Initial Impressions: VU LED-55K160

vbhoj74

Active Member
Joined
Aug 16, 2008
Messages
102
Points
28
Location
Kolkata
When you buy expensive brands and you find a few expectations not met feature wise then you tend to get disheartened, but on the other hand when you buy a complete value for money product then your expectation levels are already low and you easily tend to ignore missing feature sets, I guess this explains most of us.

I bought this 55 inch TV on flipkart @ Rs 55,000 less 10,000 for my old 40" bravia. I was only looking at a reasonable quality LED panel excluding all the fancy smart & 3D features. I knew I will have to upgrade to 4K 4-5 yrs down the line, so did not wanted to spend too much on the TV.

I ordered it on 21st Jan on flipkart, it was both delivered & installed by flipkart on 23rd. I'm extremely happy with flipkart's service. The original packaging is good enough to take care of transit issues. It was unpacked in front of me by the delivery guys just to ensure that there was no transit damage. Some people suggested me not to buy a 55 inch online, but contrary to the belief, I found it very safe dealing with WSretail/Flipkart.

After 4 days of ownership, the TV has not yet let me down yet. Built wise, it is one of the most beautiful looking TV and matches all industry leaders in its profile. Tatasky HD looks good, and finally I can now tell the difference between a 720p and 1080i/p video, I guess this is more relevant because of the size of the panel. I've a WDTV which outputs max 720p, it used to run fantastic with my 40" bravia, but I did not find it the same on this 55 inch panel, not that it is bad looking, but compared to 1080i/p you would just not like that quality anymore. Plugging the HDD directly to the USB on the TV does away with the HDMI connection, and I can find remarkable difference in playback quality. I would now only want to play the content directly using the TV's USB port, but hold that thought right there, ... I could not find how to adjust picture settings in USB mode. I've raised a query with VU service for the same and awaiting their feedback, but i'm sure that the USB plays in pre-fixed non-tuneable picture settings which almost renders the feature useless.

I ran few calibration patterns, and found that you you won't get more details beyond reference levels, i.e. setting the brightness higher to the reference setting or lowering the white levels will not give you more detail on the patters. I found the white level to be on the higher side even when setting it low. But I was able to set both black & white levels to the reference on those patterns. Thus I guess it is good to go for an average viewer, but a no go for a videophile. There are 4 HDMI in, and a SPDIF digital out as well, VGA, component and 2 USB ports, giving plenty of connectivity options.

I presently use MX 6ft HDMI cables, and have ordered Bluerigger from Amazon, I guess this will give me more better picture. Again this is a topic of debate, but I've found with experience that a better HDMI cable does makes difference, I'm not talking about those expensive monster cables. I had to use MX because at the time I had bought it in the past, there was no other local options for that length of cable.

Bottomline, I do not regret buying this TV, as of yet. Note that "as of yet" part which explains how critical I'm in my mental state for this product and I somewhat still expect that I might discover something not to my liking later.

The TV comes with 1 year warranty, you can buy additional 2 years warranty by paying Rs 6,000 within one month of purchase. It also comes with 30 days replacement guarantee by flipkart.
 
^ Will post pictures & re-check on the WDTV 720p playback issue by evening. I'm running rad's firmware on the WDTV live, when I switch it on, the default resolution that the TV shows is 720p.
 
^ Will post pictures & re-check on the WDTV 720p playback issue by evening. I'm running rad's firmware on the WDTV live, when I switch it on, the default resolution that the TV shows is 720p.

I have a WD TV Live hub in the past & if i remember correctly, there was 1080p output in the settings...
 
WDTV has ample of resolution selection from 480p@50hz to 1080p@24 in the settings. It also has 8 & 12 bit selector but you won't find any difference as we are too far for deep colour tech yet.
 
Checked the WDTV settings, and was glad to find the 1080p option, don't know how did i missed it before. However the VU TV does not accept 12 bit color settings, only 8 bit.

Here are few pictures I took from my moto g, so not the best of cameras:

xJ9kZ9I.jpg

GwugQIY.jpg

ZYolnGq.jpg
 
Congrats on your purchase vbhoj74. I think abundance of white and contrast is a noticeable thing in LEDs if you are switching from CRT or Plasma. Otherwise for starters LED would look more lucrative to watch with slightly higher saturation of colors. I have purchased a 32 inch Wybor and would post feedbacks soon.
 
^ thanks guys !

That bee picture is a direct playback using the USB interface, thus I was not able to adjust the picture settings, it played in factory settings.
 
Very Good choice and an extremely value for money product including 2 yrs extended warranty....

55 inch should look massive in size.... Enjoy your big screen experience...

Am awaiting a 60/65 inch Vu/Micromax :thumbsup: with no frills for a rock bottom price like this one...

Start a VU owners thread in television section of the forum, shared your feedback as and when possible as it will really help ppl like me who are looking forward for the next change....
 
^ Even I wanted to go with 65 inches, but the price was too high, 1k/inch is justifiable, beyond that is waste. I watch from a distance of around 8-10 ft, so I guess 65 inch with 4k will fit the distance limitations only. Moving from 40" to 55" is also a great visual experience, however my eyes are getting used to the size pretty soon. :D
 
^ Even I wanted to go with 65 inches, but the price was too high, 1k/inch is justifiable, beyond that is waste. I watch from a distance of around 8-10 ft, so I guess 65 inch with 4k will fit the distance limitations only. Moving from 40" to 55" is also a great visual experience, however my eyes are getting used to the size pretty soon. :D

I had moved from 32 inch -> 46 inch... It was a substantial increase in size, it took a while for me to adjust to the screen size....

Moving to a screen size > 10 inch makes a good difference... Anything less, you might feel you should have gone lil higer size....

My viewing distance is also approx 8 - 10 ft... I guess a 60 + inch would make it a massive size.....

BTW there is one 65 inch model from VU, but looks like it is smart + 3D model around 1 Lac price... If that model was aval without those 2 features, then it would really make it a STEAL for lesser price...:eek:hyeah:
 
BTW there is one 65 inch model from VU, but looks like it is smart + 3D model around 1 Lac price... If that model was aval without those 2 features, then it would really make it a STEAL for lesser price...:eek:hyeah:

Yea there is a 65" @ 1.18 lac on flipkart. Had it been at 65k with similar specs that of 55" then I would probably have gone for it too.

My first TV was a philips 30 inch pixel plus FHD CRT, got it changed to 32 inch LCD in one year, costed me 2.85 lakhs then. Can't spend that much amount on a TV again now. :rolleyes:

THen moved to 40" and now 55", after 5 yr 65", then will have to change my house first to accommodate even larger screen.
 
Yea there is a 65" @ 1.18 lac on flipkart. Had it been at 65k with similar specs that of 55" then I would probably have gone for it too.

My first TV was a philips 30 inch pixel plus FHD CRT, got it changed to 32 inch LCD in one year, costed me 2.85 lakhs then. Can't spend that much amount on a TV again now. :rolleyes:

THen moved to 40" and now 55", after 5 yr 65", then will have to change my house first to accommodate even larger screen.

If you sit anywhere between 10 ~ 15 ft distance, 65inch is more than enough IMO...

Anymore bigger, projectors :eek:hyeah:
 
Haha! Interesting. Would you share brand,model and year? My friend got a philips plasma then close to same price.

The initial purchase was 36PW9527 FHD CRT in 2003. It had some black vertical bar issues, had tough time to prove it to Philips then, got it changed to 32PF9966/69 FHD pixel plus with ambilight & holland make) in the year 2005. This TV works fantastically till date while the 4 years old Sony bravia's panel died.
 
Last edited:
The initial purchase was 36PW9527 FHD CRT in 2003.
Wow! Seems you were quite ahead of time when most of people here did not hear about HD.

got it changed to 32PF9966/69 FHD pixel plus with ambilight & holland make) in the year 2005. This TV works fantastically till date while the 4 years old Sony bravia's panel died.
I think the components were quite heavy that time and so as the build quality. Now a days it weighs only 1/4th of what they used to be mostly plastic.
 
Yeah I remember we had only one bluray library in town which was like one hour drive from my place, they are still the best video library in town. Pixel plus used to upgrade all SD signal to HD. SO history repeats itself in a decade with 4k. :)

Also retain the onkyo tx-sr601 and the Bose am5 fr those days, works like a charm. Gave away the Yamaha tape deck to someone long back.
 
Last edited:
About picture settings in USB mode, it can be done by directly pressing "picture" on the remote and not through Menu option. I missed it as I did not copy "picture" to my multipurpose remote as "menu" used to do the work for me.

Another point I missed in the initial post that this is extremely power efficient, it's rated at max 80w usage and shows 57w on my watt meter with my picture settings.

@karthi1000: your pictures shows 120w rated, I think they even improved on the wattage with new models. And thanks for your initial post, I saw your post before buying the TV.
 
Last edited:
A beautiful, well-constructed speaker with class-leading soundstage, imaging and bass that is fast, deep, and precise.
Back
Top