What is a good brand for an LCD HDTV?

[NowhereMan 1966]

Once I get going financially, I plan to buy an LCD TV from 32 to 36 inches to replace the Sony my aunt gave us since the picture tube is going. What is a good brand and I'd still like to have RCA inputs to hook the Playtation (the first one) to it. Are there any brands to stay away from? The Sony is getting so ornery, I'm thinking about bring out the 1982 Zenith from semi-retirement, although I still use it everyday.

[mstaton]

I would avoid Samsung and Sony due to possible screen failure after a few years. Avoid Sanyo like the plague. Parts are almost impossible to find after the warranty runs out. LG is pretty decent, Vizio is not too bad. Sharp is OK Hard to find ones with composite anymore. Get an extended warranty.

[kx250rider]

I agree with Mstaton on LG... Never heard anything bad about them. The trick is to figure out who made the panel on any particular set. I've been out of the business for 5+ years now, so I'm out of touch with who is using who's displays. Sometimes the cheapest WalMart special, might have a good display in it. I'd see what looks good to you, then Google to find out what's inside it.

Charles

[Ed in Tx]

My nearly 6 year old S0NY LCD with a "S-LCD" panel from the S0NY and Samsųng joint venture in it keeps on truckin'. 26,292 hours so far, nary a glitch. I run the backlight at "3" ("5" is max)which greatly reduces panel heat and power consumption.

I'm beginning to keep an eye out for another one same or higher up model larger size up with low hours because these older ones have variable audio output RCA jacks and I think the pic quality is excellent when you get one tweaked in properly.

[bgadow]

I had a Sharp that had a nice picture but was very buggy, and finally got to the point that I retired it. (I got it for free when the previous owner got tired of the bugs) I replaced it with a Sanyo a few months ago, so far so good. I chose it because it was the lowest cost set I could find that wasn't made in China (came from Mexico.)

[mstaton]

My 52" Sony only has 5729 hours and it's 6 years old and my 2008 47" Sony has 20,003 hours on it. Both were free but broken. The 52" was only 2 years old when I got it and the 47" was also 2 years old when I got it. Most of the hours were put on by the previous owners. Both minor issues. Looked like bad screens on both when I got them but turned out not to be so. 1 T-con for the 52 and LCD ribbon cables for the 47(defective from being too thin-poor contact). Generally when the Sony/Samsung screens go bad, they "ghost" and are darker on the right half. Once warmed up for 15 minutes they work fine(usually). Once they get to that point, they are done. They can be repaired but is quite expensive and not worth it. Not all Sony/Sam screens will go bad. Some Sony's use Sharp LCD's

[ChrisW6ATV]

I actually recommend Samsung for their picture quality, and Sony second. LG sets are decent but often do not have the ability to show true black (when viewed straight-on) as Samsungs can. Vizio sets seem to be good value for their prices, but they are NOT reasonably repairable after the warranty runs out.

[mstaton]

I dont think any are "reasonably" repairable anymore. I think some of the older sets are built better. I'm trying to repair a 52" Sanyo that is just out of warranty and the part is NLA. Cant find it anywhere. The customer is SOL sadly.

[Zenith26kc20]

Vizio has the most parts available from the scavengers that resell the organs from dead ones on the internet. The most often seen brand here is Phillips. They are plain garbage. I won't take plasmas in anymore. They love to come back after a repair. I use a LG plasma sparingly at home but it enjoys devouring a sustain module a bit too often (loud bang and dark screen follows).
I've had a number of Sony sets come in that eat their remote IR pickup module. It is getting very hard to find at a reasonable price to find that module.
Get the extended warranty and give the beast plenty of ventilation.
Unplug it if you are not going to use it for a couple of days or longer to avoid the capacitor plague.
And absolutely NO Polariod! They are worse than Phillips! We don't see a lot as people just throw them away when they break!

[Ed in Tx]

Recent sample picture off my nearly 6 year old S0NY LCD set (40V4100) . I'd definitely buy another.




btw notice the S0NY Bravia LCD TVs on the local WFAA Ch 8 ABC affiliate's news set.. The local NBC station uses Sony on their set too. Don't know if that's paid S0NY product placement or just the choice of the engineering department.

[joemama99]

Believe it or not,I have had very good service from my sceptre 32 inch lcd.A friend has one also and they keep right on playing.

[Jeffhs]

My Insignia 19E720A12 19" LCD-LED set is nearing the end of its 2-year factory warranty, but still works well except for one thing. I'm on Time Warner Cable, and the TV keeps putting local channel 3.1 on channel 116.1. Lately the set has been doing this with the PBS affiliate on channel 25.1 as well -- it will put the station on channel 74.1. (One of Insignia's support personnel told me recently in an email that this is a known issue with these TVs, and to use a cable box for channel tuning if the problem persists, or until a firmware update is issued to correct the problem.) However, the set still makes a beautiful picture (better than I ever had with NTSC analog) and works quite well otherwise, so I will keep it.

Insignia is a house brand of Best Buy for TVs and audio gear; these are meant to be "value line" items that supposedly offer more features than other brands in the same price range. Best Buy also carries televisions under the "Dynex" house brand. These TVs do not have as many features as the Insignia line; however, having had no experience with Dynex and going strictly on what I have read online about the brand, I cannot say whether they are better or worse, performance-wise, than Insignia. Knowing that Dynex is one step below Insignia, however, I would think the former could be of lower quality than the latter, so I'd buy another Insignia TV if and when mine goes bad.

[tubetwister]

Here is my take on the brands mostly after a lot of reading and shopping
these are my opinions based partly on past experience , my own research ,published reviews and customer feedback which may or may not be entirely correct . I bought two new sets in Jan 13 so I did do a fair bit of research.

IMO Tier one brands would be Sony,Toshiba,Sharp,Panasonic ,Samsung followed by LG,Vizio

The better second tier brands would be TCL,RCA,Hisense, Insignia, Magnavox and Phillips.
followed by Dynex ,Emerson,Sanyo Westinghouse.

Third tier would be ,ProScan, Element,Seiki, Sceptre,Sigmac, Haier, Polaroid,JVC Upstar, Curtis intl.Orion,Coby Apex ,Sansui Hannspree,Affinity,Poloroid ,etc.
Apex ,Sansui Hannspree,Affinity ,etc.
Of course the groupings opinionated here can vary by set model or in some cases the particular OEM mfr and parts used for a particular brand or model which are subject to change YMMV.

Here are a couple of good links
http://reviews.cnet.com/best-high-definition-tvs/
http://reviews.cnet.com/best-hdtvs/

[tubetwister]

Originally Posted by Jeffhs

My Insignia 19E720A12 19" LCD-LED set is nearing the end of its 2-year factory warranty, but still works well

Insignia is a house brand of Best Buy for TVs and audio gear; these are meant to be "value line" items that supposedly offer more features than other brands in the same price range. Best Buy also carries televisions under the "Dynex" house brand. These TVs do not have as many features as the Insignia line; however, having had no experience with Dynex and going strictly on what I have read online about the brand, I cannot say whether they are better or worse, performance-wise, than Insignia. Knowing that Dynex is one step below Insignia, however, I would think the former could be of lower quality than the latter, so I'd buy another Insignia TV if and when mine goes bad.

I bought a new Dynex in late 2009 The power supply capacitors failed in jan 2013 . Of course the picture and sound went out when that happened. I was a little disappointed that it only lasted three years before it had a failure
having owned Toshiba ,Sony and Sharp CRT sets that lasted 10+ years without problems .


I replaced it with a new Toshiba.
I was able to repair the Dynex by replacing some bulged capacitors on the power supply board it was only $3.80
for the four caps . I have repurposed it as a second PC monitor.

Dynex/Insignia are from the same manufacturer which is now Hisense
a large China global OEM company . Hisense is starting to market sets of their own brand as well now. Hisense is well known overseas and gets good reviews. Dynex/Insignia recently changed from another OEM to Hisense for most of their sets it is possible the newer sets might be better some the reviews on some of the newer Insignia sets are decent now

[NowhereMan 1966]

I'm also thinking of leaning towards LED sets but for now until my finances permit, we had to put the 1982 Zenith back into service since the Sony died.