How reliable is a flat panel tv?
Answer:
Reliability varies by brand (mine died at 54 weeks old).
The current promotion is 60,000 hours or about 25 years.
Buy from a store that will give a prorated credit for any non repairable unit. (Sears refused to give me a credit - apparently the new Sears Holdings > Sears + Kmart has new policies , it is NOT the Sears of earlier days)
Repairs are expensive - the video card kit would have been about $475 parts & labor, the power supply about $950)
Get a name brand (sony, LG, pioneer etc) and get it from a store that will credit defective, non-repairable units.
Rumor has it Costco is the new Sears for standing behind their products but I have not yet verified this.
I imagine if you put a bullseye in the middle of the screen, you'd have a pretty good target practice!
Just kidding. I won't ever get one. I think it's all hype for the peso!
Quick answer, no...it's hype mostly targeted at people who don't know the alternatives...or are, pardon my french, too lazy to deal with taking the 10-15 minutes to set up (superior) projectors you can buy.
Flat-panels (such as plasma's and even LCD's) are known to have life-spans of 2-4 years (plasma's are the least reliable)...plus they're very expensive. LCD is a bit lower quality image but it's considerable cheaper to buy and repair than plasma. IF YOU CAN BUY A BRAND WITH, SAY, A 10-YEAR WARRANTY, (FAR AS REPAIRS) GREAT, OTHERWISE STEER CLEAR.
I you want a huge display, you can either buy a good $800 projector (with HDTV or better resolution) or a plasma without HDTV for about $2000 or a plasma with HDTV for about $3000. Did I mention the projector gives larger viewing area? All you have to replace every couple of years is the bulbs...and there are MUCH cheaper than plasma repairs ($200 or less for each bulb)...sometimes the projector manufacturer will replace the first 1-2 bulbs for free.
If you want high-portability (or something that takes up very little room space), some ultra-portable projectors they sell that are smaller than laptop PCs and weigh about 2-3 lbs...and those also get great resolution.
A lot more reliable than the first two answers. Apparently, Kate knows more about this than either of the first two answerers. LCDs have the potential to outlast them all. The only thing that is likely to ever wear out it the lamp behind the display panel and it is good for a long, long time. Newer plasmas have great potential as well, but plasmas can weaken as they get older and wear more like the old fashioned CRT type sets. For more on this, visit this website where they've done a very comprehensive comparison of plasma and LCD sets: http://plasmatvbuyingguide.com/plasmatvr...
IF you're talking about PLASMA, they are the MOST UNRELIABLE one in the bunch
The MOST RELIABLE FLAT SCREEN is the CRT, with the LCD TVs 40 inch or less (like the computer style LCDs) right there by its side.Both are fantastic.
The LCD and DLP projection TVs are a distant 2nd place in reliability, but they will become extremely MORE reliable when the Mercury Vapor Lamp is replaced by the solid state LAMPS!
So, you want reliability NOW? Get the LCD flat screen, or wait until the LCD projectors have the LED/Laser Lamps installed.
The DLPs will really become reliable with the solid state lamps too..
So, wait if you can until the NEW technology settles down a little more.
as for me personally i'm going to wait another year or two to make sure the bugs and the technology gets worked out.
as far as the life expectancy, they are too new to tell, that why i'm giving them the wait and see what happens.
well i have a 42 in plasma from LG and they told me it will last me 60,000 hours which is over 10 years if i watch it everyday for eight or so hours.cost only 1,600 plus i added a extra 2 years of warranty to add to the 2 years it comes with already.ive had it for 6 months now and havnt had any problems.
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