Why is Sony more expensive than other brands

Because people are willing to pay a premium for the Sony name.

Samsung put out a slew of decontented "BF special" models this year (ES6003 etc.), Sony didn't. At comparable feature/pq levels Sonys are actuallly pretty price competitive.

That being said I've had nothing but Sonys for nearly 20 years until 3 weeks ago when I bought an LG:D

Because Sony lost so much money last year. Notice how they came out with such a small amount of TV models this year. I heard they are teaming up with Panasonic to try and steal the Samsung market. Not sure its going to happen. The only good Sony set this year was the HX850 and its a high end TV. Even the HX750 which is not cheap got mixed reviews. I just want to know why Samsung is such a revered brand when the viewing angles on their LED tvs are so bad. Its not just light creepage, its color change at off angle viewing. WHY?!! My father in law's SONY CCFL LCD viewing angles are amazing!!! Some light creepage but no change in colors. Can someone explain!?

You said it well Dan and word is Sony wont be coming out with many models in 2013 either, probably the same as this year. Explaining why Samsung is such a revered brand is beyond me. Their customer service is horrible and like I have said before I wouldnt buy a Samsung product if they paid me and I aint the only person who feels this way. I feel this way about Samsung and their HDTV's and thats they are sometimes pretty on the outside but garbage on the inside. But thats just my opinion.

I am hoping Samsung will step up their game next year as well as sony. Otherwise Im holing out for an Apple iTV

I think part of Sony's strategy to return to profitability is to reduce the number of models in their lineup (sorta like how GM dropped Olds, Pontiac, Saturn, Saab, etc.) Samsung still has enough people drinking their kool-aid that they can afford to put out a plethora of basically crap tvs with whiz bang features like gesture control and Angry Birds built in and the lemmings keep coming. samsung in the past made some really impressive tvs, but they've lately been concentrating on showroom appeal over real quality.

The only good Sony set this year was the HX850 and its a high end TV.

The only good Sony set this year was the HX850 and its a high end TV.

I think Steve's opinion is the same as many of us who have been on this Forum for years and have seen Samsung's quality decline while their sales continue to rise. Perhaps it's the problems inherent with edge-lit LED technology or perhaps it's corporate greed, but whatever it is, it's still true. I have two Samsungs that are 3 and 4 years old, respectively, and they still have fabulous picture quality. However, my newest bedroom TV is a Sony KDL-40EX640 that I am very satisfied with. But, being edge-lit, there are a few nearly imperceptible screen flaws when there is a black screen being displayed. One of my sons has two brand new Samsungs in his house (bought at the same time) and they are very good but certainly not perfect.

So, the bottom line is, yes Samsung does "ok" but those of us who remember really good quality just aren't quite satisfied with merely "ok." Maybe we should be, after all, "It's just a frickin' TV."

Oh, P.S. Steve S sells TVs so he of all people on this forum knows what he's talking about.

Some of us may disagree with that since "good" is a relative term and means different things to different people.

I think the whole industry peaked a couple of years ago.

Part of the reason is that of the US digital broadcast changeover dropping of analog broadcast. Another part of the reason is the worldwide recession, stagnation, brought about by the banking crisis. A third part of the reason is that prices have been falling so of course quality declines. My 42" Vizio from 2007 weighs 80 lbs and built solidly with lots of heavy sheet metal in the design/fabrication. Another reason is that the low hanging fruit technological advances have already been achieved in that time period.

Many manufacturers have dropped out or nearly so competition is reduced. Sony scaled back. Philips basically abandoned the North American market in regards to high end sets which it still sells in Europe. Toshiba is in a similar boat these days. Mitsubishi dropped out of the LCD TV market entirely excepting for Front Projection, JVC nearly so, as well (but apparently is making somewhat of a comeback). Sharp abandoned the middle of the market to concentrate on the very small and very large niches. Only LG was a latecomer to the party and late peaker, (though they have been a panel making player from the beginning). Panasonic has entered the LCD market because Plasma which they dominate is floundering, but they reported a $16 biilion dollar loss this year, although Plasmas have been getting better, unlike LCDs. Sharp reported a several billion dollar loss as well.
Edited by EscapeVelocity - 11/27/12 at 7:06am

Well said from a purdue grad haha. It is just a frickin tv but it also costs lots of money. Im in agreement, Samsung was great a few years ago. My brother turned my whole family on the samsung band wagon. I bought my UN55D6000 last year and my only complaints are viewing angle but this is a LARGE complaint. Im glad I bought my edge lit when I did because it sounds like the ES6100 of this year is even worse. I believe that when Apple makes their way into the TV market it will be game over. Look what they have done to the phone market that no one thought possible. I am sure it will carry nearly 1.5x-2x the price of sony or samsung but I am willing to pony up the cash for quality. I never dreamed there would be issues like this when buying a TV. I always dreamed when I got my flat screen I would get it and be happy. The end. Sadly not so. Maybe we are all being a bit too anal. Sometimes I wish I would have never came on these forums... sigh. But I am also thankful for it.

^^^My being a sales associate just exposes me to a wide variety of sets on a daily basis as well as pricing trends and such. I spend a lot of time here reading customer's experiences to get an impression of what sets have what issues, partially because I'm a fan of this stuff, but primarily to improve real-world product knowledge so as not to just parrot back mfg. provided training hype when interacting with customers. Being a commissioned salesperson who's income is very much dependent on the customer keeping the set I sell them it's important to me to be able to recommend a set thst suits their needs/wants at a price point that they're comfortable with. I actually get most knowledge here, reading owner's threads and such, carefully filtering out fanboys, trolls, and ax-grinders.

I've been at it for 6 years now and have seen radical price declines along with a shift from trying to improve pq to adding lots of new features.