Reviewed: Syntax Olevia 542i LCD TV

[Audioholics]

<A href="http://www.audioholics.com/productreviews/avhardware/olevia-542i-LCD-TVp1.php"><IMG style="WIDTH: 125px; HEIGHT: 94px" alt=[olevia542iLCD] hspace=10 src="http://www.audioholics.com/news/thumbs/olevia542iLCD_th.jpg" align=left border=0></A>Like most of us, I started my purchasing of displays long before ED was an option, much less HD. Back then, you rarely had to look behind a TV to know what was back there – an RF/coaxial input for the on-roof antenna and maybe a couple of RCAs that you never knew why you’d ever need. Now, inputs, resolutions, deinterlacing, scaling and a host of other issues make display shopping far more complicated than ever. For the common consumer, what is really important is 1) How does it look and 2) How much is it. For videophiles, many more things come into play including mounting options for the unit picture quality, number of inputs, configuration and calibration options, and more...

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[Editor's Note: Back in October we reviewed the Syntax Olevia 542i LCD. While overall we gave the display a positive review, we noticed that with certain DVDs, the top of the picture would “tear” or be skewed to the right. Over Black Friday (the day after Thanksgiving) in some markets there were heavy discounts on this and other Olevia displays. Soon after we started receiving report after report of customers having the same problem. We have contacted Olevia about this multiple times but have still received no response. While we suspect that Olevia’s unresponsiveness to this issue is due to the fact that it is sporadic in nature and only affects a small subset of owners, we have subsequently pulled our recommendation of this display and hope that future models will have this problem addressed. If this affects you, read on and see if you can help contribute to the knowledgebase.]

- Tom Andry

 

[Buckeyefan 1]

A couple pet peeves I have with my 537H Olevia is the time it takes to switch from OTA HD to my 8300HD DVR. You've got to go through every input the LCD offers, and since the RG6 cable is hooked to the back of the set for OTA HD, my AVR is not in direct control of switching. So I'm fumbling between two remotes. One other issue is that ABC doesn't broadcast college football in wide screen, and the Olevia cannot scale the picture to fill the screen. So even though I watched the Buckeyes today in HD, it wasn't on a 37" LCD. It was more like a 32" CRT. Aaargh. On the bright side, the picture was heavenly.

 

[ht_addict]

I would suspect the no reponse attitude by Olevia is because the issue is too numerous, and can't be fixed. If it was sporadic in nature you would assume Olevia would fix the problem. Last year I bought a Prima PH-42T7, price was right and HD PQ was excellent. Little did I know that when you fed it a Progressive signal you would get a solid line tear across the screen. Depending on the resolution the tear would be in different spots on the screen. Communication with Prima was brutal and the issue never got solved, so I took the Plasma back and got a Samsung.

 

[Buckeyefan 1]

My 537H skews the picture to the right as well on dvd's fed through component cables. I have two dvd players hooked up to the 537H, and the one using composite does not have this issue. I thought it was the dvd player causing the issue, as digital cable (hooked up via component) does not have this problem.

Another issue I've noticed is that on some cable programs - especially children's shows, there is a "block" missing from the top left of the screen. It annoys me, but the kids and wife never notice it.

The last issue affects the sound. If you use the sets speakers for sound, and turn up the bass past 50%, there is excessive distortion. This comes through sounding like someone blowing over a microphone. As long as you keep the bass at 50% or less, it's not an issue. But, this set has a subwoofer out. If you hook up a powered subwoofer to the output on the LCD, and want to raise the bass via the tv, the distortion is extremely evident over a 50% setting.

I will say customer service is at the back of the pack as far as Olevia goes. They make a very good product at a very good price, but don't rely on any type of tech help. You are on your own with this set. I've overlooked the three issues above and chalked it up to "you get what you pay for" deal, knowing I'll never get someone to my house to fix these issues.

HD sports and digital signals are excellent, as well as the overall picture. For the price, I still think these sets are a bargain. They definitely need to do more R/D before putting so many sets on the market at rediculously low prices.

I did notify them of the bass distortion issue, and they never got back to me (no surprise). These sets, at the bargain pricing, should be purchased for secondary viewing or bedrooms. I've seen the "non-tuner" type 37" models going for $599 at MacMall. The newer 437 models with tuners can be had for $699 locally. If you can overlook the few quirks listed above, it's still a great set. It's just too bad it's not a "perfect" set at that price. No surprise there.

Chalk this one up to a company growing too fast and not having the resources to keep up with customer service or properly releasing products with adequate R&D.

 

[Buckeyefan 1]

Found the fix

I called Olevia and couldn't get through. I emailed them at tech support, and got a response within an hour! Here's what Ed said to do (it works):

Hello,

This is not a glitch but just matter of proper setup; all DVD players
by
default are set to video output on S video.
The DVD player is not set correctly. You need to change the video
output
on the DVD Player to Component and not s video and also you need to
turn
on the progressive mode on. All of this is found in your DVD players
Setup. Once this is done your problem will be solve.

Please check our support page for any additional questions you may have
at: http://www.olevia.com/jsp/support/faqs.jsp

Thank you.

P.S.
When replying to this e-mail, please leave the original message so I
have history of all information given and received for your case.

Edward Venegas
Technical Support
Syntax-Brillian Corporation

20480 E. Business Parkway
City of Industry, CA 91789

Ph. 866-965-3842
Edward.Venegas@syntaxbrillian.com
www.olevia.com

NASDAQ: BRLC

 

[Tom Andry]

This isn't so much a fix as it is a workaround. Sure, setting the DVD player to progressive should fix the problem (it did for me but not for some readers). What Olevia is saying is "don't use our deinterlacers that you paid for, use the DVD player's." Essentially, the display's deinterlacing processing is flawed to the point that it is unusable. This response from Olevia only confirms that their sets have a problem. If it is true that (with proper setup) setting your DVD player to progressive will fix the problem, then perhaps it isn't so bad. But for all those out there that spent $1k on a display but are using the free DVD player they got from their bank when they opened a checking account, well, they could have probably benefited from functioning deinterlacing in the display.