Consumer Reports; TV Reliability

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(dated March 2019)

Consumer Reports estimates that 20 percent of Hisense and Vizio TVs will experience a problem within the first five years. Both brands get a rating of Fair for predicted reliability. By comparison, we estimate that 11 percent of TVs made by Sony, which has a Very Good rating for reliability, will develop a problem during that period.

Both Hisense and Vizio have challenged CR’s results, saying that their own data on reliability contradict our findings.

In an emailed statement, Hisense said: "As the fastest-growing TV brand among the top six brands, with defective rates of less than 4 percent, we stand by the quality and longevity of our TVs.......

Vizio also commented by email, saying that it "strongly disagrees with Consumer Reports’ reliability rating".......

The survey revealed sharp differences among brands when it comes to owner satisfaction. Three brands—LG, Samsung, and Sony—earned our highest mark for owner satisfaction, and TCL was just a notch below them.
 
You get what you pay for ?

Vizio TVs are a great value for the price but you may trade-off reliability with them. On the other hand, to many people, TVs have become disposable enough that they replace their TV every 3-5 years anyway. We did buy our son one quite a few years ago and he used it a lot. It's been passed down to our youngest now and still working fine.
 
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I've had good luck with Sony and Samsung TVs. The Sony was 7 or 8 years old and still going strong when I left it for the buyers of my last house. The Samsung in the new place is pushing 3 years old, knock on wood no issues.
 
You get what you pay for ?

Vizio TVs are a great value for the price but you may trade-off reliability with them. On the other hand, to many people, TVs have become disposable enough that they replace their TV every 3-5 years anyway. We did buy our son one quite a few years ago and he used it a lot. It's been passed down to our youngest now and still working fine.
We have one that's 9 years old and is used quite a bit. It's been a great TV. The sound always lacked a little clarity, so we bought a sound bar on sale at Walmart during Black Friday and it fixed the issue.
 
When I shop using Consumer Reports my main focus is reliability. All those nice features some models may have pales in the face of having something go wrong and needing repair.
 
I have a 50” Panasonic that’s like 7 or 8 years old. Been flawless.
Our main TV (in the living room) is a Panasonic 50" LCD. I bought it at Sears and they closed down around here 3-4 years ago but it was bought when they were doing "okay". I'm not even sure how old it is though it's certainly 5+ years old. It is a "smart" TV but that functionality is pretty much useless. When the time comes to replace it, I'd love to buy a non-smart TV but I'm not sure they exist. The software and software support on those runs out far too quick making apps stuck in the past eventually or zero support for new apps. We have Rokus on every TV to avoid this.
 
The TCL I bought on cyber monday last year was from Costco. Opted for the extra 3 year warranty for $30. If it dies before 5 years theni can get a replacement. I've never had a TV die on me.

My mother had a Toshiba 48 inch that died after about three years. I'm pretty sure she had that tv on almost 24 hours a day 7 days a week. No extended warranty. I sold it for parts to some guy for $20.
 
I have a 50” Panasonic that’s like 7 or 8 years old. Been flawless.

Too bad they got out of the US TV market.

My uncle is still enjoying my 2004 era 32” 1080i Olevia 232-s12
I got it for $328 at a Big Lots friends and family sale which was a “good deal” at the time.
I was always frustrated by its strange limited vertical resolution (couldn’t display 1280x1024 and my pc of the time only had 4:3 resolutions) but it had a very expansive horizontal resolution I couldn’t use.
It is definitely “of the time” with a dozen different logos on the bezel including ATI, Dolby and the newish HDMI STANDARD

He has it on 24/7 and refuses to shut it off or turn on the AC there is a faint disclororation about 2” in from the edges now from I assume is from getting hot enough to deform the top of the plastic case this summer sitting in the sun.
 
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(dated April 2020)

Our crack team of statisticians looked at prices and CR test results from January 2017 through January 2020 for a number of leading TV brands sold in the U.S.

.......TVs from Samsung, LG, and Sony earned top scores in our testing across just about every size range. And generally, sets from these companies cost more than their competitors’ TVs.

Some brands, including Element, Hitachi, RCA, and Westinghouse, trailed the others in both quality and price in some size categories.

Our testing shows that some models from newer brands, such as Hisense and TCL, have been improving in quality recently. But typically we see that better performance only in the upper-tier models from these brands.
 
Bought my Samsung 65" DLP in 2006, it's still doing living room duty. Had to have the main board replaced right after the one year mark (just out of warranty but Samsung covered it). Replaced a bulb once, it's been flawless otherwise. Was a cool $2700 when new, back when 1080P sets cost a pretty penny.

I have a one year old Vizio 4K QLED 50" that I use as my PC display, extremely happy with it.
 
All my primary TV's have been Sony's, great tv, my bedroom tv's have been Vizio and Sharp.
 
My first 4K TV was a 55" Insignia from Best Buy.
The sound went out under warranty and there were no parts available to fix it in their 30 repair window so they took it back.
I used the full credit to buy a 55" 4K Samsung.
The Samsung is far superior but cost and extra $200. Well worth it.
I have a dumb 10 year old 40" LCD Sony in the bedroom still going strong and a 5 year old Westinghouse dumb 32" still going strong.
I think just like a lot of products sometimes you get a good one and sometimes a Lemon.
 
The first and last Vizio I bought in 2015 made it about 18 months before failing, backlight started going out. Replaced it with a Samsung that we still have. Now have a LG because my kids broke my new curved Samsung after only a year.... I must say the wider viewing angles of the IPS panel are nice, even though it can’t get nearly as dark as a normal panel.
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First LCD TV I bought in ~2004 (a 32" 1080p Sceptre for $400) is still in use in my daughters room. Was our bedroom TV till a few months ago.
It was replaced with a Phillips 42" 1080p that I found by a dumpster. From what I can find, it is from around 2007-2008 time frame. No idea why it was in the trash, it works fine and looks good to me.
Living room tv is a 46" 1080p RCA that I bought for $400 in 2006/2007?

I don't understand why people buy a new tv when their old one still works? My sister (actually her husband) buys a new TV every other year or so, always getting a bigger/better/more featured model.
I watch stuff on theirs, and really see no difference to justify upgrading mine. I just don't need a 70" 4k smart tv.
 
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