HDTV opinion (1 Viewer)

[AndrewScofield]

Hey all,
I was wondering about what people thought about getting a warranty on their TV. I'm trying to decide wether or not I should get one for mine. Its a HDTV made by samsung. Its only a 27" TV. Currently its going for $550 but if I get the warrenty with it + after tax all of the sudden its a $900 TV. So I am wondering if I should actually get the warrenty with the TV or not. It does have the 1 year parts and labor the comes with the TV and I can take it somewhere local. So let me know what you guys this about getting the warrenty. Thanks,

Andrew

 

[Carlos Picart]

I didn't take the extended warranty on my HDTV. Sony offers a 1 year warranty on parts and labor. Having purchased my TV with an American Express card, they add an additional year of coverage on parts on labor. So 2 years for free or I could have spent 300 bucks on an additional 3 years of warranty, giving me 4 years total. American Express wouldn't extend their coverage if I bought an extended warranty. So I took my chances with 2 years coverage and not 4 at an expense.

My advice is call your credit card company and ask what kind of coverage they offer, if any. My experience with American Express has only been top notch there for I opted to what they offered.

 

[Michael Mathius]

Welcome Andrew:

The is no way I would pay over 55% more for a warranty and certainly not for a tv. In the past year I've seen tv prices drop over 50%. So you are better off keeping your money in your pocket. Heck I would not even buy from this company that is offering you this ripoff

 

[David Susilo]

I just need to warn you about Samsung HDTVs. I'm already on my FOURTH defective HDTVs. The first was their 30" 16:9 CRT direct-view, then HCM4216W, then HCM4215W, then another one with the same model (HCM4215W) died within a week of replacement.

Be afraid... you REALLY get what you've paid for.

 

[KevinJ]

samsung tv's aren't all that bad even with that flaw imho

 

[David Susilo]

aren't all that bad? 4 broken TVs in a year? with the last one lasted less than a week?

 

[KevinJ]

my tv works pretty well even with the line down the middle imho

 

[David Susilo]

I don't know about you, having a line in the middle of the viewing area is never a good thing.

Would you buy a pair of sunglasses with a line down in the middle of the lens?

But if you think a TV with a line down in the middle is normal, if you think a TV that dies after (in my case) a month, another one dies after two weeks and the last one dies after only 1 week is normal... then Samsung is a great TV.

 

[KevinJ]

with the trouble i had getting my tv into my av cabinet i can accept the line since there's no way it's leaving the cabinet anytime soon

 

[KevinJ]

and also the line's really not all that noticable on my txm2796 anyhow[fixing it's more trouble than it's worth]

 

[Daniel Becker]

What line are you guys talking about? I've never heard of this problem and i've been considering one of the Samsung HD sets. You can't beat the price but I was wondering about the quality.


My girlfiend's roommate bought one out of box (yes, she doesn't know what she's doing) and it looks great and has worked well for months now.



Dan.b

 

[David Susilo]

with Samsung HDTVs, regardless of model (I can't speak for the DLP though), most of them are plagued with a faint vertical line (usually) right in the middle of the screen about 1"-2" wide (depending on the screen size).

This faint line is very easily detectable if you calibrate the TV. Espceially if the scene has lots of off-white colour such as Hockey game broadcasts, the fog scenes in "Insomnia" DVD and so forth.

After about 3 years having this kind of problem, Samsung finally admit the existence of this problem and have just recently released a bulletin to their service centres in how to fix the problem.

It doesn't, however, fix design flaw problem such as low quality caps and power supply for their TVs, especially their CRT RPTVs.

 

[Daniel Becker]

Thanks for the info David. I was only considering a tube tv from Samsung. Do you have any other info on the quality of these sets? I also heard about their new ones they debuted at the recent CES. Do you know anything about those sets and their quality.


I personally feel Sony makes the best tube tv's i've seen. However, I really want to enter the HD world this year for DVD's and videogames and i'm really starting to weigh my options at this point. I think my price limit is about $1000. I'm still undecided about widescreen or 4:3. I'm leaning towards 4:3 though. I feel that 4:3 will still be the standard for at least a few more years in television viewing.



Dan.b

 

[David Susilo]

Daniel,

this problem is not only plaguing the CRT RPTV but also their direct-view CRT. As long as they are HDTV, you may encounter that faint line in the middle. That is something they can easily remedy (with some hassles, obviously)

But in terms of their lifespan, I personally want to stay as far away as possible.

As far as 4:3 vs 16:9, the only 4:3 TV show I watch is The Simpsons, so it doesn't make sense for me to buy 4:3 TV anymore. The rest, I just watch DVD or nothing at all.

They build really good microwave oven though, better than Panasonic and LG.