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How Often Have You Replaced Your Main/Primary TV In The Last 10 Years?

  • Never

    Votes: 37 5.5%
  • Once

    Votes: 271 40.5%
  • 2-3 times

    Votes: 265 39.6%
  • 4-5 times

    Votes: 65 9.7%
  • More than 5 times

    Votes: 31 4.6%

How Often Have You Replaced Your TV In The Last 10 Years?

22K views 158 replies 134 participants last post by  stufio 
#1 · (Edited)
How Often Have You Replaced Your Main/Primary TV In The Last 10 Years?



Do you watch till it dies or replace it every year or two? What drives you to buy a new TV?

Throughout my childhood, I remember visiting my grandparents and watching their Zenith console TV (which used a Space Command ultrasonic remote, the source of the term "clicker"). Back then, most folks kept their TV for 15 or 20 years before replacing it, usually when the old one finally gave up the ghost. And there was little need to—TV technology didn't evolve much in those days. Once color television was well established, TVs were much the same from one year to the next.

Now, of course, the replacement rate for TVs is much faster, because performance improves, screens get bigger, and cool new features are added while prices drop every year—not to mention that many believe modern TVs have a shorter life expectancy. This leads me to ask, how often have you replaced your main TV in the last 10 years? Has your pace of replacement increased over that time? What led you to those replacements?

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#6 ·
In 2004 I replaced my Panasonic 27" tube with a 47" Panasonic RPT then I replaced that with a 72" Samsung DLP then that was too big so I then bought a samsung 52" LCD then I missed my 72" so I bought a sharp aquos 70" led LCD then that wasn't big enough so I went Front projection with a epson 8350 but I still kept my sharp 70", and THEN that wasn't cutting it so I just replaced it with the epson 5030ub and now I'm finally done lol
 
#7 ·
8 that I can remember..

Mitsubishi 57" DLP
Mitsubishi 65" DLP
Samsung 50" Plasma
Mitsubishi 73" DLP
Panasonic 60" Plasma
Mitsubishi 82" DLP (still miss this one)
Samsung 65" LED
Sony 70" LED (current)

I will also be getting a 80" Samsung LED in the near future but the goal when I move in 6 months is a 120" projection. It never ends really.

My eyes get worse, my TV's get bigger...
 
#8 · (Edited)
Three times total: twice due to dead TVs, once for a dying & obsolete TV.

When my "man cave" CRT died a premature death, it was (#1) replaced by a Samsung 46-in 1080p LCD (CCFL backlit) HDTV. After 2 years it got horizontal pinstripes, so I eventually (#2) replaced it with the current Vizio 50-in 1080p LCD/LED HDTV. (Except for the pinstripes, I preferred the PQ of the Samsung.) At each step the TV was larger and produced less heat.

And my aging TV(CRT)/VCR combo that I had for over a decade and had developed orange halos on the right side of humans and other bright objects was (#3) replaced with a 32-in 768p LCD/LED HDTV the very day Comcast dropped the analog channels and I also decided to jump to HD services and rent a HD DVR. Formerly I was using two VCRs to record shows I wanted to watch (the TV/VCR combo had a deteriorating picture but it was adequate for programming the VCRs) and playing the tapes in a third VCR (later a VCR/DVD combo) connected to the "man cave" TV, but after the analog died, I no longer had use of the old VCRs and, after playing the last of the tapes of time-shifted shows, the VCR/DVD combo went to the bedroom for playing DVDs in the bedroom. (That 32-in bedroom TV has a taller picture than the last CRT I had in the man cave.) If I could do it over, I would have replaced the TV and VCRs in the bedroom a few years earlier; it's nice seeing the whole picture (instead of just 57% of the picture) and it's a whole lot sharper than using VCRs to record on VHS cassettes in "EP" mode ever was!
 
#10 ·
You are all crazy.

I wait until they are unwatchable. I bought a Sony XBR when HD was new (just for the football). That was back in ... well I want to say 2006 but it might be 2007. LOVED it, still do. It's now my son's XBOX and Netflix TV and looks great. I WANT to replace my new stuff but there is no way in hell my wife will let me. Now I have two Samsung LCDs from 2009, and a 70" Sharp from 2012. I wish I'd gotten the Sharp Elite but I am not the boss of the family even though I make all the money. Meh.
 
#11 · (Edited)
1982 to 1990 -- Zenith 13" color TV
1990 to 1994 -- 27" Hitachi CRT
1994 to 2004 -- 32" Sony Trinitron
2004 to 2008 -- 65" Mitsubishi WS-A65 CRT RPTV
2008 to 2014 -- 65" Mitsubishi WD-65833 DLP RPTV
2014 to ... -- 73" Mitsubishi WD-73840 DLP RPTV

Nothing was wrong with any of these TVs, I just wanted a bigger set. Relatives/friends STILL have and use those older TVs.
 
#12 ·
Don't like thinking about it. 4th plasma in the living room over 10 years...
1st was a 480*852 A nightmare resolution. Had DVI, waow, no tuner or speakers included tough.
2nd was 768*1024 Another annoying resolution, one HDMI (1.x I'm sure). Still no speakers..
3rd was the Kuro. All well, but gave up last year
4th is the VT60, looks worse than the kuro.

Thats just the living room TVs, projectors doesn't last that long at my place.
 
#13 ·
Voted as a (6).

In 2004 I had an older CRT I believe was from the 80s...wood and all. It was previously owned by my parents. Being incredibly heavy, after leaving an apartment after my first year of college to move to another school, I left it behind (had to recruit a couple guys on the nearby basketball court to take it to the 3rd floor when I moved in). It otherwise wasn't a bad TV. My next TV would be one that my girlfriend at the time had (small, bubble CRT), until I later replaced it with a flat glass CRT during 2005 (still used for old video game systems as I can't stand how they look on plasma, etc.). In 2007, I got a great deal at Sears on a "returned" 42" Panasonic Plasma. I still use that TV as a bedroom wall mount and it still works like new as far as I can tell. That had been my main TV until 2008 when I made a slight upgrade to a 50" Plasma of the same line. Both plasmas only being 720p. Took me until this year (during a recent move) to sell the 50" plasma and I bought a Benq W1070. The Benq is currently boxed from the move, but I had been projecting onto a wall previously and I'm already forever sold on projectors. I'm currently building a (modest) dedicated theater room with an expected screen size of about 114" (DIY). Can't wait :)
 
#15 ·
If you jumped from a Sony Crt to a Pioneer Plasma consider yourself a lucky person.







I can't said much about panasonic because it took 5 years to reach those Pioneer blacks.
 
#16 · (Edited)
Once in 10ish.
90s several TVs found or given to me the last one was...
Mitsubishi 30something inch SD TV, found and repaired, bad PSU. Great picture when bypassing some of the input riffraff and plugging directly into the bla-bla (I don't remember how I did it but somehow I bypassed the external composite input and plugged in some way that greatly improved pic quality). Replaced with.

I purchased new a Sony 34" XBR tube HD TV in Oct 2004, it started having haloing in the upper left corner that would go away if the TV was turned off and on a few times (seems as though it needed degausing). 7 years ago (Nov 2007) I replaced the Sony with a 60" Kuro which still looks great, it's lasting better than the Sony did. I have not had any AV gear that I've been more happy with than the Pioneer, it's been an extremely solid performer and I'm shocked that we're just now on the brink of having something substantially better available.

The Sony replacement was driven by:

  1. The Sony's diminishing picture quality (color uniformity, brightness uniformity were gradually getting worse)
  2. Blu-ray availability (The HD-DVD vs Blu-Ray war was happening when I got the Kuro, I bought a Blu-ray player same time as Kuro, lucky me)
  3. The Sony's small size
  4. A couple good years of work gave me some funds
The Sony still lives on in my buddies den

Cheers,
 
#18 ·
3 times

27" CRT (crappy curved tube one) -> 50" Panasonic G20 Plasma -> 60" Panasonic VT60 Plasma

the VT 60 will be kept for a long as possible as TV tech seems to be going backwards again

Downstairs TV went from a crappy curved tube CRT -> 32" Panasonic Tau -> 55" Vizio LED LCD

I still use a 13" CRT TV in the kitchen
 
#19 ·
Had a TH-46PZ80B (early gen 46" 1080p Panasonic plasma) - despite LCD-like black levels I really liked the panel. Then upgraded to a Kuro 9G PDP-LX5090 which I expect to keep for the next 5 years. Incredible PQ. And, I can fix it if it breaks because it is a plasma, if it were an OLED/LED-LCD it would probably not be repairable.
 
#20 · (Edited)
Since were talking about main living room TV's, I would say I replace it about every 5 years give or take a few. In 30 years I went from a Sharp 26" console, to a Motorola 45" RP TV that I replaced with a home built RPTV built into the wall of my living room using a Sony 3 tube HD projector (MSRP of $19000 that I bought used out of Boston College for a $1000, it was still working great when I threw it out a few years ago) with a 90" screen. Around 2002 replaced the projector with a HP DLP projector. Because of expensive bulb replacement on the DLP we replaced the home built RPTV with a Mitsubishi 62" RPTV, a few years latter that had too many problems and was replaced with a 60" Mitsubishi RPTV that was running great when I sold it this year replacing it with a 60" Panasonic ST60 only because it was the last chance to buy a plasma other wise I would have keep the Mits. The projectors were retired to my HT and I am on my fifth one now but that's another subject. Note non of them were replaced because they died and were sold or repurposed some were else.
 
#24 ·
In 2000 I jumped into HDTV with a Sony 53" rear-projection. I want to say it was a KP53-HS10. I had that for 9 years until I replaced it with my Panasonic plasma 54V10. I reset the black level rise on my V10 a little over a year ago, so it felt like I had a new TV at that time. But technically I replaced only once in the last 10 years.
 
#25 ·
only two for me, one was an upgrade from my rear projection Toshiba HD purchased in 2003, the model escapes me, and I had a sony LCD die after about 4 years which was good timing, I really wanted a new 3D tv, my wife seems to think I had something to do with the untimely death of the Sony, ;)
 
#26 ·
Mine seems like a lot, though the number is deceiving. I came up with 4.

Had a 32" tube SD.
Replacement #1 in '06 with a 50" plasma.
Replacement #2 in '08 when the plasma was stolen in a break-in, bought a used 42" Panasonic Professional plasma monitor off Craigslist.
"Replacement" #3 in '11 when I added a theater room in the basement and bought a 720p projector off Craigslist (Panasonic still in use).
Replacement #4 in '13 when I upgraded the theater to a 1080p projector off Craigslist.

So, one forced replacement, 3 upgrades, all off Craigslist. The original plasma was new from Costco.
 
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