Comments on: Will You Pay a Price By Purchasing a “Tier Three” HDTV?

By: Devin

Devin — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 21:42:16 +0000

I have been a Sony man myself for the last 8 years, mostly because of the design on their products, but as far as the quality and the reliability is concerned it turns out it does not exist. After 5 Expensive Sony Laptops (all were $3000+), 4 Sony TVs (all were $2000+ All HDTV – 1 LCD and 2 DLP and a Regular TV), 2 Digital Cameras ($400+ 6 – 10 MP) and 1 Camcorder. None lived to be 3 years old besides the regular TV that was purchased about 8 years ago. Some of these had problems while under warranty which was handled horribly by customer service, most of them crapped out usually a few months after the expiration of the factory warranty. All these hard earned cash spent on these products for the last 8 years and believe it or not I have nothing to show for, besides a laptop which crashes twice a week and an 8 year old TV which is extremely out dated. After the last Sony HDTV I Bought at Circuit City about 2 years ago crapped out on me and the experience I had with their Customer service over the phone, my long lasting troubled relationship with Sony have finally come to an end. Even though I was having one of the known Sony Optical Block issues, the only help they offered was phone numbers to the local TV repair shops, like I am incapable of locating one myself. I WILL NEVER EVER SPEND ANOTHER PENNY ON ANY SONY PRODUCTS, and I suggest you do the same if you value your Hard earned cash. After reading some reviews here on HDGuru I went ahead and purchased a 46″ Mitsubishi HDTV LT-46149 online. For the first time I have decided to go with something else.

By: Matt

Matt — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 04:14:37 +0000

I can’t help but laugh when i read posts of people pitifully defending their thriftful nature in saying that vizio makes a good television. Most of the idiots who are impressed with their vizios have no idea what a good HDTV looks like. You are comparing a company who spends ZERO dollars are research and developement. They don’t even make their own parts. They subcontract their parts to manufacturers who will produce them for the lowest price. How do you think they could possibly cost so much less than name brands and still have the advertising budget that they have? Sony, Samsung, Panasonic and LG all spend millions of dollars on research and development. EVERY single film that is made in hollywood is edited on a Sony CRT monitor. Samsung is the the top selling flat panel manufacturers in the world. Samsung makes the lcd screens that goes into their own tvs AND Sony’s. AND Not only could you get an LG for the same price as a VIZIO if you are good at bargaining. LG Makes more LCD screens than any other company in the world. If Vizio doesn’t make any of the products that go into their own TVs then how could they possibly be better than the name brand?

By: Mike

Mike — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 22:47:30 +0000

I have had two Samsungs in less then 3 years both of them have had serious issues. The picture went black on the first one before the year was up. After many calls and emails they replaced with another piece of crap that only lasted a little over a year. I have been fighting with the warranty company for over six months to have it fixed. You call Samsung tier 1? I disagree.

By: George

George — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 19:17:23 +0000

The warranty policy is not a significant issue, considering the low rate of failures. ConsumerReports gives the repair history of tv brands, and the failure rate is in the low single digits, between 1 and 7% for the brands they report. This is over the life of the set.

To see the effect of this on the true cost, take the example given, with a vizio costing 1200 and a panasonic costing 1300. You have a 3% chance of having to replace the vizio, so the expected cost is 1200*1.03 = 1236, which is still less than the base price of the panasonic. The Panasonic’s improved warranty policy is not worth the extra $100, even if it were a lifetime guarantee.

Regarding the quality argument, I suggest you take a look at the CR repair histories (which is a scientific sample) and see if the differences in repair rates are significant to you.

By: maxnix

maxnix — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 15:12:32 +0000

Just viewing the 2nd and 3rd tier displays side by side with Tier 1 manufacturers should be enough for most prospective purchasers.

If you you go Panasonic plasma, the professional ones are better than all but a few of the best consumer ones.

Only newbie consumers buy displays with speakers.

By: anon

anon — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 23:52:23 +0000

brent: how can Samsung charge you for the repair if your LCD was purchased only 9 months old, presumably in new condition?

By: brent

brent — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 03:29:54 +0000

bought a 40 in. samsung lcd 9 months ago and never had a problem until the picture turned into a flannel striped t-shirt.i called samsung they sent a repairman to my house and it will cost me $1,400 to fix. I threw it out in the road and bought a 47″ lcd vizio ,we’ll see how that goes.

By: Chris

Chris — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 21:49:47 +0000

I see many comments for and against tier 3s, but it’s all personal opinion. ANY tv can look good in your home, even vizio and olevia. My wife knows nothing about tv’s and thinks the vizion looks fine at wal-mart. For a living I install high end residential high end audio video equipment. Unless you know what you are looking for such as, pixelation in high motion (think football games), the x.v.ycc color gamut (1.8 times as many colors), then it won’t matter to you. My parents are the best example…My dad cannot tell the difference between his 37″ Olevia tv and my 50″ Pioneer Elite. If you aren’t looking for the differences or they don’t matter to you..then buying a “third tier” tv won’t matter either. What everyone has to remember is that this guy is the “HD GURU” who looks for the good, bad, and ugly in tv’s…it’s his job. He will notice things quicker than the avg joe.

By: 50 lcd hdtv

50 lcd hdtv — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 04:14:22 +0000

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By: tracy

tracy — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 05:50:04 +0000

To HDGuru and who ever:

All tv,s have problems big ones little ones name brand ones no name ones I picked up a new sony bravia 46″ lcd Model kdl-46xbr6 I dont know why have never like sony as soon as i pluged it in i saw pixels out boxed it up took it back full refund and belive it or not stopped at sears and looked at most of the tvs they had and found the samsung 46″ 850 series had the best pic and only paid 2199.00. The sony cost me 2799.00 so my point is most of the time how much you spend makes a difference but not always. you have a 50/50 chance the tv blows up when you plug it in.