Lets celebrate the few reliable flat TVs!

[CoogarXR]

As I have mentioned before, I work for an electronics recycler, so I get to see plenty of TVs come through for various reasons (store returns, damaged shipments, end-of-life commercial equipment, recalls, etc). There are several though, when I see them, no matter how beat up they look, I know if I plug them in, they will work. I just want to celebrate the few, proud examples of well-built flat screens.

-NEC LCD3210, LCD4000. Very well built LCD commercial-grade monitor. The video board is modular (slides in with thumb-screws for easy replacement, though I have never needed to replace one). Every time I get one, it works. Even if the screen is broken. I did get one that looked like the LCD plies had separated from heat or water damage or some other weird abuse, it still worked.

-Pioneer PDP-V501X PDP-V501 PDP-V401. Older Plasma monitors from 1998. While they aren't HD (heck they don't even have any digital inputs) they still have a nice picture. They are very well built, and I have never seen one of these dead either. I bought one of these for myself (PDP-V501X), and I have been using it for years with no issues. Who knows how many hours it had on it when I got it. It never retains images either. I might fall asleep and leave a DVD menu on for hours and it doesn't burn in.

-Maxent MX-42X3. While I get this model a lot, and it's always defective, I will give it props that it's always the same 30-cent capacitor that fails. And it's under a separate panel with just a few screws, so you don't even have to take the back off of the TV to get to it! Replace that one cap, and they keep plugging along for years.

I'll start with those 3.

We got in a few of the NEC LCD3210's today, and it made my day. All of them worked. I even broke down and bought one for myself. But that's what made me think of this thread. My friends and family are always asking me to recommend good, reliable TVs. I tell them all I ever see is junk, and if there are good TVs out there, they don't end up at the recycler, heh. But, I guess I do see a few good models here and there that I would recommend. What about you guys?

[miniman82]

I looked at buying one of those Pioneers when I was first in the market for a modern unit (it was a TV, not a monitor so not sure if it's the same). I looked at one that had been running non stop for about 1.5 years, and it was really down on brightness. The guy at the time told me that they do lose a little brightness as time passes, and considering the high cost of panel replacement I decided to pass in favor of a DLP set made by Mitsubishi. I figured the cost of a light bulb was a lot better than the cost of a plasma panel, in the event of failure. $130 vs $$$$???

[CoogarXR]

Originally Posted by miniman82

I looked at buying one of those Pioneers when I was first in the market for a modern unit (it was a TV, not a monitor so not sure if it's the same). I looked at one that had been running non stop for about 1.5 years, and it was really down on brightness. The guy at the time told me that they do lose a little brightness as time passes, and considering the high cost of panel replacement I decided to pass in favor of a DLP set made by Mitsubishi. I figured the cost of a light bulb was a lot better than the cost of a plasma panel, in the event of failure. $130 vs $$$$???

Yeah, they do lose brightness to a degree. To put it in perspective, the PDP-V501X that I took home isn't as bright as a new one. When I was running it on our test rig next to newer models, it was maybe 15% darker than the others. The whites are slightly yellowed (this could be because of it's early plasma technology too, rather than panel age). But this was a commercial unit, probably run 24x7 for 10 years before I got it. If that's all the worse the screen gets after all those hours, it's good enough for me. I didn't care, the price was right, and I figure it will run for quite a while longer. The original price on this thing was $22,000 heh...

[miniman82]

The store version I looked at was pricey too, I could have bought a pair of 65" DLP sets plus a sound system for the price of one plasma set. Too bad, I had my heart set on an all matching brand entertainment center- would have looked sweet sitting above my trusty Pioneer VSX-D509S receiver. Had that thing for over 10 years now, it's built like a tank. First stereo I ever bought brand new from the store, got it at a Navy Exchange in Sicily so it's got the funky European wall plug. lol

[mstaton]

The longest That I've seen is a Toshiba 42" Plasma built in 2004. I bought it off ebay in 2005 for 1K. It was an unused scratch and dent. At that time I got a deal. I used it until early 2009 when I replaced it with a Sony 1080P 52" I got for nothing(had to repair it). I sold The Toshiba to my friend and kept it until Christmas 2011. he bought a new 60" set and gave the Toshiba to his dad up in Sun Valley. Still working great. Even has a HDMI input. Rare on an '04 set. I think the ONLY reason it has lasted this long is because it says "Made in Japan" on the back. A rarity these days of cheap Chinese crap. It has NEVER had a repair or the back removed. It is 8 years old!

[Jeffhs]

My Insignia 19"-class (18.5-inch diagonal) flat panel was bought new last August. Still works like new today, almost six months later. I read here in this forum that when these sets do go bad, it is usually just due to bad capacitors -- like my Memorex DVD player. The latter has a capacitor in it that usually swells and splits open about nine months after the original purchase date. My player is at least two years old and still works quite well. I have every reason to believe my flat TV will work just as well; in fact, I'm counting on it, since I do not want to go back to my RCA CRT set, as well as it has worked over the last dozen years before being replaced by the then-new FP. The FP set has a two-year warranty, so I'm not concerned (about 18 months left). I bought the set online from Best Buy, and should have purchased the four-year Black Tie (R) extended warranty, but I didn't; however, when I purchased my HP flat-screen computer monitor earlier this year, I did get the extended warranty, so it will be covered at least until 2015 or '16. I guess the saying that hindsight is almost always 20/20 is true.

BTW, I wonder if there will ever be a flat-screen TV that will last longer than two or three years. It's ridiculous to have to buy a new TV just three years after purchasing the last one, but I guess the way these sets are built nowadays that's the way of it, like it or not. I am hoping mine lasts somewhat longer than that because I live on a fixed income, and cannot afford to purchase a new TV every couple of years. As it stands now, if my FP goes bad, I will have to drag out my RCA 19" CRT set, and I don't want to do that unless absolutely necessary. Even though I am not watching HDTV on my flat panel at this time (don't want a cable box, which is what Time Warner Cable tells me I'll need before I can watch anything in high definition), I still like the razor-sharp picture my FP gives me, even in standard definition. Much better than the 525-line analog reception I grew up with and tolerated until last year.

[rcaman]

my sony 32" lcd tv i am using as a monitor model kdl-32ml130 gave to me because no picture. open fuse on t-conn board been using several years and long hours. love it.

[freakaftr8]

Nec made plasmas 2004 model 50". These sets were rebadged as nec toshiba Sony and marantz. Well built. Had three before. The only thing is a aging panel that gets dim.

[Jeffhs]

I was reading some of the posts on Insignia's message board this morning, and found one in which the writer asked how long the display panel of his new Insignia TV (plasma) would last. The answer, from an Insignia product specialist, was 60,000 hours, which is the same life expectancy quoted by LG (manufacturers of "Zenith" branded plasma flat panel televisions) for their sets' plasma displays. This works out to over 20 years with an average of eight hours' daily use, or even longer if the set is used less than that. The company's LCD displays probably have similar life spans as well.

The use of LED as opposed to CCFL backlighting in almost all recent LCD flat panels also means the backlighting system will last much longer, although in both cases (backlight and the panel itself) these are expected to outlast the rest of the TV; when the set develops any kind of problem requiring service, the problem will very likely be found on the chassis -- with the display and LEDs still having plenty of life left in them. If the backlight fails, the problem will likely be found in the circuits that control the LEDs, rather than the LEDs themselves opening or shorting -- although the latter is certainly possible, as is dimming of the LEDs over time.

I am not implying or trying to imply by any means that LCD and plasma displays in today's flat-screen HDTVs will last forever (nothing does), but I am saying that today's LCD/plasma panels can have life spans approaching that of CRTs, thanks to improved designs (the increasing use of TFT, thin film transistors, for example), and the use of LEDs rather than CCFLs for backlighting.

Another issue that occurs to me as I write this is the future of TV repair shops. With NTSC CRT televisions now obsolete and flat screens becoming standard in American and Canadian homes (I think the last figures, several years ago, were something on the order of 75 percent of homes in North America having exclusively FPs; that figure is probably closer to 80 or 90 percent or even more nowadays), more and more TV shops may be finding themselves being forced out of business because they cannot service this new type of TV receiver.

TV shops which are managing to stay in business are almost certainly doing only warranty repairs on FPs, refusing to even look at any set that is even one day beyond the warranty period. Repairing an LCD or plasma HDTV can be very expensive, the cost of the repairs often equaling or even exceeding the price of a new set, so there is really no sense in putting money into continued repairs of FPs after the warranty expires. It's bad news for repair shops, of course, but unfortunately, in today's world, that's the way of it.

[tubetwister]

I have a 3 yr old Dynex 22"LCD still works well an 9 yr old and a crt sony 36" flat trinitron still works one of my computers has a 7 yr old viewsonic lcd monitor still working well. The computer I have now has a 2 yr old 23" Acer lcd monitor .

[Eric H]

I was just over at a friends house for dinner, they have an eleven year old Panasonic Plasma in their Living Room, still looks like new, it cost them $11,000 dollars back in the day though so I guess it should last a while.

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by Eric H

I was just over at a friends house for dinner, they have an eleven year old Panasonic Plasma in their Living Room, still looks like new, it cost them $11,000 dollars back in the day though so I guess it should last a while.

That sounds almost incredible, to me anyway, in this age of "throwaway" flat screens that last only two years or so. Your friends' TV must be built like a tank and with quality components (as I would expect from a set costing $11K). How big is the screen on their set? Have they had it serviced since it was purchased?

Flat screens must have been made a lot better in 2001 than they are now, although Panasonic has been synonymous with quality, at least until recently. I don't know who owns the Panasonic name today (the company itself may not exist any longer), but when your friends bought their plasma TV the firm was probably still alive and well, and probably building electronics (not only TVs) a lot better than they do now.

Today's Panasonic may well be little more than just a brand name plastered onto flat screens manufactured by goodness only knows what offshore electronics company. The fact that today's flat panels are selling for much, much less than $11K (my 19" Insignia FP was only $130 at Big Lots, and you can probably get the same set for even less today, seven months later) and that the TVs are not lasting nearly as long as the old CRTs did, should tell us something -- that the quality of these sets went down along with the price.

I have seen FPs, with brand names I have never heard of, selling for under $100 in ad flyers in my Sunday newspaper. Goodness only knows how long these sets will last, as they are probably made in a slap-dash manner by an offshore company. Trying to get these sets repaired when they do eventually go bad will be a heck of a problem, as service data for off-brand TVs is probably darn near impossible to find. One guess as to where these sets may and almost certainly will wind up when they stop working after only a year or less.

When are TV manufacturers, who by and large just slap the name of a former American TV maker such as Zenith, RCA, Magnavox, etc. onto a television that, more often than not these days, goes West just after the warranty expires, going to realize that most people simply cannot afford to replace their TV every two or three years?

If this continues for any length of time, I can see a day coming when people will simply stop watching TV when the set goes bad. This will set off a chain reaction of sorts: folks will stop watching TV because they cannot afford to replace their $xxxx "Magnavox" (for example) giant flat panel that went bad days after the warranty expires; then the TV networks suffer because fewer people are watching; then local TV stations start losing money left and right as people stop watching the networks with which these stations are affiliated; stores that sell these short-lived flat screens will lose money as they sell fewer sets . . .

Good Grief!!! Where will it all end?

[jr_tech]

Originally Posted by Jeffhs

Panasonic has been synonymous with quality, at least until recently. I don't know who owns the Panasonic name today (the company itself may not exist any longer), but when your friends bought their plasma TV the firm was probably still alive and well, and probably building electronics (not only TVs) a lot better than they do now.

Today's Panasonic may well be little more than just a brand name plastered onto flat screens manufactured by goodness only knows what offshore electronics company.

WHAT?? Are you saying that Panasonic is no longer in business, and has sold off the brand name? I have not heard about this...please provide link to this information.

jr

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by jr_tech

WHAT?? Are you saying that Panasonic is no longer in business, and has sold off the brand name? I have not heard about this...please provide link to this information.

jr

I did not mean to imply that Panasonic went out of business and sold the name to an offshore company; it is in fact alive and well in the 21st century.

I am not aware at this time of any plans for Panasonic to sell out to anyone. With almost all well-known American TV manufacturers having sold out to offshore interests (!) in recent years (and sold their good name as well ), however, I assumed (wrongly) that Panasonic had also sold out to an offshore electronics firm (which would have made no sense, since Panasonic is itself an offshore TV/electronics manufacturer; has been for decades). I apologize for any misunderstandings.

[Electronic M]

The TV quality appocalipse WILL be upon us when all the Japanese brands that have been slapping American names on their gear die, and have Chinese/third world manufactuers slapping THEIR Japanese names on like what they have done to us.