My family is looking for an inexpensive HDTV and I notice that everytime I see a very good deal thats its a Mitsubishi TV. Are they reliable? Or do you get what you pay for? Theres no specific model they are looking at but I would like to the if they are good TV's in general. Thanks!

My 7 year old 46" CRT Mitsubishi set hasn't given any trouble, but I would like to get away from it to something more up to date like a Sony or Samsung. Besides, I'm tired of the overly long pause on the Mitsubishi after inputing a channel change.

Thanks for the info, I would think that the long pause your speaking of would probably be eliminated in todays Mitsubishi TV sets. I would hope atleast.

My family is looking for an inexpensive HDTV and I notice that everytime I see a very good deal thats its a Mitsubishi TV. Are they reliable? Or do you get what you pay for? Theres no specific model they are looking at but I would like to the if they are good TV's in general. Thanks!

I have the mit WD-65734 and love it ,hads great PQ,and can get great deals on it.
The top of line ( 833 models) will be out soon

I have owned multiple Mitsus over the last 25+ years. Every one has lasted forever. In fact, my daughter currently has a 19" MGA TV in her room that was mine right out of college. The red color is starting to saturate so it's finally giving up the ghost. Still, I bought it in 1980!

My son has our old 26" oak framed Mits from 1988, works fine.

Our current TV is a 52" DLP (WD-52631). It had the thermistor issue that many models had (maybe a bad lot of thermistors), but Mits fixed it under warranty. The picture is great! This TV can be picked up at Costco for $1300. Fab price for a 1080p DLP.

If you look at the posts, EVERY manufacturer is listed with a complaint about a problem. When the local TV tech came out to replace my thermistor, he said their business was booming. ALl the new tech was having problems here and there. If you want to wait for plasma, DLP, LED, LCD, etc to mature, FORGET IT! The tech is changing so fast that today's models will be obsolete next year. If you think about it, we lived with CRTs for decades, then WHAM! Inside 10 years or so, we have multiple TV technologies. It won't end.

Buy now. Buy with confidence. Buy an extended warranty!

Mits is a well know brand, and is as reliable as other main brands (no better, no worse). For their DLPs, I would recommend an extended warranty (as I would for all DLP, RP LCD, and LCOS sets, no matter which brand).

I have had my 52631 almost exactly a year. When it was new there were a couple of times the lamp failed to fire up at turn-on and I had to push the little reset button with a pen tip, but it has otherwise been perfect since then. Probably a lamp break in issue, and otherwise it has been terrific.

Thanks everyone, I won't hesitate to recommend a Mitsubishi TV set to my family and I will also advise them to buy an extended warranty reguardless of which TV they buy.

Father has a 60" CRT RP mitsu about 10 ish years old and still going strong.

Just don't buy a Mitsubishi TV online, According to Mitsubishi only Amazon.com is an authorized online dealer, Anywhere else will result in a voided warranty and no support from Mitsubishi and this includes any so called dealers on ebay too. :(

Just don't buy a Mitsubishi TV online, According to Mitsubishi only Amazon.com is an authorized online dealer, Anywhere else will result in a voided warranty and no support from Mitsubishi and this includes any so called dealers on ebay too. :(
That can't be; so you mean even 1 Call would not be considered as an authorized retailer? :eek:

My barely 5 year old MItsubishi 65611 though looking great, suddenly stopped working one day. The tech said Mitsubishi stopped making replacement parts, and I am now forced to buy a new display. Given this situation, I will never buy from MItsubishi again.

My barely 5 year old MItsubishi 65611 though looking great, suddenly stopped working one day. The tech said Mitsubishi stopped making replacement parts, and I am now forced to buy a new display. Given this situation, I will never buy from MItsubishi again.

I find it hard to believe Mitsubishi would not have parts for a 5 year old TV. Did the tech work for someone that sells TVs? Maybe they just want you to buy a new one.

There are several members who read this forum that service TVs. I would recommend starting a new thread asking for help. Make sure to list your exact problem and symptoms and your experience with the tech. Maybe someone here can give you an idea what is wrong.

My barely 5 year old MItsubishi 65611 though looking great, suddenly stopped working one day. The tech said Mitsubishi stopped making replacement parts, and I am now forced to buy a new display. Given this situation, I will never buy from MItsubishi again.
I think you should contact a new repair tech.
That model is quite easy to repair on *most* defects.
It's also possible a certain part is on back order....

That can't be; so you mean even 1 Call would not be considered as an authorized retailer? :eek:

I think it's E-BAY retailers that you should not buy from. A lot of people buy on line, I did. the best thing to do is call MIT and ask about the retalier that you want to buy from

I have the 65831 Diamond for two weeks now and all I can say is WOW. Great tv. I also got five year warranty and spare bulb. No Burn in worries. 1080p with Blue Ray. There is a differenceI would only suggest deal with local dealer you have known for a while. Cohen's Electronics Montg Al.

That can't be; so you mean even 1 Call would not be considered as an authorized retailer? :eek:
Yep. :(

I think it's E-BAY retailers that you should not buy from. A lot of people buy on line, I did. the best thing to do is call MIT and ask about the retailer that you want to buy from
Some retailers on ebay are authorized, But one has to do just what You suggest, Or get stuck with doing what Mits won't allow and Samsung will allow(where a TV is purchased at doesn't matter as much to Samsung from what somebody said on another forum, As to JVC I don't know). My next TV will also not be a Mits again, It'll either be a Samsung TV or a JVC TV. :(

FWIW, I will probably never buy a Mitsubishi TV again. All the way from their authorized dealer to their customer support, they have failed on all counts. Now granted I purchased on of their 2004 DLP models, which was a new technology for them, but even still, they should stand behind their product, especially for an early adopter.

this thread is idiotic...all RPTV manufactuers have about the same defect rate.
This has been proven over and over by independant sources.

this thread is idiotic...all RPTV manufacturers have about the same defect rate.
This has been proven over and over by independent sources.
I don't think UMD or Me are talking about the TVs per say, It's how We the customer is being treated.

I did get My TV hooked up to one of My PCs and the TV actually said It detected a connection and displayed the following, Here's a pic or two @ 1080P:

http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n107/JokerCPoC/website/57TV-Monitor002.jpg
http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n107/JokerCPoC/website/57TV-Monitor001.jpg
http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n107/JokerCPoC/website/57TV-Monitor003.jpg

this thread is idiotic...all RPTV manufactuers have about the same defect rate.
This has been proven over and over by independant sources.


I will accept defects and such so long as customer support realizes them and takes care of the customer. Mitsubishi service simply does an extremely poor job of taking action to make things right... that is a statement independent of TV reliability.

I will accept defects and such so long as customer support realizes them and takes care of the customer. Mitsubishi service simply does an extremely poor job of taking action to make things right... that is a statement independent of TV reliability.
Were you aware that all TV manufacturers use nearly the same service people?
There may be certain repair shops that cater to only specialized manufacturers, but in general all shops would attempt to gain as much business as they can by repairing as many different brands as are available.

Were you aware that all TV manufacturers use nearly the same service people?
There may be certain repair shops that cater to only specialized manufacturers, but in general all shops would attempt to gain as much business as they can by repairing as many different brands as are available.


I am not talking about the servicer people, they do their job and I have had no issues with them.

What I do have issues with is Mitsubishi as a company that refuses to acknowledge problems and issues brought up by customers, and their attitude to supporting their own products. In many cases, a service center may be willing to do the work, but is at the mercy of Mitsubishi to authorize it...

I should have been clearer, and noted that I am referring not to service people, but Mitsubishi as a whole.

I know it is hard for people to believe Mitsubishi is not providing parts for the WS 65611. But I contacted three separate tv repair shops, they all said the same thing. They said all repairs are now done on component levels because no board is available( not on back order!).

The salesman at my local Sears told me that they've stopped carrying Mitsubishis due to the repair rate.

You may recall a few years ago, there was a pretty big scandal regarding faked reliability data for Mitsubishi cars (see http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,658372,00.html).

My 55513, which was a really great set, died after 3.5 years (the main circuit board just fizzed out). Cost to fix? $1200!

Looking at Toshibas & Samsungs now.

I know it is hard for people to believe Mitsubishi is not providing parts for the WS-65611. But I contacted three separate tv repair shops, they all said the same thing. They said all repairs are now done on component levels because no board is available( not on back order!).
Well that is better than nothing of course, But in My case If that were needed I'd have to have the WD-57731 taken to the nearest repair shop(If Russells VCR couldn't fix It, As the nearest service center said I bought It elsewhere go fix It elsewhere and so did Mits too) and that's 45-50 miles one way, I'm lucky My neighbor has a pickup, But She can only drive not load or unload and She isn't always home as She's at college mostly. So except for a lamp dying once, It's been dead stock reliable so far and the TV isn't even 1 year old yet. My swamp cooler has broken down 3 times vs 1 time for the TV, So It could be worse, But It isn't so I'm happy. :)

Yep. :(
I find that hard to believe, given how many Mitsubishi TVs are sold on-line in what appear to be authorized e-tailers such as 1 Call. In any case, reading this thread is scaring me on Mitsu's customer service. I was getting scared by Samsung's geometry problems on their 76S series lamp-based DLP TVs and someone suggested to check out Mitsubishi. I like their 734 line (at least on paper), but I don't know if I want to chance it given what appears to be very poor customer service. At least Samsung (from what I've been reading) are willing to send out repairmen and replace the TV or even upgrade them in certain cases (for those who had a faulty 2006 TV). Decisions, decisions ...

I can't really comment on how reliable the newer DLPs are, but with mine it has been horrible...

1) Initial geometry problems with the 52525 I had. Dealer let me pay extra to upgrade to the 52725

2) New 52725 had bright spot in the center of the picture that Mitsubishi refused to do anything about claiming it was normal. Went back and forth for a month. Service center saw the issue, but Mitsubishi refused to authorize any repair

3) Light engine eventually failed leaving red lines throughout picture. Light engine was replaced under warranty.

4) New light engine had major amounts of dust inside causing hazy picture. Second light engine was put in.

5) Second light engine was shipped without lamp cover that prevented UV light from leaking out. TV opened up once again to replace the cover on the light engine.

all of that under warranty... until...

6) 6 months ago, lamp fails to light up... lamp is fine, turns out to be a bad lamp ballast. Fixed on my own.

7) Now, the HDMI input has stopped working and will not handshake at all with any of my 3 HDMI devices.

All of this history and not once did Mitsubishi actually admit to selling me a flawed set. I was stupid enough to not get the extended warranty, but even still... a set with such a repair history is unheard of. Fixing the HDMI port will require either debugging the DM board, or getting a new one... I am sick of it, honestly. After buying one of their first DLP sets, to be thoroughly ignored after going through all of this is absurd...

To add on top of all that, completely ignoring problems with their implementation of IEEE1394 and compatibility with their own HD2000U DVCR... I can't even begin to describe how difficult it is to get anyone to listen over there...


EDIT: There is also a bad temperature sensor that randomly causes the set to shut down... I know what part is faulty, but since it does not happen often... I've let it go.

I find that hard to believe, given how many Mitsubishi TVs are sold on-line in what appear to be authorized e-tailers such as 1 Call. In any case, reading this thread is scaring me on Mitsu's customer service. I was getting scared by Samsung's geometry problems on their 76S series lamp-based DLP TVs and someone suggested to check out Mitsubishi. I like their 734 line (at least on paper), but I don't know if I want to chance it given what appears to be very poor customer service. At least Samsung (from what I've been reading) are willing to send out repairmen and replace the TV or even upgrade them in certain cases (for those who had a faulty 2006 TV). Decisions, decisions ...

Don't be so sure about Samsung either, from my experiences (about to be on light engine #5 with my 3rd party extended warranty) Samsung CS and QC are non-existant.

1 Call is an authorized dealer. I found nothing on Mitusbishi's web site indicating who is and who isn't.

When deciding on a brand remember though that those that have problems are usually the loudest (me included with regard to Samsung). When you have a problem you tend to want other folks to know about it. I refuse to buy another Samsung anything from now on because of my issues and I have cost them sales from friends and family because of it.

Your best security is to buy an extended warranty with these tv's. It is just not worth the risk to not have one.

I find that hard to believe, given how many Mitsubishi TVs are sold on-line in what appear to be authorized e-tailers such as 1 Call. In any case, reading this thread is scaring me on Mitsu's customer service. I was getting scared by Samsung's geometry problems on their 76S series lamp-based DLP TVs and someone suggested to check out Mitsubishi. I like their 734 line (at least on paper), but I don't know if I want to chance it given what appears to be very poor customer service. At least Samsung (from what I've been reading) are willing to send out repairmen and replace the TV or even upgrade them in certain cases (for those who had a faulty 2006 TV). Decisions, decisions ...
Believe It! Mits won't play nice and be an honorable TV maker, Unless You meet their narrow requirements for where You bought the TV at and their dealers/service centers(or at least the nearest to Me) isn't much better, They only service what was bought from them. So Mits warranties aren't worth too much, Of course Samsung wants peoples business and is from what I've heard willing to be a part of the modern online marketplace(As long as the TV isn't stolen of course, Nobody likes a stolen TV).

Believe It! Mits won't play nice and be an honorable TV maker, Unless You meet their narrow requirements for where You bought the TV at and their dealers/service centers(or at least the nearest to Me) isn't much better, They only service what was bought from them. So Mits warranties aren't worth too much, Of course Samsung wants peoples business and is from what I've heard willing to be a part of the modern online marketplace(As long as the TV isn't stolen of course, Nobody likes a stolen TV).
So your not really disgussing the "reliability" of a product more so than a compaines sales and warranty policies.
Those are completely 2 different things.
I'm sure Mits has their reasons for not autherizing random sellers online. I dont know what they may be, but probably to protect the small dealers and to help gauruntee you are not paying full price for a refurb or something else.

Believe It! Mits won't play nice and be an honorable TV maker, Unless You meet their narrow requirements for where You bought the TV at and their dealers/service centers(or at least the nearest to Me) isn't much better, They only service what was bought from them. So Mits warranties aren't worth too much, Of course Samsung wants peoples business and is from what I've heard willing to be a part of the modern online marketplace(As long as the TV isn't stolen of course, Nobody likes a stolen TV).

I'd hear good and bad about Customer service from all of them (SONY MIT SAMMY etc) Samsung is no better than the others, you can find good and bad if you look.And it's just the way it is now adays , you need to be careful who you buy from,most online marketplaces are fine to buy MIt from, just not all of them

My parents had a Mitsubishi TV that died a 2 years ago ...... it was about 20 years old.

My parents had a Mitsubishi TV that died a 2 years ago ...... it was about 20 years old.
I had a 19" that I gave away to a charity that may not have had the best sound(mono), But It was a strong TV set, That's why I got another Mits, I'll keep the one I have for as long as I can and that should be a long time, TV Lamps not withstanding of course. :D

Believe It! Mits won't play nice and be an honorable TV maker, Unless You meet their narrow requirements for where You bought the TV at and their dealers/service centers(or at least the nearest to Me) isn't much better, They only service what was bought from them. So Mits warranties aren't worth too much, Of course Samsung wants peoples business and is from what I've heard willing to be a part of the modern online marketplace(As long as the TV isn't stolen of course, Nobody likes a stolen TV).

When a company neglects customers of their products to protect their dealer network, it gives consumers a good indication of how customer friendly the company is.

I don't buy products from companies that play games with their warranties, as a way of voting with my dollars.

Well to throw my 2 cents in regarding Mitsubishi reliability, my brother-in-law had a 46" CRT Rear Projection that lasted 20 years!! The tv was moved 3 times to different houses & held up just perfectly. His only issue was a spider web on this inside of the screen. When he contacted Mitsubishi regarding this issue they were incredibly friendly in telling me how he could rid the web himself being he was so long out of warranty. They did not push him aside in any way!!!

Carmine.

Don't be so sure about Samsung either, from my experiences (about to be on light engine #5 with my 3rd party extended warranty) Samsung CS and QC are non-existant.

1 Call is an authorized dealer. I found nothing on Mitusbishi's web site indicating who is and who isn't.

When deciding on a brand remember though that those that have problems are usually the loudest (me included with regard to Samsung). When you have a problem you tend to want other folks to know about it. I refuse to buy another Samsung anything from now on because of my issues and I have cost them sales from friends and family because of it.

Your best security is to buy an extended warranty with these tv's. It is just not worth the risk to not have one.
From what I've read in the Samsung HL-Txx76S thread, quality control is horrible. However, they've always sent servicemen to customers' homes to try to fix the issue (usually bowing/smilie-face problem) and often authorized the customer to replace the TV. That to me is decent CS. But their TVs are very flimsy (esp. the cabinet) and people have noticed bad QC problems. So perhaps Samsung has better CS and Mitsubishi has better QC. Pick your poison. :(

Gotta love these "I'll never buy one of those xxxxx again" posts.

Hate to tell you, all of these have had problems including the one and only.

While I was waiting for my tv repair, I went ahead to buy a 50 inch plasma tv for the house, thinking for sure it is not repairable.
Thanks to Robert of Gold Medalist TV Repair in San Jose, he went to component level and replaced a capacitor.
Everything looks fine now, i hope my 65 inch will last another year.

I have a 5 year old 55" CRT mits that hasn't had a single problem, although I had a 4:3 60" mits before that which was plagued with issues. I would probably buy a Mits again if they had one I was interested in, but they seem attached to DLP.

I believe the prohibited buy online policy may be relaxed partially now as the Diamond Series can now be bought online via Costco - they must be authorized as being both though I know previously you could not get a Diamond from the internet. Used to be you could not order one from One Call on line but I swear last week I saw the Diamond now available whereas before they weren't permitted. Guess it would be wise to check first.:)

Our current TV is a 52" DLP (WD-52631). It had the thermistor issue that many models had (maybe a bad lot of thermistors), but Mits fixed it under warranty. The picture is great! This TV can be picked up at Costco for $1300. Fab price for a 1080p DLP.




Can someone inform me of what the thermistor issue is? I have the exact same model of TV, so I'm curious. Thanks

Interesting reading about everyone's experiences. I have two Mitsubishi's: a 35" CRT that I bought about 15 years ago. The picture is still sharp and has never had convergence/pincushion issues, but the sound takes a few minutes to kick in (probably a cold solder joint in there somewhere). I got tired of waitng for it to "die" as an excuse to buy a new one, so I picked up one of the first 52" 720P DLP's, close to 3 years ago. It's on an average of 5 hours per day, and I've never had a problem. Bottom line is, unless my experiences are outliers, their reliability seems pretty good. Related to reliability: I've started thinking that maybe the lamp should be replaced, because it doesn't seem as bright as when it was new - does anyone know if the lamp "wears" and gets dimmer with age?

jling84; There is a bad connector leading to the sensor for the lamp. The fix is to cut out the connectors and solder (or crimp) the wires together. There was a long discussion in the 'Tweaks' thread.

Interesting reading about everyone's experiences. I have two Mitsubishi's: a 35" CRT that I bought about 15 years ago. The picture is still sharp and has never had convergence/pincushion issues, but the sound takes a few minutes to kick in (probably a cold solder joint in there somewhere). I got tired of waitng for it to "die" as an excuse to buy a new one, so I picked up one of the first 52" 720P DLP's, close to 3 years ago. It's on an average of 5 hours per day, and I've never had a problem. Bottom line is, unless my experiences are outliers, their reliability seems pretty good. Related to reliability: I've started thinking that maybe the lamp should be replaced, because it doesn't seem as bright as when it was new - does anyone know if the lamp "wears" and gets dimmer with age?

Glad to hear you've had good luck w/ your Mitsubishi TVs. Yes, the lamp can go dim as it starts to die. Do you know how many hours your TV is? There might be a secret menu setting to obtain that time. A DLP bulb probably lasts 3k-5k hours, but I don't know about your particular model.