Vizio VO47LF

This 47-inch model is the third Vizio HDTV I've reviewed, and I've noticed a pattern: Each one delivers a fantastic picture and yet still manages to undercut the competition on price. On the downside, their TVs lack extras such as swiveling stands and multimedia-capable USB ports, and they can be needlessly difficult to set up and use.

One design flaw is that all of the VO47LF's inputs are on the back, facing downward, which makes them hard to access. After getting everything plugged in and turning on the TV, you can bring up the small on-screen menu with its hard-to-read blue-on-blue text. As you make necessary adjustments, you'll encounter little annoyances such as a slider bar for setting the tint that doesn't show the colors you're going between.

Though you aren't going to be plugging in devices or fiddling with the set's color every day, you will change inputs regularly--switching between your DVD player, your cable connection, and possibly your VCR. The hard-to-find input button on the VO47LF's remote brings up a list of sources from which you must select the one you want, but even sources that have nothing plugged into them are on the list and have to be bypassed each time. Vizio does provide buttons that will take you directly to particular input types (component, HDMI, and so on), but not to specific inputs.

All in all, the remote isn't bad. Thanks to backlighting, it's relatively easy to use in the dark. But it isn't programmable and doesn't control anything but the set itself.

The very good accompanying documentation from Vizio helps ease you into the VO47LF experience. The quick-start guide is a big fold-out poster suitable for wall mounting, except for the fact that there's useful information on the other side. The 76-page manual (all in English) is well designed and easy to read.

When it comes to goodies, the VO47LF delivers picture-in-picture, a free HDMI cable--and that's about it. But purely as a matter of picture quality, the Vizio is about as good as it gets. Though one judge said that the According to Jim clip seemed a little blurry, she nevertheless rated the overall image quality as Very Good. Overall, there were few marks of just Goods, very few Fairs, and no Poors. The VO47LF even garnered some Superiors--a grade we tend to be very miserly about awarding.

The television's sound was excellent (by television standards), with crisp dialogue and decent punch for loud music.

Great picture combines with a great price ($1400) to make Vizio's VO47LF the ultimate bargain.