Vizio Announces New 42-Inch LCD TVs

Dreaming of that large-screen HDTV experience? Vizio's new L42 and GV42L put affordable good specs in surprising places: Costco and Sam's Club.

U.S.-based LCD television Maker Vizio has introduced two new 42-inch high-definition LCD displays, their L42 and GV42L, which bring decent specs to consumers at surprisingly low price points for displays of this size—and that may have something to do with the units being offered through big-box warehouse stores Costco and Sam’s Club.

The 42-inch Vizio GV42L (the GV stands for "Gallevia") offers a 1366 by 768 native resolution (up to 1080i, but not 1080p), a 178° viewing angle, a 1600:1 contrast ratio, 500 cd/m² brightness, and a snappy 8ms response time. The unit supports 16.7 million colors, offers an integrated NTSC/ATSC/QAM tuner, sports 2 HDMI inputs, and internal processing to offer noise reduction and video processing for high image quality. Also on board: co-ax input, two component inputs, an PC RGB input plus stereo audio, S-Video, and two composite inputs. You can pump sound out to a 5.1 surround system via SPDIF, and there’s a,n RCA stereo out for running old school. The GV42L can be mounted on a wall or stand upright with or without the removable 10-watt stereo speaker set, and is available now at Costco warehouse stores for $1599.99.

The Vizio L42 HD LCD display is a similar beast, offering 1366 by 768 resolution, an integrated NTSC/ATSC/QAM tuner, 500 cd/m² brightness, 178° viewing angle, and 8 ms response time, although the specced contrast ratio is 800:1. The unit offers 2 MDMI inputs, co-ax input, 2 component inputs, 2 composite inputs, S-Video, and co-ax, so you should be able to hook it up to most anything you have on hand. Pump out 5.1 surround audio via SPDIF or hook up standard RCA stereo components; you can also remove the L42’s 10-watt speaker system, although the unit is designed to handle the speakers when standing on a surface or mounted on wall. The L42 offers image processing for the clearest, highest-quality picture possible, and is available now at Sam’s Club for $1499.99.

Both units offer Vizio’s "Zero Bright-Pixel" defect and "No Permanent Burn-In" guarantees, life time technical support, and 1 year in-home service.