!!!Avoid Prima Plasma TVs!!!follow this thread (1 Viewer)

[ChrisCAB]

"So to me, until people stop buying entry level junk and go back to buying stuff that lasts, you'll end up with stories like this post. I hear about them every day"

I agree with your conclusion, but not your analysis. If you think there is any sort of correlation between price and likelihood something will break you are sadly mistaken. Take (1) the auto industry (Mercedes and Volkswagen/Audi have pitiful reliability and worse customer service); (2) the video industry (high end brands fail more frequently than lower end brands); and (3) the audio industry (same)

High end audio gear tends to fail more frequently precisely because it is not mass produced. Additionally, it tends to be a lot more complex than lower end equipment and thus there are simply more things that can and eventually will go wrong. And that, I think, is the real correlation.

Until recently I had always driven hand-me-down cars, from a time when cars were largely mechanical devices. Now I drive a car with all the latest gadgets. And, of course, it is in the shop with alarming regularity.

So, bottom line, definitely go for quality, but don't measure that concept by how much lighter it makes your wallet. Plasmas are a new technology and lcd's are a new application of an older technology. Both are more complex than crt's and for those reasons are going to have more problems.

The displays mentioned in this thread are examples of worse than average implementation. They happen to be inexpensive. But I'd be very surprised if there weren't just as many problems with certain "expensive" sets.

 

[Curt Palme]

Steve- no manufacturer makes any money any more in the service department. Go look at some financial statements of consumer electronics companies, they don't look very good. So when you deal with low end stuff, there's even less initiative to get them repaired, as that's money out of the manufaturer's pocket. It's pathetic, I know.

Chris, no argument there, I went through 6 Panasonic DVD players last year over 6 months as a whole messload of them had bad lasers. Still, I used the BB 30 day exchange to get a new one each time, no hassles. But you can bet someone lost their shirt in supplying me with 5 replacement $99 DVD players.

I would argue however that when you're dealing with audiophile stuff, most of those companies simply aren't large enough to do the full R&D required to ensure the $10K amp at 20 watts per channel will work stably with every load. Throw in Monster type speaker cables that throw very strange loads of inductance and capacitance and you end up with a mess if the amp wasn't designed right.

I still think you're much better off buying something a bit higher than the run of the mill like a Denon receiver than something picked up at WalMart.

Again, I think most of the lack of quality out there is driven both by insane manufacturers' competitiveness along with customers that constantly demand something for nothing.

 

[Steve_Wingman]

Chris, to reguards to cars- would you believe I'm driving a 1965 Studebaker as my everyday car? Not because I'm cheap but because I can fix anything that rarely goes wrong and it has an amazing feature, no stupid plastic stuff that breaks! Imagine that 40 years ago they made things like door handles (inside and out) that were metal and didn't break off after seven years! Or major engine components (intake manifold on my Dad's Ford that split after five years).
Curt, I agree it was a cheaper model TV and try to buy the mid level when ever possible. I even did the research via the net to get opinions and took a chance. All I was looking for was a TV that I could use for about 4-5 years then upgrade to HD. Seven months was a little short of that goal.
Is there a brand name that any one can rely on now or is it just the product line's reputation it's self? How about LG or Sanyo? Sony or Panasonic? It's too bad that Yamaha doesn't make TV's because out of all the Yamy amps/receivers that I have seen through friends/family, only one 15yr old 2ch poweramp ever came up dead (RIP, it suffered through an abusive relationship).
Cheers guys,
Steve

 

[kuliddar]

God I love this thread

On the Canadian Tire thing....hell they can`t even change a windshield wiper.

On service, yep no company makes any money with the customer service center. Look at Bell Canada/Mobility, the worst service ever and half the time you don`t even understand in what language they speak to you.

As for brand, well for me, that is limited on budget, however I still don`t want to have to change after 7, 8, 12 months my tv. I rather just save money for another few months or even a year to get a brand that I know I won`t have issues with if anything happens down the line (if anything happens at all). I`ve been reading this board for the last year. Analyzing reviews and thoughts and often the same bad products come out and the good ones as well. Yes we can be surprised at brands sometimes. Look at LG, came from making CD-ROM drives to appliances, dvd players and TVs. So sometimes we do leap of faiths if we can afford it. Since I can`t, I seem to be going towards Samsung, Sony or Panasonic. More expensive yet, but at least there is a good chance it won`t blow up in my face. Wanted to go CRT for widescreen originally, but since a decent model is almost impossible to find now. I said, ''Ok lets go Plasma now, they probably solved the whole burn-in issues since.'' Sheesh guess not...so I`m going towards LCD I think.

Another reason to tell my girlfriend not to go with The Bricks' brand ''Legend''.