[mythtv-users] Which TFT to get?

[Chris Ribe]

Does Runco make a 20" LCD TV?  How much are they getting for those?

On 3/18/06, Meatwad <meatwad.get.the.honeys at gmail.com> wrote:
> R. G. Newbury wrote:
> > Apropos the comment below about buying the 'name', the backside of that
> > is that the name brand is built with better components and will last longer.
> >
> > My Sony stereo receiver and its remote recently died. I got them fixed
> > for $75 Cdn. Needed a new CR2025 battery for the receivers tuner memory,
> > some capacitors in the power supply and a new IR transmitter/reciever
> > diode in the remote. The repair guy asked me when I bought them. Some
> > research pointed to ~1982!.
> > Interestingly, the 26" Sony Trinitron TV then started acting up. I
> > started thinking about a nice LCD widescreen... and the cost thereof.
> >
> > Turned out to be the same sort of power supply capacitor problem. The
> > repair guy *made a house call* to remove the guts of the TV rather than
> > my humping the 70 odd pounds to his shop and had it back in 2 days for
> > another $75. He also tuned up the convergence and other bits and lo and
> > behold the picture is astounding.
> >
> > I recovered this TV from the trash coming out of a house across the
> > street after someone moved. They took the 37" and left the 26"!. I had
> > no idea of its age. The repair guy tracked it down to 1988 from the
> > components inside.
> >
> > Now I will NEVER buy a Sony CD because of the DRM crap, but I WILL buy
> > Sony hardware. Sometimes you do get what you pay for.
> >
> > Then again, this free advice may be worth exactly what you have paid for it!
>
> This was very true of Sony HW (and a few other brands) until the
> mid-to-late 90's. QC and build quality have dwindled to match that of
> the popcorn commodity offshore crud (here in the US anyways) because
> consumers have been blinded by the plummeting price of electronics and
> have become accustomed to just throwing away the POS and replacing it
> with another.
>
> Most custom installers like myself won't touch the stuff anymore because
> of the dismal failure rates within 24 months. There is nothing worse in
> my business than having to explain to a customer why his $X piece of
> equipment needs to be replaced after only a year or two when they are
> spending 100*X on a system. Not good when you live on word-of-mouth.
>
> Mitsubishi was always a great tube/RP but they went out of their way to
> make it near impossible to integrate their offerings with automation
> systems. Haven't used any mitsu liquid panels so I can't really say one
> way or the other. Not many of my peers use them either.
>
> Samsung is a crapshoot. Every now and then they make a great piece but
> they keep missing the mark, series after series, regarding integration
> and reliability.
>
> I'll *pay* the Phillips rep to stop calling me.
>
> Panasonic has been a "go to" brand for a long time but they are starting
> to behave like Samsung in the last couple of years.
>
> As for the OEM bezel branders (Maxent, Akai, Sceptre, etal): Don't know,
> don't care. I don't have the time to play around with stuff rolling off
> the recycled 1st and 2nd generation manufacturing lines. I can't afford
> to waste time trying them out.
>
> LG looks promising so far. Have been with them in distribution so far
> just to get the feet wet and will likely go direct if I can keep up the
> volume. The failure rates reported by peers have been very, very low.
> Mostly DOA and likely due to handling. When LG purchased Zenith, they
> took on the marketing crew and reliability has always been job one with
> Zenith.
>
> My .02 from a CI's perspective: If you can't fit Runco into the budget,
> take a look at LG.
>
> --
> mw
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