Vizio VF551XVT 55-inch HDTV

The VF551XVT is a 55-inch HDTV from Vizio announced during this year’s Consumer Electronic Show. It comes with a local dimming LED backlighting and 240Hz processing. As always, Vizio sells low-priced sets, and the VF551XVT is not an exception.

The VF551XVT is one of the cheapest 55-inch LCDs out in the market today. This big-screen LCD looks unassuming for the most part, with the standard glossy black frame surrounding the picture area. It has a fixed speaker bar at the bottom with silver coloring and reflective supports. The set measures 51.5 inches wide by 36 inches tall by 13.5 inches deep and weighs a svelte 86 pounds with stand attached. Remove the nonswiveling stand and its dimensions become 51.5 by 33.9 by 5 inches and its weight just 73.8 pounds.

As for connections, the Vizio VF551XVT features a mind-boggling five HDMI inputs. Four are located on the back panel and another is placed on the side. The side panel also sports one of the two component-video inputs, along with an AV input with composite video. The back gets the second component input, a PC input (for 1,920×1,080 maximum resolution), an AV input with composite and S-Video, an RF input for antenna and cable, an optical digital audio output, and an analog stereo output.

Features include a 120Hz refresh rate and the accompanying dejudder processing. The processing can smooth out judder inherent in moving video, especially film, and can also help alleviate blurring in motion. A good selection of picture adjustments is also on hand for the VF551XVT. You have nine fully adjustable picture modes. They have modes like Golf, Baseball, Basketball, and Football, which, according to the company, can improve or optimize the images while watching a particular sport.

The picture quality on this set is good but not that great when compared to better LCDs on the market. It is characterized by relatively light black levels, dejudder processing that’s a step behind the competition, and worse-than-average off-angle performance. Its color accuracy, on the other hand, is great. But given the price of this set, the LCD still produces decent images to satisfy average viewers.