Opinions on TV brands such as Seiki, Haier, etc

[tvguy]

Plasmas are now comparable to LCD tv's in power consumption. The 50" Panasonic Plasma we bought had a much lower power usage than the smaller 40" LCD tv my bf had for several years.

Some of the bigger brands are better at their top of the line products and rather mediocre on the cheaper stuff. Most electronics are made to be disposable these days in comparison to some of the older stuff. Often times there are more stipulations for the warranty to take effect. I would opt for an extended warranty with a store that generally cover human made errors and one for one replacements.

Panasonic's plasma tv's are some of the highest rated tv's out there, but they don't run small. I think 50" is the smallest you can get now. And they'll be off the market next year.

Hang onto that Panasonic, they may be exiting the plasma TV market in a few months.
http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-33199_...t-from-plasma-would-sour-tv-value-sweet-spot/

 

[IDoDis]

Don't believe that there isn't a difference and that the TV's are all disposable throwaways, because that is not true. When we bought our Panasonic 50" plasma several years ago, we researched it to the hilt. First off, plasma TV's have a superior picture quality to LCD TV's and a specific model of Panasonic is rated tops along with a Samsung model. There's a website dedicated to people finding sales on these models and when the deals are hot, the people who are in the know, snap them up at amazing prices.

Three of our four tv's are Panasonic. One is a plasma and the other two are are LCD's -- also highly rated as far as LCD's go.

Since Panasonic is going to stop making plasma TV's I'd seriously think about getting one now. In fact, we may buy a new one before they are gone. The one we have now is several years old and we've never had a single problem with it. The color is amazing. It's only a 760p though, so we could certainly upgrade to a newer one and may do so before the Panasonic plasma TV's are gone.

The one other TV we have in the house is a Westinghouse. It is not used much which is why I didn't mind buying a cheap one. It was a Black Friday special 3 years ago. We've never had an issue with it, but the sound and color are sub par compared to the Panasonics. If I didn't have those to compare it to, I'd say the Westinghouse was great. But wow, it's noticeable after watching the other TV's and then turning on the Westinghouse.