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The Vizio VF550XVT's menu system is straightforward and significantly improved in terms of styling over previous Vizio menus we've seen. The manual is also very well done, with excellent illustrations and large text.
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Ease of Use (7.0)
The VF550XVT uses Vizio's new menu interface design that we saw on the Vizio SV470XVT. This menu interface is simplified and more elegant than the older design. At the top level you see three (or four if you have cable or antenna plugged in) options. From the top these are Picture, Audio and Setup. At this level you can easily change between the various picture and audio modes. Those who want more control can drill deeper into each menu to see a variety of options. Unfortunatley not all is perfect, some of the options in the menus are arcane enough to send you digging through the manual to figure out exactly what they do.
 Picture Controls (7.0)
At it's most basic you can choose from several different presets at the top level of the menu by pressing left/right when Picture is selected. These presets are Custom, Standard, Movie, Game, Vivid, Football, Golf, Basketball and Baseball. The custom option will enable whatever settings you have picked form the last time you adjusted more advanced Picture options. To access these features press the center select key on the remote's 4-way control to see the first level of Picture options.
Here you will see the basic picture controls, including Backlight, Brightness, Contrast, Color, Tint and Sharpness. These stretch across two pages. The second page includes two additional options, one to reset all of these features to their default and a second to access Advanced Video features.
In the Advanced Video section you will find the following options: Noise Reduction, Color Enhancement, Advanced Adaptive Luma, Backlight Control, Color Temperature and Smooth Motion. Many of these features are discussed in our Video Processing section. Many of these features offer multiple options and some even offer more fine control, for example in Color Temperature you can adjust the intensity of RGB directly. Overall Vizio offers a good selection of picture controls while keeping the interface relatively simple for those who don't want to muck around with more advanced features.
Audio Controls (6.0)
As with picture controls you can select from some audio presets at the top level of the menu by pressing left/right. These presets are Flat, Rock, Pop, Classic or Jazz. Entering the main audio menu you will be greated with several more advanced options, including an equalizer, simulated surround sound and controls for your digital and analog audio outputs. Although not quite as extensive as the options available for picture controls, Vizio still offers a good selection of audio controls on the VF550XVT.
Other Controls (8.0)
In addition to the Picture and Audio controls there is also a Setup menu available on the Vizio VF550XVT. Here you can make adjustments to things like picture in picture, parental controls and the sleep timer. When you are viewing content directly from a cable or antenna connection there is also a menu option available to control channel settings.
Manual (8.0)
We were very happy with the Vizio VF550XVT's manual. Like most manuals from Vizio it's a large magazine sized booklet in full color. The manual's font is large and easy to read, there are plenty of pictures available to explain the options and there's both a table of contents and index. Vizio makes some of the easiest to use television manuals in the business and the VF550XVT's manual is no exception.
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