For the last year or so, Vizio's aggressively priced televisions have been selling nicely via its main retail partner, Costco, as well as at other big-box retailers and online. The company's L32HDTV marks a new milestone: it's Vizio's first 32-inch LCD to include a built-in over-the-air HDTV tuner and cost less than $1,000, making it one of the least-expensive of its kind.

The L32HDTV looks exactly like its predecessor, the L32. Its screen is bordered by a black rectangle, which is in turn surrounded by a thin silver strip set back on the top and sides. The silver extends below the screen to form the set's speakers, and the whole thing sits on a silver stand. Including its stand, the L32HDTV measures about 33 by 26 by 11 inches and weighs 43 pounds. We like the set's understated look, although it's certainly not one of the most eye-catching panels out there.

Vizio's remote is typical of what's normally included with budget LCD TVs. Its many nonbacklit keys lack much differentiation, which makes finding the key you want, such as Wide to change aspect ratio, relatively difficult. It offers extensive control of picture-in-picture, though, and can command three other pieces of gear. The set's internal menu system is basic but complete enough; there's only one mode that allows you to change picture parameters, but it's different for each input, so it's really all you need. The three Vivid presets are all basically the same, and while there aren't any choices for different color temperatures, the out-of-box color temperature was accurate enough that we didn't miss 'em (see below). We appreciated the presence of an adjustable backlight, a picture control that's common to some more expensive LCDs.

Not every budget LCD has an HDMI input, so the Vizio's was welcome. The set also includes two component-video inputs and a VGA-style PC input--1,280x768 is the recommended resolution for PC use--along with a pair of composite A/V inputs with S-Video and two screw-type RF jacks, one for the built-in HDTV tuner. We missed having an S-Video input on the rear panel, but a set of A/V inputs on the side includes S-Video.

Aside from that tuner, which allows you to connect an antenna and watch free over-the-air HDTV, the Vizio also boasts a versatile picture-in-picture control. One option lets you view standard-def--but not high-def--inputs in a smaller window while using the PC input for the main screen. There are four aspect-ratio modes available for both HD and standard-def sources. Like almost every 32-inch LCD, the Vizio L32HDTV has a native resolution of 1,366x768, which should be enough to display every detail of 720p HDTV. All incoming resolutions, including standard television, DVD, HDTV, and computer sources, are scaled to fit the pixels.

We began our video-quality tests by measuring the L32HDTV's initial color temperature, and all of the preset picture modes were surprisingly accurate (see the Geek box), if incredibly bright. Indeed, the three presets are actually named Vivid1, Vivid2, and Vivid3, and our light meter pegged the brightest at 357FTl--blinding by any standard, so you'll probably want to turn it down to avoid sunburn. Calibrating the grayscale resulted in marginal improvement, but we were disappointed in the panel's tracking; depending on brightness, the color of gray fluctuated from too reddish and even brownish near black to greenish in the midbright tones. Speaking of color, we did appreciate the accurate primaries, while color decoding was nearly spot-on.

Blacks weren't nearly as deep as those we've seen from other LCDs, such as Sharp's LC-32D4U, and we didn't see as much detail in shadows as we would've liked. During the opening of The Fifth Element DVD, for example, the star field at the beginning was relatively bright, even with the backlight control reduced to zero, and we saw masses of murky dimness on the fuselage of the passing ship instead of fine detail in the hull. We also noticed discoloration in darker areas; space looked a tad brownish, and near-black areas were too red.

Detail via HDMI according to our signal generator was fine for an LCD of this resolution, and the images looked nice and crisp during Leeloo's reconstruction sequence. Afterward, her skin had a realistic delicacy, although again we noticed unnatural slightly greenish areas in midtone shadows under her arms and back, for example. A broadcast of a Big Ten tourney basketball game on ESPN HD looked punchy, well saturated, and sharp. There was a drop in sharpness when we switched to 1080i mode--in general, this set is happiest with 720p high-def.

Switching gears to standard-def, the L32HDTV did a good job quickly engaging 2:3 pull-down, although some of the tests from the HQV disc caused it to render video-based diagonal lines with jagged edges. As a result, you may notice less than smooth edges in some regular TV material that originates on video as opposed to film.

We tested the reception of the set's over-the-air HDTV tuner, and it performed as expected, successfully grabbing all of our New York City local channels and populating the rudimentary EPG with program information.

Overall, the Vizio L32HDTV is a solid performer if you're looking to watch primarily TV and HDTV in high-ambient-light situations. LCDs with superior picture quality are definitely available, but so far we haven't reviewed any that can approach the price of the L32HDTV.

Ratings

Design: 6
Features: 7
Performance: 6

Verdict

The good: Relatively inexpensive; includes HDTV tuner; accurate primary colors; acceptable initial color temperature; HDMI and PC inputs; adjustable backlight.

The bad: Subpar black-level performance; inconsistent grayscale tracking; no rear S-Video input.

The bottom line: While certainly not suited to discerning low-light viewing, the inexpensive Vizio L32HDTV is a good bargain for people seeking a solid everyday television.