VIZIO E470VA Cheapest 47 Inch I could find, Happy With It.

VIZIO E470VA Cheapest 47 Inch I could find, Happy With It.
This set is replacing a new purchased Samsung plasma 50" that died exactly one year and one week old. So it was out of warranty by one week, and we only used the set for 2 months, the tech said it would cost $500 to fix, forget that. After that bitter pill I was determined to get the cheapest set (NON plasma) I could find at close to that size. Found this as a refurb at many places (first looked at Tiger Direct, with shipping it was over $640, I think) but the Amazon seller "OnSale" had it the cheapest at $545 with shipping included, I just looked since this was purchased 6 weeks ago and OnSale doesn't have any except new ones but that can always change or try ebay
for a refurb, since it's an older model I would be looking at buying a new one because the newer models should be the same $800-900 price listed here.

Got it shipped by a freight company with no setup included. I also need to mention that I am not at home because I'm away working and so whenever I have to replace a TV it's something I will rarely or never use and I hate it. Anyway the Wife picked up on the sound thing the first week and I noticed it while chatting with her by Skype, the volume would come out of nowhere. So since it's only supposed to have a 3 month warranty (refurb) she called Vizio and arraigned for them to service it. They asked her to take 3 pictures of it while it was on, why? I guess there is a hidden bar code that shows up, who knows. I was thinking they were jerking us around with the pictures thing as a inside gag. Anyway I'm sure they are aware of the audio issue with this set beforehand and it would have been nice if they took care of it since it was refurbished but they didn't. My wife was very pleased with the Vizio service people and they sent a tech out (not sure if it was local tech or from Vizio, wife couldn't tell me), the tech replaced a major board on the set that improved the picture a little and fixed the sound so she is happy and I'm happy that I only had to pay $545 for a 47 inch LCD HDTV.

Bottom line, I have no idea what the picture, features, or sound is like as I'm not watching it, but I'm sure it's decent and it was the cheapest I could find, my wife is picky and she's happy and she was used to a Samsung plasma and she says the Vizio is just as nice or maybe better. Now I just hope it holds up but my experience is the cheapest electronics I purchase last the longest in most cases so I'm not sweating it.