What kind of TV do you own?

[tvguy]

I had to help my help my mom buy a new TV. While prices of HD TVS have come down, they still are far higher than industry expert predicted.
What kind of TV do you have? How old is it? Have you had to have it repaired?
I also have been amazed by how many folks have had to replace their flat screens after only 3 or 4 years. That's totally unacceptable to me.
My wife and I both work in TV, and we have good old fashioned Color TV's with tubes, one is 25 years old, the other 15. We have no plans to replace them until they die.

 

[momrek06]

I have two.

Sony Bravia 42 inch flat screen HD and a Samsung 42 inch flat screen HD.

For the life of me, I do not see a difference in quality. They are both awesome pictures.

Best Buy ... bought one in 2008 and one in 2009 for around $1500.00 each I believe.

We have a Best Buy blu-ray DVD on the Sony. Great quality. Then you do realize you have to get the HD package from your cable company for your HD tv.

It does all get very pricey.

 

[MIGrandma]

Funny you should ask, you may remember me.

In late July our 3-year old Magnavox 42" plasma TV died. Repairman came, parts were going to be something like $800 to fix it. He put it into the computer, thinking they would just say give us a new TV (it was still under the extra warranty we had purchased, for $59, for about a week yet) but no, they said go ahead and repair. Two weeks later the parts came, he came back, put them in, didn't fix it. More cost to repair it. It went under review. Finally, a month after it broke, they sent us a new TV. We had a choice of 3 different models. We chose the LG 42" LCD. It's not plasma, which is what we would have preferred, but for the cost of the $59 warranty we really can't complain too much.

One thing I hate is the black plastic casing. Our plasma had silver and the lights in the room didn't reflect so much in it like they do this new one.

I don't think the picture quality is as good as the plasma was either.

I think it's becoming more and more a "throw away" society. Products aren't made as well as they used to be and when they break it's usually cheaper to just throw them away and replace them.

 

[Big Cuddly Bear]

I just traded away an HD 37" CRT Sony to a painter. He is painting a room for the TV. It was a MONSTER. 179 pounds. The picture was slightly better than the LCD that replaced it, but I like having a 46" screen much more.

 

[cm8]

I had to help my help my mom buy a new TV. While prices of HD TVS have come down, they still are far higher than industry expert predicted.
What kind of TV do you have? How old is it? Have you had to have it repaired?
I also have been amazed by how many folks have had to replace their flat screens after only 3 or 4 years. That's totally unacceptable to me.
My wife and I both work in TV, and we have good old fashioned Color TV's with tubes, one is 25 years old, the other 15. We have no plans to replace them until they die.

In January we purchased a samsung LED 8000, we love it! We also keep the other TV's that we have replaced too!

 

[si-am]

We have a 42" plasma that we bought almost 3 years ago. At that time, it was $1000 but now you find the same thing for $450-$500.

WE've had no problems with it.

 

[tinatark]

We have a monster tv, a 65 inch Pioneer Kuro LCD, and a 42 inch Magnavox LCD in our bedroom. Also a 22 in LCD in the kitchen, 54 inch, 15 year old Sony bigscreen, 37 inch don't know the brand tube-type.

If I were buying a new tv, I would spend a little more and get the LED - it's the newest thing, and while you can get a great deal on a plasma or LCD, the technology is quickly moving, and LED is the best out there.

 

[C.Ann]

Three regular "old" color t.v.'s.. One is a 19" - the other two are 13".. I've had them so long I can't even remember how many years it's been.. Never needed a repair.. A couple of months ago I was cleaning, flipped the 13" off the stand and it landed right on the screen on the kitchen floor with a crash.. I thoroughly expected it to be demolished.. No so much as a crack in the screen and still works perfect..

I will buy a new t.v. when I have no other choice - and not a second before that.. These t.v.'s are tough!! (Oh - and one gets transported back and forth to the lake every year - the kitchen one - while the other stays here in a totally unheated home all winter long in the bedroom - and still no problems at all..)

 

[Sparx]

We have a 42" plasma that we bought almost 3 years ago. At that time, it was $1000 but now you find the same thing for $450-$500.

WE've had no problems with it.

I bought a 42" samsung plasma a few months ago for exactly 500.00.

 

[spurk5532]

I just recently got a rear projection 50" tv at a garage sale for $50 bucks. After a couple days the picture started to bow so I called a repair man. He came out to my house and fixed it for $100. We were talking about the new flat screen tv's and he said that manufacturers are building them to run for less hours then older tv's because the technology changes so much and people don't keep tv's as long. He also said that he fixes a lot of rear projection tv's and they run forever. Whereas LCD and plasma are harder and more expensive to fix when they go out. I am just happy I got a 50" tv for $150.

 

[brasswillow]

I don't own a tv. All of the shows I watch are posted on the internet. And I watch movies on my laptop (has built in Blue Ray player).

 

[The Mystery Machine]

We have "old" TV's. We are not planning on getting any new ones unless they die. Hopefully by that time the "new" TV's will be cooler and cheaper.

 

[bicker]

I had to help my help my mom buy a new TV. While prices of HD TVS have come down, they still are far higher than industry expert predicted.

Really? That's not my understanding. Prices are pretty-much on-target with forecasts, if I recall correctly.

I just bought a top-brand (LG) LCD HDTV for $389.

What kind of TV do you have?

Just a note about your poll choices. There are still DLP sets on the market. It's still a choice, and indeed, typically the most affordable choice. It seems that you're concerned about pricing, so DLP may be the way to go.

How old is it? Have you had to have it repaired?

These are critically-important questions. It should be noted that, especially for televisions in the last few years, reliability is pretty-much a standard - more and more often, it isn't the display, itself, that fails, but rather the power supply, a very standard part, and something that has been the main cause of the failure of electronics for decades.

Pardon me for jumping around...

We were talking about the new flat screen tv's and he said that manufacturers are building them to run for less hours then older tv's because the technology changes so much and people don't keep tv's as long. He also said that he fixes a lot of rear projection tv's and they run forever. Whereas LCD and plasma are harder and more expensive to fix when they go out.

Not sure I'd trust a repairman about such things!

To be fair, if the display in a LCD or plasma goes, then it is incredibly expensive to fix. However, the frequency of that type of failure is incredibly low, these days. By comparison, with DLP, you've got both the color wheel and the light engine itself, loads of moving parts, all with higher likelihoods of failure. By there is no question: You pay less for DLP, even considering how much more likely it is that they're going to fail.

As I alluded to, above, what is made to last fewer hours aren't the displays, but rather the more basic electronics that the displays are built on.

Back to the OP....

I also have been amazed by how many folks have had to replace their flat screens after only 3 or 4 years. That's totally unacceptable to me.

3 years is well below what's expected. A lot of this stems back to price wars in past years, driving cheap brands to the top of the sales charts. Well, they charge less for a reason. Generally, though, it's not a widespread issue. For example, cousin Bob reports that the Samsung DLP (clearly, the least reliable of the major technologies these days) that we bought in 2006 is still doing very well, 4 years later.

By the same token, even the better brands are listening to their customers, and offering lower priced products, and lower priced products means lower cost products. Anyone who expects a $400 television to perform as well as a $1000 television doesn't understand the American consumer marketplace.

 

[bicker]

Sony Bravia 42 inch flat screen HD and a Samsung 42 inch flat screen HD. For the life of me, I do not see a difference in quality. They are both awesome pictures.

Back in 2008, Sony was actually still among the top brands. Beyond that, at 42 inches, you're just getting to the size where a lot of the finer points of picture quality become apparent.

What difference were you expecting to see?

 

[bicker]

I think it's becoming more and more a "throw away" society. Products aren't made as well as they used to be and when they break it's usually cheaper to just throw them away and replace them.

Absolutely, and that's what I was referring to, above, with regard to the American consumer marketplace. By the same token, there are (still) better (albeit more expensive) sets out there. Panasonic and Samsung both have top-of-the-line sets that cost at least double what other sets, comparable in all ways other than performance and reliability, cost.

That won't always be true. You can look around our consumer marketplace and find products for which there simply no longer is enough demand to foster both the cost-conscious consumer and the high-quality consumer, and invariably, it is the high-quality consumer who loses out.

 

[golfgal]

We have a 42" Polaroid HD flat panel hooked up to our HD satellite box and a 36" (32""???) Dynex or some weird brand hooked up to our regular satellite box. Both have very good pictures and have been good tv's. We have had the Polaroid for almost 3 years and the other for almost a year (Black Friday buy at Best Buy last year). We are considering another 42" for our basement this Christmas.