Reviews Written by Johnnie

Get yourself an Olevia 542i

Pros: Good Picture, Nice features, excellent price

Cons: Support needs help, Slow power up, slow channel change, only 1 HDMI input

I bought mine off of ShopNBC (one of their special offers). It came with a free RCA Up convert DVD Recorder and HDMI cable (those cables cost between $50-$100). Out of the box, the TV was wonderful. I wanted to put it in the living room but did not have a stand to put it on so I disconnect my 32in Soyo HD-Ready that was in my bedroom to connect it. The TV is heavy (almost 100 lbs). I placed it on my stand by myself (would not recommend you try, it's a 2 person job). Positives: Great picture, especially HD channels, nice sound, interesting menu, lots of hook-ups (up to 10), etc.
Negatives: upgrades (firmware) did fix my problem with the date/day (you can only input the date, time, the TV determines the day and it was wrong), but now my buttons on front are mixed up. My volume buttons control my channels and visa versa, and my Menu button controls my Source and visa versa. I emailed Olevia, but no response, which surprised me because they were so quick to respond to my date problem. (replied w/i 24 hours as their automated answering machine states). But as of today (Feb 16, 2007) I have not gotten a response yet, even after 4 emails, the last being to the person who helped with the date thing. Another thing, which a lot of reviews I've read have, is that the channel changing through the tuner is slow and the power on time is slow. Kind of reminds me of the old TV's with tubes that had to warm up before you got a picture. That really does not bother me though, because I use a HD cable box from TimeWarner Cable. Also, I don't know if this is true of all HDTV's but it takes awhile for it to find HD channels when you are doing you channel set up. The analog channel set ups are no problem. Also the TV makes a popping noise when it first comes on (not sure what that is all about). The PIP function is weird. There is no function marked PIP on the remote, you use the View to do your PIP. You also have to go into the menu to change the PIP size and to move the PIP. The speakers are removable, but to place them on the sides of the TV you have to buy a kit and I have not been able to even locate the kit yet (I also emailed Olevia about that and have not gotten a response).

Overall, it is a wonderful TV at a good price. There are some things that they could have done different, i.e. quicker turn on time, PIP button, 2 HDMI inputs, etc... but I would say overall that you will get a quality TV for the price. The Tech help, when you get them, works. I think they make a quality product, but are unable to keep up the support requests. If I had to do it again, I would still buy this TV! ...