Audio Video News

Vizio officially showed off its new 2017 flat-panel display line-up in New York this week, with an emphasis on demonstrations designed to show off their improved technology and, as usual, high value.

Notable for the enthusiast crowd, the company's top-of-the-line P-Series sets will carry over last year's P-Series hardware platform but enjoy noticeable improvements in image quality thanks to significant firmware advances. Particularly, HDR performance and contrast are said to have been improved thanks to considerable work done to the algorithm for the full-array local dimming backlight, now dubbed XLED Pro to designate Vizio's best technology. Vizio's chief technology officer Matt McRae said the new sets are capable of 600 nits of sustained brightness on a full-screen white raster test pattern. (Most TV makers make claims for HDR brightness based on the set's ability to hit a peak in a smaller window or only momentarily until the TV automatically reduces light output to preserve itself.) Additionally, blooming around bright objects has been reduced through finer control of the backlight and pixels, with less resulting halo effect around things like white credits on a black background. As before, the sets will handle both HDR10 and Dolby Vision HDR content using up to 128 individual dimming zones depending on screen size. Ultra Color Spectrum, Vizio's name for wide color gamut, insures that the sets will hit more than 95% of the P3 digital cinema color range.

The three P-Series models available are: the P55 (55-inch, $1,300), P65 (65-inch, $2,000), and P75 (75-inch, $3,500). They'll be available this summer.

Meanwhile, the M-Series midline models, which have hit a strong sweet spot on value in past years, are expected to continue that tradition with a revised hardware platform and some trickle down of what's been learned in updating the P-Series models, McRae said. With their XLED Plus full-array backlights, using up to 32 local dimming zones, these sets should hit 350 nits "typical," again referring to sustained light output on full-screen white. Ultra Color Spectrum wide gamut is also carried over from the P-Series, and the M-Series also supports both HDR10 and Dolby Vision, the two predominant types of HDR. Models include the M50, (50-inch, $800, the M55 (55-inch, $1,000), M65 (65-inch, $1,500), M70 (70-inch, $2,000), and M75 (75-inch, $3,000). They are also expected to be available this summer. (Both the P- and M-Series models are described as "displays" instead of "televisions" as they lack an on-board off-air ATSC tuner or antenna input, on the assumption that you'll be relying on a cable or satellite set-top box, or a dedicated standalone broadcast tuner should you require that feature.)

The previously announced entry-level E-Series, which supports HDR10 high dynamic range(but no Dolby Vision) in sets 55-inches and above, includes nine models total ranging from the 32-inch E32-E1 ($210) to the 80-inch E80-E3 ($3,400).

New Smart Features
Vizio has introduced a new platform for 2017 that should make their displays and TVs easier to navigate. The Android-based tablet that accompanied last year's better models to introduce purchasers to the company's SmartCast app are gone, replaced by conventional remotes and the presumed use of your own mobile device. The sets are now built entirely on the Chromecast platform and include a new graphic user interface that essentially mimics on the big screen what you see in the Smartcast app, which itself has been improved to make your most-used content more readily accessible. Both the app and onscreen display will now update to reflect user actions intiated in either place. Furthermore, a new Quick Start mode holds the set in standby and ready to receive an automatic power-on command associated with the simple launch of any Chromecast-enabled app, making it easier than ever to cast content to the display. Also new for 2017: the use of voice commands to launch specific apps merely by speaking into a Google Assistant smart speaker (not included).