Rca DLP

In DLP, Thomson said it would offer two RCA Scenium models based on TI's HD-2 'Mustang' high-definition DLP chips with 1280 by 720p resolution. Both include integrated ATSC tuners with QAM cable demodulation capability, built-in Web browsers, advanced picture and sound performance, DVI-HDCP digital input for uncompressed signals and a pair of two-way IEEE-1394 digital interfaces for compressed signals.

The DLP models include the 50W-inch 16:9 HDLP50W151 ($3,999 suggested retail, shipping in August), which was previously unveiled at January's CES, and the new 61W-inch 16:9 HDLP61W151 ($4,499, shipping in October), which Thomson bills as the industry's largest DLP rear projection set

The suggested retail prices suggest the prices of DLP's should be dropping.

http://www.twice.com/index.asp?layou...d=%industryid%

Based upon the RCA previous reliability track record I would rather have a Sammy.

Ever since Thomson (a French Company) bought RCA and GE brands of electronics from GE corporation about twelve years ago the quality has been quite bad. My friend had an RCA TV that had a faulty power supply - it went back for service so many times that finally Circuit City (he had a performance warranty) gave him a new set. I have read many similar stories and confirmed it with the ratings in Consumer Reports. It appears Thomson in the past has cut corners to be competitive. Hopefully this is not the case with their new products, but I would not buy an RCA or GE television until I see a turnaround in the frequency of repair ratings in Consumer Reports.

The reliability rating are from subscribers responding to the annual survey. I have read in newsgroups horror stories about some of their sets, based upon a faulty design. It is quite possible they produce an excellent RPTV, but for an investment of this size I would not take the chance. Especially since this is new technology to them and they may need to work out the bugs.

Michael, I did a search on Google newsgroups for the words "RCA RPTV PROBLEMS" from January 1 2000 to the present it found 226 hits. I did not have time to read them but it is safe to assume RCA has its share of problems. I suggest you read the results for the types and severity and judge if you think RCA is just as good as the other RPTVs. The following quote from one newsgroup may help you.

To be honest, I have not seen a single Thomson chassis for years that when it first came out was not plagued with engineering defects that had to be fixed with service bulletin after bulletin.

1993 Thomson introduces ctc175,176,177 series of chassis with on board tuner. They deny to servicers that the tuner grounds are a real problem for almost 1 year after reports start flowing in as every one is failing within 1.5 years. They later admit to knowingly selling a "inferior" reliability product and do cover almost all repair costs up until about 1999. Problem persisted through several "engineering" and "manufacturing" fixes through the life of the chassis. Latest ctc187 series chassis from 1997 are just now having a few solder connection problems.

1993/94 they came out with the infamous ctc170/ptk171 chassis which had so many problems they quickly dropped production. This was an exclusive Proscan chassis. Currently the BMOSD module is failing in mass and is on backorder an average of 18 months. They are offering about a 1/5th prorated amount if you call them, even on a really old tv set.

1997 They introduce the ctc195/197 series of chassis. Initial production units are plagued with bad flybacks. Bad software in the micro. Multiple "fixes" for engineering defects are issued on service bulletins. Most sets made before July 1998 must at least 5 of these service bulletins performed if they come in for service. Same year ctc185, super el-cheapo chassis design. Has power supply mod kit, early power supplies would self destruct at random, very expensive to repair on a now $149 19" tv set. Early units also had a very high flyback failure problem. Seems Thomson bought these off the same vendor as the early ctc195/197 chassis. While the flyback failure is not a good thing, at least the cost was around $45 for the part as most Sony flybacks are $130.

Current ctc195/197/203 chassis has a software bug in the tv-guide plus module which when it receives a certain code, locks out the audio until it is unplugged. No fix is planned as it only happens a couple of times a month at worst. They also are having a glue problem with the glue they are using on all the surface mount components (hundreds) where especially in humid environments the glue becomes conductive usually causing all kinds off oddball intermittent failures. Most of these cannot be repaired as they are too intermittent.

Thomson/GE/RCA/Proscan are these any worse than almost everything else? Probably not as several other manufactures for several years have had some really serious engineering oversights and manufacturing problems. Thomson does have on average the lowest priced repair parts, except for picture tube prices which runs about 1.5 times what you paid for the tv set new. Thomson does have one of the easiest to pull in RPTV units as the light box comes out and can be taken out of the tv set, making for an on average lower labor repair cost. Thomson does REQUIRE the use of a special computer interface in order to do almost every adjustment on all new chassis lines, making the service menu pretty well worthless as it is just a pass code to hook up the interface.

With the exception of the sound lockout problem and the chance of having a "lemon" intermittent failure that really is not repairable due to the excessive time between intermittent failures. They are not the worst tv you could buy.

It is likely that the picture blanking out problem will be resolved, typically 6 to 8 months for them to find the cause and issue a fix. But this is not going to help you right now.

My point was not to reach a judgment about Thomson (RCA) but to give Michael enough information to reach his own conclusion. I think the article I quoted speaks for itself in terms of RCA reliability. The conclusion I reached is I currently would not buy an RCA product since it appears they do not do enough quality testing before they release a product. But its your money take your choice. I found given the same set of facts people can reach different conclusions.

Mike your correct in stating a case has not been made against specifically RCA RPTV's. I have nothing against RCA, in fact I almost bought the 38" RCA HDTV tube set. However I saw that about half the time I was looking at the set in Best Buy over a period of six months it was not working because it needed repairs. To me this indicated a lack of quality and before I buy another RCA product I would want to see some positive feedback from other users. RCA produced a LCOS TV (about a thousand units) but abandoned it. Panasonic may be stopping production on their DLP. Samsung had problems with their HLM model DLPs. I just would be hesitant buying a new product from a company like RCA until they worked out the bugs.

An RCA press release on their DLP line.

http://www.rca.com/content/viewdetai...-CI258,00.html