? poor customer service? good economics?

[site123a]

blank

[Reece]

Love my Toshiba 36" CRT set seven years old and most days runs from 6AM to 8PM solid, still makes a picture that looks like new. Never had the back off. If I ever have to I'll need two weightlifters to help....

[zenith2134]

Yep, some newer sets have an outstandingly positive track-record. My 35" Sony from 1999 never had the back off and still looks great. Meanwhile, however, I bought a brand new Sony Wega in '04 (KV27FS120) where the tube went into iK shutdown and the crt was bad. got 2 years out of it.

[Kamakiri]

I've got a Samsung 32" flat screen in the living room, only because it came free with the purchase of a car

The 1986 RCA Colortrak 2000 console that we had been using was put in the basement to play Nintendo on. I figure that once this flat screen craps out in a year or two, the basement set will come back to "main watcher" status.

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by Kamakiri

I've got a Samsung 32" flat screen in the living room, only because it came free with the purchase of a car

The 1986 RCA Colortrak 2000 console that we had been using was put in the basement to play Nintendo on. I figure that once this flat screen craps out in a year or two, the basement set will come back to "main watcher" status.

There is no telling how long your flatscreen set may last -- it could be two years or ten-plus; besides, once you get used to watching TV on a high-definition flat panel, you may not even want to go back to the old CRT set. Today's flat-panel TVs are built to last much longer than their predecessors; witness Zenith/LG's FPs, in which the company claims the panel will last at least twenty years with eight hours of use a day, longer with average use. However, I understand (from reading a response to one of my posts to this forum on the subject of longevity of FP TVs) that the usual failure mode of most flat-panels is not the LCD or plasma panel, but failed electrolytic capacitors; it used to be that the video-driver ICs would short or otherwise fail, making the set instant junk because these chips are or were molded into the cable between the chassis and the display, and therefore could not be replaced.

How long is the warranty on your flat-screen TV? I am not familiar with Samsung FPs (except for knowing my landlord has one), so don't know anything about their warranties. My own Insignia (Best Buy house brand, rebadged Sylvania) 19" FP has a 2-year (!) warranty for parts and labor, so even if my set should fail within that time I'm not concerned about how I'll get it repaired; even if it comes to that, the repaired set may last another two, three years or more....it depends on the quality of the repair parts. For all I know, I may get a refurbished set if mine goes bad; that seems to be the trend nowadays with off-brand FPs, although the better makes such as Zenith/LG have actual service policies, in which the company will provide in-home service should the set need it. The makers of the off-brand sets do not, and indeed cannot, offer such service because their TVs are made to sell cheaply. In fact, it is usually not cost-effective to have a cheap FP TV repaired, as the cost of the repairs could and often do exceed that of a brand-new set.

Unfortunately, these sets, like everything else these days except automobiles, are built to be unrepairable throwaways when they fail. Too bad, but that's the way of it in the 21st century.

[Kamakiri]

The warranty is I believe a taillight warranty (once your taillights are out of view, the warranty expires ) because I have no receipt for it. They just gave me the set when we drove away in my fiance's 2006 Beetle.

Personally, I have no love for the HD picture....it's okay, but it's not something that I would call "vital". I watch mainly the news, or Law and Order, or Restaurant Impossible and Chopped (love those shows!). I'd be just as happy watching about half of my programming on a black and white set, although the lady of the house would feel much differently .

[sampson159]

i bought a toshiba 36 inch set approx 13 years ago.actually purchased two of them.both were priced as 27 inch models at j c pennys outlet.259.00 each.i used them for about 8 years myself and my mother has one that goes 24/7.the other was sold to an aquaintance of hers.it is going strong.the crts are very good after all these years.both have never been serviced other them me fooling with all the factory settings.one of the few newer items that i found to be reasonably longer lasting.

[jhal]

I have a Panasonic Vierra 26"LCD from mid 2007. I bought it used in 2008 and I hope that it is "old" enough to still be one of the quality generations of sets before the major cost cutting stepped in.

It was very expensive new, around 600 bucks I think. I paid just over $400 for it. So far so good. Now $600 will get you in the 50" range, but probably not much past the warranty period.

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by Kamakiri

Personally, I have no love for the HD picture....it's okay, but it's not something that I would call "vital".

One thing you would have to get used to if you went back to a 4:3 NTSC CRT TV is the letterboxing of programs broadcast in 16:9 HD, unless your ATSC->NTSC converter box or digital cable box has a zoom feature that expands the picture to fill the screen as most of today's HD flat-panels have. (Early 1980s-vintage Zenith color sets also had a zoom feature that probably could be used to compensate for the size difference between 4:3 and 16:9 formatted images.)

I have also read that the two bars at either side of a letterboxed picture can burn themselves into the screen (especially on CRT sets) if the image is left on-screen for any length of time. However, I watched letterboxed pictures on my CRT set for several years with no damage to the screen, but I always try to zoom the picture to full-screen on my FP set due to the increased risk of damage to the panel, if 16:9 HD images are viewed in LB format. The proper zoom level can be difficult to find, however, when I watch the "CW" network affiliate in Cleveland in HD -- which isn't often. I usually have to settle for a well-overscanned picture that cuts off part of the network logo at the lower right corner of the screen. However, this effect, including the possibility of the image being cropped at full zoom, is mentioned in my set's online instruction manual and is normal, so I don't even think about it.