{"id":21831,"date":"2015-10-29T20:20:10","date_gmt":"2015-10-30T03:20:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/?p=21831"},"modified":"2015-10-29T20:20:10","modified_gmt":"2015-10-30T03:20:10","slug":"vizio-m43-c1-4k-hdtv-review-performance-budget","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/reviews\/vizio-m43-c1-4k-hdtv-review-performance-budget\/","title":{"rendered":"Vizio M43-C1 4K HDTV Review: Performance on a Budget"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

Vizio’s been successfully making budget TVs for years, but recently they’ve targeted\u00a0more discriminating buyers by adding features like Ultra HD (4K), full array LEDs, local dimming, and even HDR (coming soon in their posh Reference Series).<\/p>\n

This year’s mid-range\u00a0M-Series offers 3 of the above 4 features across the entire line, starting with the 43-inch M43-C1 ($600) and up to the ginormous M80-C3 ($4,000).<\/p>\n

I<\/span> tested the wallet-friendly M43-C1, which promises to be a big hit this Black Friday. On Ben’s Bargains, we’ve already seen the set as low as $510\u00a0with<\/em> a $150 Dell Gift Card from\u00a0Dell as well as\u00a0$548 with a $200 Gift Card back in September. It regularly sells for $530 to Costco customers<\/a> and $528 to Amazon Prime members<\/a>, and I expect the price tag\u00a0to easily drop\u00a0below $500 (possibly $450) around Black Friday.<\/p>\n

An Ultra HD Smart TV from a major manufacturer for under $500 is impressive, considering most 4K TVs last year typically\u00a0cost you a grand or more.<\/p>\n

\"Vizio<\/a><\/p>\n

Specs and Build Quality<\/h3>\n

The M43-C1 feels solidly built with cast aluminum legs that are set about 33 inches apart and a modern black (plastic) bezel that measures a thin 0.59-inch. The sides of the bezel are light silver.\u00a0You can’t shift the width of the legs like you can with the premium sets from Sony, but they are far more stable than the old-school centered pedestal\u00a0stands that are going out of favor.<\/p>\n

The screen\u00a0has\u00a0a semi-matte finish, so it\u00a0reduces reflections like a matte screen but also boosts color like a glossy screen.\u00a0The overall design\u00a0is understated and doesn’t look cheap.<\/p>\n

Aside from 3840 x 2160 (4K Ultra HD) native resolution, the M43-C1 has a 60Hz native refresh rate, full array backlighting with 28 LED dimming zones, 802.11ac dual-band MIMO Wi-Fi, VIA Plus (Vizio’s Smart TV platform) and a quad-core GPU with\u00a0dual-core CPU.<\/p>\n

\"Vizio-M-series-remote\"<\/a>Y<\/span>ou get four\u00a0HDMI inputs (4K @ 30Hz) and a fifth\u00a0HDMI input (4K @ 60Hz) that’s compatible with both HDMI 2.0 and the new HDCP 2.2 copy protection standard.<\/p>\n

The remote is where the budget price betrays itself the most. Although not bad\u2014and it even has a backlit QWERTY keyboard on the backside\u2014its keys are pretty small and it’s not in the same class as premium remotes (no backlighting on front side buttons, voice activation, etc.).\u00a0This may not matter to you anyway if you’re intending to use a universal remote.<\/p>\n

By the way, the shift key and number keys didn’t work for me on the QWERTY keyboard, so I ended up\u00a0having to use either the on-screen keyboard or the keys on the front side of the remote.<\/p>\n

Picture Quality and the\u00a0Soap Opera Effect<\/h3>\n

The advantages of 4K\u00a0are more noticeable on larger screens, although that’s more a factor of distance than display size. Today, a 43-inch TV is considered a “smaller” TV, frequently relegated to a secondary TV, such as one found in a bedroom. In small spaces, I think 4K on a 43-inch has some wow factor, but it’s dependent as much on the content as anything else.<\/p>\n

Still, the first thing I absolutely had<\/em> to figure out was how to turn off the “Soap Opera Effect” (SOE). It’s on by default on the M43-C1, and you either love it or hate it. You know when you see it, but\u00a0SOE is the motion interpolation on TVs that smoothes out movement and makes everything look “hyper-real.” The setting can look good for sports but terrible for most everything\u00a0else.<\/p>\n

\"Your<\/a>

Your mission\u2014should you choose to accept it\u2014is to turn off the Soap Opera Effect.<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

I<\/span>f you want to turn off SOE, go to Picture Settings > More Picture. Set “Reduce Judder” to 1-2 and “Reduce Motion Blur” to 5-6 and “Game Low Latency” to Low.\u00a0I definitely recommend\u00a0choosing the Calibrated Picture setting under Picture Mode.\u00a0The HDTV review site Rtings\u00a0also has a list of more detailed optimized settings<\/a>.<\/p>\n

After I turned off SOE, I was pleased by\u00a0the Vizio’s picture. Thanks to the local dimming, its deep black, black detail and\u00a0contrast are excellent,\u00a0perhaps falling short of only the most premium sets.<\/p>\n

In general, I found Ultra HD\u00a0content\u00a0to have greater depth and detail than HD, but it’s not a mind-blowing difference. Obviously, 4K content is limited at this time, but that will change. There’s no doubt, however, that Ultra HD will be the standard within a couple\u00a0years (or less).<\/p>\n

With a native resolution four times that of standard HD, Vizio uses what it\u00a0calls a “spatial upscaling engine”\u00a0to blow up the most common video\u00a0content (720p\/108op) to fit the\u00a04K display. The results are really good.<\/p>\n

Even if you’re only watching 1080p HD content right now, this Vizio set is a worthy purchase as a regular\u00a0HDTV as it is an Ultra HDTV.<\/p>\n

Vizio Internet Apps Plus<\/strong><\/p>\n

In my review of the 2015 Amazon Fire TV<\/a>\u00a0(5\/10), I\u00a0found its 4K streaming capabilities on Amazon Instant Video to be inferior to the app on this Vizio. Thanks to the Vizio’s V6 six-core processor (quad-core GPU + dual-core CPU), I found performance to be excellent for a built-in Smart TV. The dual-band 802.11ac Wi-Fi is fast and buffering was quick with 4K content.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

The Smart TV Platform is no-frills, but it’s snappy and non-intrusive.<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

In fact, if you don’t already own a 4K streaming box or\u00a0stick and only need\u00a0Netflix, Amazon, Spotify, Hulu Plus, YouTube and other major channels, then you don’t really need to get a set-top box with\u00a0this TV.<\/p>\n

H<\/span>owever, Vizio Internet Apps Plus is\u00a0a totally no-frills platform and not as pretty or flexible as something you’d find on an Apple TV, Fire TV, Xbox or Roku. You press the “V” button on the remote and get a side-scrolling banner along the bottom of the TV\u00a0that displays\u00a0your apps. Press it again, and you can access a full-screen window and settings.<\/p>\n

There’s\u00a0no built-in internet browser, but I think if you’re used to simply watching apps on your TV, this is not a big deal.<\/p>\n

Conclusion<\/h3>\n

Despite the Vizio name, I didn’t feel like this TV was a “budget” set\u00a0in the sense that I was getting a bad picture or that the TV was a cheap\u00a0plastic eyesore.<\/p>\n

With its attractive price tag, Vizio’s M-Series is appealing for first-time\u00a0owners of 4K HDTVs and budget-conscious\u00a0consumers simply wanting to purchase a decent HDTV. I think this TV will also win some converts from Sony and Samsung who are curious about Vizio. (It does happen.) The M43-C1 has been rated as having very low input lag, which also makes it an excellent choice for a gamer who wants to use the TV in a bedroom or game room.<\/p>\n

Just wait for Black Friday to pick up this quality 4K\u00a0TV\u00a0for under $500.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Vizio’s been successfully making budget TVs for years, but recently they’ve targeted\u00a0more discriminating buyers by adding features like Ultra HD (4K), full array LEDs, local dimming, and even HDR (coming soon in their posh Reference Series). This year’s mid-range\u00a0M-Series offers 3 of the above 4 features across the entire line, starting with the 43-inch M43-C1 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":22068,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[866,46,102,48,1407,1408],"class_list":["post-21831","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reviews","tag-4k-hdtv","tag-netflix","tag-splendiferous","tag-streaming-video","tag-ultra-hd","tag-vizio"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21831","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21831"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21831\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22080,"href":"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21831\/revisions\/22080"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22068"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}