I heard from a customer today that Loewe Televisions were the best that money could buy and that they are not legal to sell in the United States, and that Mark Cuban of the Dallas Mavericks actually wholesales them somehow. I have done a lot of searching but with no luck. Anyone have any idea?
Zach

thanks Michael Grant for the brand name error

My guess is that you mean Loewe...
http://www.loewe-uk.com/
http://www.loewe.us.com/

Good TV but no longer distributed in the US. You can find them on Videogon and occassionally e-bay.

I have the Aconda and it is a great tube display but my next set will be a fixed pixel device.

The customer was telling me to do research on the reason why they are not available in the U.S. anymore, almost like it was gonna be a huge surprise to me when i found out as if they had some amazing technology. Thanks again.
Zach

Honestly, I don't think you need to worry that you're missing something. Loewe probably buys its LCD and/or plasma panels from the same manufacturers as other vendors do. They might tweak it in their own special way, but given the stellar reviews given to other sets, I can't see them making any dramatic improvement over the best well-known brands.

I recall something about them and sharp being somehow partnered with sharp. not sure how, but i recall something. They did have some image processing widget that they had designed themselves.

I know back around 2000 they made some incredible CRT's with probably the darkest tube Ive ever seen on a tv when powered off.

A few people I knew who regularly traveled to Europe that were in the Tech sector brought back their 36' model and it was pretty damn nice.

Looked more like art than a tv when used with their stand,Sony could learn a thing or two about style from them. Nowdays as they are LCD's I would have to agree with the poster above and say they probably wont be much different than any other quality unit.

i sold them for a few years. they did make a good CRT but it was not very bright, you needed a dark living room for it. The 38" 16:9 was based off the RCA tube but it was much better from what I saw. Those tv's had a ton of problems IMO, they once sent us a note saying that their reliability issues had been linked to a "bad forklift operator" and thats what was causing all the numerous failures. Either way, their digital displays were terrible and after that they quickly got out of the market here

loewe had a very good reputation in europe for its crt tv's. most models used phillips tube's, but loewe built all the additional circuit boards and hardware/software itself. as a german high end brand they were always more expensive than most other european brands, but their video display quality was extremely good.

the large crt models they sold in the usa used a different tube, and were specifically made for that market (their range of models was much smaller then those sold in europe). looking at the usa website, that part of their business has been discontinued. they stopped making crt tv's for the european market a couple of years ago, but now do sell flat screen lcd/plasma.

FWIW, they're still being sold and used in Europe -- a hotel I stayed in last week had one. They're a regular upscale brand, much like B&O, say. Can't say the image was anything particular, but then, I believe I was watching OTA French programming...

I am happy with my set, which I bought for $500 about 2 years ago.

Only problem I have is occasionally Aconda's screen would go black for unknown reason.


I just turn off the tv and back on, it's good to go.



PQ is absolutely the best I've seen anywhere, especially the depth, and color in a dark scene.



I'll give you a hint though, the kind of cable one uses makes a big difference.

I first used monster cable, then switched to bettercable, and got a deal on nordost cable.

Nordost cable is clearly the best.

VHS 480i on Nordost cable looks better than dvds 480p on other tvs, in fact in a dark scene 480i on Nordost on Aconda looks better than 1080i on generic HDTV on generic brand cable.

I paid major coin for my 36" Loewe from Myer-Emco, and it was a total disappointment. The geometry was off, and in spite of many hours on the phone with Loewe, numerous visits from technicians, it could not be fixed since the set did not have the necessary service menu - it would have to go back to the factory in Germany. Can you imagine this oversite? I had to force M-E to replace it (that's a story in itself), and I've been the happy owner of the replacement - a Sony 34" HDTV set - for years; a nearly perfect picture in every way.

My 38" Aconda has been a wonderful TV- I purchased this for a bit more than the Sony 960 cost at the time. The set has wonderful color right out of the box and displays all formats exceptionally well (except 720p)

The Aconda is not without issues- Loewe had to replace the power supply (a known weakness) under warranty about 2 years after I bought it. The RCA tube is curved on both axes and has somewhat low output so the set requires a fairly dark room. I do most of my viewing at night so this isn't a problem. The set also suffers imited connectivity options and the scaler seems to streak (blur) the image a bit on fast pans.

But with high quality content like a good HD-DVD, the image is wonderful and truly mezmerizing. The set can clearly betray the quality of any signal but it is also forgiving of poor quality content from satellite. Perhaps because its a tube.

For me, the Loewe was the perfect transition piece as we move from low rez analog to high rez digital. If I can get two more years out of this set I will be quite happy. When the power supply failed I looked at some plasma displays and felt I would have to spend above 5k to better the Aconda. I suppose that price point has dropped somewhat in the past year but I'll probably move to a projector next anyway.

Cheers

VHS 480i on Nordost cable looks better than dvds 480p on other tvs, in fact in a dark scene 480i on Nordost on Aconda looks better than 1080i on generic HDTV on generic brand cable.

THis is a joke right? You're havin a laugh!

I can let the audio cable stuff slide, the whole 480i looking better than HD is just ridiculous.

Sorry.

VHS 480i on Nordost cable looks better than dvds 480p on other tvs, in fact in a dark scene 480i on Nordost on Aconda looks better than 1080i on generic HDTV on generic brand cable.

Sounds like Nordost sells "Magic Cables" sprinkled with pixie dust!!!

Indeed, Loewe does buy their tubes from other manufacturers, RCA, Sharp, and from what I saw, allot of Phillips. I haven't heard anything about the illegality of sales in the US, as I believe they are quite available, but they are definately being serviced here.

We used to sell Loewe TV sets. Hit or miss it seems. I own a 38" and has been great. If I can get 5 years I will be happy. The DLP sets have been trouble. It seems that 50% of the 30/38" TV's have zero problems, but the ones that have problems seem to never work 100%. Service is challenging to say the least. I own a 42" Pro-940. CRT is smoother and has better black level, but HD on the plasma just pops off the screen. Can't wait to see the new Elite plasmas! Maybe the Loewe will go into the basement for the kids.

We used to sell Loewe TV sets. Hit or miss it seems. I own a 38" and has been great. If I can get 5 years I will be happy. The DLP sets have been trouble. It seems that 50% of the 30/38" TV's have zero problems, but the ones that have problems seem to never work 100%. Service is challenging to say the least. I own a 42" Pro-940. CRT is smoother and has better black level, but HD on the plasma just pops off the screen. Can't wait to see the new Elite plasmas! Maybe the Loewe will go into the basement for the kids.

Don't forget to hire some movers to get it down into the basement :eek:

Loewe source their LCD panels from LG and Samsung - noticed that when visiting the German factory in 2010.

The CRTs had underpowered powersupplies that always died prematurely.

The LCDs (Loewe only does LCD, had some SD plasma's, Fujitsu panels, digital processing, way back in the day, but has been an all-lcd outfit for many years), used to provide poor image quality, that has improved, but it are still LCDs.

Those large widescreen CRTs were using Thomson USA made tubes, a product for the US market, limited distribution in Europe, not sure, but don't think they were even in the EU catalog(s).