Vizio E320i-B2 Review

Bench Test Data and Analysis

As mentioned in the main review, the Calibrated preset is very accurate on the Vizio E320i-B2 without any work. For all testing and evaluation of the Vizio E320i-B2 I use SpectraCal’s CalMAN 5.3 software with their C6 colorimeter and an i1Pro spectrometer. VirtualForge with the AJA T-Tap provide the test patterns. I use APL 10% windows for all test patterns as it allows me to be consistent between LCD and Plasma displays.

Pre-Calibration

Before doing anything, the pre-calibration numbers on the Vizio E320i-B2 are very good for the price point and size. Vizio E320i-B2 comes setup for a Gamma target of 2.2 which many people feel is an ideal target. At Reference Home Theater the target we will use going forward is the BT.1886 gamma target, and will have an article discussing this soon. Because this gamma target is different than the one the Vizio is using, error levels are higher than they should be if I selected 2.2.

The grayscale has a bit of deviation at the pure white reading, but otherwise maintains a good RGB balance. Colors are accurate and all of the saturation error levels are below the dE2000 level of 3.0 that we look for. The color checker chart shows a few larger errors, mostly in skin tones, but nothing past even a dE2000 of 5.0. There is a single blue shade that has a high error level, but error levels in blue are the least visible and so I don’t consider this a big problem. The contrast ratio of 3,683:1 is very good for a budget LCD display and outshines almost all the 32” displays we looked at last year.

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Post-Calibration

The only real controls available on the Vizio E320i-B2 to improve the picture are for the white balance. As this is only a 2-point control you can remove that bit of tint at the top of the grayscale, but I wouldn’t bother. Doing so slightly decreases the contrast ratio, and you will almost certainly not notice a change in the color of white anyway, as it is accurate to start. Adjusting the color and tint to try to fix those skin tone issues just created larger issues, and so I would leave them alone. There is actually zero reason to bother calibrating the E320i-B2 beyond setting Brightness, Contrast and Sharpness correctly. Everything else led to worse results than when I started.

If Vizio provided a Gamma control, or a 10-point white balance, it would be possible to fix the gamma and get it in line with BT.1886. As these controls are not provided, I suggest you hook up the E320i-B2, select Calibrated or Calibrated Dark mode, set those three controls correctly, and then leave it alone. There isn’t anything else you can do to improve the picture from that point.

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Video Processing and Input Lag

The E320i-B2 does just fine with locking onto 3:2 and 2:2 cadences when sent from a Blu-ray player. The main issue I found is that when you send 1080i material, jaggies are much more likely to be visible than when you send 1080p or 720p signals. The best performance with the Vizio scaler is obtained by sending 1080p content I find. 720p works okay with just slightly worse performance, and 1080i was the worst of all.

Vizio also continues to have strange performance with horizontal chroma resolution. Test patterns on the Spears & Munsil HD Benchmark Blu-ray show that vertical sine waves are handled correctly, but horizontal ones result in a loss of levels. Everything is on or off instead of being a proper gradient. Watching movies I did not notice this, but I certainly did on the test patterns. The Vizio also has a bit of corner shading that you can notice with a full-white field. I don’t see it in real content, and it is much better than backlight leakage on a black background, but it is there.

For video games, the Vizio E320i-B2 has 47ms of input lag, which is higher than some other 32” TV’s, but probably still low enough for most people. The lag is the same on Game mode or Calibrated mode, so there is no reason to switch between the two.
[Calibration_Summary]