objects on the Vizio; edges became ragged and jerky, and faces almost unrecognizable. The LG had similar problems, but they were less intense and less annoying.

The LG was also the clear winner on viewing angle; the contrast ration between the blacks and whites held up for a significantly wider angle than the Vizio, although neither was particularly good. Bit displays would be fine for 2 or 3 people on a couch, but they wouldn"t cut it as an office display that needs to be seen by a large group of people.

Both displays offer a decent number of ports to connect a number of devices, with three HDMI ports and a good number of analog video inputs. The only real difference is that the Vizio includes an S-Video port, which might be useful if you have an old MiniDV camcorder that offers this, as it gives better video quality than the composite video port.

The Samsung is the smaller screen (at 32 inches) and runs at a lower resolution of 720p. but it"s also the cheaper screen, with a price of about $450, $150 less than the Vizio. Whether the extra size and resolution is worth the extra $150 depends on where you want to use it; the Samsung would be a better pick for a bedroom or spare room TV, but the Vizio might be worth it for a smaller living room that doubles as a movie theater, as the 1080p resolution is an advantage for watching movies.

Both displays had decent performance in our tests of color performance, although the Samsung did have a slight tendancy for the darker greys to have a slight reddish color cast to them. We also found that the RGB curves of the Samsung were a little bumpier than the Vizio, and the Samsung also had a slightly larger error in the color gamut, with greens in particular looking rather inaccurate.

The Samsung was the winner in our tests on motion performance: it produced distinctly smoother motion with fewer artifacts. Ont eh Vizio, fast moving objects had distinct and annoying trails, but these were much less noticeable on the Samsung.

This is the one area where the Vizio is clearly better than the Samsung; the Vizio had a wider viewing angle. We measure this by looking at the angle at which the contrast ratio between the blacks and whites falls below 50% of maximum, and the Vizio performed better. However, neither display was particularly good, and we wouldn"t recommend either display if you are looking for a HDTV for large groups of people.

The Vizio has the wider number and range of ports; it has 3 HDMI ports, while the Samsung only has two. It also has more analog video inputs. But this may not be an issue for many users; if you are looking for a TV for the bedroom or spare room, you aren"t going to want to connect a large number of devices.

The JVC model offers a slightly larger display at 42 inches versus the Vizio VO370M"s 37-inches. It will cost you about $200 more for that extra size, however, and the only benefit in terms of performance is slightly better motion performance. You do get one other nice extra for that extra $200, however, a built-in iPod dock on the JVC. If you use iPods and want an easy way to get the photos, music and video onthe device onto your big screen this might make it worth the upgrade. If neither the size or iPod dock matter, however, there"s no compelling reason to upgrade here.

The Vizio VO370M and JVC LT-42P300 are remarkably similar in their black and white performance, with the JVC holding a slight edge in each that produces a modest improvement in contrast ratio.

The Vizio VO370M does slightly better with RGB accuracy, meaning it should do a slightly better job of reproducing colors, but aside from that there"s no real difference betweenthe two televisions.

This is the one area where the JVC model is a clear winner, with significantly less motion blurring and fewer artifacts. That"s not to say that the television is an excellent performer here, rather that the Vizio VO370M is a very poor performer in this area while the JVC is just below average.

The JVC model offers a viewing angle about 50% better than the Vizio VO370M, which can make a significant difference if you"ve got a couple of couches sitting side by side in front of the television.

Still wowed at how good the new LCDs are. A year or two with an Olevia 37" I thought was great compared at home with this new Vizio 37" 1080P downstairs: Damn. All I had to do was put everything in the middle setting, sharpness on 5 (out of 7), turn off all the processing and features, and put the backlight at about 10-20 to get the whites bright enough, or higher for brighter rooms. And the in-content blacks are still inky. It renders the entire contrast and color range faithfully except for a little laziness in the middle of the dynamic range curve that can seem "smoky" on some older video mastering jobs (you truly need CRT, Plasma, or exotics to get it perfect). And it doesn"t have to be excruciatingly bright like the Olevias. That 237t-t12 even at it"s lowest of three crude backlight settings still is kind of blinding in bright scenes, and I have the Brightness down to the point at which the blacks do not get blacker but I can still barely see the foot of the contrast curve.

That continuously adjustable backlight on the new screens is essential. Combined with better real native (not the dynamic software) contrast, and I am floored. And it was $200 cheaper than the Olevia originally! The only thing I"m troubled with is the promotion of this dynamic contrast mode so much in an effort to compete with Plasmas. I think the contrast really is getting good enough on these 37" LCDs that it doesn"t need to hide it. Again, there"s still obviously room for improvement as Dark City and the Fifth Element still aren"t quite filmy yet in their gorgeous contrast rendition on any LCD I"ve seen yet, but it"s getting there. At a higher cost, the newest multi-LED-based screens allow even more control over the backlight, but the only time I see any non-uniformity is on a completely blank, black screen with a very slight flashlight effect in the upper right. Much less than the 237t-t12. Now I must start worrying about upgrading the computer to have the horsepower to get one of these for my upstairs system! X-Plane or Blackshark in 1080P just isn"t going to happen on a P4.

UPDATE: Turn sharpness all the way off. It is edge enhancement. Very bad. Responsible for destroying fine detail on full HD, especially. Horizontal position at 32. Zoom mode off so it"s at Full. That"s exactly for the 1920 screen. Color Temp to Cool (default). Color, Tint, and Brightness to center/default. Contrast can technically be at the middle/default, too, but the screen has such potential in the whites rendition you can enhance them to be more film-like in the shoulder of the contrast curve without messing up the blacks by putting it down to about 43. Better for the whites of the eyes, hair highlights, and especially whitewater. From time to time you may find some Bluray need a bit more color; that"s up to you. Usually it"s intended that way. This has been tested with THX glasses and an ISF calibration disk. In a dark room, I"m finding the Backlight is fine at 15. Anything lower than 10 will damage blacks with insufficient light for the picture elements to function at their best. All advanced options off. Sonys seem capable of sending an excellent image with zero additional edge enhancement if you tell their Bluray players to do all the processing up to full RGB. Keep the Vizio from processing the image any further. My optimal seating postion (depends on your vision/correctability) is just about 4ft, I think. Sit as close as you can without seeing individual pixels or the space between them.

With the domestic market approaching saturation, branded Chinese LCD TV vendors see overseas expansion as the only means to grow their market shares and raise their brand recognition. The latest example of this approach is the acquisition of the U.S.-based consumer electronics maker VIZIO by LeEco, a rising Internet brand in the Chinese LCD TV market. Reports of VIZIO being up for sale gained traction after Foxconn’s acquisition of Sharp, and the US $2 billion deal with LeEco was finally announced on July 27.

Following the acquisition, the combined shipments of LCD TV sets from LeEco and VIZIO will reach 14.57 million units this year, according to WitsView, a division of TrendForce. In the annual global shipment ranking, LeEco will become one of the top five vendors and surpass compatriot brands Hisense and TCL to take the third spot. On the whole, this deal has significantly altered the competitive landscape of the global LCD TV market.

In addition to being known for offering LCD TVs with high cost-performance ratios, LeEco has further differentiated itself from competitors by selling subscriptions to its Internet TV channels. As most of its revenue comes from streaming video subscribers, LeEco intends to use the VIZIO brand to enter the North American market and replicate its business model there. However, LeEco will have more difficulty in getting subscribers in North America than in China due to competition from the region’s major video streaming platforms such as Netflix. Nonetheless, LeEco can still succeed in North America by selling TVs at extremely low prices. By driving up its sales volume dramatically, the Chinese brand would make a significant impact on the ecosystem of the local LCD TV industry and the consumer perception. At the same time, LeEco could also squeeze the market shares of other first-tier brands in North America.

The consolidation of LeEco and VIZIO will also pose a huge challenge for South Korean TV brands. Taking account of the acquisition, WitsView’s latest analysis projects that the combined shipments of Chinese brands will reach 74.1 million units this year, whereas the combined shipments of South Korean brands will arrive at 77 million units. Together, Chinese and South Korean vendors are expected to account for 70% of the global LCD TV market. In the future, major international brands will continue to enlarge their market shares at the expense of regional brands and vendors of niche TV sets.

After incorporating VIZIO, LeEco will be the only LCD TV brand without in-house manufacturing capability among the global top five and will still rely on Taiwanese and Chinese OEMs. The majority of TV sets shipped by LeEco in China so far this year are large-size models (measuring 50 inches and above), while 30% of VIZIO’s shipments in North America in the same period also belong to the same size segment. WitsView anticipates that LeEco will strengthen its partnership with Foxconn, which has the world’s largest Gen-10 panel fab and controls nearly 20% of the global capacity for large-size panels. With Foxconn’s support, LeEco can focus on large-size and super large-size TVs (models sized 70-inches and above).

Also, both LeEco and VIZIO have worked with Taiwan-based OEM TPV Technology, and this relationship is expected to remain tight following the acquisition. LeEco has a partnership with Chinese TV vendor TCL, and the market is looking at whether TCL can leverage the situation to improve its sales to North America. Another ensuing issue from the acquisition is whether Taiwanese OEMs Wistron and AmTRAN can enter LeEco’s supply chain. These follow-up developments will exert influences on orders going to OEMs worldwide.