ViewSonic N3760W 37-Inch LCD HDTV
Outstanding Performance and Value!
Recently, I was in the market to replace/upgrade my standard 27 inch CRT television.  I love the qualities of LCD (vs. CRT) computer monitors so I decided my next set would be LCD.  Like most other reviewers I spent many hours buried in research as I hate the feeling of buyer's remorse...or seeing a better product available for a lower price days after taking delivery.  I have had great success with Viewsonic LCD computer monitors but did not consider them (due to lack of awareness) for TV viewing until I came upon this 37 inch beauty on sale at COSTCO online.  At $1299 the price seemed almost too good to be true.  I checked the Viewsonic web site, and called the company, for more information.  The N3760 is their latest product and I was told customers seem to be very happy with the set.  As many people know COSTCO has the world's greatest return policy so I decided to order and check it out with a serious at-home test.  Just so everyone knows; I examined LCD sets from Sony, Samsung, Syntax, Phillips, Polaroid, and every other brand imaginable.  Also, a key area of interest was how good the picture would be with a standard, in my case satellite, signal.  Almost every retail store pumps High Definition signals through their flat screen sets on display so standard signal picture quality was a concern.  Now to the results:  As you can see from my star rating I am extremely pleased with the N3760.  The set looks very nice in its all black color and saves a bit of space (width) with its high quality bottom mounted speakers.  Set up was very simple with logical instructions and clearly labeled and accessible inputs.  I connected my DVD player using the HDMI input and my satellite receiver using S-Video and RCA audio.  After turning on the set I checked for dead or fixed pixels...not one! (I am a bit of a perfectionist so no bad pixels was very important to me) Next I selected a standard (I don't have High Def) station and watched some TV.  The picture was outstanding!  Ihave noticed a lot of HD sets, both LCD and plasma, have very grainy and sup-par images when using standard signals.  This is NOT the case with the Viewsonic.  The picture was amazingly sharp with very accurate color, contrast and brightness at the factory default settings.  If you want to make changes it is quite simple using the well designed remote.  As to picture size and aspect ratio, this is easily adjusted in the menu and you have a choice of wide, zoom, anamorphic, fill all, 1 to 1 or normal.  When you change the picture size/type the result is instantly displayed, and visible, as the menu is transparent over what ever source you are watching.  Some people have complained that certain sets do not allow changing the picture size/type when using the HDMI input.  Again, this is not the case with Viewsonic.  Watching a Widescreen DVD using the HDMI input I was able to select any picture type.  My DVD player up-converts 480p to 780p or 1080i (sorry about the tech jargon here) and all picture modes were available with each resolution setting.  The picture quality was outstanding at all settings.  The set has a 8ms response time so there is no noticeable ghosting even during the most action packed scenes.  One problem with a lot of LCD sets is the loss of detail in dark or shadowed scenes.  I found that turning down the contrast a notch (the blacks were still accurate) and slightly increasing the brightness easily solved this common ailment.  Hidden images were now visible in their original theatrical detail.  Let's talk sound.  The built-in speakers produce amazing sound and have caused me to rarely use the 6 channel surround set-up I have hooked to the set.  I may be a bit lazy but I watch most everything, except effects packed action movies, using only the built-in speakers and the sound is accurate and clear even at very high volume levels.  A month after my purchase I am a very happy camper!  I am sure there are 37 inch LCD sets equal or better in performancebut my research shows you will end up paying almost $1000 more for the privilege.  I would be very happy with the Viewsonic N3760 at $1800...at $1299 I can not imagine anyone buying anything else.  This product receives my highest recommendation.