vizio lcd panel manufacturer

Vizio has five distinct product categories in its 2021 TV lineup. Listed below are each of these categories, what to expect from each level, and the top offerings from that series.

This category focuses on dependability and value while providing the base Vizio experience with 21”- 40” displays. One of the most popular TVs in the D-Series category [1] is the Vizio D40F-G9. It has a 40-inch LCD display with a Full HD 1080p resolution. It comes equipped with its SmartCast OS for streaming and casting and is compatible with Google Assistant, Apple Siri, or Amazon Alexa.

V for value, this category offers an entry-level HDR experience, larger 40”-75” displays, and up to 4K resolution. One of the best examples is the Vizio V505-H19. It sports a 50” 4K resolution display with HDR compatibility, SmartCast, and full-array backlight dimming. It’s easily one of the most value-packed products in their lineup.

M for mid-range, Vizio brings in their more premium options such as Quantum LED, higher contrast for HDR10 and Dolby Vision certification, and HDMI 2.1 with variable refresh rate for gaming, more screen size options, with all the features mentioned above. The Vizio M65Q7-H1 is a crowd favorite, sporting a 65” 4K HDR QLED display with support for 4K 60Hz.

P for premium, this is where Vizio brings out their best with up to 85” in display size, a panel with higher brightness and contrast, and a refined full-array dimming experience. Vizio’s P65Q9-H1 can offer all that and is among the top favorites.

This is an odd category that doesn’t fall under Vizio’s letter-based naming. Despite that, Vizio shows its mastery over the OLED display. Although having smaller screen size options of 55”-65”, the use of OLED gives models in this series a visual experience unmatched by non-OLED displays. The OLED55-H1 is their most popular option, as it offers the glory of a 55” 4K HDR10+ OLED display with a variable refresh rate for gaming.

Though 2011 was a rough year for all HDTV makers, Vizio had a worse year than most. Vizio, once number one in U.S. market share, back in the fourth quarter of 2010, felt the bottom fall out with a whopping 44 percent drop in volume by the same period a year later.

While Panasonic, Sharp, Samsung and LG all make their own panels and assemble their own HDTVs, Vizio makes nothing. They buy LCD panels and parts from outside companies and relies on third-party factories, mainly those owned and operated by the Taiwanese company AmTran, to assemble these parts into TVs. Vizio earns thin margins for its dealers and itself, relying on warehouse clubs, Target and Walmart for sales volume.

“Samsung triumphed in the price war that raged in the U.S. LCD market in the fourth quarter of 2011,” said Tom Morrod, senior analyst and head of TV Technology for IHS iSuppli. “The company was able to offer a range of price-competitive sets with a rich choice of features that U.S. consumers wanted. This allowed the company to outperform the competition during the all-important holiday selling season.”

We anticipate Vizio’s problems will continue this year. Out of around fifty HDTV models Vizio debuted in 2011, the company has chosen to carry over almost all of them for the 2012 model year. Samsung, LG and Panasonic revamped their respective lines with new features including enhanced Internet connectivity/apps, new thin styling, more LED and 3-D models, gesture and voice control (LG, Samsung), and even built-in HD cameras with face recognition (Samsung).

Sharp has found a new niche with its 60-inch and larger screens and continues to add features while offering very aggressive prices. Panasonic has finally entered the large screen LCD market with its own innovative 47- and 55-inch screens exhibiting deep blacks and outstanding viewing angles (review link). Newly introduced 2012 plasma models offer improved performance and new features as well.

With new features, sizes, svelte styling and other improvements from Samsung, LG, Panasonic and Sharp consumers won"t have a hard time deciding whether they want the latest and greatest in HDTV or a carry-over from a failed 2011-model mix from Vizio. Consumers will once again vote with their wallets.

If you’re looking for a modest TV with modern specs, Vizio is commonly the brand that comes to memory. Due to their picture quality, innovation and low prices, these TVs have been increasingly popular in recent years.

Vizio is a publicly-traded corporation in the United States that manufactures and sells televisions, soundbars, viewer data, and advertising. The company is situated in California and was created in 2002 by  William Wang. The company follows Apple’s practice of designing and planning the TVs in the United States territory and relying on abroad manufacturing to OEMs.

AmTran Technology is the company behind Vizio TVs. This is a Taiwanese corporation that owns and manages several factories around Asia. To put all of the pieces together, these sets are created in multiple factories. In the end, though, Vizio hired AmTran to put the TV sets together for the buyer.

The TV manufacturing is, in comparison with occidental markets, a lot less expensive due to parts availability in Asia, in addition automatization and production streamlined processes cost. Vizio has superior TVs with better displays and top-notch features without deviating too much into the expensive territory.

Vizio owns different business units. Each has its target market and hence, various features. Vizio’s principal product area is television sets, and the firm became the leading LCD TV vendor (by volume) in North America in 2007.

Vizio announced in February 2009 that it would stop producing plasma televisions and instead focus on LED-backlit LCDs. Vizio released SmartCast TVs in March 2016, allowing customers to control the screen using a tablet or smartphone app. The following year, Vizio updated its smart TV platform to incorporate apps such as Amazon Prime Video and Netflix straight on the screen. Vizio unveiled their first Quantum Dot LED 4K TV in 2018. For its SmartCast TVs, Vizio has added support for Google Assistant and Alexa-enabled devices, Apple Airplay2, Apple HomeKit, and gaming features.

Quantum M-Series HDR TV: The 2022 models include up to 32 zones of local dimming and are available in sizes ranging from 43-75 inches. They’re 4K LCD TVs with standard HDMI 2.0 that also enable AMD FreeSync.

Vizio televisions are excellent. Because of their high quality, they are frequently compared to Sony or Samsung televisions, and many people believe they are made by the same firms. Vizio tries to provide the highest quality televisions for all of your viewing needs.

Competitively priced:Most Vizio smart TVs will be competitively priced for the same features. You may get a Vizio TV for hundreds less than other similar TVs depending on the features you desire.

Image Quality: When you want to view some of your favorite movies and shows, visual quality is crucial. In a dark setting, the Vizio smart TV is ideal for watching these shows. All of the mid-range and higher-end versions will give you the necessary dimming backlight to see things well even when the room is dark. Vizio TV can also provide some of the deep black colors required for excellent vision.

Low Input Lag: The input latency that you notice is kept to a minimum by Vizio. This keeps the TV images up to date and moving in the direction you want them to. This little input latency might be a fantastic benefit for folks who use their TV for gaming.

A Vizio TV has a seven-year average lifetime. It can survive considerably longer if the owner takes proper care of it, keeps the components up to date, and does not abuse the television.

Vizio does nothing while Panasonic, Sharp, Samsung, and LG all build their panels and attach their HDTVs. They buy LCD panels and parts from other businesses and rely on external manufacturers to put them together, mostly those of the Taiwanese company AmTran.

In addition to televisions and soundbars, who makes Vizio Tvs have previously manufactured other goods. The Via Tablet and Via Phone, Vizio’s first tablet, and mobile phone devices, were released in 2011.  Vizio began producing laptops the next year, launching a line of PC PCs that included ultrabook and notebook models. In 2012, Vizio began marketing the “Vizio Co-Star,” a Google TV digital media player, in Asian territories, including China. The Vizio Tablet PC, the company’s first Windows 8 tablet, was introduced in 2013. In 2014, the business discontinued making tablets and laptops.

Due to its improved picture quality and the various connectivity alternatives, Vizio has separated the distance between affordability and high-range technology in the TV market. The company is also expanding its range of coverage, having recently entered the new category of OLED televisions.

The Vizio TV is a fantastic addition to any home. It has reasonable pricing that is equivalent to that of other TVs on the market. This is the best option if you’re searching for a new TV.

If there is "Google" just the numbers (or whatever you have found), do not mention Vizio in the search as most probably the results will focus on it rather than on the numbers. With a bit of luck you may get supplier info, as the screen is probably not made by Vizio anyway.

This is the only panel manufacturer that I can find that has TVP listed in their products, so perhaps they are the makers or perhaps not. How this helps you I"m not sure as I"m thinking that even if they were that they wouldn"t supply on a one off basis.

Vizio Inc. (stylized as VIZIO) is an American publicly traded company that designs and sells televisions, sound bars, viewer data, and advertising. The company was founded in 2002 and is based in Irvine, California.

On October 19, 2010, Vizio signed a 4-year contract to sponsor U.S. college football"s annual Rose Bowl game in Pasadena, California, beginning with the 2011 Rose Bowl and ending with the 2014 Vizio BCS National Championship Game.Fiesta Bowl making the official name the Vizio Fiesta Bowl.

In November 2015, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Office of the New Jersey Attorney General brought charges against Vizio, alleging it collected non-personal information on its customers and sold it to advertisers.

Vizio produces television sets and soundbars and has previously produced tablets, mobile phones and computers. Vizio manufactures its products in Mexico, China, and Vietnam under agreements with ODM assemblers in those countries.

Television sets are Vizio"s primary product category, and in 2007 the company became the largest LCD TV seller (by volume) in North America.plasma televisions and would focus on the LED-backlit LCD displays .

In March 2016, Vizio announced the release of SmartCast TVs that allowed users to control the screen from a tablet or mobile app.Amazon Prime Video and Netflix.Google Assistant and Alexa-enabled devices, Apple Airplay2, Apple HomeKit

SmartCast is the operating system/platform that Vizio uses in all their smart TVs.Chromecast and Apple AirPlay.Apple TV+, Disney+, Hulu, Netflix and Prime Video.

Vizio has previously produced other products in addition to televisions and soundbars. In 2011, Vizio introduced the Via Tablet and Via Phone, its first tablet and mobile phone products.Android smartphones in Asian markets, including China,Google TV digital media player.

On October 19, 2021, Software Freedom Conservancy filed a lawsuit against Vizio Inc. because the company failed to fulfill the requirements of the GNU General Public License by failing to provide the source code. Software Freedom Conservancy states in the lawsuit that Vizio is "not providing and technical information that copyleft licenses require, Vizio was not even informing its customers about copylefted software and the rights it gives them as consumers."Federal District Judge Josephine Staton sided with Software Freedom Conservancy and granted a motion to send the lawsuit back to Superior Court, to answer breach-of-contract claims.

Lafayette, Jon (11 January 2021). "The Five Spot: Mike O"Donnell, Chief Revenue Officer of Platform Business, Vizio". nexttv.com. Archived from the original on 21 January 2021. Retrieved 23 February 2021.

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The first time I ever saw a Vizio brand flat panel television, it was in a Sam’s Club store in 2005. I had never seen or heard of the brand name before, yet they had a really nice looking HDTV on the shelf next to Samsung’s and Sony’s, but for a fraction of the price. Since then, Vizio has become the largest seller of LCD televisions in North America. You can find their TV’s all over the country, hanging in restaurants and bars, or maybe in a friend’s living room.

Like many people who first discovered this brand, I wondered who made Vizio. I thought perhaps they were an offshoot of some larger brand name, but they are really their own company based out of California. However, don’t think that Vizio is an American-made television. The company might be American, but the parts inside their HDTV’s are not. This should not be a surprise, considering how pretty much all electronic components are made outside of the United States.

The real question here is not who makes Vizio, but where they get their components. Any electronics company can mold a plastic shell and put an LCD screen inside, and that’s just what Vizio does. Rather than manufacturer televisions, you might say that Vizio just has someone else put them together. The majority of the flat panels found in Vizio HDTV’s are made by a Taiwanese company called Amtran Technology. According to an article on Forbes.com, Amtran also owns a 24% stake in the Vizio company. You might even say that Vizio is just another name for Amtran, since the guts of a Vizio HDTV are really made by Amtran.

What Vizio did was genius, because they took a highly desirable product and made it affordable, then put that product in stores that would reach the most customers. It used to be that you’d be hard pressed to find top name brand televisions in a Wal-Mart, but now they carry Sony and Samsung just like the major electronics stores. You can thank Vizio for this. Personally, I wouldn’t be too discouraged by the fact that Vizio’s products are really made in Taiwan, because most every HDTV manufacturer builds their sets from the cheapest possible components, and the majority of them come out of Asia.

According to an August 2009 press release from Vizio’s website, they hold a 21.7% market share as of the second quarter of 2009. Samsung is right behind them at 21.3%, and Sony has 11.9%. If you were to price compare similar model Vizio, Samsung, and Sony televisions, the Vizio would always cost less, with the difference sometimes being hundreds of dollars. A combination of a slowing economy and the recent “digital switch” in the U.S. has really driven up HDTV sales, and Vizio offers a solid product that costs less than anyone else. I know several people who own one, and they are quite happy with their investment.

For some really interesting reading, check out this 2007 interview with William Wang, the CEO of Vizio. Did you know that he is a plane crash survivor?

In previous years, even “affordable” OLED models hovered over the $1,500 mark. But this past Black Friday, Vizio"s new OLED TV dipped to $900 (down from its $1,300 list price). I don’t want to belittle how great this TV looks, but the price alone makes it the most exciting TV of 2020. Finally, someone has made an OLED for the masses.

Manufacturing OLED is complicated. LG is the only company on earth that makes panels big enough for TVs, which means even this Vizio model comes with an LG screen. But the fact that this Vizio OLED bears a striking resemblance to many of the pricier TVs we’ve tested from LG and Sony, both in form and function, is a testament to how great affordable TVs have gotten.

Like the aforementioned LG and Sony, the Vizio OLED has a similar center-pedestal design, which makes it easier than some other TVs to place on existing TV stands. It’s also super thin toward the top—thinner than an iPhone even—so you’ll want to be careful while flipping it to install the mount. I happened to be testing Vizio"s Elevate soundbar alongside the TV and was happy to see it tucks in perfectly below the rounded pedestal.

The processing is where you start to see the corners Vizio cut to bring down the price. LG’s more expensive CX, while offering a nearly identical panel, comes with Nvidia G-Sync tech, making it an excellent (and large) monitor for PC gaming if you have an Nvidia graphics card. The Vizio OLED offers variable refresh rates but lacks G-Sync.

Back in 2016, to determine if the TV panel lottery makes a significant difference, we bought three different sizes of the Samsung J6300 with panels from different manufacturers: a 50" (version DH02), a 55" (version TH01), and a 60" (version MS01). We then tested them with the same series of tests we use in all of our reviews to see if the differences were notable.

Our Samsung 50" J6300 is a DH02 version, which means the panel is made by AU Optronics. Our 55" has an original TH01 Samsung panel. The panel in our 60" was made by Sharp, and its version is MS01.

Upon testing, we found that each panel has a different contrast ratio. The 50" AUO (DH02) has the best contrast, at 4452:1, followed by the 60" Sharp (MS01) at 4015:1. The Samsung 55" panel had the lowest contrast of the three: 3707:1.

These results aren"t really surprising. All these LCD panels are VA panels, which usually means a contrast between 3000:1 and 5000:1. The Samsung panel was quite low in that range, leaving room for other panels to beat it.

The motion blur results are really interesting. The response time of the 55" TH01 Samsung panel is around double that of the Sharp and AUO panels. This is even consistent across all 12 transitions that we measured.

For our measurements, a difference in response time of 10 ms starts to be noticeable. All three are within this range, so the difference isn"t very noticeable to the naked eye, and the Samsung panel still performs better than most other TVs released around the same time.

We also got different input lag measurements on each panel. This has less to do with software, which is the same across each panel, and more to do with the different response times of the panels (as illustrated in the motion blur section). To measure input lag, we use the Leo Bodnar tool, which flashes a white square on the screen and measures the delay between the signal sent and the light sensor detecting white. Therefore, the tool"s input lag measurement includes the 0% to 100% response time of the pixel transition. If you look at the 0% to 100% transitions that we measured, you will see that the 55" takes about 10 ms longer to transition from black to white.

All three have bad viewing angles, as expected for VA panels. If you watch TV at an angle, most likely none of these TVs will satisfy you. The picture quality degrades at about 20 degrees from the side. The 60" Sharp panel is worse than the other ones though. In the video, you can see the right side degrading sooner than the other panels.

It"s unfortunate that manufacturers sometimes vary the source of their panels and that consumers don"t have a way of knowing which one they"re buying. Overall though, at least in the units we tested, the panel lottery isn"t something to worry about. While there are differences, the differences aren"t big and an original Samsung panel isn"t necessarily better than an outsourced one. It"s also fairly safe to say that the same can be said of other brands. All panels have minute variations, but most should perform within the margin of error for each model.

Back in 2016, to determine if the TV panel lottery makes a significant difference, we bought three different sizes of the Samsung J6300 with panels from different manufacturers: a 50" (version DH02), a 55" (version TH01), and a 60" (version MS01). We then tested them with the same series of tests we use in all of our reviews to see if the differences were notable.

Our Samsung 50" J6300 is a DH02 version, which means the panel is made by AU Optronics. Our 55" has an original TH01 Samsung panel. The panel in our 60" was made by Sharp, and its version is MS01.

Upon testing, we found that each panel has a different contrast ratio. The 50" AUO (DH02) has the best contrast, at 4452:1, followed by the 60" Sharp (MS01) at 4015:1. The Samsung 55" panel had the lowest contrast of the three: 3707:1.

These results aren"t really surprising. All these LCD panels are VA panels, which usually means a contrast between 3000:1 and 5000:1. The Samsung panel was quite low in that range, leaving room for other panels to beat it.

The motion blur results are really interesting. The response time of the 55" TH01 Samsung panel is around double that of the Sharp and AUO panels. This is even consistent across all 12 transitions that we measured.

For our measurements, a difference in response time of 10 ms starts to be noticeable. All three are within this range, so the difference isn"t very noticeable to the naked eye, and the Samsung panel still performs better than most other TVs released around the same time.

We also got different input lag measurements on each panel. This has less to do with software, which is the same across each panel, and more to do with the different response times of the panels (as illustrated in the motion blur section). To measure input lag, we use the Leo Bodnar tool, which flashes a white square on the screen and measures the delay between the signal sent and the light sensor detecting white. Therefore, the tool"s input lag measurement includes the 0% to 100% response time of the pixel transition. If you look at the 0% to 100% transitions that we measured, you will see that the 55" takes about 10 ms longer to transition from black to white.

All three have bad viewing angles, as expected for VA panels. If you watch TV at an angle, most likely none of these TVs will satisfy you. The picture quality degrades at about 20 degrees from the side. The 60" Sharp panel is worse than the other ones though. In the video, you can see the right side degrading sooner than the other panels.

It"s unfortunate that manufacturers sometimes vary the source of their panels and that consumers don"t have a way of knowing which one they"re buying. Overall though, at least in the units we tested, the panel lottery isn"t something to worry about. While there are differences, the differences aren"t big and an original Samsung panel isn"t necessarily better than an outsourced one. It"s also fairly safe to say that the same can be said of other brands. All panels have minute variations, but most should perform within the margin of error for each model.

Vizio is going big at CES 2020 with a lineup of new 4K HDR TVs that are fully optimized for the current and upcoming generations of game consoles from Sony and Microsoft. But the company also has grander ambitions, and is introducing its first TV to feature an OLED panel. So Vizio is now joining LG and Sony in pushing that display technology — though the company is still equally proud of the advancements in its mainstream LCD sets. The OLED might be the new flagship, but Vizio is hoping its got something for everyone in this year’s assortment: the 2020 TV family starts with a budget 40-inch V-Series and, in terms of size, tops out at the 85-inch P-Series Quantum X.

Powering many of those TVs is a new 64-bit, 1GHz ARM processor that Vizio says will enable improved 4K upscaling and color reproduction that’s more accurate than ever before. Upper-end sets will get the “IQ Ultra” processor that includes AI/machine learning picture optimizations. And there’s also what the company calls the “ProGaming Engine,” which will support variable refresh rates, AMD FreeSync, and 4K gaming at up to 120Hz.

All 2020 Vizio TVs will feature low input lag; in the past there’s always been one HDMI input that’s better in this regard than the others, but now that performance — crucial for multiplayer gaming — is extending to all HDMI ports on every set. Specifically, input lag is under 15 milliseconds. While on the subject of HDMI, Vizio has also made the upgrade to HDMI 2.1 across the line.

Vizio is also embracing pretty every HDR format this year, including Dolby Vision, HDR10, HLG, and now HDR10+. All in all, it’s looking like a pretty strong year if you’ve been waiting to purchase a future-proofed 4K TV.

The last thing worth mentioning is that Vizio is introducing a new voice remote this year and now has its own voice command system on board. It’ll handle basics like TV controls, searching for content, launching apps, and more. It’s a push-to-talk implementation, so the remote isn’t always listening to you — and Vizio continues to support Alexa, Google Assistant, and Apple’s HomeKit and AirPlay 2.

Yes, Vizio has gone OLED. It’s almost a certainly that, just like Sony, Vizio is using an LG panel in its first-ever OLED TV. If the company wants to stand out, it’s going to have to do so through picture processing and performance.

Vizio is highlighting the usual strengths of OLED: perfect blacks, vibrant color, and contrast that LCD sets can never quite match. But this set will also get VRR (variable refresh rate), FreeSync, and buttery smooth 4K at 120Hz.

One rung below the OLED is Vizio’s P-Series Quantum X. The best LCD model that the company makes, the Quantum X features fantastic picture thanks to a vast number of full-array local dimming zones. It also offers superb brightness; Vizio says the Quantum X can hit a peak HDR highlight brightness of 3000 nits and can reach 800 nits across the entire screen. And now it comes in the biggest TV size that Vizio has ever manufactured: 85 inches. That’s the one with 792 dimming zones, but no matter the size, the P-Series Quantum X is the best of Vizio’s technology.

The M-Series is where you enter Vizio’s budget pricing territory, with a significant drop off in number of dimming zones and brightness performance. But both the M8 and step-down M7 still offer excellent quantum dot color, HDMI 2.1, and support for all the HDR modes you could want.

At the bottom of the ladder is the V-Series, which loses out on local dimming completely and pales in comparison to the rest of the lineup in brightness. It also ditches quantum color, so HDR quality takes a hit. The main appeal of the V-Series is the huge selection of sizes that Vizio offers, so if you’re looking for a kitchen TV or one for a kid’s room, one of these might fit the bill. Everyone else should probably cross it off the list.

Gadget manufacturers, TV makers in particular, have long plied consumers with ever-longer, more complex-sounding technical specifications. But Vizio’s Cinemawide isn’t a typical exercise in electronics bravado. It heralds a bold shift for a company that has gone from a purveyor of chintzy, off-brand sets to being a major industry disruptor in less than a decade.

Vizio entered the U.S. market by, in essence, disrupting it with low-priced TVs back in 2002. That quickly paid off for the Irvine, California-based company. According IHS iSuppli, Vizio shipped about 1.21 million LCD TVs in the first quarter of 2012. And while this is a drop from the 1.56 million sold in the same quarter a year earlier, the company reclaimed the top spot for sales of the flat panel LCD sets in the United States. What’s more, Vizio has seen nearly continuous growth since its founding. It is estimated to have had revenues that exceeded $2.9 billion last year. (The company is private and does not disclose earnings.)

“They have been a very competitive and disruptive brand,” says Paul Gagnon, director of North America TV research at NPD Group’s Displaysearch. Vizio has disrupted the market by not following the traditional, vertically integrated flat panel TV manufacturing process, which typically has a single company designing, manufacturing and marketing a line of products. Instead, Gagnon explained, Vizio designs the sets but then looks to outside manufacturers, disrupting what he called the “status quo.”

Competitors might have seen it coming. After all, Vizio cribbed parts of its playbook from electronics juggernauts past. Just as Japanese firms including Sony (SNE) and Panasonic (PC) edged out established brands such as RCA and Magnavox, only to see Korean upstarts LG and Samsung take away market share, now Vizio is battling with Samsung for the top spot. “If you look at the history in the TV space in the last years, you will see that Vizio did enter through disruption,” says Matt McRae, Vizio’s chief technology officer. “At the time most of big TV makers were still producing CRTs or rear projection sets, and the flat panel sets that were offered to consumers came with a high-price.”

Surprisingly, Vizio was founded not in some far-flung, low-cost manufacturing city, but in California. It was started in 2002 by William Wang with just $600,000 and help from friends Laynie Newsome and Ken Lowe. The three had worked together at Wang’s former company MAG Innovision, a maker of CRT displays in the 1990s. After helping Gateway Computers briefly enter — only to quickly exit — the TV market with affordable plasma sets, Wang struck out alone. His vision: sell flat panel sets that severely undercut the competition just as traditional CRT sets were being replaced by newer technology. “The market has had a low barrier to entry,” says Gagnon, “but this strategy played out for Vizio a little better than it has for others who have tried to enter.”

The company was able to accomplish this in no small part because, unlike most of its rivals, it doesn’t actually manufacture its own sets. Vizio has never been a manufacturing brand, and never owned a factory of its own. “The company instead has a similar strategy to Apple (APPL),” says Tom Morrod, senior analyst and head of TV technology at IHS iSuppli. “They don’t own their own manufacturing, they don’t own the suppliers. This has been a very successful strategy for Apple and it could be very successful with Vizio.”

Taiwan-based AmTran Technology currently is one of four firms that manufacture products for Vizio, while it also owns a stake in the company. “Each of the manufacturers we work with does something well, and we do have manufacturers that do specific products like sets in one screen size very well,” argues McRae. “When we are building a specific TV we try to pick the best components and look for who would be the best match to manufacture the product.” His point: Vizio is nimble and flexible in ways competitors can’t be.

So far, this has allowed Vizio to nab 18.5% market share in the popular 32-inch and 40-to-42-inch screen sizes. The company has also branched out to other gear such as sound bars — speakers that sit underneath a television — where it has the top spot with 27.5% of the market. The company is likely to continue expanding. At the annual Consumer Electronics Show in January Vizio introduced a line of computers, including two all-in-one desktops and three notebooks.

TVs of course are where the company has made its mark, and where it will likely continue to focus. It has largely been successful by providing value when consumers consider price over just about everything else, including advanced features. “There is nothing innovative in it by its own right,” Morrod told Fortune. “But the price especially has appealed to a large portion of the population and allowed Vizio to become a leading brand by sales.”

The question is where Vizio can go from here. It has managed to grow by outflanking slow-moving competitors used to fat margins. Its ambitions to provide all manner of high-end electronics may not jibe with an economic climate where many consumers, according to analysts, still look for the lowest sticker price. “We’re far from the cheapest brand on the market at

— --Thanks to its low prices, a little-known company named Vizio has bested Sharp, Samsung and Sony to become the No. 1 flat-panel TV maker in North America.

Irvine, Calif.-based Vizio had 12% of the flat-panel TV market in the second quarter, researcher DisplaySearch said Monday. Former No. 1 Samsung had an 11% share, DisplaySearch said.

That"s impressive — especially considering that Vizio TVs have been available only since 2003. And they"re still not found in Best Buy bby or many other electronics stores. Vizio sells mainly through a handful of big chains: warehouse stores Costco cost and Sam"s Club, retailers Wal-Mart wmt and Circuit City cc and department store Sears.shld

Vizio sales have skyrocketed because its products are among the least expensive on the market, says electronics analyst Riddhi Patel with researcher iSuppli.

Take 32-inch liquid-crystal display (LCD) televisions. Vizio offers two sets: one for $600 and another for $650. Best Buy carries a large line of competing products, but many of them top $700. One LG model has been selling for $1,080.

Vizio CEO William Wang says he can undercut his competition because his overhead is low. The company has about 85 employees, most of whom work in technical support or engineering. Vizio outsources manufacturing to low-cost, for-hire factories in Asia, as many other electronics-makers do. The company plans to spend $35 million on advertising this year — "nowhere close" to its larger rivals" budgets, Wang says.

Vizio also keeps costs low by focusing on lower-end models, says DisplaySearch President Ross Young. A Vizio set isn"t likely to have the latest features, most sophisticated signal-processing chips or cutting-edge high-resolution screen, he says.

But that doesn"t necessarily mean they"re poor quality, Young says. Most TV makers buy their most important component — the flat-panel screen — from a handful of wholesalers. Vizio "is buying its panels from the same sources as the big players," he says.

Wang, a longtime electronics executive, founded Vizio after surviving a plane crash seven years ago in which 83 people died. (The Singapore Airlines plane took off down the wrong runway at a Taiwanese airport, hitting construction equipment.) The company started out as a consulting firm helping PC maker Gateway gtw move into the TV market.

But things will soon get harder for Vizio, says NPD analyst Ross Rubin. Right now, consumers are impressed by any flat-panel TV, because they"re relatively new, he says. But once they become more commonplace and less expensive, consumers will pay more attention to brand, he says.

Wang says he has bigger goals in mind than just stealing share. "The (flat-panel) market is growing like crazy, and I think a major contributor (to that) is us," he says.

Vizio sells more small LCD TVs in the U.S. than any other manufacturer so it"s worth putting one of these hot sellers which can be found at Costco, Sams Club or Target through some testing to find out what the consumer is getting.

Sources from non-HD programming look a bit dim with our calibrated picture settings. In Movie Picture mode we lost a lot of color and the picture appeared too dim and lifeless, however when switching to Standard Picture mode, the color saturation improved significantly but we sacrificed dark shadow detail. Dark shadows detail is nearly completely lost. So I recommend using both our settings and the Standard Picture Mode setting depending upon what type of programming your watching. HD programming seems fine with our Movie Mode settings. So that"s one of my main complaints with this TVs picture quality – inconsistency. There is some judder, jerkiness during slow pannning from the 60Hz LCD panel.

Appearance: The E321VL is not bad looking with a black gloss frame that triangulates in the front as in bevels. It adds a little touch of design to what would otherwise be an overly boring layout. The TV comes with a black gloss plastic rectangle table stand which the TV must be screwed into. Vizio includes the screws and screwdriver in the box.

Currently the Vizio E371VL costs around $400 from authorized Internet dealers and retailers. It offers a decent feature set and quality in this size and there just isn"t as much in the 37" size anymore. Competition is from the LG 37LK450.