Hi nate44,
I just experienced the same thing with my new Vizio E601i-A3. At first, when I couldn't even find the "movie" picture mode, I thought I was losing it! I appreciate you sharing your investigation and determination of the source of the problem, the 2014 Firmware Update. On a related note, under the previously recommended settings, it referred to color temperature adjustments of i.e. red gain 104, green gain 115 and similar adjustments for the offsets. I was unable to find where I could make any gain or offset adjustments greater than 100. Do you know if this is because of the firmware update or am I just not finding where to make these adjustments? If it is that I didn't find where to make the adjustments, it would be awesome if you could guide me through the selections to find them. Thanks.
Also, since gwkars' response is classified as an "answer" (there is no reply option in this Q&A format), I don't know if that will affect how much follow-up or further review this issue will receive. Because of this, I emailed David Katzmaier (publisher of the initial picture adjustments) to see if they could publish adjustments that work for the new firmware. In the meantime, if you have identified any, please do share!
Thanks
I just purchased a Vizio E601i-A3 from Best Buy. I did a bunch of research including reading the CNET review and recommended Picture Settings. So when I started setting up my new TV, I was surprised to see that the Picture Modes were totally different than those reviewed on CNET for the same model.
I see Picture Modes of Vivid, Standard, Calibrated, Calibrated Dark, and Custom modes. The CNET review (and the User Manual on Vizio's site), mention picture modes of Standard, Movie, Game, Vivid, and 4 Sports modes. It appears that the whole menu is different than the previous version.
After contacting Vizio, I found out that I have the latest version of Firmware (v1.25.24-301.0090). The support rep said that all E601i-A3 TV's (old and new) will be getting this firmware update.
Since I based all of my TV research on the previous firmware, I am a bit concerned. Is this update a good or bad thing?
It would be great if CNET did a review of this set with the latest firmware, or at least post on their recommended settings, since obviously the "Movie" Mode no longer exists!
Anyone else seeing the same thing?

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