VIZIO XVT3D580CM CinemaWide LED TV Review

Introduction

If there’s any one reason for the average Joe to invest in this TV, it’s 3D. The CinemaWide's 3D looks outstanding and is definitely the best home 3D experience on the market right now. Additionally, movie lovers may go ga-ga over the chance to watch their favorite cinematic masterpieces in 21:9, though they'll likely have a hard time finding a 21:9-capable BluRay or device to play it in.

If you’re really into the idea of watching films in 21:9 aspect ratio, or want to turn your living room into a faux-IMAX 3D experience, then the CinemaWide (MSRP $1999) might be a smart buy. Outside of these features, though, it’s really rather average.

Design

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In order to accommodate its extended aspect ratio of 21:9, the CinemaWide has an exaggerated, rectangular shape that looks somewhat squashed when compared with 16:9 models. Its bezel and stand consist of brushed metal, creating the perception that the TV is built from a single piece of metal, even though it isn't.

The 58-inch CinemaWide offers a decent selection of ports: five HDMI ports, two USB inputs (for photo/music playback), an Ethernet cable input for a LAN connection, an analog audio output (for headphones), a composite/AV connection, a VGA input (for connecting your PC), an audio in (to wire your PC’s audio through the TV), and a coaxial jack (for connecting either a cable or antenna service).

{{photo_gallery "Design Landing Page Photo", "Front Tour Image", "Back Tour Image", "Sides Tour Image", "Connectivity Tour Image 1", "Connectivity Tour Image 2", "Connectivity Extra Photo", "Stand Photo", "Controls Photo", "Remote Control Photo"}}

Smart TV Features

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Vizio's menu interface is simple enough, but it leads to a paltry selection of apps.

Vizio uses the same menus on the CinemaWide as the 2012 E-Series and M-Series televisions. Pressing the Menu key brings up a 3×3 grid of titled menus, which split into sub-menus and offer a huge variety of options for Picture Settings, Picture Size, Sound, Motion Settings, Network Settings, or Restart Initial Set-up. The menus are very easy to navigate and use, but the spotty infrared/Bluetooth functionality of the included remote makes them potentially frustrating.

Vizio’s smart platform, simply called Vizio Internet Apps, is not really a smart platform, but rather a collection of apps/widgets strung along the bottom of the screen. They’re conveniently accessible due to the quick-loading nature of the platform, and take up little space on the screen. But for the most part, Vizio’s app selection is meager: Netflix, Hulu, and VUDU. There's also a VUDU apps store. Altogether, it'll get the job done for most casual viewers, but pales in comparison to the smart platforms of Samsung and LG.

{{photo_gallery "Software and Internet Landing Page Photo", "Internet Features 1 Photo", "Internet Features 2 Photo", "Internet Features 3 Photo", "Browser 1 Photo", "Browser 2 Photo", "Browser 3 Photo", "Apps 1 Photo", "Apps 2 Photo", "Apps 3 Photo", "Local Media Playback 1 Photo", "Local Media Playback 2 Photo", "Menu Main Photo", "Menu 2 Photo"}}

Picture Quality

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Flashy on the outside, mediocre on the inside.

Ever since last year’s CES, Vizio’s CinemaWide TVs have been getting a lot of hype because of their physical shape, potential for outstanding 3D, and ability to play content in a 21:9 aspect ratio. Those features are surely welcome, but don’t matter one bit within the arena of core performance.

Unfortunately, this Vizio’s various performance parameters average out into a result that’s not very impressive. In our tests, we noted poor motion performance, bad screen uniformity, a narrow viewing angle, and a fairly inaccurate 2D color gamut. Yes, it did have a few strong areas, and the pickings are certainly slim when it comes to 21:9 TVs, but in our opinion, the positives don't outweigh the negatives here.

3D

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Within the realm of 3D, the CinemaWide is king.

Aside from the IMAX 3D films we've seen in theaters, Vizio's CinemaWide has the absolute best 3D we've ever seen. The expanded screen width allows for a level of immersion and depth that totally eclipse even the best 16:9 3D televisions from LG and Samsung.

The best part about the CinemaWide's 3D quality is that it still preserves the TV's color integrity, making it almost preferable to watch 3D rather than 2D. It's a shame the TV has so many issues with other performance metrics, since its 3D is close to perfect.

Conclusion

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A niche television for niche consumers

Aside from the 21:9 screen and the superb 3D performance, the Vizio CinemaWide is a mixed bag of successes and failures, by traditional standards. Its unassisted motion interpolation, screen uniformity, color temperature integrity, and color gamut all range from poor to just average.

It also has an astoundingly narrow viewing angle, despite its great width. Yet it balances these shortcomings with good overall color accuracy, a strong maximum contrast ratio, above-average audio, and superb picture dynamics.

Outside of its special features, the CinemaWide is just an average TV. It would be better off with a high quality smart platform, but Vizio’s meager offerings are still (arguably) better than having no smart platform at all.

At the end of the day, we were disappointed in the CinemaWide, which backed up an innovative design with subpar performance—as if Ferrari had put a four-cylinder engine in its latest supercar. Unless you're trying to recreate an IMAX 3D theater in your home, this TV is just too inconsistent for us to recommend it.

Science Introduction

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We tested brilliant contrast on the 58-inch CinemaWide, but also poor motion performance, bad screen uniformity, a narrow viewing angle, and a fairly inaccurate 2D color gamut. Overall, it’s got some strong points in its favor, but they don’t outnumber the areas in which it failed to impress.

Aspect Ratio

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A 21:9 aspect ratio has a number of ramifications for what we can watch and how we watch.

Vizio’s CinemaWide TVs feature a 2560×1080 resolution, compared to the standard of 1920×1080. Standard definition TVs display in 4:3 aspect ratio, which is referred to as 480i/480p. Modern HDTVs—1080p resolution televisions—have four times the horizontal space and three times the vertical space as standard definition TVs, resulting in a higher resolution. You can think of modern HDTVs as containing roughly four times the resolution space of standard definition TVs. The higher a screen’s resolution, the more picture data it can display, which results in pictures with more detail and greater display prowess.

Blu-ray movies, displayed on a traditional 16:9 TV, are letterboxed (meaning they have black bars along the top/bottom of the picture) in widescreen mode. The CinemaWide alters this by allowing the full screen to be filled, with small portions of the picture cut off at the top/bottom so as not to compress the resolution of the film. It’s a step up from the black bar experience we get on traditional HDTVs, though true 21:9 content wouldn’t be cut off at all.

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3D Quality

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The CinemaWide showed off some astounding 3D.

3D pictures are created when the brain receives two images, side by side, and perceives them at varying depths. Human depth perception is created by a process called parallax, which is the brain using size and movement frequency to deduce how close or far something is. The closer an object gets to your face, the more your eyes have to look inward to focus on it; this is why holding your finger against your nose looks like two ghost fingers unless you cross your eyes to focus on it.

To begin with, 3D technology makes use of this function to “trick” the brain into thinking it is seeing depth. Essentially, the farther apart the two images are, the closer they seem to be and—ideally—the farther away the background appears to be. The more width a screen has to work with, the more depth it can give to its 3D content. Enter the CinemaWide.

Outside of IMAX 3D, the Vizio CinemaWide has the most convincing, immersive 3D we’ve ever seen on a TV. Despite the shortcomings of its core performance, its 3D is extremely good, and Vizio’s lightweight, passive 3D glasses make the experience even more rewarding.

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Other Tests

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A walk through the gallery will tell you more about this Vizio's trip through our lab.

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