Well, I had put in the "What new stuff have you bought" thread that I got a new Vizio TV for my living room to replace my Panasonic VT60. Well, not replace in the way that there was something wrong with the Panasonic, but more that I wasn't all that thrilled with my top of the line/last of its kind/impossible to replace TV being used for cartoons and the occasional sporting event when I had company. It is a great TV, but that room has too many lights and that TV is basically a mirror so it just didn't do well at all. I had been thinking of moving it to my office for some time, but never really felt it was justified.
Well, Best Buy had a sale on the 2018 Vizio E series so I decided to pick up a 70" since that is as big as my cabinet will hold (current Panny is 65" and somehow takes up the same space). Got it delivered yesterday and set it up. I can say that for less than a grand it's a nice TV. Feels like a cheap plastic toy compared to my Panasonic, but it's a 1/4 of the price and much newer.
The Vizio "smart cast" interface is terrible. I tried to like it, but ended up putting my cheap Xiaomi Mi box 3 (android TV) in to take care of all TV watching. Much better. HDR stuff looks nice after going with Rtings.com settings. I did turn up the back light as they calibrated for a dark room. Mine is intended for a bright room. It does this very well.
My office TV was my Sony 55" 700D (great for the money) and it's new home is my master bedroom. It's much brighter than the Vizio, but lacks local dimming so black isn't as good. They both have their strengths. The Sony having Android TV built in is a plus...to an extent. It's slow. Other than that it works fine. Color reproduction on the Sony is fantastic. Great bedroom TV for me. Very happy that it's replacing my old 42" Panasonic PZ80. Now to find a use for it...
The big surprise was how good my 65" Panasonic looks in my office. That's the room it should have been in all along. Since I only used it in my living room and there were lots of reflections I didn't really see how good the picture was anymore. It used to wow me every time I used it, but the last two years that we've been in this house it's just kind of been there. Now, holy crap I forgot how good this thing is. Since my office light is just in the ceiling (5 or so feet above the top of the TV) there are no reflections so it isn't having to battle any light. In the dark it's just amazing. I still can't believe I waited 2 years to do this. If it weren't for the fantastic sound system in my theater I'd almost want to watch movies in my office. I can say that all TV viewing will be on this TV for sure.
Sure, the Panasonic doesn't have HDR and eye bleeding brightness, but I don't know if I've ever seen anything that can match the picture on this TV. OLED probably can, but I've only seen them in the stores. I'll be sad when this thing dies. Should have quite a lot of life left though.
