Westinghouse LTV32w6: A Great Starter HDTV
Written: Jan 01 '07 (Updated Jan 02 '07)
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Pros: Great picture, lots of connections, inexpensive
Cons: Lacking some features, no DVI, standard definition can be fuzzy
The Bottom Line: This may not be a TV for enthusiasts, but if you're on a budget and looking to get into HDTV, it's hard to do better than the Westinghouse LTV32w6.
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| Slusy's Full Review: Westinghouse Electric LTV-32w6 HD 32 in. TV |
We'd been thinking about an HDTV for a long time. It must have started sometime in 2005 when a friend and I went to a Red Sox game that was shown in HD at a local theater, in lieu of actually being able to secure tickets for Fenway Park. That had been the first time that I'd seen a full baseball game in HD, and from that point on, I was hooked. However, it took over a year until a combination of price drops, Massachusetts’ tax-free weekend and discount coupons combined to create an opportunity to purchase said TV.
When the time came, I had become interested in Westinghouse's LTV32w6, because it was often on sale at Best Buy for several hundred dollars below comparable sets, though I was somewhat nervous for exactly that reason, combined with the fact that Westinghouse is not as well-known of a player in HDTVs as Sony, Sharp, Samsung, or Philips-Magnavox. Once I read some positive reviews, I went to the store to look at the TV; it was displayed directly below a 32” Sharp TV, and the pictures appeared almost identical. At that point I knew I had found my TV, and I’ve been nothing but happy with the set since.
Even after having the set for five months, I’m still occasionally impressed by the picture. More or less anything on Discovery Channel Theater is absolutely stunning, and the images are always crisp and clear in HD. The only problem I’ve found with the picture is that dark colors are sometimes not as crisp as bright ones: If the football game takes place on a sunny day, for example, it will look beautiful, but if it happens to be rainy and overcast, the colors can look a bit muddy and slightly harder to see.
Standard definition, however, isn’t quite as good. It’s not that it looks bad, per se, but it seems to be a bit blurrier than it should look. It’s not always an issue, of course, but anything that requires seeing detail can be problematic. I found out the hard way a couple of weeks ago that not every NFL game that CBS broadcasts is transmitted in HD, and that game was difficult to watch. (It wasn’t just because I’m not used to watching the games in HD, either; I watched the rest of the game on my old standard 27” TV and it looked fine.)
The other big selling point of the LTV32w6 is the number of connections that it provides. In addition to one set of composite and two sets of component connections, this model provides standard antenna, VGA, S-Video and HDMI connections. There is also a built-in tuner for receiving over the air HDTV signals. All that is missing is a DVI connection and maybe a second HDMI connection, but at the moment I have more than enough options for connecting my external AV equipment. The connection are also arranged on both sides of the spine of the TV, not on the back, which splits up the wires and makes the connections easier to access.
Since we don’t yet have a home theater system, I’ve been relying on the LTV32w6's built in speakers as well, which are adequate. Obviously, you don’t get the same type of sound that you’d get with the home theater, but the speakers generally sound as good as I’d expect for built-in speakers. I’ve heard reports from other televisions that the speakers sound tinny or just off, but I’ve never had that issue with this model.
The LTV32w6 does come with a decent set of features, but in this respect it is somewhat underwhelming, though that is not entirely unexpected given the set’s lower price tag. There are three presets for color temperature, but no way that I have found to individually adjust red, green and blue. (There are sliders for brightness, contrast, saturation, hue, and sharpness, however.) I found that one of the presets (Color 2) worked best for me, but my eyes are not perceptive enough to notice subtle irregularities in color and hue; if that is very important to you, you might have some issue with this model.
This model purportedly offers picture in picture as well. However, it seems that picture in picture can only work if one of the inputs is HDMI, which is disappointing (if there’s a way to do it with the other inputs, I haven’t found it in the manual or on Westinghouse’s web site.) Also, you can adjust the picture size horizontally (stretching SD signals to fill the entire width of the screen), but not vertically, so widescreen DVDs won’t fill the screen. Both of these issues are mildly irritating, but they’re certainly not deal-breakers; sure, they would be nice, but I could probably count the number of times that either has really presented a significant inconvenience.
The remote has everything you’d need to use on a regular basis, but it’s not entirely intuitive. Many of the buttons have symbols instead of words, and the symbols aren’t always entirely clear. For instance, it took me a while to find the mute button because instead of just saying “MUTE” (and there are other similarly sized buttons with the same number of letters), there is a picture of a horn with an X through it. Once you figure the remote out, though, it’s easy to use. It also has buttons at the bottom for all the inputs, so you can switch easily through them (though it makes the input button on the remote somewhat useless).
Overall, while the Westinghouse LTV32w6 may not be the best TV for an HDTV enthusiast, it’s a great way to break into the world of HDTV. It’s not overflowing with features, but if you’re mostly concerned with a good HD picture and a reasonable selection of connections, you certainly can’t beat the price. I’ve been nothing but happy with the LTV32w6, and I’m looking forward to enjoying it for years to come.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 650
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Epinions.com ID:
Slusy
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Member: Steve
Location: Red Sox Nation
Reviews written: 178
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Back from Junior Seau style retirement...
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