How reliable are modern LCD televisions?

Looking at getting a new tv and it will be my first foray away from CRT. I know that in the past people have recommended buying from John Lewis due to their 5 year warranty but how important are those extra years these days. Would most faults not make themselves obvious in the first year?

Any thoughts?

Bugger, wrong forum, sorry

You want an LED telly. We’ve had our basic 32″ samsung for 2.5 yrs no probs as yet. Get a decent make Samsung or Sony and you’ll be fine.

Yup, I meant LED and it’s a Samsung I’m looking at.

They are very reliable. Low power, no moving parts, low heat. I use them for work a fair bit with onlt a single issue when a fixing snapped on the mounting bolts. Dropped a 32″ Sony a couple of metres onto concrete once and it was fine. Warranty is not a big issue IMHO

John Lewis price match and give you the 5 year warranty.

Compare them to Richer Sounds and make a choice.

Had ours 8 years or so now and not a glitch.

OK, its starting to show its age in terms of inputs etc and the picture quality has improved a bit on newer ones but in terms of reliability its been fine.

Richer Sounds would be my port of call. Their customer service in my experience is every bit as good as JL’s

We’ve had our 40″ Samsung for at least a couple of years with no problems at all.

Excellent, thank you all. Opens up a few options there. Confirms what I expected really.

As above 3 and 5 years and no issues (i dont even remeber if the 5yr old tv is lcd or plasma) I would suspect the new ones are even better as the technology has been moving so fast. Having stuck with CRT for a long time once we made the switch we’ve been much more inclined to upgrade. What I would say is don’t bother with smart tv with integrated internet etc, it’s cheaper and more upgradable to add that technology externally via Apple TV or another Internet access box / connection to your pc.

Mine died at 5 years. 🙁
I wouldn’t expect to get much more than that out of one.

I’d expect one to be more reliable than a CRT to be honest. Fewer complex gubbins. I’d expect much more than 5 years.

Just make sure it’s well ventilated.

Cool, good stuff.

What are people’s thoughts on LG? I seem to recall them being pretty good but I can’t remember for sure.

This one seems like a potential option

Our Panasonic is now into year 6, still working fine, no dead or bright spots.

Would love to get something newer, and bigger, but can’t do that until it breaks…

My Sony Bravia 40″ is at least five or six years old, and has been fine. It did replace two CRT TV’s, a 21″ Panasonic FST, that I bought around twenty-five/thirty years before, and was still going when I gave it away, and a Philips 32″ wide-screen that also lasted something like 20+ years before it died on its ass.
The Bravia is a great set, though.

I’d expect one to be more reliable than a CRT to be honest. Fewer complex gubbins. I’d expect much more than 5 years.

That’s what I would have thought. But, you hear of old CRTs lasting 20+ years…
eBay seems to be full of knackered LED TVs barely a few years old.

I had slightly over 5 years out of mine.

Got a 7 year old sony bravia.. still going and working really well

*now given it the kiss of death

TLDR: RICHER SOUND SALES STAFF ARE FULL OF SHIT! DO NOT TRUST THEM!

So i went to RS today, having read all the reviews i had decided on a Samsung 32″ F5000 model as i dont require any smart TV features and it was supposed to have the best picture of all the competition in that price range.

Before heading into town i called the store to check they had stock, the guy on the phone was very freindly and informed me that yes they had stock and had a 42″ f5000 on display so i could check out the interface etc… He then said they had other models in that size i could take a look at including a Toshiba… v0v fair enough me thinks, into town i head!

When i got to the store and looked at the TV’s i instantly noticed the samsungs seemed really washed out compared to the other brands panels, given that all the reviews vaunted that TV’s depth and colour reproduction way above any of its competitors this really didnt seem right, i chatted to the sales guys who again brought up this Toshiba TV, it didn’t look anywhere near as good as any of the Sony, LG or Panasonic screens but was a hell of a lot cheaper (only £10 more than the F5000 but with smart TV features so not a bad deal).

At this point my spidy sense started tingling so i decided to pop down the road to Currys where i knew that had most 32″ models lined up so as to facilitate comparisons. Lo and behold the Samsung lined up next to the LG and the Toshiba and it completely blew them away!!!

So at this point i think it was fairly obvious that something dodgy has been going down at Richer Sounds. Everyone knows Tosiba’s are shit and for a lower end product their price was not especially competitive. Clearly the Toshiba has the big markup and big sales commision! So they must have **** with the colour settings to push people away from the very popular and probably very low mark-up Samsung.

But i’m not the vindictive sort and the Samsung was £20 cheaper at Richer sounds so back up the road i go to claim my Technological bounty. I walk right up to the sales desk and ask to purchase a Samsung UE32F5000, the guy checks his computer and says yeah we have that in stock no problem, however first can i show you this REALLY good Toshiba we have?

At that point i lost my shit and flew into a tirade about sales staff and abuse of trust. Then went back to Currys and gave them my money.

Cheers

T

Well, if your looking for customer service I’d give Samsung a wide birth. Our 18 month old SmartTV needs a new screen, & according to the various forums etc, it’s not exactly rare either. And of course, Samsung are of the opinion that’s it’s perfectly reasonable to expect to have to spend 80% of the new cost on repairs after 18 months.

If your buying I would avoid Samsung, & buy with a 5yr warranty.

In my eyes, Samsung were a bunch of patronising rsoles & I’ll do my absolute best to encourage people not to buy their products from now on.

Utter, utter shite.

I’ve been selling AV for longer than I care to remember and TVs are the last of your worries, anything with a moving part is much, much more likely to have a problem. Personally a five year warranty is not something that would make me choose to buy – the chances are you’ll replace the TV before it dies. Yes, if you’re unlucky a problem can be a bit of a nightmare so a good warranty is a comfort blanket, as such JL with competitive pricing are a good choice. The fact they offer such a long warranty is testament to reliability and low failures, it’s a calculated tactic on their part but a fairly safe one. Samsung, Panasonic, Loewe are all strong brands but I do work in the upper end of the market so not much experience of cheep Telly’s…

I have what I reckon to be a 10 year old 32″ LCD sat on my desk, after years of daily use as a TV (and a media centre on most of the time TV) it’s now my second screen on my main PC. Picture is still great.

Most store display TVs have their picture set to “shop mode” which makes their colours very bright and exciting. A properly calibrated set will appear dull by comparison. Do not fall for this trick. Put your trust in reviews from AVForums and similar sources and buy your chosen TV irrespective of how it might appear in the shop. Then calibrate the picture at home, taking advice from forum members, many of whom use professional calibration equipment.

Modern panels with LED backlighting are pretty reliable. Even more so than older panels with fluorescent backlighting. Besides, you might want to upgrade in a couple of years from 1080p to 4k.

Make sure you pick the right size. I’m not sure anyone ever bought a TV and later thought ‘I should have got a smaller one’. Really think about the biggest size you can get away with. you’ll get the benefit of HD by sitting a reasonable distance from it[/url]. You don’t want to squander that high resolution by sitting too far away.

Never judge a TV by its picture quality in a shop! As mentioned by oldboy, it’s in shop mode for a start and even then folk quite often dick around with the settings.

I bought a Samsung a few years back on the strength of reviews rather than how it looked in Currys. Out of the box the picture was a bit meh, once I’d used the settings that are on AV forums it looked like a different set!

My LCD was goosed in 6months after my 18mth old boy through a piece of lego at it. Very very fragile panels

molgrips – Member
I’d expect one to be more reliable than a CRT to be honest. Fewer complex gubbins. I’d expect much more than 5 years.

Just make sure it’s well ventilated.

Maybe, but CRTs have had over 100 years of development at this point. Our LCDs have had various problems, e.g. they take longer and longer to switch on until they eventually don’t (failed capacitor I think), dark patch appearing on the screen (failed backlight LED or controller), completely black area of the screen (not sure yet what failed on that one), shadows (failed film).
They’ve all been mid range models from decent makes as well, Sony, Panasonic, Samsung etc. Seem to get about 3 years out of them.

Mine lasted 3 yeares and now the motherboard is apprently going and the colour is goosed. It’ll probably last a little longer and when it dies the john lewis warrenty will be a stronger consideration this time around.

Seen several Samsungs that have failed, including the one I recommended to my sister.

that, combined with Samsungs dodgy skin tone rendering and poor picture processing, mean I would recommend something else.

I like the current Sonys but wouldn’t buy something Sony without an extended warranty – even though my Sony LCD has been alive for ages.

I think Panasonic have the best reputation for reliability.

Richer Sounds is gash. I was getting my haircut the other day and an older guy came in boasting about his £80 hdmi cable that the guy in Richer Sounds had just persuaded him to buy!

still have a Samsung from 2007 that was used daily for 12+ hours up unti a few months back, no issues except the remote is battered

My Mitsubishi CRT has lasted 22 years so far
My JVC CRT lasted about 4
My Philips CRT lasted 5

Currently up to 4 years on my Panasonic 37″ LCD. Never use any of the Smart stuff, except maybe once per year to see if there are any new apps. You’re never realistically going to go watch Simon’s cat on the telly youtube app, when it’s a single click/fondle on the PC/tablet.

I’ll be happy if it gets another 2 years or so.

Thinking about swapping that 22yr old Mitsubishi for smaller screen LCD (just to be able to get DVB-S2 HD). Need to shop about a bit, since most smaller screens only do DVB-T/C

edit: I didn’t post that twice. There’s a bug in the forum s/w.

generally if you look at 10 tv’s and can’t tell the difference between the picture buy the cheapest 🙂 watch out for the AV enfusiast stuff, next people will be suggesting directional cables 😉

^^ and half the mfrs use screens from the competition any way, and often make the picture look better.

Sony Bravia I looked at was rubbish. Think one of the other mfrs using the same Sony screens made a better image than Sony, who I rated down with Tosh.

The other trick employed in stores is the Toy Story 2 trick. Lots of vibrant colour, no high frequency detail. Get them to put on a footy match. I had to leave the shop feeling queasy after 5 mins comparing Sammy and Philips, cos the pan/scan made the grass constantly flip between blurred and stunningly crisp HD. I expect they’re better now.

The demo loops they show is all 1-2sec clips, giving the impression of fast paced action, but you can’t evaluate anything in that time.

grrr – another double post bug. it really is the s/w, not my windoze interpreting a click as a double click!

When we bought our Samsung 7 series LED I’d read all the reviews I could find, including how to set them up properly. The factory settings were not up to much and after 1/2 and hour of fiddling I ended up with a very nice image.

takisawa2 – doesn’t this come under the 2 year minimum EU warranty thingy?

Agree ^

It has to be expected to last a reasonable period of time for the quality of the product. Sadly in our case the retailer went bust before we could take them on over our fridge/freezer that was just over a year old with an identical issue that was picked up within the warranty period.

Whilst I was looking for a new tv recently, I read a bit on the reasonable life span and what stuck in my mind was that for a half decent tv you would be looking at 5 years.

My 6 year old Samsung series 6 has pretty much given up after several house moves and been replaced by an LG which was £500 cheaper and 5kg lighter.

The ironic thing is my CRT(?) TV has better image control/clarity and sound than most cheap and mid-end flat screens and I think its going on 7-10yrs old. Madness.

Don’t buy cheap. Spend as much as you can having looked at all the reviews.

I think as long as you stick with the top brands IE LG, Sony, Panasonic, Samsung you’ll be OK OP. If you think bike forums are full of sperglords then you should try some of the AV ones, the mind boggles. Just replaced all the TVs in my house with Samsung smart TVs, they’re great.

Silly question time – if shops display TVs in ‘shop mode’ to make the picture look as tip top as possible, can’t you just put it in shop mode when you get it home? (leaving aside Toy Story 2 type tricks)