Modern TV Build Quality

Rodders53

What exact model of Panasonic TV? 
What part has failed that can't be sourced? 

NB Cheaper entry level LCDs were made in Turkey by Vestel (to Pansonic specs).

My Plasma GT60 is now over 10 years old and going strong in daily use (upgraded it to an OLED a few months back that I expect to last a similar time).

We gave away another Plasma that was from 2010 and still working well, but needed the space (to relocate my GT60). 

I suspect that 7 years is a not unreasonable, if maybe earlier than average, fail timescale.  A lot will depend on how many hours a day an TV set is used for.

Thomas_Crown

Neil_Jones said:

Krakkkers said:

All things are fine before they stop, how old are you as TVs used to be so unreliable that people would just rent them.

Well that and the fact TVs used to be so expensive it was cheaper to rent them rather than buy them.  That's what Radio Rentals was for.  But eventually the price of this stuff became so cheap it made no sense to continue to rent when it was more economical to just buy one outright.

As to the OP, well modern TVs are built down to a price, rather than up to a standard.  Economy of scale and all.  Unfortunately I feel that if you don't like whats on offer you won't have a lot of choice, as there are only really a handful of "real" manufacturers of TVs these days - Samsung, LG, possibly Philips and Vestel - who "make" every other brand on the market, including Panasonic, which initially farmed TV operations off to Vestel, bought it back, and then sold part of it back to them.

You missed Hisense off your list of  ''real'' manufacturers. They manufacture TVs for other companies and also sell them under the Hisense brand.

MattMattMattUK

Neil_Jones said:

Krakkkers said:

All things are fine before they stop, how old are you as TVs used to be so unreliable that people would just rent them.

Well that and the fact TVs used to be so expensive it was cheaper to rent them rather than buy them.  That's what Radio Rentals was for.  But eventually the price of this stuff became so cheap it made no sense to continue to rent when it was more economical to just buy one outright.

It was still cheaper to buy them, it was just that people preferred a small monthly payment to a large upfront payment, it was and still is always more economical to buy outright. 

MattMattMattUK

I had an early 1080p Sony LCD, it lasted 18 years, around 40,000 hours of usage, I would say that is pretty good. I have a 55" 4k LED Sony Bravia that I bought in 2016 that was my main TV and is now on the wall in my bedroom, had no problems with that in the seven years and a 75" 4k OLED Sony Bravia that I bought in 2021 and has had no problems (apart from them taking a year to enable VRR). My Mum has two Samsung LCD TVs that are at least 7-10 years old and have no problems, my sister three Samsung LCDs with no problems, 3-8 years old and I also know many people who love the LG OLEDs.

Failure rates on most main brand stuff is very low and it either fails early (first few months) whilst under warranty/consumer rights, or fails after many years, very little fails in the middle bit. The only caveat on that is that modern TVs, especially OLEDs, are a lot thinner than older displays and are far less able to take physical punishment, not that a TV should get any physical punishment, but you never know with some people. 

brewerdave

MattMattMattUK said:

Neil_Jones said:

Krakkkers said:

All things are fine before they stop, how old are you as TVs used to be so unreliable that people would just rent them.

Well that and the fact TVs used to be so expensive it was cheaper to rent them rather than buy them.  That's what Radio Rentals was for.  But eventually the price of this stuff became so cheap it made no sense to continue to rent when it was more economical to just buy one outright.

It was still cheaper to buy them, it was just that people preferred a small monthly payment to a large upfront payment, it was and still is always more economical to buy outright. 

But back in the last century (!!), the reliability of sets wasn't the best - as I said in an earlier post , I rented - not cheaper in theory but cheaper in practice, with the regular call outs when the picture or sound  went wonky, 

Imperial926

Marvqn1 said:

Is your 7 year-old Panasonic TV a Vestal? For years, many entry-level Panasonic TVs are Vestal sets that are re-badged and not produced by Panasonic.

It is, sorry was, a Vierra!

Imperial926

Thanks to everyone for your comments! I too remember renting sets and, yes, they were more unreliable then. This is why, in my ignorance, I expected them to be more reliable now.

A few observations: - 

These days a 'dumb' TV would be sufficient as most of us have ludicrously-named 'set-top boxes' anyway.
Manufacturers want to sell us 'Smart' TVs so we see the inevitable plugging of various apps - a form of advertising.

I have now looked at low and high end models but even the LG rep at John Lewis can't assure me that build quality is any better.

Sony even have a £3000 model without access to UK apps - these are apparently coming as an update!

My final thoughts are that manufacturers have complete control here and the customer, in reality, has little choice. We are now without a TV. I shall probably look to see if a model I'm interested in gets even cheaper on Black Friday.

I will buy an LED TV and resist OLED. I don't like the LG remotes so it will probaly be a Samsung 50" from John Lewis with a 5 year warranty.

Thanks again to everyone for their thoughts and time spent considering my plight!

DullGreyGuy

Thomas_Crown said:

Neil_Jones said:

Krakkkers said:

All things are fine before they stop, how old are you as TVs used to be so unreliable that people would just rent them.

Well that and the fact TVs used to be so expensive it was cheaper to rent them rather than buy them.  That's what Radio Rentals was for.  But eventually the price of this stuff became so cheap it made no sense to continue to rent when it was more economical to just buy one outright.

As to the OP, well modern TVs are built down to a price, rather than up to a standard.  Economy of scale and all.  Unfortunately I feel that if you don't like whats on offer you won't have a lot of choice, as there are only really a handful of "real" manufacturers of TVs these days - Samsung, LG, possibly Philips and Vestel - who "make" every other brand on the market, including Panasonic, which initially farmed TV operations off to Vestel, bought it back, and then sold part of it back to them.

You missed Hisense off your list of  ''real'' manufacturers. They manufacture TVs for other companies and also sell them under the Hisense brand.

You have to be careful with Hisense though as they have taken the odd decision of using the same model number to describe a different model in different territories. There is one model number in the US which is a high end set (for Hisense) and gets great reviews but that same model number is used for a budget set in the UK which gets poor reviews - the US model wasn't available in the UK at the last time of checking. 

wild666

My last TV, an LG lasted 11 years. I gave it to my daughter in 2019 after having it for 8 years, it was on most days and lasted her 3 years before the tuner went.

Imperial926

I still haven't bought a TV and now our Miele dishwasher has failed. TV or dishwasher? At least the dishwasher is over 15 years old and it's the first time I have ever had a Miele product break down. I have paid £270 up front for a Miele engineer. The deal is that if they can't fix it the money is taken off the purchase of a new one.

Thanks for all the comments - I will probably go with LG for a TV although I don't like the design of the remote controls. I'm sure i will get over that.