INSIGNIA 32-inch Class F20 Series Smart HD 720p Fire TV with Alexa Voice Remote (NS-32F201NA23)

My previous TV, a flat-screen gifted to me in 2011, already ready to go, died last week. All of my adult life I have made do with hand-me-down or used TVs/monitors.

My dead TV was set up in my office so I could watch TV while working on the computer. I fed the TV with a laptop, via HDMI. I had previously poured a giant glass of ice-water on the laptop so the screen doesn’t work very well, which made it perfect for feeding the TV.

I have large VOD libraries on both Prime Video and Vudu, so when looking at the Smart TV options, access to Vudu is important to me. So I originally decided against this TV because it’s an Amazon Fire TV, and my Fire Tablet, (that I use to watch TV/movies in bed), doesn’t allow me to put Vudu on it.

But when looking at all of the options, this one was the right size, and it does have HDMI inputs, so I could still feed it with my broken laptop, so it was the obvious choice, with the great sale price.

I searched the apps and found that Vudu was an option. I also downloaded Peacock, Paramount+, Movies Anywhere, Tubi, Plex, Crackle, MSNBC, The CW, ABC, NBC, CBS, and YouTube. Signing into to each of them on my computer and using codes worked really well. So the only thing I had to actually type my password into using the remote was my Wifi. It all works great, and switching to the HDMI input is easy, if I ever want or need to do that. Like if I ever want to watch something I only have on DVD or Blu Ray.

I will add Disney+, Hulu and Netflix when the WGA writer’s strike is over and I resubscribe to them.

I don’t know if my previous TV was HD, but when I’ve visited my parents when they’ve played Star Wars, Lord of the Rings and other things in HD on their HD TV and it has all looked gross. The Battle of Helms Deep was a bunch of amorphous clay blobs, and the Death Star was a bunch of dudes in bad costumes hanging out. I don’t know if that was the motion smoothing thing that Tom Cruise was mad about a few years back, Either way, I’ve seen none of that gross stuff.

I’ve watch a little of the new Children of the Corn, several episodes of Stargate Atlantis, a little of Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull and Jurassic Park, and it all looks good. If I look closely I can see what I’m guessing is filmgrain, but the picture is clear.

I recently watched an episode of Snoops (1999) that was uploaded to YouTube from probably VHS. There’s a brief scene that features Dick Miller. I posted a screenshot to Twitter, but anyone who looked at that pic has to more or less take my word for it that it is indeed Dick Miller. But on this TV I could make guesses about the shade of lipstick worn by Teyla Emmagan, if I knew anything about lipstick.

This is all to let you know my level of knowledge so you can judge how my level of happiness would measure up to your level of happiness.

My only other observation in the few hours I’ve had this, is that the TV stands are at the outer edges of the TV. My previous TV had a big center stand, when meant I could perch it fairly near the edge of the table next to my desk, at a 45 degree angle (ish). So with the stands at the edges, I’ve had to push the TV farther back, and put sturdy things under the stands to give the TV better purchase on the table. Which is to say, you really need enough table under the entire TV to support it.

I saw a review that said their TV didn’t come with the screws for the stands. Mine did. They were in a separate small bad, the same way the remote batteries were in a separate bag.

So far the TV seems absolutely great.

I bought this for my office at a great price. The 720p picture is quite good, no need for 1080p for a 32″ TV. The native Fire TV app is a bit sluggish when compared to the Fire TV Stick 4k’s and the 2nd & 3rd gen Cubes I own, but it is acceptable.

It has quite a few inputs for a TV at this price. I even connected a ROKU Express 4K+ to one of the HDMI outputs and it works great, even snappier than the native Fire TV app. I also ran a coaxial outside antenna connection and the TV’s tuner picked up all of the available stations in my area without issue. I’m not sure if the OTA stations will work without a network connection to run the TV’s interface. Didn’t try it.

I connected an old VCR to the TV’s composite audio/video inputs and the picture & sound is quite good (as can be expected.)

It would be nice if the TV had a selectable input or the option to default to the last used input when powered on. It always defaults to its own Fire TV app.

I expected the TV to have lousy sound, but it is surprisingly good. Plenty loud enough with a full sound.

Internal storage is good, I was able to install quite a few apps without running out of space. However, when I was notified that my DirecTV streaming app had an update, the Fire TV app said there wasn’t enough room to install it. I cleared the cache from several of the already installed apps and was then able to install the update. So, for sure, not unlimited storage.

Such great TV and priced for under $100! I bought the Insignia Fire TV to upgrade my older SmartTV in my bedroom. On my older TV I couldn’t get Freevee or stream PBS Passport (monthly support of PBS is in place) to play and could only stream Amazon Prime and Acorn (my paid subscriptions) on my upstairs TV plus over the air TV (I have an indoor antenna and no cable TV plus AmazonPrime/Acorn TV.)

This new TV was pretty straightforward for set up. It did take a few minutes (maybe 5-8 minutes) to upload and set up, but I think it is the position of where my TV is and how far away it is from my wireless Wifi. I’m still working on hooking up my Alexa app to the TV. I am very happy with the picture quality and sound, plus the ease of set up. There are lots of bells and whistles that I will I need to learn how to navigate, but I’m very happy. Now my quest room has the older SmartTV and my house guests will love it!