Which set would you get?- Major confusion after days of reading. - Page 3

Thanks hoozthatat, interesting articles. I do have a square trades extended warranty on my 70" so I'm hopefully ok there. I've read that only a handful of manufacturers produce their own panels, Lg, Samsung, & sharp are the largest, to name a few and a majority of off brands, including vizio use theirs & others. I know Philips plasmas use Samsung, I have one and you can see the samsung name through the vent holes.

I bought a 32 Toshiba for b/room in Feb. Price and picture quality were important IMO it has a better picture than most of the other 32's I looked at only the Samsung and Sony could touch it picture wise. cnet seems to share that opinion as well. The Vizio wasn't bad it was close . The Insignias and other brands weren't near as good though . They rated the sammy and Toshiba as the best 32's with Visio a close third PQ wise .

cnet did not review the Sony which I rated first of course the Sony was priced accordingly .
That being said I've previously owned 2 Sony's ,one Toshiba and one Sharp picture quality and reliability for me were not an issue on those sets.

Two days later in Feb. I bought a 50" Plasma good PQ I can see why many here like plasma sets .
The Plasma is an RCA with Samsung panel and boards in it has a great picture got it on clearance at a ridiculous price as it is a discontinued model. for 2013.

The RCA says it is made by On corp in china whatever that means. According to wiki ON makes sets there and owns the RCA brand .
Anyway the RCA box with mostly Samsung parts inside has a good picture .

The Toshiba says assembled in china whatever that means .
Where did the parts come from if it was only assembled there? I don't know it has a good picture though.

I have an 24" Dynex apart waiting for some decent spec Nichicon power supply caps from Mouser
can't identify anything in that set maybe that's why the caps only lasted 2 yrs. Those Nichicon caps
are probably the best parts that Dynex will ever see .

Lucky Goldstar AKA LG used to make the Sony FD Trinitron
flat picture tubes for Sony And Toshiba maybe some sets also?

Looks like everybody is making stuff for each other.. nothing new
the best we can hope for is to get the right combination of parts
in the box engineered and assembled with reasonable care .
Edited by tubetwister - 3/12/13 at 3:22am

+1 on Toshiba 32". I purchased a Toshiba 32" LCD probably 5 yrs. ago for bedroom. Has excellent PQ. In the Living room my 10 year old HP 50" Plasma died a few mos. ago. Paid around $1800 for that at the time. That had excellent PQ also. I never had any problems with burn in or image retention and used it with the Xbox frequently. Also looked great in the bright living room during daytime viewing. For bluray and sports I ended up purchasing a Sony VW90ES pj with a "110 AT screen in living room just drops down in front of entire system. That projector threw a image that looked better than my plasma in my living room, very impressive. Sports was fluid blurays crisp and clear with great black levels. So I spent 4 mos. or so deciding what to replace my plasma with. Choices were Sony 950 since projector looked so great. Elite, Samsung ES8000 and Panasonic VT 50. Reading of a lot of reviews of IR and burn in on the VT50 plasma which I thought was strange since I did not have any major problem with the 10 yr. old HP plasma. Maybe it was built better? It did weigh 110#s. So with all the problems with newer Plasmas I threw the Panny out as a option. Elite I read threw the best image for LCD but could not convince myself to pay 5K for a Flatpanel. So came down to the Samsung ES8000 or Sony 950. With the latest firmware update the 8000 I read improved the image. I looked at the Sony 950 @ my local ABC Warehouse and the wife and myself really liked the image. We both seen the Samsung ES8000 @ my local BestBuy and that looked excellent also but we both agreed the Sony had a slight edge. I know both in a retail store and who knows what was the signal feed or settings on the set. I ended up purchasing the Sony a few weeks ago and I'm enjoying the PQ of this set. Very glad I purchased the Sony. Black levels are great. Cnet review stated it had the best or one of the best black levels, it does. Image pop is great on the DISH Sattellite feed. Sports are smooth. Blurays look great.

I can Imagine the Sony is real good congrat's! I looked at the sets in the Magnolia store at BB and of course there were a couple of big Sony's in there they had great pictures ! They weren't cheap either but cheap has never been Sony's thing with TV's .I've always preferred Sony and Toshiba for reliability and picture quality based on past experience.

My first Sony was 1994 27" . First I bought an RCA it was one of their best 27" crt sets had something they called an Invar shadow mask crt anyway looked OK in the darkened store Took it home couldn't get a decent picture the colors were always off and inconsistent and it was pushing green . Took it back same day got the Sony it was maybe $150 more well worth it ! 14 yrs later I gave it away it was still working good. Second Sony Wega XBR lasted 9 yrs until a severe power surge took it out along with a computer and an Sony ES AVR.

The utility paid me replacement costs on all that so that was OK.
I was able to fix the 1 yr old computer with just a new power supply although I didn't know it when I made the claim .
It all worked out. Probably could have fixed the Sony but I declined to it was already 10yrs old. The Sony's had better pictures than almost any other similar sets ever looked at at the time worth the money IMO

.I also had a small 19" Toshiba 10+ yrs without probs also 2 Toshiba VCR's and a DVD player all were reliable and worked well. Last American set I had was a 25" Magnavox it was only 2 weeks old when the tuner went out they fixed that then at 2 1/2 yrs the picture tube went out that was when they were still making them in Indiana they were using Sylvania tubes then . I was pissed.



Samsung and LG sure have come a long way from what they were they used to make good dumpster fill. Time was I wouldn't have even stopped to look at them that's no longer true.

There was a time you couldn't give me a ready made HP or any other ready made computer I built my own customs for years .(fixed way to many for friends back then hardware and bloatware problems) Now I have 3 HP's.


The Vizio sets seem to have a lot of features and good pictures at a given price point. they were on my my short list when I was looking at the Toshiba. I hope the OP is happy with his purchase and that it works well for him .


Right now I'm good with the two sets I just got just. I hope the Samsung parts in the RCA plasma hold up . I've always figured sammy's weren't the most reliable things out there and usually avoided them in the past that's probably no longer true now , certainly LG was once dumpster fill things have changed. The Sammy's I looked at recently had real good pictures. I've had several Samsung phones those were decent could drop them and they survived the sammy G/III I use now is probably not as drop proof. now we buy thin phones only to put them in thick cases to protect them ! go figure.


Seems like the On corp is investing in the RCA brand even changed mfr and suppliers for QC reasons their stated mission is to make RCA a top brand specs on the new models are decent anyway and so are the featuresso wee'l see


N.I.B.clearance price on the RCA plasma was a no brainier half the cost of an eqiuvalant Sammy plasma considering it is mostly or all Samsung inside I figured i would try it it has good bright picture better than any mid priced 50-55" size LCD/LED I saw at twice or even 3 times what I paid for it . I got it N.I.B for like ~1/3 of the orig selling price. Sure would like to find a deal on a Sony (like that that will ever happen) . I just got lucky spotted it on the web at a local BB clearance page went and got it the Next day. So far it's good.

best regards
Edited by tubetwister - 3/12/13 at 1:13pm

tubetwister keep checking BB open/demo box clearance you may get lucky with a Sony. My brother has my Dads RCA television and still watches it daily has his tv. Big box probably was first purchased in the 70s. I try talking my brother into FPs but he always says maybe next year. Sincerely, Browninggold

Actualy I'm good right now the RCA /Samsung plasma has an excel. picture the Toshiba is very good also .
of course RCA 1970's was a different co it was the original RCA . Now RCA is just a brand owned by On corp and manufactured in China.
I can see why many members here like plasma they look very realistic and have excellent color.mine is even good in a bright room.

keep in mind that while plasmas do have nice PQ so do the Led backlits, only difference is plasmas have better viewing angles BUT they use a lot more power. I replaced my 50" plasma that used 350 watts with a 70" Led that uses about 100w so that alone will save me over $100 / year so the 70" will eventually pay for itself -vs- using the plasma.

And how old was that 50" PDP that used 350 watts?

Because that's about 2-3 times what the PDP's consume today.

I haven't looked recently at what they use, mine is a 2007 Philips 50pf9631D plasma. I know that you could walk by them in the stores & feel the heat coming off of them and off of the fluorescent backlit LCD's .

I agree The new LCD/LED's are very good as well. A new 70" LED should be a nice upgrade over the 05 Phillips PDP probably .
I wouldn't throw rocks at a new 65" Panny or Sammy plasma either both technology's are making good pictures now . For me that day the 50" PDP I bought was the price performance value especially at the price paid It has as good or better picture than a lot of LCD/LED sets i looked at costing a lot more ..
Absolutely there were some very nice LCD/LED sets that had great pictures also just none anywhere near the price I paid for that PDP set.
Now if they could just come up with something that doesn't break or deteriorate ....like some of the the old 90's trinitrons .... then they would have something.
Edited by tubetwister - 3/16/13 at 11:34pm

Double post please remove
thanks
Edited by tubetwister - 3/16/13 at 11:21pm

"Get a Vizio. You will never regret it." (Forehead slap). Seriously, does he imply *ALL* Vizios in that?

Hooz, there are a lot of people playing fast and loose with their advice on here. There's been an influx lately of people who have no idea what they're talking about. The guy you're quoting is just a happy customer (so far up to post 17), but man oh man, I'm seeing a lot of misinformation floating around and it worries me about folks who know nothing getting mislead.