Westinghouse TX-42F430S

Reviewed by: d_esmond

Duration of ownership:

Strengths: Digital HD/SD tunerPlethora of inputsGood black/color levelsAttractive styling

Weaknesses: PIP NonfunctionalPower Management doesn't fully work on HDMINot all remote input buttons are discreteCan't upgrade set firmware in the field

Overall Evaluation: I own several Westinghouse TVs/monitors and have had such great experiences with them I decided to pick up this latest in the 1080p line. Compared to the other 1080p Westinghouse set I have (37w1) this model adds a digital TV tuner and several extra digital inputs. In addition, the styling is a bit better (with a matte black/brushed metal bezel instead of a matte silver one on my 37w1). Picture quality is on par with the 37w1 and improved in some cases. For instance in certain scenarios I see ghosting artifacts on the 37w1. But with the 42F320S I haven't seen any of that (granted I am not a gamer so I have not tested this set's performance in that regard). Black levels are about the same as the 37w1 and really I consider them quite good (I am not very picky about that though). A big key to getting decent blacks is to turn the backlight down to its lowest setting (or thereabouts).Color seems great--again no big change from my 37w1.One puzzling thing is that PIP has been a standard feature on all the Westinghouse TVs/monitors I have purchased previously and appears in the menu for the 42F430S but is greyed out. I don't know if Westinghouse had to disable it at the last minute or never intended to provide it, but in any case it doesn't work. No big loss for me as I don't use it, but it would be nice to have it available if the set is physically capable (which it would seem to be).The remote is far better than any of the other Westinghouse sets I own--both in terms of the number of buttons and the sensitivity of the IR sensor on the set. My only quibble (which has always been the case with Westinghouse remotes) is that several of the inputs buttons cycle between multiple inputs rather than having dedicated IR codes for each discrete input. This really only comes into play when trying to set up macros on programmable remotes like the Harmony. Casual users aren't going to care, and major home theater buffs are probably buying more expensive TVs so this is not a big issue--just something that could be improved.I am not a typical user of this set, as even though I have cable hooked up the QAM tuner, I actually never use it. I really only use one input on the set--HDMI1. I have that connected via an HDMI->DVI cable to my Home Theater PC running Windows Vista Media Center full-time. So for me this is really just a big computer monitor.As a result I depend on the power saving function of the computer and monitor to turn the set on and off as needed. I've been doing this for a couple years now and it worked really well on my 37w1, which in power saving mode used only about 1W of power. Unfortunately the 42F430S (at least the one I have--there have been a couple of other reports from other users too) does not enter the true power saving mode over HDMI when signaled by the computer. It turns off the backlight (which I will concede is the largest power draw in the device) but it leaves the panel itself running (if you look carefully you can actually see the TV picture continuing on in the background even though the set is supposed to be "off". The result is that palpable heat is given off from the set 24/7 and it will draw at least 50W of power all the time.Let me reiterate that this bug will not affect most users of this set. As long as you're using the power button on the remote (or using DPMS on the VGA input I think) then you won't be affected by this. I'm sure this would be a very easy bug for Westinghouse to fix and issue as a firmware update. However, despite the presence of a USB port on the back to facilitate such updates Westinhouse has never provided one. People end up resorting to exchanging the entire set for one with a newer firmware (I'd consider that if I knew Westinghouse had fixed this bug)--which is a total waste of money and effort for all parties involved. In this day and age companies like Westinghouse are very foolish to not provide some method to upgrade firmware in the field.But I digress... this really is a nice set for TV watching, HD-anything, and even use as a monitor. My biggest gripe would be a small one for anyone else--the inability to enter a very lower power state when connected over HDMI. With that bug (and given my need for just the monitor part of this set) I wish I had purchased the previous generation LVM-42w2 instead. But I wouldn't hesitate to recommend the 42F430S to anyone with "normal" needs for an HD LCD TV set.