In June 12, 2009 the government mandated the switch from analog to digital television broadcasting. For most homeowners, the result of the switch is that they no longer have to deal with annoying distorted pictures, ‘snow’ which seems to fall on your TV screen, and ghosting – the phenomena so common for analog television. Digital television is very different: either you have a crisp image or you have no picture at all.

Assuming you have the right equipment and live not too far from the TV towers, your viewing experience has improved significantly. You have an awesome quality television that does not require monthly subscription. All you need is a regular antenna and you are all set.

The decision which antenna to pick is not that simple though. The right choice depends on your location and the available channels in your area. The first step in choosing the right tv antenna is knowing what channels are available in your area, which frequency band they transmit on, and how close is your house to the TV stations.

Typically, if you live in a big city you can get away with an indoor antenna. However, if you are at 20 miles or more from the transmitting stations, an outdoor tv antenna is your best choice. The outdor antennas are not made equal. Usually, the weaker is signal in your area, the larger the antenna you need. Lastly, when choosing an antenna pay attention to the frequency bands. If you can get away with a UHF-only antenna you’ll end up with a much cheaper and smaller antenna.

For the bargain hunter, this TV of good price and average features surely appeals.

Our test revealed that the Westinghouse TX-47F450S as average and that marks are based on picture quality. In fact most of its marks are within Goods, Very Goods and then some Fair. These are the marks since the picture quality isn?t that great. A co-judged of mine remarked that David Letterman looked washed out, color of a Caucasian acquired a pinkish color and we thought that the TV didn?t give much justice to the Return of the King DVD.

The image quality may suffer, but at least this set makes up lost ground on its audio. When I tested this for that low and quite sound, the TV has managed to upset my ears. When the volume is set to a comfortable level, somewhere a third level up, sounds from the TV are good on my ears as they sounded clear and okay. And expect loud to be louder on this TV.

Before when I need to heighten up the sound, all I need was a subwoofer. But certainly not today as this TX-47F450S takes audio to a whole new level. In fact of the nine high definitions TV sets that we scouted in April 2008, all of which are 46-to 47 inch sets, the scores for this TV is commendable and even better for a TV coming from its class.

Menus on this TV are almost flawless, save for some minor problems. Every option on the video menu is grayed out. The remedy is to exit out of the program settings and change the set-up to User mode. That way the options that you need will be available for you. Minor blips like that undercut some of its finer details like the user-friendly menu that?s easy on the eyes and recognizable icons.

Easy to access regular inputs are seen at the side of the TV, but no short-cuts for inputs for temporary hardware add-ons. If you pay attention to the overall view of this HDTV you will notice that it is almost identical to Westinghouse?s previous HDTV release.

Though the manual and the remote leave much to be desired, other aspects help make the TX-47450S a great choice. With the remote alone, you will notice that it is not comfortable to hold in your hand as you watch hours of television. The closely located buttons will means lots of errors when you are channel surfing or trying to go to a specific station. The design of the remote is also cluttered and it will be a while before you have accurately memorized where the important buttons are located.

The manual is almost unnecessary are you will find yourself online anyway looking for a printable copy that is better than the print out they included. The instructions were not very clear and some of the wording was too light to read at times. You may spend hours fumbling with the sheets as you attempt to understand just what was written to show you.

The Autosource automatically changes the setting when you connect a device. This is a great choice for you since this is cost-efficient. Though the Westinghouse TX-47F250S doesn?t match with the best, its average features and great sound makes it a good buy. Perfect if you don?t have a surround stereo sound system.

Although this TV doesn?t have burn in protection facilities, it has an amazing image quality and the price is really affordable.

This is one of the best affordable TVs with a great price. It does cost less than any product in its category; however, who would have thought that, when considering image quality, it will be on the second place. This is one of the best TVs when it comes to picture quality; a perfect choice for a picky person with a low budget.

Although the image quality is great and it couldn?t get better for this price, this HDTV actually lacks 1080i or 1080p capabilities. You might get tricked and think that it actually has 1080p even if you have a lot of experience. If this is a feature that you need to have, you will be disappointed because it?s easy to purchase this TV without being aware that it lacks this option. It is not clearly marked to alert potential buyers that the 1080 capabilities are featured in this product.

This great HDTV managed to score high with its video quality. It just looks extremely good. However, a little annoying problem was the fact that facial details were a little glossy but that?s not even noticeable. Other than that, this TV behaved very well on all the other tests and managed to impress us.

The menu is similar to the one found on the Vizio Gallevia GV42LF LCD so if you had one of those you will manage to set up this one. Otherwise, you will need to spend a little more time with your new HDTV because everything is a bit difficult to set up.

Inputs aren?t very accessible and the on screen menu can be very annoying; it has a very small text with annoying colors which make everything difficult to read. Another odd thing about this TV is the fact that as soon as you ran the setup wizard, the TV doesn?t let you run it again, so be careful with the settings you choose.

It doesn?t have many features; it has no headphone jack, no USB port so don?t think that you can listen to music or see any photos on your TV from an external source. Most HDTVs have this option but the Vizio VP42 missed it. Also when searching for channels, it might have problems finding them, even if you know it is receiving them. You will notice that it cannot really identify all the channels there.

A great big screen TV, the Vizio VP42 may be passed over by experienced users who plan to do a lot of things with their flat screens. Unfortunately, with the lack of so many key features such as a simple headphone jack, they may look elsewhere for good and affordable plasma?s and HDTV?s that have a lot more options and features.

Although you have the picture-in-picture option, you might find it very difficult to use as they forgot to put a button for it on the remote control; this is very annoying sometimes.

Like all the plasma sets out there, this one also has a problem with burn-ins. Unfortunately, the manufacturers made no features to prevent burn ins and this only happens to this plasma TV, all the other out there have some sort of burn-in protection.

A representative from Vizio, however, will make sure that you don?t worry about these things because, they say, the Vizio TV has no problems with burn-ins. Considering the very small price, you might want to take that chance and buy this amazing TV.

When it comes to remotes, the Vizio VP42?s remote isn?t the best I ever saw. It has a lot of small annoying buttons which will give you a hard time. Also, they didn?t make it programmable and there is actually no PiP button. Another disadvantage is the fact that it doesn?t glow in the dark, making things a lot harder.

Considering the disadvantages and the advantages, my conclusion is that this TV is worth buying. You will never find this quality for such a small price. It is a great option for any home, and it might prove to be a better investment than other products which are more expensive.

The latest Vizio VO47LF LCD HDTV comes like a bolt out of the blue with its impressive image quality and affordable price.

At 47-inches, this TV lives up to the Vizio HDTV tradition of presenting premium image quality for a cost that blows the competition right out of the water. Not to say Vizio VO47LF is faultless. A common drawback to the Vizio line is its difficult set-up procedure, not to mention the non-movable stand and the obvious absence of multimedia USB ports.

Including a stand would have been a good idea considering the fact that these types of televisions sets can be difficult to swivel and pivot when you want to reach the back hookups. Another reason to add a good base that can move is to allow consumers to set up their home entertainment centers anyway they please with a minimum of fuss. A swiveled base would make this easy as you would not have to drag the entire set back and forth to find that perfect view.

Making it easier to setup would have also been a grand idea. While its not the most difficult HDTV ever to get up and running, its lack of clear instructions and many connectors can and will leave some consumers absolutely confused and how to attach certain wires. This could require them to pay large sums of money to have an outside company set it up for them.

The design is decidedly simple; however, someone’s lack of foresight might have resulted in the VO47LF’s input panel to be located at the back and faced down, which can be inconvenient. The accessible screen on the menu can has a hard-to-read blue interface accompanied with blue text. Certain modification on screen can also be frustrating, such as the adjustable tint not allowing complete color customization.

The good news is that fiddling with the input plugs of various devices and color set-ups are no longer necessary. The bad news is that switching between your DVD player, cable connection, and VCR still requires regular input changes. A button on the VO47LF’s remote control allows you to chose which appliance you want to use from a list-even the inactive sources-and must be bypassed every time. The Vizio remote has buttons can let you access different input types despite having indirect button commands.

A more or less average remote so far, but the backlighting feature does more than make up for it. Losing the remote in the dark becomes a thing of the past. The remote controls the set although that’s about it. There aren’t any programmable features otherwise.

Fortunately, the instructions manual helps customers dive into the VO47LF experience with relative ease. The quick-start guide comes in the form of a large back-to-back fold-out poster. All of the manual’s 76 pages are in English, easy to read and decipher.

There isn’t much in the way of extra features. The VO47LF is decidedly Spartan with its picture-in-picture option and a free HDMI cable. But for a high definition TV in the classic sense, the Vizio VO47LF remains true to its cause and delivers excellent picture quality.

Once put to our tests, the VO47LF grabbed itself a handful of Goods, a spattering of Fairs, and absolutely no Poors. It even scored quite a bit of Superiors-a ranking that doesn’t come easily from our esoteric standards.

The VO4LF’s strength comes in its sound quality which easily surpasses its competition. Dialogue is crisp and music clips come out packing a punch.

All in all, the Vizio VO47LF carries with it terrific image quality for a package price no one should miss.