Excellent value in a low-cost HDTV with ATSC tuner

Author's Rating:

Pros: Very good value for < $1000. Bright picture, even far off-axis.

Cons: No hi-def signal strength meter. Mediocre standard-def reception.

The Bottom Line: 
I would recommend buying this if: * Your budget is somewhat restricted (under-$1000). * You have no hdtv cable feed.

Author's Review
I bought this back in January, after having looked at quite a few hdtv-ready tvs, including a Syntax Olevia that I bought for my parents. I would have also bought the Olevia except that it has a very wide chassis (since the speakers are at the side), and no built-in atsc tuner. We don't have cable, and wanted the tuner.

We appear to have bought an early production model; it's made in Taiwan, the serial number ends 00217, and the software version is 1.0. In spite of that, it's performed very well except for one episode in 3 months in which we had to cold-boot (pull the power plug) in order to get it to pay attention to the remote or panel buttons again.

My wife likes the design of the set (ie, the way it looks in the living room), which is astounding (she generally growses about any new electronics in the room). It's less angular than many of the new sets (maybe Westinghouse took their cue from the Sony Bravia line, which was reportedly tested especially for women's reactions). When it's off, it's a fairly understated black rectangle with rounded edges. I especially like having the speakers on the bottom edge, which makes the set less wide than many hd sets; Since this gives the set (including the speakers) an aspect ratio close to traditional tvs, I think it may fit better into many existing enclosures. It also makes it look a little smaller to my wife, and I think that contributes to her acceptance.

We have a small room, and off-axis viewing is important; this set looks good even 30-40 degrees off-axis. The display is bright, and the illumination is pretty even right out to the edges. The local hdtv stations look excellent, especially NBC during the winter olympics (except for the 25Hz/Europe -> 29.97Hz/USA conversion problems, but no TV can fix that).

You will need a good antenna for this set, and, from what I hear from other friends with hd built-in tvs, for any atsc receiver. HD is broadcast in the UFH band, at fairly low power, and seems pretty susceptible to multipath interference. Our reception with a fairly good Jensen UHF/VHF antenna, which is non-directional, is sometimes iffy. During bad reception, the audio breaks up, and the video shows macroblocking; if it's really bad, the tv says "no signal". The picture is gorgeous until the signal strength is quite weak, and then it takes very little additional signal loss to go from macroblocking to no picture.

I'm considering getting a Zenith or Terk indoor directional antenna (looks like a mini Yagi-Uda), which I hope will improve things, though I probably need a good roof-top antenna. With the Jensen, it helps to have the UHF loop pointed just right; check http://antennaweb.org/aw/Address.aspx for antennas for each channel; you'll get the most accurate results if you enter your address, not just your zip. You'll need this information for this tv, since it has no signal strength meter to tell you when the antenna is nearing the correct orientation, a significant minus (not everyone has access to a spectrum analyzer).

The ntsc (standard-definition) reception is mediocre. This tv, with the Jensen antenna, displays a std-def picture with much more noise than my 20-year-old GE with a much worse rabbit-ear antenna, using the same channel for comparison.

Lots of inputs, including VGA for use as a computer monitor.
Two sets of analog component, one s-video, one composite, one DVI, one HDMI, lots of stereo audio inputs, one stereo audio output. I could wish for more composite inputs, since we need to unplug the x-box to plug in the dvd player, but that's a minor quibble, since we could get another adapter for the x-box, or get a component cable for the progressive output of the dvd player (which I want to get anyway). All the inputs/outputs are on the side of the back panel, which makes them very easy to access in my setup (but maybe not so easy to access in an enclosure). There's nothing on the front panel but the logo (in my case, a "V", since half of the "W" was missing when I took it from the box). Even the blue power light is on the side of the panel, an odd design choice. Maybe Westinghouse decided it was bright enough that it would be annoying when watching the set.

The audio is pretty good for built-in speakers, though many would probably want to use the audio-out connections to a external amplifier.

The menu for the remote is very easy to navigate (caveat: I find I can deal with almost any menu system, even one as poorly designed as the Syntax Olevia's). I had the set up and running in only a few minutes. Make sure you get the antenna oriented correctly (details above) before you run the channel-scan, or the scan may miss channels in your area.

The aesthetic design of the remote is boring (long, narrow rectangle), but the assignment of functions to buttons is quite good. Buttons for mute, closed-caption, and aspect ratio (16:9 vs 4:3) are easy to find. There are three "favorite" buttons that are assignable. Some of the icons don't give you much idea of what the button does. This is especially true for the atsc program guide; I can never remember which of a group of three buttons to hit.

There was a fairly pronounced burnt-resistor smell when I first got the set that persisted even when the set was turned off. The smell has become fainter over three months, but is still noticeable. My guess is that a power supply component is under-rated, which may eventually be a reliability problem.

In spite of a few problems, some of which may be related to early production, I would recommend buying this tv. Westinghouse also offers the LTV-32w3, a 32" model, in the same family.