VIZIO SV421XVT Review

What do you think about when you hear the name brand VIZIO? Do you think of them as making top of the line products or do you consider them lower on the totem pole? I remember walking into Wal-Mart a couple years back and skimming over the VIZIO TVs for the brands like Sony & Samsung. I didn’t really give them a decent shot. I didn’t really know why, I just thought of them as inferior in some way. Maybe it was because of the price or that they seemed more like a Wal-Mart “in-house” brand to me. Either way I didn’t give them a second look until this past year when I was browsing for a new bedroom TV on Amazon and came across the VIZIO SV421XVT. It had numerous positive reviews and the specs looked pretty good as well. I decided to bite the bullet and give this VIZIO TV a try.

Upon hooking it up at home I noticed I must have been thoroughly mistaken by not giving them a chance from the beginning. I could have saved myself some money over the previous Sony Bravia I bought. 😉 This TV looked amazing, the 240 Hz (enhanced 120Hz) made action scenes and sports games look great. The crystal clear 1080P made it great for watching blu rays and video games. It really looked and worked great. That was until a night when I was away from home and had a power surge. I tried turning it on and it did turn on but I couldn’t use the remote for changing the channel or the volume I had to do it manually by walking up to the TV. I replaced the remote batteries and still the remote had no effect on the TV. I unplugged the VIZIO SV421XVT and tried that. Huge mistake, it now wouldn’t even turn on. I was extremely upset and very impulsive at that time, so I purchased the Mitsubishi WD-73738 almost immediately after because I thought the VIZIO 42” was a goner. After talking with my cousin later on, he mentioned that I should try contacting the company because there is usually a manufacturer’s warranty a year from the date you purchased it. So I contacted VIZIO and they set up an in home visit from a local TV technician.

The technician got to my place and in a matter of 20 min or so had replaced both parts that went out, everything has worked great ever since.

The moral of this review is “buy a surge protector”. Seriously, this would have been working flawlessly since day one if I would have just used a surge protector. Thankfully, VIZIO support is really good and got me up and running in about a week from the initial time I called. So I rate the VIZIO support 5/5 Stars. Now lets get back to talking about this TV.

The VIZIO SV421XVT Specifications & Features:

  • 1080P Full HD – The clearest picture you can get. Over 2 Million Pixels.
  • 240Hz Refresh Rate – Displays 240 scenes per second. No blur when watching Action scenes.
  • SRS Audio – High definition sound that comes straight from the factory.
  • USB Multimedia – Great feature. Plug in flash drives or portable hard drives and watch Digital Media.

The Overall Ruling

The VIZIO SV421XVT has been a great HD TV overall for me. I know there was that one setback with the power surge, but with the VIZIO support coming through with fixing the TV in a timely manner without any cost, proves to me what kind of company they truly are. I wouldn’t be hesitant to purchase this TV or another from the VIZIO line and it looks like the general public agrees with me. 94% of all the reviews I found for this VIZIO 42” TV were positive, with most giving it a 4/5 or 5/5 stars. Most of the reviewers were impressed with the picture quality for the money. All in all the VIZIO SV421XVT is a very good TV for the money, just make sure you buy a surge protector. 😉