**Vizio SmartCast Smart TV Review**

As we set up our Vizio SmartCast Smart TV, we're immediately greeted with Google's Terms and Conditions for search and voice control, as well as the option to accept Google Assistant. This is because the TV is built on top of Android, and it shows in the user interface. The TV comes pre-loaded with Chromecast, which is a built-in feature that allows users to cast content from their devices onto the TV.

**Getting Familiar with the SmartCast Interface**

Once we've accepted the terms and conditions, we're presented with the SmartCast interface. The interface itself is designed to be user-friendly, but it does take some getting used to. One of the features we appreciate is the automatic access to picture mode without having to navigate through settings. We also have the option to select QuickStart mode, which allows us to bypass the Eco mode and get to our preferred picture setting more quickly.

**Picture Settings**

To adjust our picture settings, we need to use the menu button on our remote control to open up the main menu. From there, we can navigate to Picture and select our Calibrated mode. We're pleased to see that this mode is available by default, but it's also worth noting that Vizio offers a more standard picture setting with Auto Brightness Control set to Medium. We find that this setting is too bright for our liking, so we opt to turn off the auto brightness control.

**Active Full-Array and Motion Control**

As we delve deeper into the TV's settings, we come across Active Full-Array, which controls the intensity of the backlight system. The options are Off, Low, Medium, and High, and we choose to stick with Medium for now. We also take a closer look at Motion Control, where we're pleased to see that Clear Action is turned off by default, as well as Gutter or Motion Blur Reduction. This feature is a nice touch, as it shows that Vizio is aware of the importance of motion clarity.

**Home Screen and App Selection**

As we navigate through the TV's interface, we come across our home screen, which features a line of apps down the bottom. One notable absence is YouTube, which seems odd given the Android-based system. We're presented with an option to learn about Chromecast or back out, but ultimately we're left without access to this popular app.

**SmartCast Performance**

One thing that stands out as a potential drawback of SmartCast is its performance. The TV feels sluggish, and some features don't quite make sense. For example, the need to use Chromecast instead of an app like YouTube is a bit frustrating. However, we're also pleased to hear that other services like Roku and Fire TV are compatible with this TV.

**Future Updates and Features**

As we set up our Vizio SmartCast Smart TV, we learn that it's due for updates throughout the year, which means that new features will be added to the platform. This is a good sign, as it indicates that the manufacturer is committed to keeping up with industry standards. We also hear that AirPlay and HomeKit are coming to this TV, although no specific release date has been announced.

**Conclusion**

While Vizio SmartCast Smart TV shows some promise, particularly in terms of its features like 384 local dimming zones and HDR capabilities, there's still a lot to be discovered about this device. With the addition of new services like Roku and Fire TV, as well as updates throughout the year, we're optimistic that this TV could become one of the breakout devices of 2019. In the meantime, we invite our readers to share their thoughts on this TV in the comments section below. Do you have any questions or concerns about the Vizio SmartCast Smart TV? Let us know!

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhey everybody welcome back so you know how it goes the new TVs come out and everybody's abuzz about what's happening with Sony and Samsung and LG now Vizio has increasingly been a part of that conversation but I have never been so excited to unbox a Vizio TV before I saw what this looked like at CES and I can't wait to see what it looks like here we're talking about the Vizio P series quantum X and it's meant to be a badass TV okay so we popped open the top of the box here's what we found not a ton here first some important product information totally not important you can toss that there is a quick set-up guide here which you probably won't need after watching this video and then we've got a power cord we'll insert that later Vizio remote looking very much like prior year Vizio remotes Duracell batteries for the remote for rather long screws and then we see our stand legs here which you know what that means we're looking at another wide footprint which I will moan and groan about in just a minute use bag handles to remove TV well that's interesting you know what else is interesting is I've never seen all these graphics on all these boxes showing don't pinch the panel before makes me wonder if there's been a lot of returns due to cracked panels and yeah you don't want to moosh on the LCD panel because you can break pixels or even crack the glass that way but it's hard to remove these things from their boxes so I kind of dig that they have something like this where you can just sort of lift it out the other cool thing here as we pull this back is that the TV's got a really nice piece of cardboard pressed up against the TV with padding behind it and then even more styrofoam padding in front of that so you can lay this right down on the floor or on a table and get those legs in there oh hey thanks for joining me down here so I'm about to install these legs and before I do that I wanted to point something out which may come as some disappointment to some of you so these legs are designed to branch out word towards the edge of the TV and I know that in some TVs in the past you've been able to reverse them so that they face inward I always thought that looked silly but it did allow a little bit of space savings unfortunately that's not possible with these there and if you try to put them in backwards they're just not gonna slide into the bottom of the TV sorry so I set up a lot of TVs and I gotta say I like the way that the vizio is propped up off of the floor a little bit with that cardboard that was really smart so yeah I mean this is really simple we just insert this in here it says r4 right and there's a little bit of strain on the TV but nothing too big and then you know what happens next we get screw it behold the justifiably underrated backside of the television although there's a few things to show you here so a couple of speakers here I think these are the base drivers and I'm really interested to hear how this TV sounds when we get it up and running and then the typical l-shaped recessed area for all your connections couple of things to notice here 1 5 HDMI inputs most flagship TVs are coming with four so that's interesting they are not HDMI 2.1 spec and i don't know if we're gonna see any HDMI 2.1 feature support like ER or variable refresh rate from vizio this year I'm not counting on it but you know that could still happen you've got a little bit of manual controls around the side here not too big of a deal and I did want to point out Vizio still rocking the RCA connectors for the composite and component video connections so if you happen to have legacy components they make it easier most people just make you use a breakout cable all right so we're looking pretty classy here I mean the bezel is almost non-existent maybe it's two millimeters thick I think sixteenth of an inch something like that there is a little bit of a black border around the image we'll show you that in a few minutes and as for the stand it's metal I'm not a huge fan of the chromed out look but that's personal preference I will have to point out though we're talking about 51 inches from the outer edge of each of these pedestals so that's a pretty big footprint and you're gonna need a big entertainment console like we have here the BDI Corridor is made for a big TV like this about 12 inches worth of depth so it's not too deep the other thing that I like is that the vizio badge is nice and small down here in the lower right hand corner and then there's one weird thing that I want to point out to you you hear that I've never heard that with a TV before it's almost as if it's not glass in fact it's not glass it's it's plastic but it's something about the mounting here is is odd we get a little bit of a noise and a shake with that panel which I'm not sure I feel about that all right let's power this on and as I do I want to point out that the anti-glare coating on this is pretty stinking good certainly as good as the sony x 950 g and maybe not quite as effective as the samsung q 90 but good all the same so here's something that's interesting when you turn on the TV it wants to go into store demo mode which i think is odd here you just want to press the input button and then I assume most of this is going to be pretty standard set up fair pick your language you're using it at home as opposed to the store and then as is often the case you're gonna face a firmware update pretty much no matter when you buy this TV it's a good bet there's been a firmware update you're gonna have to sit through it Vizio calls it Smart TV platform smart cast but it's based off of Android which is why you're gonna see some stuff about accepting Google's Terms and Conditions for search and voice control and voice assistant also you'll notice that it's got chromecast built right in so name the TV what you want and just remember that's what you're gonna be casting to later if you want now if you're not used to using Smart cast it takes a little bit of getting used to I do like that they automatically give you access to the picture mode without actually having to go into the settings I do pick QuickStart mode I usually stay out of Eco mode because that can affect the brightness but to dig into picture settings we're gonna have to go searching so there's no settings on the on screen interface you actually have to use the menu button on your remote control so keep that in mind that's a little bit different than what we're used to with Android TV so once we get the menu open we go into picture and we've already selected calibrated there is a calibrated dark setting as well or dark rooms obviously if we move over to the standard picture setting you'll notice that actually by default it comes with auto brightness control set to medium I would suggest turning that off because if you're picking standard you want the brighter picture vivid is also extremely bright and that comes with auto brightness control off by default you can see how it just leaps to life of course I would never select either one of those picture modes if we go back to our calibrated mode and we thumb through the settings most of this stuff is par for the course I'm noticing it takes a while for the TV to catch up to our inputs which is interesting active full-array is how you basically control the intensity of the backlight system there's three settings off well for off low medium and high I'm gonna stick with medium for now until we can really dig into this TV but motion control I'm gonna go into that right off the bat and make sure that clear action is turned off and we don't have any gutter or motion blur reduction turned on I love that they have this off by default we don't actually need to make any adjustments there but it's always good to check alright so this is your home screen so to speak and this is vizio smart cast Smart TV platform it's built off of Android and it does have some advantages to it and that Vizio is able to update this year by year and keep it pretty relevant and as a Google or Android based system that means you get chromecast built in you also have to accept some terms and conditions for google and google assistant as you're setting up the TV you basically get a line of apps down here along the bottom and I can't help but notice that YouTube is not represented which is odd because we're talking about Android afterall so I go here to access more apps and I figure well I can just add an app but I get this screen where I can either learn about how to cast with chromecast or I can just back out and do nothing which means basically that there is no YouTube app on this TV it is one of those apps where if you want to get the content from in this case YouTube up on the TV you have to use chromecast and I'm not sure how I feel about that alright so I'm gonna be completely honest with you right now I am NOT a fan of Smart cast right now having played with it on this TV it's pretty sluggish there's some things about it that don't make a whole lot of sense to me just not a fan I can get over that you know if we hook up a Roku to this TV or even a fire TV device we can get past that Apple TV you know you could use that as well sure airplay - and homekit are coming to this TV and that something but this is the platform that runs the TV so I'm a little bit concerned if I set that aside I think there's still a lot to be excited about with this TV it's got 384 local dimming zones for the 65 inch up to 2900 nits of rightness which could be an unparalleled HDR experience if they do it right so there's a lot to learn about this TV you're definitely going to want to check back to get the full review on this thing because I think there's a lot to discover it could be one of the breakout televisions of 2019 thanks for watching everyone hang out with me in the comments section what do you think of this TV so far and how it ranks against the other TVs we've been reviewing I really want to know and I'll have fun having a conversation with you there of course like and subscribe the video if you will please hit that notification bell so you know when I'm coming out with another TV review video and of course visit Digital Trends calm for all the latest tech news and reviewshey everybody welcome back so you know how it goes the new TVs come out and everybody's abuzz about what's happening with Sony and Samsung and LG now Vizio has increasingly been a part of that conversation but I have never been so excited to unbox a Vizio TV before I saw what this looked like at CES and I can't wait to see what it looks like here we're talking about the Vizio P series quantum X and it's meant to be a badass TV okay so we popped open the top of the box here's what we found not a ton here first some important product information totally not important you can toss that there is a quick set-up guide here which you probably won't need after watching this video and then we've got a power cord we'll insert that later Vizio remote looking very much like prior year Vizio remotes Duracell batteries for the remote for rather long screws and then we see our stand legs here which you know what that means we're looking at another wide footprint which I will moan and groan about in just a minute use bag handles to remove TV well that's interesting you know what else is interesting is I've never seen all these graphics on all these boxes showing don't pinch the panel before makes me wonder if there's been a lot of returns due to cracked panels and yeah you don't want to moosh on the LCD panel because you can break pixels or even crack the glass that way but it's hard to remove these things from their boxes so I kind of dig that they have something like this where you can just sort of lift it out the other cool thing here as we pull this back is that the TV's got a really nice piece of cardboard pressed up against the TV with padding behind it and then even more styrofoam padding in front of that so you can lay this right down on the floor or on a table and get those legs in there oh hey thanks for joining me down here so I'm about to install these legs and before I do that I wanted to point something out which may come as some disappointment to some of you so these legs are designed to branch out word towards the edge of the TV and I know that in some TVs in the past you've been able to reverse them so that they face inward I always thought that looked silly but it did allow a little bit of space savings unfortunately that's not possible with these there and if you try to put them in backwards they're just not gonna slide into the bottom of the TV sorry so I set up a lot of TVs and I gotta say I like the way that the vizio is propped up off of the floor a little bit with that cardboard that was really smart so yeah I mean this is really simple we just insert this in here it says r4 right and there's a little bit of strain on the TV but nothing too big and then you know what happens next we get screw it behold the justifiably underrated backside of the television although there's a few things to show you here so a couple of speakers here I think these are the base drivers and I'm really interested to hear how this TV sounds when we get it up and running and then the typical l-shaped recessed area for all your connections couple of things to notice here 1 5 HDMI inputs most flagship TVs are coming with four so that's interesting they are not HDMI 2.1 spec and i don't know if we're gonna see any HDMI 2.1 feature support like ER or variable refresh rate from vizio this year I'm not counting on it but you know that could still happen you've got a little bit of manual controls around the side here not too big of a deal and I did want to point out Vizio still rocking the RCA connectors for the composite and component video connections so if you happen to have legacy components they make it easier most people just make you use a breakout cable all right so we're looking pretty classy here I mean the bezel is almost non-existent maybe it's two millimeters thick I think sixteenth of an inch something like that there is a little bit of a black border around the image we'll show you that in a few minutes and as for the stand it's metal I'm not a huge fan of the chromed out look but that's personal preference I will have to point out though we're talking about 51 inches from the outer edge of each of these pedestals so that's a pretty big footprint and you're gonna need a big entertainment console like we have here the BDI Corridor is made for a big TV like this about 12 inches worth of depth so it's not too deep the other thing that I like is that the vizio badge is nice and small down here in the lower right hand corner and then there's one weird thing that I want to point out to you you hear that I've never heard that with a TV before it's almost as if it's not glass in fact it's not glass it's it's plastic but it's something about the mounting here is is odd we get a little bit of a noise and a shake with that panel which I'm not sure I feel about that all right let's power this on and as I do I want to point out that the anti-glare coating on this is pretty stinking good certainly as good as the sony x 950 g and maybe not quite as effective as the samsung q 90 but good all the same so here's something that's interesting when you turn on the TV it wants to go into store demo mode which i think is odd here you just want to press the input button and then I assume most of this is going to be pretty standard set up fair pick your language you're using it at home as opposed to the store and then as is often the case you're gonna face a firmware update pretty much no matter when you buy this TV it's a good bet there's been a firmware update you're gonna have to sit through it Vizio calls it Smart TV platform smart cast but it's based off of Android which is why you're gonna see some stuff about accepting Google's Terms and Conditions for search and voice control and voice assistant also you'll notice that it's got chromecast built right in so name the TV what you want and just remember that's what you're gonna be casting to later if you want now if you're not used to using Smart cast it takes a little bit of getting used to I do like that they automatically give you access to the picture mode without actually having to go into the settings I do pick QuickStart mode I usually stay out of Eco mode because that can affect the brightness but to dig into picture settings we're gonna have to go searching so there's no settings on the on screen interface you actually have to use the menu button on your remote control so keep that in mind that's a little bit different than what we're used to with Android TV so once we get the menu open we go into picture and we've already selected calibrated there is a calibrated dark setting as well or dark rooms obviously if we move over to the standard picture setting you'll notice that actually by default it comes with auto brightness control set to medium I would suggest turning that off because if you're picking standard you want the brighter picture vivid is also extremely bright and that comes with auto brightness control off by default you can see how it just leaps to life of course I would never select either one of those picture modes if we go back to our calibrated mode and we thumb through the settings most of this stuff is par for the course I'm noticing it takes a while for the TV to catch up to our inputs which is interesting active full-array is how you basically control the intensity of the backlight system there's three settings off well for off low medium and high I'm gonna stick with medium for now until we can really dig into this TV but motion control I'm gonna go into that right off the bat and make sure that clear action is turned off and we don't have any gutter or motion blur reduction turned on I love that they have this off by default we don't actually need to make any adjustments there but it's always good to check alright so this is your home screen so to speak and this is vizio smart cast Smart TV platform it's built off of Android and it does have some advantages to it and that Vizio is able to update this year by year and keep it pretty relevant and as a Google or Android based system that means you get chromecast built in you also have to accept some terms and conditions for google and google assistant as you're setting up the TV you basically get a line of apps down here along the bottom and I can't help but notice that YouTube is not represented which is odd because we're talking about Android afterall so I go here to access more apps and I figure well I can just add an app but I get this screen where I can either learn about how to cast with chromecast or I can just back out and do nothing which means basically that there is no YouTube app on this TV it is one of those apps where if you want to get the content from in this case YouTube up on the TV you have to use chromecast and I'm not sure how I feel about that alright so I'm gonna be completely honest with you right now I am NOT a fan of Smart cast right now having played with it on this TV it's pretty sluggish there's some things about it that don't make a whole lot of sense to me just not a fan I can get over that you know if we hook up a Roku to this TV or even a fire TV device we can get past that Apple TV you know you could use that as well sure airplay - and homekit are coming to this TV and that something but this is the platform that runs the TV so I'm a little bit concerned if I set that aside I think there's still a lot to be excited about with this TV it's got 384 local dimming zones for the 65 inch up to 2900 nits of rightness which could be an unparalleled HDR experience if they do it right so there's a lot to learn about this TV you're definitely going to want to check back to get the full review on this thing because I think there's a lot to discover it could be one of the breakout televisions of 2019 thanks for watching everyone hang out with me in the comments section what do you think of this TV so far and how it ranks against the other TVs we've been reviewing I really want to know and I'll have fun having a conversation with you there of course like and subscribe the video if you will please hit that notification bell so you know when I'm coming out with another TV review video and of course visit Digital Trends calm for all the latest tech news and reviews\n"