Vizio VBR110 Blu Ray Player Review
April 12, 2010
Vizio came out of nowhere to grab a large market share in HDTV market. Vizio started out as V Inc in 2002 as a consumer electronics company. From this modest beginning, Vizio grabbed large share of the HDTV market by selling their HDTVs at a substantially lower price. While the aggressive marketing and pricing has earned them a good share of the market, Vizio is known more for their pricing than their quality. With its increasing popularity, Vizio is branching out into other home theater equipments. Vizio has produced sound system on top of the Plasma and LCD HDTV sets. Now, Vizio has jumped into the Blu ray player market with VBR110.
Features
The Vizio VBR110 went on sale before the 2009 Holiday season. As Vizio’s first generation player, the VBR110 manages to pack a lot of features into low budget player. Like other manufacturers that were late to Blu ray player market, Vizio’s first generation player is more polished than most other first generation players. Vizio VBR110 is a Profile 2.0 compliant player with full support for BD-LIVE features. It is capable of decoding wide array of audio formats. The Vizio VBR110 can natively decode Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD, DTS HD audio and regular DTS audio formats. While it lacks 5.1 or 7.1 channel analog outputs, it is capable of surround sound via receiver set up and HDMI connection. On top of Blu ray discs, the player is able to play H.264/AVC, JPEG, MP3, CD, and DVD formats as well. The VBR110 is capable of upconverting the DVD format like most other players. One glaring omission from Vizio VBR110 is the network streaming capabilities. Unlike most other players, VBR110 lacks Netflix, Amazon Video on Demand, or Youtube service. We’ve come to expect network streaming capabilities in most of the new Blu ray players.
Design
The overall design is fairly simple. The front face has glossy finish with “hidden” LCD area to the center right. The left side of the player consists of the disc tray, power button, and disc tray button. The disc tray has metallic gray finish that sets it apart from the rest of the player. This gives it a nice contrasting look to the player. Also, VBR110 lacks playback function buttons. This is curious omission as I’ve never seen a player without a basic playback function buttons on the unit itself. Instead, you will have to rely on your remote control for all operations. Make sure you always have extra batteries. While this is minor inconvenience, the lack of the player does add to cleaner overall look of the player. The back of the player contains the Ethernet, HDMI, USB, composite, and Digital Audio out ports. You have option of coaxial or optical for digital audio out ports. If you intend to utilize all the Profile 2.0 contents, you will need a storage USB device plugged into the USB port.
Remote Control
Like the overall design of the player, the remote control is very straight forward and simple to use. The top of the remote control is occupied by the power button, Blu ray Java application buttons, directional pad, and various set up buttons. The playback functions are located in the center of the remote control with large play/pause button. This is followed by volume buttons as well as other function buttons. The numeric buttons are located at the bottom of the player.
Overall, it’s very functional remote control. If you have large and complex home theater set up, you will want to invest in a good programmable remote control. Otherwise, the OEM remote is more than adequate for most users.
Buy Vizio VBR110 Now!
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Performance
The video processing performance of VBR110 was very good. You rarely see any new players that perform very poorly in terms of video processing like the earlier players. While viewing 2 movies, VBR110 showed no signs of artifacts or defects. The fast motion sequences showed no block ups or choppiness. Also, the video showed no patterns of moiré or jaggieness suffered by many of the earlier Blu ray players. What surprised me the most was the very decent loading time on the Blu ray discs. Even some of the newer players suffer when it comes to load time. The VBR110 was on par with the many Blu ray player from other leading manufacturers. One odd thing was the lack of firmware update via Ethernet. While I didn’t need firmware update, most other players offer easy firmware update via Ethernet. If you need firmware update in the future, you will need to download it and burn it on a disc media or use the USB flash drive.
Audio
As with video processing, the audio decoding had no problem with various formats tested. All of the decoding options were tested and shown to be defect free. The high definition audio formats DTS HD and Dolby TrueHD are natively decoded on the player without the help of receiver. This is pretty nice addition to the player competing in a value segment. However, you will be hard pressed to find any new players that lack native decoding option found on the Vizio VBR110. VBR110 is capable of playing MP3 files as well as regular audio CD. Overall, the audio performance is on par with other competing players in this price segment.
Overall Thoughts
The overall performance was very good for the player with lower than expected price tag. You can definitely spend more money and not get better performance or value from this player. However, there were few minor inconveniences that detract from the overall value of the player. First, it does not include any network streaming options. Vizio is addressing this by releasing a new network streaming capable player in near future. Second, it lacks multi-channel analog output on the player. Lastly, the lack of playback function buttons on the player itself was mild disappointment. If you can over look those flaws, this is an excellent player for the money.
Pictures
Buy Vizio VBR110 Now!
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VIZIO VBR110 High Definition Blu-Ray Player with HDMI Cable, Black List Price: Sale Price: $129.99 You save: $10.00 (7%)  Eligible for free shipping!Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days |
Description
Maximize your High Definition experience by adding the VIZIO VBR110 High Definition Blu-Ray Player to your home theater. Featuring full 1080p High Definition playback, the VBR110 brings razor sharp images right into your living room, and with its 7...
Features
- Full HD 1080p playback
- 7.1 Digital Audio*
- HDMI Video/Audio Cable Included
- Backwards Compatible - Plays Blu-rays and DVDs
- 24p True Cinema Video Output
Video
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Blu-Ray Discussions
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Vizio sucks!!!!!!!!!!! We got a BRP for X-mas and have had nothing but problems shutting it off. We’ve called customer service probably 10 times complaining. They finally said they would replace it. However, we bought a NEW machine and they want to send us a used or “recertified” one. What ever happened with real customer service, where if you spend your money on their product and it doesn’t work they replace it with same product, not someone else’s that didn’t work???
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I own this player. I have been looking around for something better, at a reasonable price.
Picture quality is OK.
MP3 – decoding ? Lousy
Disc Load time – could be much better. Often fails, and ejects the disc before it loads up loads up on subsequent tries.
The clean look of the player attracted me during purchase. I have now come to hate the lack of feedback when a disc is playing. There ios no display on the player that clues you in as to what is happenning. You have to use the TV for that. How far are you into a disc? Forget it …you have to guess….the player provides no way of displaying that info. A simple operation such as ejecting a disc can take two minutes as the player decides whether to comply. Quite often you will impatiently hit the eject again – which the player translates as a close command and simply cancels the eject request – can be frustrating.
I am ready to trash this player. Served its purpose.
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First experience in Bluray
I recently upgraded my home entertainment equipment and purchase this Bluray player to go along with my Vizio 55″ (VF550M) flat panel. Before these purchases I owned a Panasonic DVD player so the jump in clarity, functionality and sound quality for me was outstanding! I currently have this Bluray player hooked up through the HDMI cable and I have fallen in love with the 1080P clarity from this player. The piece that impresses me the most is the upconversion with traditional DVDs. Outstanding! Vizio continues to put out great products at a great price and this is one that I am very happy I purchased!
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vizio vbr100 player
After reading many reviews on blu ray players, I decided to take a chance on Vizio. Glad I did, for the money, this player is pretty darn good. We’ve experienced no sound issues (grinding noises) that some others have written about.Unfortunately the remote has issues that some have noted as well, but for the money, its nothing I really mind putting up with, on the whole pretty good player, I’d buy it again.
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Vizio is the best!
So far so good. I am really impressed with Vizio. This Vizio blue ray goes great with my Vizio LCD tv. I hope they both last a long time.
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After much research…
In preparing to buy a Bluray player, I read literally thousands of reviews, and what I learned is this: 1)EVERY manufacturer/model in the new lower price range has nay-sayers for various reasons 2)the number of reviews for each player I researched that indicated that they had to return the unit led me to want to purchase one nearby so I wouldn’t have to drive far and/or ship it for repair/exchange 3)many players are very slow to load and/or noisy operating 4)many players’ reviews indicated horror stories involving firmware updates 5)there are many different permutations of ancilliary functions (connecting to internet, receiving netflix, etc.) which I have absolutely no interest in, but if you are DO YOUR RESEARCH! I was interested in a player that did a great job upgrading my voluminous dvd collection, played efficiently, and plays European/PAL format dvds (which I have a few of). Walmart was THE only place in my area that had a selection of more than one player (and their prices were almost HALF of what privately-owned stores were charging). Out of all the players WM had connected to test, ONLY the Vizio played my test PAL dvd (a Marduk concert, much to the great chagrin of WM’s staff and clientele!). I also got the unit for $20 less due to an old advertising sign that was still up at the display. As other reviews have stated, the set up is incredibly simple. I was happy that the unit, like my in-store test, loaded AS QUICKLY AS MY PAST DVD PLAYERS. The unit iself looks real space-age cool, with a touchscreen functionality that is lit when power is on, and totally black when off (except for the Vizio logo which glows orange when unit is off, and white when on). I played some recent dvds (one cannot expect older dvds, or ones whose source material is older, to look pristine even when upgraded…however, I can see a marked difference in most of my dvds, even many ancient Euro-horror selections) and the picture was way more fantastic than I expected. In fact, the picture on actual bluray discs is only about 15% better (whereas the upgrading from my old dvd player to bluray player’s dvd quality was anywhere from 30-50%increase in quality, depending on the disc). SO I am very happy with the way this enhances my dvd library! Another unexpected bonus is that I really believe this plays my music cds at a higher quality sound level, even though it is connected exactly the same way to the exact (very retro and loud) stereo system as my old dvd player was. This unit has played everything I’ve thrown at it (burned cds, dvds, etc,…with the surprising exception of number one in the following…Now, the NEGATIVES: all very minor, EXCEPT 1)that this unit does NOT play the PAL format dvd picture, only the sound; this is perplexing because in-store it played both. I imagine there is some sort of code or something I’ll have to look for (naturally Walmart’s staff is baffled!). 2)remote must be pointed very directly at unit. 3)SOME functions take a wee bit longer than normal dvd to kick in, but not terribly so (it’ll just take a bit of getting used to) 4)noise level is high when first loading, then MOSTLY quiet while playing, though there is at seemingly regular intervals an internal machine “shifting” noise that is audible only if the film is at a quiet moment. 5)VERY minor problem is during bluray playback, some “panoramic vista” scenes (desert landscapes, or anything with wide open ground and sky) there is a slight “shimmer” or “wavering” in large expanses of the same colour/texture. and, if you’re really picky, 6)doesn’t come with HDMI cable (WARNING: do NOT buy HDMI at a retail store, most of them sell low-end cables STARTING at around $25, going up with the name brands. Order one off Amazon, you can get similar low-end cables starting at ONE CENT + shipping!…you can get really good ones for around $10). SO, my conclusion is this: if you’re just a regular person who wants to watch blurays and upgrade your dvd library to near-bluray quality, there is absolutely nothing wrong with this unit. In fact, the upgrading is so excellent that unless a film is heavy on special effects/action/spectacular cinematography, I’ll probably just get the dvd version instead of the bluray! VERY satisfied.
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great player
thisis a great player took it out of the box got it all hooked up in less then 10 min really goes great with the vizio sound bar also if u want a bluray player then i say get this one u will love it
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VIZIO BR Review
Price performance excellent.
Set up was easy.
It worked the first time we plugged it in.
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Family Blu-ray fun
We purchased our Vizio VBR100 direct from Amazon. We were surprised how quickly the Amazon store shipped. The set-up was rather simple. It was nice to have matching component with Vizio 32 inch LCD. We have the 720 resolution tv; not knowing Blue ray would shortly be part of our home entertainment system. We are already looking at 1080 resolution 37 or 42 LCD. Another Amazon purchase???
The pros of Blue Ray. Regular DVDs upgrade to TV resolution in our case 720. HDMI who invented this technology?? We only have two cables plugged into our TV. HDMI for HD Cable and HDMI cable for Blue ray player. We are also thinking about getting a dolby stereo with HDMI technology. Only three HDMI cables and a couple speaker wires? Sounds pretty simple,doesn’t it??
Blue ray discs are great! We still need to try our BD live feature. I am now curious about updating the firmware. Vizio player picture quality? I have to be biased because I own a Vizio television.
The cons? The cons are few. Vizio needs to bring back its Vizio universal remote. I have to use a separate Vizio remote to change my HDMI selection on my Vizio TV. The setup noise. I almost had a melt down the first time I powered up the unit. I thought I had a broken player. No, its just plain noisy,during power up. Once you load the disc it purrs like a new born kitten. Start up time is slow when playing non-blue ray discs. Blue rays load up rather quickly.
Blue ray technology is going to remain hopefully a long time? The motion picture companies are slowly making new releases affordable. You can get a catalog selection of long time favorite list of Blue ray movies for the regular price of most regular dvds.
Closing statement: I have unplugged my long lived and still living dvd player from a competitive manufacture. I have a young family and a tight budget for diapers and formula. Vizio home entertainment, keeps a smile on dad’s face.
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Great Blu Ray Player
I bought this Blu Ray player when I purchased our VIZIO VF551XVT 55-Inch XVT because I guess I wanted the same brand of BR player as the TV.
Pro’s: Great picture as good as more expensive players.
Looks Nice all touch panel front.
Has optical AND coaxial audio out.
Plays thru HDMI as well as the RCA out, only important if you plan on watching BR on more than one tv.
Middle: Remote is ok, not great not bad. as I said just ok.
Con’s Noise. this player is a little noisy when you first turn it on. it make a loud hum for about 4sec. then all quite after that.
No net apps such as netflix (would be nice) pandora etc, if that’s important to you then look somewhere else.
Other than a slight noise issue and the lack of internet apps, I can’t fault this player for anything.
This player has an Excellent picture & great sound!
Well worth the money.
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Good player for the money
Watch for sales. I purchased from amazon for $100.
Good product. The noise level when you are putting a new disc in or powering up is kind of loud but once you play the disk you don’t hear it any more. It was a surprise to hear it at first but it wouldn’t keep me from buying it if I had known before.
Easy to set up. The remote has a lot of keys that you don’t need. I still don’t understand DVD / BluRay remotes that have number keys on them. But it does have everything you do need and it’s not hard to use.
What I also like is that if you have a Vizio TV the BluRay remote will also change the volume on the TV.
Overall good purchase and I feel it was a good value.
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Took a chance on a low-end Blue Ray Player.
Having a PS3 as my primary Home Theater playback device, the wife and I decided that we wanted to update our dvd player and tube in our bedroom. We bought a Samsung 550 32 inch TV and found we had limited funds for a Blue Ray player. Went to the local Wal*Mart and found this little player on sale for $120.
The problems that I have with this player is that on initial movie load, it is LOUD. The player vibrates, shakes and rattles. After the initial load, the player calms down and plays the movie without interruption or vibrations. I have inspected the discs after playback and seen no scratches on CDs, DVDs or BD-Discs.
Would I recommend this player, yes with a the caveat of the load noise.
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Not the best performer
I bought one of this when they first came out early last fall from a large discount store. I was really impressed as I unboxed it – it looked very nice and had a nice “hefty” feel to the case (unlike so many other players). I hooked it up to a 37″ Vizio 1080p TV. The Blu-Ray quality was decent – nothing to write home about though. While it was better than an upconverted DVD of course, it didn’t have the crispness to the image that I was expecting. I ran about three recent movies through it and all had the same result – good enough, but not great. Then I tried upconverting standard DVDs. That’s where it really fell down. The image quality was much worse than my upconverting DVD player. No depth, fuzzy, stuttering in fast motion. Other disappointments were the weak sound quality with both DVDs and Blu-Rays and a very short range for the remote. I literally had to be in front of the player to activate it. The DVD player or TV had no issue with the same angle. All in all a weak effort from Vizio (and it went back).
Black Friday I grabbed a Toshiba BDX-2000 from Amazon. It has more or less the same specs as the Vizio but its performance is like night and day better. Sharper Blu-Ray, better upconverting (still not as good as my DVD player though), much better sound and greater remote range. I thought maybe I was being too harsh on the Vizio, but after having the Tosh for a few weeks I can see that I wasn’t.
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Great but be warned!
This is a great product, however make sure your firmware is up to date. I ran into a few problems with my newest blurays.
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VBR100 Review
Purchased this unit as my first BluRay player after waiting more than 2 years to purchase one due to the BluRay/HD battle and general lack of stability in the hardware and playback quality of existing units. I’ll keep this short. The VBR100 has performed flawlessly for me. I’ve watched 6 BluRay movies thus far, including Australia and a concert video by the band Rush (Snakes & Arrows – MUST HAVE for you Rush fans!). No problems whatsover. The 6 BluRay discs I’ve tried all loaded up in less than a minute. I’ve seen other units over the years take 2-3 minutes, which is just ridiculous. Like the prior reviewer, I actually bought mine at WalMart too since it was cheaper than Amazon’s price. I’ve since done a firmware upgrade, which was a piece of cake. Highly recommended!
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Ok player though former price advantage is getting squeezed
If you are a hardware manufacturer that wants to capture market share based on pricing you have to take advantage of your own lower pricing while you can because your competition normally won’t want to let you keep that advantage very long. Eventually those competitors will drop their pricing into the same area you’ve targetted and that competitive advantage will be gone as customers opt to up sell themselves on competing products with better features, better reputations, etc.
Such is the problem that would seem to be facing Vizio with their ‘entry level’ VBR100 Blu-ray player. Well, that problem and a few others as well. Read on for a run-down of my thoughts about the player (at least the thoughts that I had at the time I wrote this review, early October 2009).
First, I’ll about guarantee that these players will drop in price, just like their competition, over the not so distant future. For one, a price drop is guaranteed since I just bought myself one of these players a few weeks ago. No, sorry, not purchased through this particular web site, as a local mart that is loaded (wall to Wal) had the best pricing for the product and offered instant gratification if I wanted to pick up the product in store. As I did want the product in hand asap, I opted to buy in store rather than mail order, so I was able to take the device home the same day and start setting it up.
Setup was fairly simple, but I would note that the box doesn’t have an HDMI cable in it, nor does it have a Component video cable. Nope, there was a composite video cable (Yellow connector with the Red and White audio cables tied in) but if that cable is used the video output quality suffers as NO upscaling is done unless the connection is HDMI or Component. Considering how inexpensive HDMI cables are, it would have been nice if Vizio had included an HDMI cable in the box. At most, I’d expect the inclusion of such a cable to add a few dollars in cost per unit, even if you factor in additional shipping weight on pallets of boxes. It seems that in this area Vizio has gone instead for keeping their own costs low. Granted, many people might not be able to use HDMI anyway, or they might prefer to buy the cable separately so they get the right length or a better quality cable, etc., but it still seems silly not to have the cable in the box.
On the other hand, I have to admit that HDMI cables is one area that the big box stores love to gouge customers on when selling them HD gear. Consider the costs of buying a cable here at Amazon versus buying a cable that you would find at one of those so-called Best places to Buy from, or one of those marts of Wal’s, and you realize quickly that you can easily pay a small fortune for an HDMI cable with little or no difference at all in the audio/video quality of the end product no matter which cable you use.
Some cable manufacturers will tout their own specifications and claim that their cables are capable of carrying more data or something like that, but there’s no real difference, or at least not one that justifies paying 4 to 25 times more for the cables.
Sorry about that detour about cables and such, and admittedly, I must say that the lack of inclusion of the HDMI cable in the box is something that many other competing products has the same problems with. Just about all of the products in this category would have that problem.
The VBR100 player is a decent player but not without some nits to pick. First, it claims BD Live compatibility. Well, sure, but only if the user adds (their own, not included) USB memory stick to the unit. If you don’t add a USB flash drive with 1GB or more of RAM to the unit and properly set the unit up to use that stick for BD Live then you’ll never get BD Live working on the unit even if you hook the unit up to your own WIRED network.
That’s another of the potential problem for this product — wired networking only. Sorry, no wireless network built-in. It’s nice that the unit has a network connection available, but many customers may find that they don’t want to hassle with pulling a network cable to a location by their HDTV equipment. You can add a wireless bridge or power line adapter to your network (perhaps), but that makes the cost of using this unit considerably more expensive and puts the price into the neighborhood where you’d find the LG BD390 Wi-Fi Network Blu-ray Disc Player or even the PlayStation 3 120 GB. On the other side, if you don’t need/want BD Live features, then you don’t need to hook up to the network at all — not even for firmware updates.
Firmware updates are something that anyone using a Blu-ray player will be familiar with, as the never-ending security and content protection schemes and other ‘features’ of Blu-ray discs may require that you update the firmware on your player. In this area the lack of ability to upgrade the unit’s firmware over the wired network is a mixed blessing, though I prefer to label it primarily a failure (especially when compared to the PS3, as an example). Going back to the HD DVD players, I had a Toshiba HD-A3 720p/1080i HD DVD Player that I used (and liked) and found it very easy to upgrade firmware on. Simply use the menu option and off you went checking for, downloading, and then applying the downloaded firmware. Alternatively you could download the firmware to a memory stick or to your computer and create a ‘firmware update disc’ and be all set to upgrade the firmware with that. This last method is basically what Vizio is doing with the VBR100. Customers will have to download the firmware to their computer and then create a CD that contains the firmware. That process isn’t too difficult, but it is an added burden for customers. I suppose, though haven’t yet experienced this, that Vizio may mail out firmware discs to customers so that the customers don’t have to create their own. I doubt that will happen though as doing that would add support costs that would eventually become too expensive. (They may make the firmware available for some small ‘support fee’ or something like that, but again, I know of no current plans for this to happen.)
Upgrading the firmware to the most current version, once downloaded, is a fairly simple process and only takes a few minutes, if that. If there is a problem, the system is smart enough to detect that the firmware on the disc is not good and the unit will automatically revert back to the last firmware version so you don’t break the unit by failing to complete an upgrade.
Owners of Vizio TV’s get an added benefit from these units in that the remote control will also control the volume for the TV, but otherwise the remote control that is included is for control of the VBR100 and not for controlling other devices. Owners of other TV brands are out of luck, as are owners of home theatre sound systems. (Sorry, you’d need to continue to use your own remotes for those products, or buy a Logitech Harmony or similar product.) The remote control is ok, though seems to be sluggish in responsiveness at times, and/or seems to have to be ‘aimed’ at the unit much more than should be needed. It is possible that Vizio’s design for the unit is to fault, with the shiny black face filtering out more of the infrared remote control signal than Vizio expected. Whatever the issue is, the responsiveness of the remote is somewhat lacking.
The face of the unit is, as noted directly above, a shiny black plastic. There are no buttons on top of the unit, nor for that matter even on the face of the unit. There are instead touch sensitive areas that are used to control the unit. The ‘power button’ area is marked, but not terribly easy to see when the unit is powered off, and most users will likely be looking for the remote control to turn the unit on or off with. Once the unit is powered on the other touch sensitive areas light up brightly enough that they are easy to find and make use of. Additionally, when the unit is powered on the Vizio logo will be lit as well as the unit having a blue light bar above the drive tray that lights up to let you know that a disc is loaded in the drive. When the unit is powered off the Vizio logo turns orange, though the color is a bit different than the muddy orange that is used for the logo on Vizio TV’s.
Getting back to the use of USB Flash drives on the unit, users are not limited to just using such drives for BD Live storage. Users may play content directly from a connected USB Flash drive if they wish, though using a drive for such purposes opens up another apparent design flaw: the location of the USB port (which is on the back of the unit). Given the mixed use for the USB port that port should have been located on the front of the unit. Certainly users can buy their own USB extension cables, but that shouldn’t be necessary and again adds costs to the unit that shouldn’t be there. If the port had been located on the front of the unit instead it would be very easy to swap flash drives on the unit at any time.
One last comment about the use of the USB flash drives — if you wish to use the drive for BD Live support you must run the unit without a disc in the drive (or with the drive bay open) then select USB, and finally select the option for BD Live where you tell the unit that you want the flash drive used for such purposes. If you don’t do that you’ll never get BD Live working as you have no storage for BD Live purposes. That information can be found in the manual (somewhere), but for those that never read manuals, the entire process could be more intuitive and/or simpler.
Whew, finally on to performance of the unit.
First, load times are not terribly impressive, though not out of line with the load times with other units on the market. Any time you feed the unit a disc expect it to take a few seconds to load and get to the menu. Longer on some titles, shorter on others, depending on the complexity of the menus, etc. While loading to the menu the unit seems to make a fair amount of noise, but once the disc is playing the drive is not loud enough to notice.
The video quality on the unit is good, including the upconversion capabilities. I’ve fed the unit a few DVDs and noticed fairly impressive picture quality, despite knowing that I’m using standard definition DVD and not Blu-ray. Blu-ray picture quality is as expected.
If you are looking for a Blu-ray player for your home and you have a Vizio TV this would make a nice companion to that TV. If you are using another TV and aren’t using a home theatre sound system (working on a tighter budget), this is still a decent player, though you may find competing products offer more/better features at a very competitive price. If you are looking for a higher end product then I’d expect you never read this far, if you even found the Vizio player at all.
Worth a purchase, though educate yourself before buying and check competing products for feature sets and/or price.
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