Zenith C32V23 32-Inch Flat-Screen Integrated HDTV
Good TV, but fatally flawed
This TV is a bit of a coup for Zenith: it's the price leader for direct-view High Definition televisions with built-in HDTV tuners. Without a built-in tuner, you're going to have to spring for an external one to plug into a \\"HDTV Monitor\\", and these tuners ain't cheap. Buying the pieces separately puts you over Zenith's price point. <br />There's some real flexibility in the unit as well: it comes with two F-connector coaxial inputs (for instance, cable TV and a DTV antenna) that can tune independently, three composite/S-Video video inputs, and a composite Monitor output. Then there's the real selling points: a component input labeled \\"DVD\\" and another labeled \\"HDTV\\". ...<br />The \\"HDTV\\" input is for 1080i signals, which is the highest resolution described in the ATSC/HDTV specification. This is the input you'd use for an external HDTV tuner, a digital sattelite tuner, etc. It's an interlaced signal, but the resolution is so high you'd never care. However, unlike certain competing products, the 1080i input will not \\"upsample\\" lower resolution signals like 480i, 480p and 720p. \\"Upsampling\\" means creating a high-resolution signal from a lower one, doubling lines when neccesary. Upsampled signals don't look better than their originals; they're only used for compatibility & convenience. So if you intend to have a variety of component-input type devices using a variety of resolutions, you'll probably want a home theater-type receiver that can do the upsampling. <br />My initial review panned the unit for a perceived \\"flaw\\" - the unit was either damaged in shipping or was calibrated incorrectly, resulting in strange picture distortions that become jarring to the eye. Circuit City replaced the unit (within the 30-day limit - wish I'd bought the extended warranty) and the picture is much better than my initial perception. It's actually a beautiful, sharp and bright picture; HD signals over the air have precision and color fidelity that will take your breath away, and DVDs look superb in the DVD component input. Most suprising is the fact that you can pick out picture artifacts from the MPEG-2 encoding process, which you'll probably never notice with a less precise composite input on a smaller TV. I've added a star to my review because of the stunning quality of a working unit, but it still gets only 4 because, well, obviously not all the units that shipped are \\"working\\". <br />This TV displays all signals digitally. Analog signals are digitized first then displayed. This is what you would expect from any digital TV, probably for the forseeable future. In this conversion process, a delay is introduced inbetween input and display. If you set this TV side by side with a plain ol' analog TV and tuned them to the same source, the analog TV displays signals earlier. This is also normal.<br />However, what about the instances when synchronization is critical? Home theater audio is one of these instances. Audio _MUST_ be kept in sync with video, obviously. Here's where the real weakness shines through.<br />Take this as an example: you have a composite only DVD player and a receiver that only decodes Dolby Surround, which is recreated using the stereo audio output of your DVD player.You plug these into one of the composite inputs on the C32V23, then you plug the TV's stereo audio output component of the \\"Monitor Output\\" section into your home theater Dolby Surround receiver. There is a delay induced between your DVD player and receiver (by the TV), but since the TV delays audio to keep in sync with its video delay, you experience no problem.<br />Now substitute a higher-end component DVD player. You'll want to plug this into the TV's component input labeled \\"DVD\\", right? You'll also want to plug in your analog stereo audio pair into the audio inputs in the TV's DVD input as well. And you'll want the Monitor Out section to pass the audio along to your home theater receiver too, right? Wait a minute - there's sound coming out of the TV speakers, but no signal at all coming into your receiver! That's right, you've found the rub. The Zenith manual says that the Monitor Out section (video and audio) don't work at all with the DVD In and HD In sections. This fact is omitted from all marketing material for this TV.<br />Well, instead of plugging that DVD audio output into the TV, you can just run it to your receiver and cut out the middleman, right? Ahhh, that's right - there's a delay in the time it takes to display the video signal! All the audio coming in to your receiver comes out earlier than the video signal!<br />How do you deal with this? You'll need an audio delay line, but good luck buying one of these at Best Buy.<br />Now imagine having one of those hi-tech digital audio receivers that can decode 5.1/7.1 Dolby Digital. I may have a cheapo analog delay line hanging around my house, but I definitely don't have a digital one with optical inputs. You're talking $bux$ there.<br />Certain home theater receivers have variable delay units built in (I'm thinking of Denon receivers here), which are usually used to compensate for giant screening rooms. My older-model Denon's delay only goes up to 30miliseconds, though, which isn't quite enough to do the trick. I don't expect that any manufacturer would produce a unit to compensate for this delay. I don't know if other digital televisions have this problem, but the obvious solution is for the TV to treat all sources equally in the output section.