Buy:Iron_Giant
01-21-04, 03:34 PM
Just bought a Zenith C32V37 last Sunday night.
I used to search the web for reviews of the HDTV, but could not find very many, so here is my review after setting it up over the past 3 days:
Watching a DVD
-I have only played 3 DVDs (Lion King, Star Wars and The Mask) on the system and all 3 looked great (after setting up the color correctly). I set my DVD player to think it is playing to a 16:9 TV, becuase the C32V37 can be set as 16:9 system so you can take advantage of the "Enhanced for Widescreen" DVDs. The Mask is a 4:3 DVD, so it did not look as good and I did not reset my DVD player to 4:3 output because I did not want to take the time (I have very few DVD that are not "Enhanced for Widescreen").
Watching Broadcast (Over the Air) HDTV
-Jay Leno and his guest on the Tonight Show looked better than fantastic. This is the 1st time I have watched HDTV being broadcast over the airwaves. Let's just say that I was shocked how good the picture is on HDTV. I cannot wait for all signals (and sources materail) to be HD. Then I will not need to pay for Comcast Cable any more. The SuperBowl is going to look "Super" this year.
-The Reception of the HD Signal over my RCA Powered (25 DB Gain) Anntena that now sits on top of HDTV is very strong. When I walk around the room the signal does not get cut off and the signal monitor that is built into the TV shows Normal/Good strength throughout the night. This is much better than the Samsung 151 (I think this was the model, it was 6 months ago), which would cause the signal to cut out when someone walked around my living room. The only time the Zenith HD Signal cuts out is when a train comes by my house, the signals dies for only 2 or 3 seconds. So I give the Zenith a much higher rating than the Samsungs HD receiver.
-I am not surpised that Zenith does a much better job in holding onto the HD Signal, after all Zenith is developer of the 8-VSB transmission standard.
Watching Comcast Analog
-Does not upconvert the signal as well as a Sony HDTV (glass tube), but it is still way better than my old 9 1/2 year old TV. TV shows look good and can be watched with no problem. But, animated shows look GREAT when upconverted by the Zenith.
Flipping channels
-A little pause between channels, I think it is because it has to digitize (put the picture in some kind of RAM) the picture first.
-There is some kind of Surf feature in the HDTV, but I have not set it up yet. I hope this will help scanning the channels a little faster.
-Going between Annalog and Digital channels takes a little while to understand and make it a habit. If you want NBC-HD (which is channels 11 on Analog Comcast), I have to punch in 48-2 (there is a dash button on the remote or type just type in 482). To go back to NBC on annalog cable, I need to punch in 11-0.
Sound
-The sound from the TV is very powerful, sound volumn can go very high.
-Have not hooked it into my Surround Sound system yet, I will use the fiber optic connection tonight so I test out the 5.1 sound coming from HDTV. Will update tomorrow.
1. Size 32 inches (Perfect for our living room)
Length: 22.4 inches
Width: 36 inches
Height: 27 inches
2. Weight
158 pounds (easy for 2 men to pull it out of the box and put it into the TV Stand)
3. Setup (this took me a few tries to get right)
Coaxial #1 connection = Anntena (For HDTV)
Coaxial #2 connection = Cable (Comcast Analog)
-Must tell the system how you have the connectors setup (you have 4 options, I used option three)
-Auto Channel Select took about 3 minutes
4. Color adjust
-All glass HDTV systems colors are set way to high, had to back the color adjust way (and I mean way down) down and set the Tint a little away from the red side.
5. Price
-$999 (got it at Best Buy for $940 with Tax and 4 year warrenty)
-Very good deal considering that it has a built in HDTV receiver that really grabs onto the signal with a little powered anntena!
6. Menus
-Easy to access and select all menu functions. I am a techy kind of guy, so I do not know how a “Non-Techy” person will succed in cruising through menus.
7. Remote Control
-Has easy one button access for most of the controls you will once you get the system setup.
-I can only turn my JVC DVD/Sound Sytem off and on, cannot start/stop DVD player.
-Have not setup the remote to control the VHS machine yet, but it looks like it has more controls/buttons for a VHS player than a DVD player.
-No real problems with the remote and the HDTV, most remote will not control my JVC all-in-one DVD/Surrond Sound system.
Stats for the HDTV:
http://store.hdtvtime.com/c32v37.html
I used to search the web for reviews of the HDTV, but could not find very many, so here is my review after setting it up over the past 3 days:
Watching a DVD
-I have only played 3 DVDs (Lion King, Star Wars and The Mask) on the system and all 3 looked great (after setting up the color correctly). I set my DVD player to think it is playing to a 16:9 TV, becuase the C32V37 can be set as 16:9 system so you can take advantage of the "Enhanced for Widescreen" DVDs. The Mask is a 4:3 DVD, so it did not look as good and I did not reset my DVD player to 4:3 output because I did not want to take the time (I have very few DVD that are not "Enhanced for Widescreen").
Watching Broadcast (Over the Air) HDTV
-Jay Leno and his guest on the Tonight Show looked better than fantastic. This is the 1st time I have watched HDTV being broadcast over the airwaves. Let's just say that I was shocked how good the picture is on HDTV. I cannot wait for all signals (and sources materail) to be HD. Then I will not need to pay for Comcast Cable any more. The SuperBowl is going to look "Super" this year.
-The Reception of the HD Signal over my RCA Powered (25 DB Gain) Anntena that now sits on top of HDTV is very strong. When I walk around the room the signal does not get cut off and the signal monitor that is built into the TV shows Normal/Good strength throughout the night. This is much better than the Samsung 151 (I think this was the model, it was 6 months ago), which would cause the signal to cut out when someone walked around my living room. The only time the Zenith HD Signal cuts out is when a train comes by my house, the signals dies for only 2 or 3 seconds. So I give the Zenith a much higher rating than the Samsungs HD receiver.
-I am not surpised that Zenith does a much better job in holding onto the HD Signal, after all Zenith is developer of the 8-VSB transmission standard.
Watching Comcast Analog
-Does not upconvert the signal as well as a Sony HDTV (glass tube), but it is still way better than my old 9 1/2 year old TV. TV shows look good and can be watched with no problem. But, animated shows look GREAT when upconverted by the Zenith.
Flipping channels
-A little pause between channels, I think it is because it has to digitize (put the picture in some kind of RAM) the picture first.
-There is some kind of Surf feature in the HDTV, but I have not set it up yet. I hope this will help scanning the channels a little faster.
-Going between Annalog and Digital channels takes a little while to understand and make it a habit. If you want NBC-HD (which is channels 11 on Analog Comcast), I have to punch in 48-2 (there is a dash button on the remote or type just type in 482). To go back to NBC on annalog cable, I need to punch in 11-0.
Sound
-The sound from the TV is very powerful, sound volumn can go very high.
-Have not hooked it into my Surround Sound system yet, I will use the fiber optic connection tonight so I test out the 5.1 sound coming from HDTV. Will update tomorrow.
1. Size 32 inches (Perfect for our living room)
Length: 22.4 inches
Width: 36 inches
Height: 27 inches
2. Weight
158 pounds (easy for 2 men to pull it out of the box and put it into the TV Stand)
3. Setup (this took me a few tries to get right)
Coaxial #1 connection = Anntena (For HDTV)
Coaxial #2 connection = Cable (Comcast Analog)
-Must tell the system how you have the connectors setup (you have 4 options, I used option three)
-Auto Channel Select took about 3 minutes
4. Color adjust
-All glass HDTV systems colors are set way to high, had to back the color adjust way (and I mean way down) down and set the Tint a little away from the red side.
5. Price
-$999 (got it at Best Buy for $940 with Tax and 4 year warrenty)
-Very good deal considering that it has a built in HDTV receiver that really grabs onto the signal with a little powered anntena!
6. Menus
-Easy to access and select all menu functions. I am a techy kind of guy, so I do not know how a “Non-Techy” person will succed in cruising through menus.
7. Remote Control
-Has easy one button access for most of the controls you will once you get the system setup.
-I can only turn my JVC DVD/Sound Sytem off and on, cannot start/stop DVD player.
-Have not setup the remote to control the VHS machine yet, but it looks like it has more controls/buttons for a VHS player than a DVD player.
-No real problems with the remote and the HDTV, most remote will not control my JVC all-in-one DVD/Surrond Sound system.
Stats for the HDTV:
http://store.hdtvtime.com/c32v37.html