[Jeffhs]

I have an Insignia 19" flat panel, bought new in 2011. Works fine, going on five years old, not one bit of trouble with it from the day I unpacked it. I don't use it that much, so I'm expecting it will last a while yet. I read somewhere that if a TV set (for example) lasts through its warranty period, it will continue to work well indefinitely.

My set is already well past its two-year warranty and still works very well, so I am not expecting it to give me much if any trouble for at least a while yet. I've read on Insignia's support site of sets that have lasted well beyond the five-year mark, although some sets are beginning to show problems at this point such as lines in the raster, screen half light and half dark or completely dark on one side, and the like. Many flat-panel TVs fail simply because of accidents or even deliberate acts, such as throwing things at the screen in anger (this can and often does happen during football season when a fan gets upset because of a bad call), knocking the set off its stand or falling off a wall mount, power surges, etc., but if a flat panel manages to escape these hazards I don't see why it cannot last at least five years. Many flat screens go bad and are scrapped simply because of defective power supply capacitors, which I understand can make a very loud noise (akin to a bomb going off) when they explode--so when one goes, you will know it. However, replacing the bad capacitors is quite often all that is required to restore a "dead" flat screen to normal operation, although most non-technical folks don't know this and think that when they hear that sound or when the screen goes dark, the TV is worthless from that point forward.