Customer Reviews:
 ViewSonic 26-inch LCD TV - Good picture, Poor tuner February 12, 2010
Monac (Milwaukee, WI, USA)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I bought a ViewSonic N2690w in December 2009 to replace a 15+ year-old Zenith 19-inch TV. I chose the ViewSonic because a prominent consumer products rating magazine gave it good marks for picture and said it had better sound than most TVs its size. Even though many people use this size television as a second TV, I wanted it as my primary TV to fit an existing piece of furniture. I took a chance on buying it sight unseeen, because I could not find a store that sold ViewSonics in my area (Milwaukee, WI).
The TV picture is very good (especially compared to my old Zenith, of course), once you get used the reduced viewing angle that seems to be inherent in flat-screen TVs. I did feel the factory "backlight" setting was too high, which made the pictures too bright. It was simple to reduce it, but you have to do this for each seperate input that you use (HDMI, component, composite, etc.) A friend of mine recently bought a Samsung 40-inch LED TV; it has a *much* sharper picture with DVDs and other HD input, but it cost about three times as much as this ViewSonic.
The sound is also very good, which was a major consideration for me; I dislike having to use the stereo to get decent sound. (My stereo is an elderly Proton unit with a unique remote control.)
The design of the remote control for the TV is decent, by the low standards of today; at least is fairly simple and non-gimmicky, and seems sturdy. It is *not* programmable for other devices. Also, even with new batteries, its IR emitter seems weak; you have to aim it accurately at the TV's IR receiver to have the TV respond. Two aftermarket, progammable, multi-device remotes I have gave superior TV response, but do not give control of 100% of the TVs features. They are fine for most everday uses, however.
The manual controls, like most TVs these days, are so well-hidden that they are effectively useless--they are a column of small buttons on the right edge of the set. At least the On-Off button is at the bottom of the column, so it is easy to find. The others, however, might as well not be there. (The Japanese obsession with styling over functionality in the design of controls for electronics reminds me of the American car industry from the late 60's through the early 80's, when styling seemed to trump every other consideration of design, such as functionality, build quality, and serviceability. The manual controls on most TVs, DVD players and cable boxes are about as functional as the retractable headlights on a 1966 Buick Riviera.)
The TV has a wide variety of input ports: HDMI, component, composite, RF, S-video, and VGA. However, it only has *one* of each, so you'll have to do come up with a work-around if you have two HDMI devices, for example.
The only major shortcoming I noticed was that the ViewSonics broadcast HD-digital tuner does not seem to get good reception. (I don't have cable or satellite TV.) I first connected my existing rabbit-ear antenna to the RF/Antenna-In port on the ViewSonic; it did a good job picking up the few remaining low-power analog stations in my vicinity, but reception of HD-digital channels was so poor that I reconnected the antenna to the digital converter box I bought for my old analog TV. It received many more channels, with better reception on comparable channels, than the ViewSonic. I then bought a low-priced amplified antenna and an RF signal splitter, so I could connect the antenna to both devices at the same time; this helped very slightly, if at all. As of now, I am still using the digital converter box as my TV tuner, and sending the signal to the TV through a VCR by the composite connector, instead of being able to receive HD-digital broadcast TV directly. This is a bit of a nuisance, but I would still need the converter box to record programs on my VCR, since it lacks a digital tuner. (It is much cheaper to "time-shift" programs on tape than on DVD-Rs.)
On the whole, I am happy with the ViewSonic N2690w TV set, and would buy it again. But if reception of broadcast digital channels is important to you, you may want to look elsewhere. I hope other ViewSonic owners will comment if their experience is different.
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