Lets celebrate the few reliable flat TVs!

[Grim Reaper]

Originally Posted by rca2000

I KNOW that panasonic has "gone downhill" in recent years on quality. I work on them every day.

Recently, we had a BUNCH of Pana 42" LCD sets, I think LC-42e3 or such model# , that had what I call a "footlight problem" on the panel. This means that at the bottom of the panel, there were "dark shadows" that pointed upwards, like "footlights on a stage", more or less evenly spaced across the bottom of the panel. This was caused by either uneven LED illumination or diffusion from the BL led's. Pana FIRST tried to DENY a problem existed(you can SEE this on a dark or light scene mainly), then to RIG the panel with TAPE somehow--that did nothing of course...then they tried replacing the led "modulator board"(this is the driver board for the BL leds--that gives"local dimming",) this did not help...then they gave us new panels...STILL the same. Finally--they ADMITTED the whole SET had been "outsourced" , that the panels ALL had this defect...and that we had to just ACCEPT the problem and tell the seller that it did not EXIST!!

What a sham....

I am on the verge of buying a Panasonic Viera Plasma 50 or 55 ST60 when available. Is that going to be a mistake?

[Chip Chester]

We've got a mid-2000s 55" Hitachi Plasma that just won't die. It weighs around 150 lbs, is not even full-res (maybe 720, though) and has some image processing/conversion shortcomings, but it looks great over-the-air, and on a good HDMI signal. Remote rotating stand, and it sounds good, too. Sucks electricity like there's no tomorrow, and is a fairly efficient electric heater. It's now at my kid's college apartment, where it's his albatross. We've moved on...
Chip