What Makes Of TV Are Worth Repairing?

[ilikesteel]

Not as experienced as most of the contributors on this form, what brands are really worth attempting to fix? What should be the ones I should steer away from? Are specific models more reliable and than others?

Also, my daughter just bought a house and will want to buy a new TV, probably 55" or bigger. what are the brands worth buying in today's market.

Thanks very much everyone.

frank

[tom66]

Re: What Makes Of TV Are Worth Repairing?

Best for sales (best to worst): Samsung, Sony, Panasonic, LG, Toshiba, Sharp, then supermarket generics.

Best for reliability (best to worst): Panasonic, Sony, Sharp*, Toshiba*, LG*, Samsung, then supermarket generics.

*watch out for re-badges! Lower end models from these manufacturers can sometimes be re-badged junk.

I repair supermarket generics and generally sell them at lower prices. This works for me as I can buy cheap & repair them, and it's easy to shift a budget TV quickly at a low price. A lot harder to sell a £300 TV than a £70 TV!

[ilikesteel]

Re: What Makes Of TV Are Worth Repairing?

Thanks Tom,

Right now I'm mainly looking for personal TV's to repair and not to resell. is vizio and dynex considered to be lesser brands and not as worthy of repair? always appreciate your comments and advice.

thanks,
frank

[tom66]

Re: What Makes Of TV Are Worth Repairing?

Don't do American TVs but from what I've seen on here Vizio are decently made but with TONS of main board issues. That's really 95% of their problems. If they sorted those out, I'd honestly rank them above LG/Samsung.

Dynex are rubbish full stop.

[ilikesteel]

Re: What Makes Of TV Are Worth Repairing?

Thanks again Tom, your thoughts are noted.

frank

[capkid]

Re: What Makes Of TV Are Worth Repairing?

Yeah, I'd stay away from the lesser known brands, and I concur with what Tom stated. Also, I'm not into buying new TVs, but I'd consider a 3 to 5-year warranty if I were to buy a nice TV ($800+). I constantly read about people who are stuck with non-working TVs after 1 1/2 years because they only had a 1-year warranty. We can fix most issues here, but if the panel goes faulty...

[ilikesteel]

Re: What Makes Of TV Are Worth Repairing?

Thanks capkid.

frank

[nwflight]

Re: What Makes Of TV Are Worth Repairing?

The sales manager at Sears spoke highly of Samsung's after sales care. He went to bat on my behalf when my Panasonic died at 18 months. It did not help with Panasonic but he has seen Samsung just replace the TV.

[tom66]

Re: What Makes Of TV Are Worth Repairing?

Both Samsung and Panasonic after care is absolutely atrocious. There is a good reason for this. Most manufacturers are the same. The retailers don't like them fixing them after 12 months, because that reduces the value of their 5 year warranty packages.

[ilikesteel]

Re: What Makes Of TV Are Worth Repairing?

Good point Tom. would you pay for an extended warranty on a new set to cover 5 years and do you think it's worth the extra bucks?

thanks,
frank?

[tom66]

Re: What Makes Of TV Are Worth Repairing?

Costco have them for $20/year after their minimum 2 year warranty. If I'd spent more than $500 on a TV, then yes, I'd bite. Otherwise, I probably wouldn't bother.

[nwflight]

Re: What Makes Of TV Are Worth Repairing?

IS it difficult to become an authorized repair facility say for Panasonic? I am surprised the closest to me is 1000km . Unless my extended warranty included shipping it is no good.. Or maybe they do not treat their repair shops very good.Without this forum my 18month 1500$ TV would be in the dump.

What percentage are failing just off of warranty? It is a dilemma, I am in love with the big screen now but is is too costly if you cannot get 4-5 years out of them even 3. Are those of us just the unlucky few in the big scheme of things?

[tom66]

Re: What Makes Of TV Are Worth Repairing?

I think there's a "subscription fee" or something to get access to all their service documents, plus so few people are bothering to repair their TVs nowadays service places are dying out.

[capkid]

Re: What Makes Of TV Are Worth Repairing?

Costco sells Square Trade warranties, which are considerably less expensive than most warranty plans: http://t.costco.com/squaretrade-tv.html

Edit: I missed Tom's Costco comments.

[ilikesteel]

Re: What Makes Of TV Are Worth Repairing?

what a great forum. I agree Tom, over $500 probably. when I bought my hitachi ultravison in 2003 it was $2200.00, I bought the extended warranty for an extra two years (maybe $400.00).

mine developed the convergence issue which was covered during the third year. since then trouble free. I never found out about the STK IC's until years later when my son picked up a TV someone was throwing out. I found this forum and he fixed it by changing the two IC's.

I did see some new led/lcd's for $500 for a 55" at Best Buy. nothing fancy but the in store picture was excellent. some of the new ones are too expensive, upwards of $3K. those screens can break just as easy as a $500 screen.

The costso deal is very good.

much thanks,
frank

P S. the samsung lnt 4069 that I checked out on Monday and didn't find anything wrong is still running in it's third day (30 hrs). the owner must have had other problems, possibly cable issues.
frank

[tom66]

Re: What Makes Of TV Are Worth Repairing?

Wouldn't buy a modern LED, too unreliable. Too many problems with the LED strips etc dying. 55" upwards consider Panasonic TC-P55ST60, TC-P55S60, LG 60PN5300 plasmas.

[capkid]

Re: What Makes Of TV Are Worth Repairing?

Wouldn't buy a modern LED, too unreliable. Too many problems with the LED strips etc dying. 55" upwards consider Panasonic TC-P55ST60, TC-P55S60, LG 60PN5300 plasmas.

I'll have to read up on the LED issues. I only have one LCD in the house that's in use; the rest are plasmas.