The remote itself is truly superb. It's big and bulky, but that gives it room for large, well-placed buttons of various shapes and sizes. This variety makes it easy to identify a button by touch, but you really don't have to. As soon as you press one button, they all light up. This remote is also programmable.

Plug a flash drive into the SV471XVT's USB port and you can view photos and play music, videos, and slideshows. When you view photos in a slideshow, you can pick assorted transition effects and select background music from the .mp3 files on the drive. But .mp3 is the only music format that this model supports. The SV471XVT lacks network connectivity, so you can't play media from PCs on your network.

The unit also has a picture-in-picture function, although it works only between the tuner and an external input. You can't view two channels or two inputs.

The Vizio SV471XVT wins points for being easy to use, and its low sticker price is certainly appealing. But its picture quality issues prevent it from being a top pick. If you want a set with better image quality, consider the , which costs around $100 more.