My 12 year old Sanyo 25" tube television became woefully inadequate after I bought a 42 inch plasma for my living room. I had been using the old Sanyo in my den but I just couldn't stand to watch it anymore and all too often my wife and I watch different shows. I new I didn't want to spend another $1000 on a TV so I was looking at 37" and 32" LCD's. Tigerdirect had the Olevia 537H on sale and after rebates the price was just unbelievable so I bought it.
At the time of purchase the Olevia 537H was the least expensive 37" HD LCD TV I could find. Based on the information that I found it seemed to be well received and the only issues that I kept reading about were the sound and the strange menu interface.
Good Stuff
Picture
The picture quality is outstanding. I was blown away, I couldn't believe that I was getting the same HD picture on this TV as the Panasonic plasma that cost me twice as much!
Both HD and SD signals look great. I have over the air HD and Dish network SD. I have not noticed any washed out blacks or strange artifacts. I couldn't ask for a better picture. (Especially for the price).
Inputs
The Olevia 537H has as many inputs as my other HD TV. There's only 1 HDMI input, but it has a myriad of component, composite, vga, and svideo inputs.
Firmware update port
Allows you to download updated firmware for the TV. You will be glad you have this... if you can get the update to work.
Bad Stuff
Sound
Try as I might I can't get the on board sound on the 537H set right. I've tried all the "iDiva" settings, which change the sound from things like "church", "hall", "living room", etc. The sound does change but none of the sound are "right". Everything using iDiva sounds like it's coming from a tin can. I gave up on it and turned it off. Using just standard bass and treble controls I got it set so that I can stand it most of the time. Honestly the stereo sound on my 12 year old Sanyo tv is better!
Cycling through Inputs
I mentioned earlier that the 537H has a lot of imputs, which is normally a great thing, however, you have to cycle through each one when you change them. That means that if you are on VGA and you want to get to HDMI you have to press the input button FOUR times... thats right, no menu pops up that allows you to press a number, you just keep pressing input until you get to the one you want and start over if you go too far.
On Screen Menu
The menu system is really strange looking. When you press the menu button you get sort of an octagonal wheel that I saw described as the big wheel on the Price is Right (a very good descrpition by the way). You press the up and down buttons on the remote to spin the wheel to the setting you want and then left/right to get to options. There are a lot of options you can change so navigating this way gets old quick. Olevia really needs to change that (Panasonic got it right).
Clicking sounds
My tv makes some strange clicking sounds when the power is cycled. It reminds me of the sounds that a hard drive makes when it's encountering disk errors. The clicks only happen a few times during startup and when the power is turned off, but it has done it every day since I bought it.
Super bright blue power indicator light that is ON when the TV is off
Somebody got it backwards. The power LED on this TV is on when the TV is off?! To make matters worse it's bright enough to light up the entire room. If you plan to use this TV in the bedroom you'll need blinders or some strategically placed electrical tape.
Startup Time
It takes 10 seconds or so for the TV to actually display the picture after it's powered on. It's not that annoying to me, but longer than others I've seen.
Other Remote support
I blame this on the Olevia brand being new. My Dish Network universal remote just won't control the 537H.
Summary
Despite the flaws I do like this TV. It has a much better picture than my old tube set and hopefully the sound woes can be corrected by using an external amplifier. I'm going to connect it to a shelf stereo system to see if that helps. The menu system really doesn't bother me that much, once I did the initial setup I haven't had to go into it much except for sound tinkering. I've gotten used to the clicking and the uber LED. Really the only major flaw with this tv is the sound, unfortunately it's a big part of the TV experience.
My recommendation is: If this is a secondary tv and you will have some exteral speakers then go for it. Don't buy it as the main display for your home theater system. It's an inexpensive TV with a great display, but the rest of it reminds me of that old saying "You get what you pay for". Spend the money on a good name brand system for your main display... you'll be glad you did.
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