Reliable make of tv?

Alan wrote:

In message , Duncan Booth
wrote


TX-P42G15B. John Lewis £799 with 5 year warranty, Lasky's £768.10 plus
£249.99 if you want a 5 year warranty. Take your pick.


Or it just goes to prove that the true cost of the extended warranty is
around £30.

I think that when they price match they ignore the extra warranty though I
guess the rules may be flexible. Certainly one time we bought a fridge they
had been price matching against other retailers even though they did a 2yr
warranty against the other shops' 1yr.

We bought a Panasonic TV and home cinema system from John Lewis just before
xmas, and even ignoring the 5 year garantee that was cheaper than anywhere
we could find online, but that was because they were offering an additional
£150 off for buying both. The individual items were slightly more than the
sheapest online prices if you didn't want the warranty (only 2 years on the
cinema system though).

Brand names mean very little. Many of the very biggest ones buy in
from the "hidden" manufacturers, at least for some of their range.
One model from a large manufacturer can be very good and another model
not so.
One model from a manufacturer can develop a range of "stock faults"
and another model go on forever with no problems.

I would agree that you could say Panasonic are generally a good bet
BUT they had terrific trouble with the tubes in their range of
widescreen CRT sets. (Tubes made by Philips.)

I have seen some very dim Panasonic LCD sets recently after a couple
of years service.

Very large number of big names buy in from Vestel (and others) and re-
badge.

Its a minefield unless you are in the know, and even then its not
easy!

widgitt wrote:
Brand names mean very little. Many of the very biggest ones buy in
from the "hidden" manufacturers, at least for some of their range.
One model from a large manufacturer can be very good and another model
not so.
One model from a manufacturer can develop a range of "stock faults"
and another model go on forever with no problems.

I would agree that you could say Panasonic are generally a good bet
BUT they had terrific trouble with the tubes in their range of
widescreen CRT sets. (Tubes made by Philips.)

I have seen some very dim Panasonic LCD sets recently after a couple
of years service.

Very large number of big names buy in from Vestel (and others) and re-
badge.

Its a minefield unless you are in the know, and even then its not
easy!

I remember a Sony DVD home cinema system a few years back which was made
by LG, the LG badged version of the same product was £100 cheaper.

--
Adrian

"Alan" wrote in message
...
In message , Doctor D
wrote

Without any doubt Panasonic. I've never had a serious problem with a Panny
product. We have various VCRs and TVs still going strong at 15+ years old
here.

But are the modern boxes designed by the same people, built in the same
country or the same factory as a product purchased 15 years ago?

These days I don't consider a "brand" name to be any overall indication of
quality or reliability. Some of the well now companies sell s***.

Even if someone recommends, say, brand A 80 inch TV it doesn't mean that
a potential purchaser can assume that a brand A 32, 40 or 50 inch product
from the range is the same. Some manufactures mix different technologies
throughout their range of TV sets

It's a good question, but Panny don't sell their brand name to retailers to
stick on a cut price "own brand" model in the same way others have done and
even the modern stuff seems to give less problems than other brands. Not all
our Panny stuff is old, some is quite new and I'm pleased with it.

I know there was a debate on Philips here a little while ago. A good
example, their products like the old G8 went on for years with minor
tweaking whereas I've bought several modern Philips products and all have
given premature trouble (except a very cheap kettle of theirs!)

I know there was a debate on Philips here a little while ago. A good
example, their products like the old G8 went on for years with minor
tweaking whereas I've bought several modern Philips products and all have
given premature trouble (except a very cheap kettle of theirs!)

My wife bought me a Philips mp3 player a couple of years ago, and straight
away noticed that the "weak point" was the way the controls were in-line
with the headphones. Without these controls, the device was junk.

After a couple of months, the cable failed at that point - I contacted
support via their website (it's one of the few times I ever bothered to
register a product), pointed out that it was an obvious design flaw, and
basically got told there were no replacement headphones (with controls)
available, either as a warranty item or spares for purchase !

If I wanted it to work again, i'd have to buy the whole product again.

You can imagine how long it'll be before I buy any of their products again.

"phoenixbbs" wrote in message
...
I know there was a debate on Philips here a little while ago.
A good
example, their products like the old G8 went on for years with
minor
tweaking whereas I've bought several modern Philips products
and all have
given premature trouble (except a very cheap kettle of
theirs!)

My wife bought me a Philips mp3 player a couple of years ago,
and straight
away noticed that the "weak point" was the way the controls
were in-line
with the headphones. Without these controls, the device was
junk.

After a couple of months, the cable failed at that point - I
contacted
support via their website (it's one of the few times I ever
bothered to
register a product), pointed out that it was an obvious design
flaw, and
basically got told there were no replacement headphones (with
controls)
available, either as a warranty item or spares for purchase !

If I wanted it to work again, i'd have to buy the whole product
again.

You can imagine how long it'll be before I buy any of their
products again.



You should have taken it back to the retailer as 'unfit for
purpose' under the SOGA.


--
Woody

harrogate three at ntlworld dot com

You should have taken it back to the retailer as 'unfit for
purpose' under the SOGA.
Indeed - and he still can do so.

It's probably a bit too late now, it was a couple of years ago, and I
think I gave it away to someone to use as a memory stick instead :-}

In message , Doctor D
wrote

It's a good question, but Panny don't sell their brand name to
retailers to stick on a cut price "own brand" model in the same way
others have done and even the modern stuff seems to give less problems
than other brands. Not all our Panny stuff is old, some is quite new
and I'm pleased with it.

It's not the only the retailers that are sticking their own brand names
on third party goods.



--
Alan
news2009 {at} admac {dot} myzen {dot} co {dot} uk

The point was not that retailers put their own name on products, its
much more a case of the "manufacturers" buying their innards in from
all and sundry and putting their own big name on it.

Panasonic themselves were guilty of this some years ago when they came
up with a 14" tv (integrated VCR, I think) with innards made by a
cheap manufacturer and many of them failed very prematurely. This is
the exception for Panasonic however and they do seem to be responsible
for most of their products.

Gawd, what a question! The problem is that tvs are not made from one
companies 'stuff' any more, the screen comes from there, the chips from
somewhere, the psu etc, and of corse you then might find the production line
in Vietnam makes more cockups than the one in China etc.

However from feedback from people, Panasonic seem to be quite well thought
of in this regard.

Steer clear of some of the cheapo brands, not because of reliability, but
hidden problems like poor results on analogue, or strange user interfaces.

If you have a PHD in remote control decyphering, then get a Sony.

Brian

--
Brian Gaff -
Note:- In order to reduce spam, any email without 'Brian Gaff'
in the display name may be lost.
Blind user, so no pictures please!
"Hugh Newbury" wrote in message
...
I have a friend who is going to buy a tv soon -- prolly at
Comet/PCWorld/etc. Which *maker* has the most reliable tv's, so she doesn't
have to rely the 'advice' of the sales people?

Hugh

--

Hugh Newbury

www.evershot-weather.org