Comments on: Your New Disposable Flat Panel HDTV

By: J.

J. — Tue, 08 May 2012 20:32:44 +0000

THanks for this and many of your other reviews. All my electronics knowledge is almost 10 years old and I want to buy a new HDTV (and don’t have the budget I used to, damn economy). This and your distance/resolution chart have helped me tremendously. You are on the level with CNET (Who referred me here) as far as knowledge and trust. Thanks a lot.

By: Phillip Jordan

Phillip Jordan — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 21:22:19 +0000

in 1970 Consumver Activist Ralf Nader published a Book called “unsafe ant any speed” a expose on the Amairical automotive industry and the faulty vehicles it made.

Well in 2012 We need Ralf Nader again to do a expose on the Telelevision Manufacturing industry.
Now!!!

My parents have 2 Vizio 32″ HD sets all purchased within the past 6 months of 2011.

One set has stopped working and we are still waiting for an RMA to send it back and have it fixed.

while the other set seems to be working, but seems to have a problen with the set shutting off after i plug any HDMI Device into the set

As for myself I have a Olevia 542-b12 with one long vertical purple line that appeareared 3 week before the waranty was up in 2008.

I actually like this set, very good picture quality, but I don like is there Website in hong kong.

I have never been able to contact them to register my set for warranty,

Nor have i been able to register for access their ftp site to download firmware updates for the set.

despite the bad vertical line, This set however has continued to work very well over the time i have owned it.

Ralf Wee need you NOW :!!!

By: Carlo

Carlo — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 22:07:19 +0000

This article is from 4 and a half years ago! Buying off brand TVs today is a lot less riskier given that you can buy 32 to 42 inch sets for 200 to 300 dollars. Vizio in particular is a brand that I trust given the 37 inch I purchased in 2006 refurbished that still works as good today (2011/2012) as the day it was delivered. Buying from Costco is also a good idea since they extend warranties to two years and have a great return policy. All electronics are DISPOSABLE, no matter what brand you purchase. I’ve seen friends buy LG and Samsung TVs that turned out to be lemons and I’ve seen Westinghouse TVs go the distance, a lot of it is just luck. Read reviews, test out the TV, do your research before you buy.

Baloney! While no product will work forever and every brand produces a unit with an occasional product defect, there are TV makers that today offer no support. The latest we found is a Chinese brand called Calypso. No mater when you call their customer service number there is no answer, only voice mail. We called three times during business hours, left voice mail messages each time and never received a response. We called another 7 times and never has a person answered the phone.

As for Vizio we have written extensively about its continuing customer service issues. The most recent article is dated Oct 2011. Here is the link http://hdguru.com/disposable-tvs-vizio-tells-owners-their-sets-are-un-repairable/5485/

HD Guru

By: snowy

snowy — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 10:30:39 +0000

I am very lucky to have found your website. After reading all your info on HDTV’s I was shocked to find out about some of the manufactures I was considering buying. My number one choice was Vizio, it ain’t anylonger! I don’t think many people are aware of the warranties, throw-away sets and the LED factors. As a consumer activist since 1970, I love to bring info to people. Anything I can help to prevent someone into falling victim to greedy companies I will do my best. Thank you for ALL of the great help!!!

By: john

john — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 15:51:29 +0000

The Sylvania I purchased 2 weeks ago was made by Funai, a Japanese based company. I believe Japanese made products are better than those made in China so I should get better reliability.

By: Jeff Strieble

Jeff Strieble — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 17:03:12 +0000

I bought an Insignia 19″ flat-panel HDTV for $130 from Best Buy almost two months ago. The set has worked very well so far; the picture is better than that on my two CRT sets, as I fully expected because of the higher resolution of HD FP sets as opposed to CRTs.

My Insignia TV came with a two-year warranty (I didn’t get the four-year extended warranty, but after reading the posts here regarding the questionable reliability of these sets, I now find myself wishing I had). I hope I don’t have to use it, after having read the comments on this site regarding warranty service on these small HDTVs. However, since Insignia is only Best Buy’s house brand for these TVs (the sets are actually made by Osram Sylvania), I don’t expect much if any trouble from my set — but, again, given the poor reliability record these sets seem to have, I wonder if I am expecting too much if I think my set will last years, as have my CRTs (one set is 16 years old, the other 11; both are still working very well).

By: Jerry Irwin

Jerry Irwin — Sun, 14 Aug 2011 18:21:59 +0000

I have a 5 yr. old Phillips Plasma 50 inch Mo. No. 50PF9830AO37
It has had way below average use and has a beautiful picture. Sports look like 3D especiall football baseball and golf. After stumbling onto your web site i was wondering
who and where Phillips Plasmas were made 6 yrs. ago and the reliabillity and repair records for this model of TV. I will definitely
check your site before buying another electronic item.
Thank You Jerry Irwin

By: ron felder

ron felder — Mon, 30 May 2011 20:38:25 +0000

To John Karlington if your friends think your Sony XBR has as good of a picture as Directv or cable compared to ota, well you have a lousy tv. OTA is and will always have a better picture thasn cable or either satelitte service.

By: John

John — Thu, 26 May 2011 20:08:49 +0000

I bought a Panasonic 50″ Viera Plasma a near top of the line model and the power card has failed twice in 16 months. There is a spate of problem involving electronic components in many flat screen tvs no mater what the brand. So name brands are not he solution.

Any TV can fail (for that matter any product). Statistically, according to published surveys, Panasonic and many other major TV brands have only a 2-3% failure rate. Most of these failures (according to information we’ve obtained from vendors) occur within the first 12 months of ownership which falls within most major brand warranties. Furthermore, many vendors warranty their repairs for a limited period in case the replacement part fails.

HD Guru stands by our recommendation of sticking with major brands if local service and parts availability are also important to you, as our research shows a number of off-brands require ship-in warranty service.

HD Guru

By: TV installation

TV installation — Tue, 10 May 2011 07:52:04 +0000

None of this is new. They just stole SonyÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s warranty practices. This is NOT unique to the cheap sets. Sony has been doing this for years. They have been masters at designing their crap to fail 1 day after the warranty expires and charging 3X the value of the item to fix it. < I agree