PERFORMANCE

To test-drive the Vizio, I dug out Terry Gilliam's The Brothers Grimm on Blu-ray Disc. In the scene where the brothers (Matt Damon and Heath Ledger) are forced by Cavaldi to go sell "the oil of snake" in the village of Marbaden, a wide range of dark shades could be seen in the carriage they spill out of, as well as in the black clothes worn by both Cavaldi and the shifty, folklore-collecting siblings. But darker scenes didn't come off with nearly as much detail or depth on the Vizio. When the brothers later enter the trapper Angelika's cottage to seek her help as a forest guide, the shadowy corners in her dim abode looked somewhat featureless and flat.

While really dark scenes stretched the Vizio's abilities, its natural-looking color made less- murky shots in The Brothers Grimm look stunningly good. For example, in a scene where Cavaldi bursts in on a dinner party thrown by General DeLatombe, differences between the French general's slightly swarthy skin tone and the fairer faces of his Parisian guests could be seen clearly. Meanwhile, colors such as the red velvet and gold trim of the attendants' jackets, and the green and purple grapes lining the table, looked rich and resplendent.

Switching to high-def cable, I continued to be impressed by the Vizio's picture. When I tuned in to Game Four of the American League baseball playoffs, the Red Sox were stumbling badly against the Tampa Bay Rays, but the team nonetheless looked great on the Vizio's 1080p screen. (And this was with the Movie, as opposed to Baseball, mode selected!) The green turf showed plenty of texture and detail, and wide shots taking in the whole field and the bleachers beyond looked punchy and showed a good sense of depth.

Standard-def programs on cable and DVD also looked good on the Vizio -- as long as I stuck with its HDMI connection and avoided using the component-video inputs, which served up notably soft-looking pictures. The performance of the set's Smooth Motion/Real Cinema processing, meanwhile, proved inadequate at all settings. Even the Low mode lent film-based images a too-fluid and overly sped-up look with either the Precision or Smooth Real Cinema options selected. And I also spotted frequent picture artifacts such as stuttering and blocky "halos" in shots with horizontal motion with Real Cinema switched on.

BOTTOM LINE

Vizio's first 120-Hz LCD TV can deliver crisp, punchy-looking pictures with natural color on a wide range of programs. And with a street price of $1,400, it does so at a considerably lower cost than its big-name competition. Despite a few qualms, I found that the SV-470XVT's generally satisfying performance makes it a fine option for sports fans and casual movie and TV watchers alike.