2. Walkaround

The GV42L was shipped directly from the manufacturer and came with basic RCA cables, a power cable, remote control, user manual and installation guide, which is what most viewers will need as most cable/satellite providers will include higher-end cables such as component video, DVI or HDMI cables.

I was very impressed with the appearance of the GV42L, which has a thick shiny black bezel and a silver table stand/speaker section at the bottom of the display. I'm not sure what 'Gallevia' means, but this display definitely has an upscale look and feel. The bezel is very shiny and reflected a great deal of light both from behind the viewer and from the inner side of the bezel from the LCD display itself. I have seen this issue with several different displays and it might be a distraction for some viewers. Vizio even included a little orange cloth to clean the display, which will come in handy as the bezel seems to be a fingerprint magnet.

The GV42L weighs in at 85lbs with the supplied table stand, which is about average for 42" LCDs. You can move the display on your own in most cases, but you definitely want a buddy around if you plan on wall mounting. The input panel is on the bottom of the display and is clearly marked with color coded inputs. While this is the traditional position to place inputs on flat-panel displays, some are easier than others to read and plug in cables. I found the GV42L on the difficult side as there was not a lot of room below a portion of the input panel before you run into the neck of the table stand. For example, every time I tried to plug in my HDMI cable, I had to almost pry it in the slot for it to fit correctly. This represents a minor design flaw to be sure, but is a nuisance nonetheless.

Remote, without and with backlight on.

Under The Hood

The GV42L has a native resolution of 1366x768, which is standard for most 42" LCD displays. The brightness is 500 cd/m2 with a panel half-life estimated at 50,000 hours, which is an industry-standard measurement with late model LCD displays. According to their press release, Vizio claims 1600:1 dynamic contrast with the GV42L, but 800:1 contrast for the L42, even though they share the same panel. After viewing the GV42L, my guess would be that 800:1 is a more accurate measurement. Other features include an 8-ms response time and eight-bit video processing. The GV42L has independent input memory settings, so viewers can calibrate their displays using different settings for each video source.

The GV42L includes two HDMI inputs, two component video inputs, one S-Video input, two composite inputs and a VGA input. The removable speakers are rated at 2x10watts, and the viewing angle is 178 degrees horizontal and vertical. All in all, the TV is a solid offering at this price point.

The remote has a high-end look and feel and is one of the upgrades when spending the extra $100 for the GV42L over the L42. While there are a lot of buttons on the remote, they are laid out reasonably well, and I found them easy to understand. The backlit feature was very handy during movie viewing. The system menus were easy to access and adjust using the remote, and it has a dedicated button for each input, which, fortunately, is becoming more common with newer displays.

Using the system menus was relatively easy, with clearly labeled adjustments for each menu section. The GV42L also includes some advanced picture adjustments such as Digital Noise Reduction. There are also some other slightly cryptic adjustments such as White Peak Limiter, Color Transient Intensity, and Adaptive Luma that may require some research in the User Manual to see what they actually do. These types of adjustments are usually beneficial for the discriminating viewer who enjoys intense tweaking of image settings.