So... I unfortunately found myself in the Yooper Wal-Mart today in hopes of finding the Chinese Bugout knife clone all you guys talked about in the knife posts. Eureka! In stock! So after I waited long enough to get someone to open the damn case that I thought my skeletal remains would be found at the gun counter, I scored two of the knives. On my way out, there was display of various large Vizio TVs, most of which were less than 300 bucks. Seems pretty cheap! My current TV is acting up and may be failing altogether soon.
Any of you guys have a Vizio? How is it? Is it reliable long term?
How is the picture? And is the "smart" interface intuitive and easy to use?
Thanks in advance for any feedback!

I have owned a Vizio approx. 70" for about 6 years and have had NO problems. I'm very happy with its performance. It cost about $2000+ new when I bought it.
I have another that ran for my disabled brother in Law. It ran for years non stop and still works long after he passed away. I can't even imagine how many hours it has run non stop.

I highly recommend.

Four LG's here from Costco.
Been berry berry good to us.

If you can believe the Internet , every TV sold in the U.S . Is made in the same two factories

This message has been edited. Last edited by: bendable, March 08, 2025 02:59 PM

We had a total of 3 Vizios at one time, and generally thought pretty highly of them. We thought they were probably the best value proposition on the market. Then the last Vizio that we purchased, a 65” 4K smart TV, kicked the bucket with slightly over 3 years of use. It never gave us a problem and then one day just completely died. That TV was replaced by an LG that we’ve been very happy with and then another LG was added because we really love the OLED technology. Long story short, from what I’ve seen, Vizio isn’t what it used to be, and after the very short life of our last Vizio TV, I would no longer recommend them.

NO

DO NOT DO IT

Vizio “smart” TV’s are awful and will frustrate the hell out of you. The interface is horribly designed, unintuitive, even for a tech savvy nerd like me.

My dad made the mistake of buying one a few years ago, and I hate dealing with it for him.

I have mentioned it here before, but your best bet is a TCL Roku TV.

An easy to use interface is pretty important to me. My current TV is an LG, 10 years old. Trouble free until recently. Its interface is clunky.

It's also important to distinguish between the "old" Vizio, and the "new" Vizio.

Walmart bought Vizio last year.

Therefore your experiences with Vizio from several years ago may not be indicative of what someone buying a new one today will experience.

(But I haven't kept up with Vizio enough to know whether a Walmart-Vizio is better or worse than a pre-Walmart Vizio.)

quote:

Originally posted by PASig:
I have mentioned it here before, but your best bet is a TCL Roku TV.

Yep. TCL Roku TVs are generally the best bang for the buck when it comes to low budget TVs, having better picture quality than comparable TVs at the same price point plus the very user friendly Roku interface.

If Wal-Mart owns them, that explains the cheap price.

They were cheap before Walmart bought them.

But they're also the 3rd most commonly owned TV brand in the country as of 2024.

It remains to be seen whether Walmart will pursue the "even cheaper but lower quality" route, or the "a little better quality for the same price as before via quantity" route.

They typically aim for the former, but sometimes take the latter approach.

Vizio had a reputation for undercutting the competition long before the Walmart acquisition. Mine has been going strong for 15 years, no issues except for one missing pixel (that way out of the box, but at the edge of the screen and not a bother). Of course, that doesn't speak to their current quality.

quote:

Originally posted by PASig:
NO

DO NOT DO IT

Vizio “smart” TV’s are awful and will frustrate the hell out of you. The interface is horribly designed, unintuitive, even for a tech savvy nerd like me.

My dad made the mistake of buying one a few years ago, and I hate dealing with it for him.

I have mentioned it here before, but your best bet is a TCL Roku TV.

We have a 55" that's a few years old
I'd somewhat echo this. The UI is really slow & not nearly as intuitive to reorganize as our 2 Samsungs.

We have a few TCL Roku TVs at work & they work well

A Vizio wouldn't be on my shortlist, and we only have ours because it was free.

LG and Samsung are top tier TV's

Vizio & Sony are mid-level

Element, Seiki, Magnavox, are all super cheap.

The evolution of some of the brands out there is pretty amazing. I've heard mostly good about both Samsung and LG, for TV's, but not so much on appliances.

It gets mentioned from time to time how successful LG was at RE-branding, I remember how not so well regarded their former brand name was, Goldstar.

I don't know if it's still true but for awhile vizio quit putting tv tuners in their sets it local off air channels are important to you.

Many television companies offer both "TVs" with tuners and "Monitors/Displays" without tuners.

The latter is becoming increasingly common, as OTA compatibility only matters to a small minority of buyers these days, and leaving out the tuner chip allows budget TVs to be sold at an even lower price point. Plus you have the option of using an inexpensive external digital tuner if you buy a display/monitor without an internal tuner.

(Kinda like how many/most computers nowadays don't have physical CD/DVD disc drives, as only a small minority of buyers want them, and those that do can just use an external drive.)

Yes, they are solid. I have a 70" and 55" and they have been solid for years. The 55" is around 10 years old now.

I don't like mine at all. I'm a hard no. I wanted to download one of the streaming services. When I had a problem, my cable provider said you could download it on almost any TV - except Vizio. In addition there are problems sometimes with the audio. The fix is to turn the TV off. then on. Kind of a pain if it happens at a crucial point in something you are watching. I was originally attracted to it based upon the excellent picture quality that I saw in the show room. My picture quality is still quite good, but it's not worth the other issues.

Have had one in our bedroom for years 55 inch maybe. I have no real complaints. The menu structure could be better and the IR sensor is a little weak/narrow but other than that all good.

Keep in mind I have NEVER used smart TV functions on any TV. I only use ROKU’s or Apple TV’s they are both FAR FAR FAR superior to even the best Smart TV integration. Well worth the added cost in my opinion.

I have no problem with Vizio. They said, they are used as monitors. They display my firetv, Roku, Xbox, PlayStation content.

I don’t use the “smart” function at all. They are pretty much disposable monitors.

They are a “value” brand. Don’t expect them to perform like a premium TV.

I have one that is like 15 years old and one that is about 5.
The 15 year old one is still going but the “smart” stuff is long out dated and unsupported. It is used for all the old school game consoles now.

The 5 year old one turns off whenever it wants and just got put out on the back deck.

My main home theater TV is a Sony and likely always will be.
All my other TVs are Insignia brand with Amazon FireTV interfaces. The 55” runs like $200 for 4K LED. The Amazon interface is excellent and is the same across all TVs.

I have one in the bathroom, home gym, living room, and bedroom. The one in the bedroom has been out on the deck since I bought it last summer.
The Vizio was in the bedroom but it’s in the Fritz so got sent to the deck. I am guessing once weather breaks and we are out on the deck pretty much daily I’ll be buying another Insignia to replace the Vizio.