This 47-inch model is the third Vizio HDTV I've reviewed, and I've noticed a pattern: Each one delivers a fantastic picture and yet still manages to undercut the competition on price. On the downside, their TVs lack extras such as swiveling stands and multimedia-capable USB ports, and they can be needlessly difficult to set up and use.

One design flaw is that all of the VO47LF's inputs are on the back, facing downward, which makes them hard to access. After getting everything plugged in and turning on the TV, you can bring up the small on-screen menu with its hard-to-read blue-on-blue text. As you make necessary adjustments, you'll encounter little annoyances such as a slider bar for setting the tint that doesn't show the colors you're going between.

Judged on image quality, the Westinghouse TX-47F450S is decidedly average. Caucasian complexions acquired a pinkish tint. One judge felt that the TV's picture made David Letterman look washed out (no comment), and another summed up the Westinghouse's handling of the Return of the King DVD as "blah." Nevertheless, it compiled a lot of Goods, a fair number of Very Goods, and an occasional Fair on various image-quality criteria.

The image quality may have been merely okay, but the sound was stupendous. In assessing the batch of nine 46- and 47-inch HDTVs that we evaluated in April 2008, I usually began testing audio with the sound turned all the way up. But with the Westinghouse, even quiet, atmospheric music hurt my ears at that level. At a comfortable volume (about a third of the way up), everything sounded clear, clean, and distinct--and audio that was supposed to be loud shook my bones. I have never experienced TV sound like this without a separate amplifier to juice things up. The TX-47F450S owes its aural prowess to its built-in subwoofer. The result is extremely impressive sound for a TV that is among the least expensive in its size class.

There's nothing wrong with the Mitsubishi LT-46244 that a massive discount wouldn't cure. It isn't a bad TV, though it's nowhere near good enough to justify its $2500 price tag.

Our judges rated its overall image quality as good, with a performance score of 77, which ranks fourth among the nine 46- and 47-inch HDTV sets we tested contemporaneously and is only 3.6 points behind the top-performing Samsung LN46A550. On the other hand, you can buy nearly two Samsungs for the price of one Mitsubishi.

I found some of the images a bit light and pale, with occasional reddish skin tones (though far less pronounced than with the LG 47LBX Opus). More troubling was a moire pattern in Mission Impossible III's Vatican wall--something I didn't expect to see from a Blu-ray disc screening on a 1080p set. Other judges noted some excess brightness and blur.

If you want a great image out of your HDTV (and who doesn't?), you should probably skip this offering from LG. In a group of nine 46- and 47-inch high-def sets that we evaluated in April 2008, the 47LBX Opus ranked eighth in overall image quality. It scored only a Fair for detail and for brightness and contrast. It handled color pretty well--though it gave Caucasian flesh tones a decidedly reddish tint.

On the other hand, the audio was very good for a television sound system. (To do justice to today's movie soundtracks, however, you'll have to spring for a separate amplifier and speakers.) The quiet background effects and dialogue in the opening scene of Phantom of the Opera came through clearly, though the loud organ blast struggled to get through the speakers.

The garish images displayed by Soyo's SYXRT4791AB relegated this television to seventh place out of nine competing 46- and 47-inch HDTVs in our image-quality tests. In this cohort of televisions, only the LG 47LBX Opus and the Sharp LC-46D64U performed worse.

Soyo's set seemed to produce a faintly reddish picture at times. One judge deemed it excessively dark in our HD test clip of American Idol, and another objected to its high contrast slightly oversaturated colors. Pirates of the Caribbean's opening fade-in lacked the details visible on most other sets we tested.

This is a basic HDTV with very few extras. You get picture-in-picture, split-screen, and freeze-frame, as you do with every other TV in this group, but that's about it. Another drawback is the absence of easy-access inputs on the side for quick hookups of digital cameras or other hardware.