Disappointed with Samsung TV

My parents bought my brother and I a Samsung for our video games when we were kids. It lasted ~2 years as well.

My wife and I ended up buying another that was heavily discounted because it was an open box and missing the feet. It’s going on 2 years right now. Should die at any minute. 🤷‍♂️
 
The purchasing of the TV from WalMart is part of the problem. Walmart model numbers are generally different than the regular model numbers of products. This is the same issue of "John Deere" lawn tractors at Home Depot. The Home Depot versions are cheapened to get the costs down.
I googled Samsung TV Walmart and copied the part number of one of the first results. I then Googled the part number and found it available at Best Buy. I think it has more to do with the level of the TV. Buy a $100 unit and expect $100’s worth of quality.

On a side note, I think the biggest mistake with TV’s is people see them on the skids at Walmart for $500 or whatever and just buy because of the name without looking at the specs or finding the showroom floor unit to see the picture quality. Another thing that tends to happen is that the retailer will simply turn up the brightness to fake a good quality picture.
 
I googled Samsung TV Walmart and copied the part number of one of the first results. I then Googled the part number and found it available at Best Buy. I think it has more to do with the level of the TV. Buy a $100 unit and expect $100’s worth of quality.

On a side note, I think the biggest mistake with TV’s is people see them on the skids at Walmart for $500 or whatever and just buy because of the name without looking at the specs or finding the showroom floor unit to see the picture quality. Another thing that tends to happen is that the retailer will simply turn up the brightness to fake a good quality picture.
Yep… my LG is godawful. But it was a $500 65” TV… from Walmart lol (not blaming them, Best Buy sold the same exact one). My Hisense U6G (entry level of their higher end models) annihilates it in every possible way except sound quality but I use a sound bar.
 
My 12-year-old Samsung 46" has been flawless. My 4 year-old-Samsung 55" 4K already has major screen defects along the bottom. I've also had a few smaller and cheaper model Samsungs TVs over the years that lasted an average of about 4 years before catastrophic failure - those were NOT heavily used either.

I have a 6-year-old LG that still looks beautiful.

When the 55" goes (it's our main TV) I'll probably go with Sony.
 
I remember back in the day (maybe 1970s-early 1980s) Sony Trinitron and RCA were the best of the best. Is RCA even still around?

The name is still in use on some TV's , and a few other items.
Same thing with Westinghouse, and even Magnavox.
Most are probably produced by Funai Electronics.
 
I remember way back when I sold shoes for a major mid-end clothing store, New Balance made a few models that was store specific to them. My guess is that anything is possible when it comes to store specific models.
You may be right but I'm not so sure that's the case. Do you think Mobil1 sold at WM is cheapened compared to Mobil1 sold elsewhere?...I don't.

PS: I remember my father buying our first color TV back around 1970. It was a Zenith 19" and it cost about $500 IIRC. When we moved out of our Manhattan tenement to our own house in the Bronx (in a quiet area near Yonkers) my dad bought our first new car....a 1972 Plymouth Satellite with the 318 V8....it was pretty basic and looked like a police car. IIRC he paid about $4000 for it....Things have changed a lot since then.
 
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Costco is the way to go with buying TVs unless you get a ridiculously good deal somewhere else. 2 year warranty unless you use the Costco credit card, then you get a 4 year warranty.

My aunt just bought a 77" LG at Costco for $2999 in September, Costco threw in a 5 year warranty for free with the promotion. I was at Costco a few weeks later and it was all of a sudden $2499. Costco no questions asked gave us back $543 (I used my credit card for the points).
 
You may be right but I'm not so sure that's the case. Do you think Mobil1 sold at WM is cheapened compared to Mobil1 sold elsewhere?...I don't.

PS: I remember my father buying our first color TV back around 1970. It was a Zenith 19" and it cost about $500 IIRC. When we moved out of our Manhattan tenement to our own house in the Bronx (in a quiet area near Yonkers) my dad bought our first new car....a 1972 Plymouth Satellite with the 318 V8....it was pretty basic and looked like a police car. IIRC he paid about $4000 for it....Things have changed a lot since then.
Oh no definitely not. Clothing lines and electronics can be a lot of times store specific. But motor oils and such, I’d think no way.
 
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Whole house surge protector is something like $50 plus installing at your circuit breaker.

My parent's Samsung LED TV has been going strong for over 5 years. I'm kinda partial to Vizio though
 
A friend does LCD/LED repair. Flat out, Samsung is not what is used to be.
Never would have believed I'd buy a Hisense, but I've been happy.
 
We have three Samsung, two are smart tv's. Have had them for approximately 7 years now with zero issues. Very happy.
 
She probably got a "cheaper" model. I believe they produce a range of products from bargain to high end. Maybe she got a lower tier one and a bad one at that.
 
We have a 50” Samsung, 4K, smart TV. It’s on several hours a day. Owned it for several years.

Flawless.
 
About 2 years ago...maybe 3....I walked into Walmart and they were setting up TVs for display near the front entrance. About 2 weeks later they needed the space for Halloween items and they discounted the display TVs for half price. I picked up a Vizio 50” smart TV for $170 that was used (probably constantly) for 2 weeks....so far so good. The only negative I’ve seen with Vizio is they seem to use more power than some other brands according to the yellow ‘power usage’ sticker...ie: a 50” Vizio might say $20 for the year to run while another brand 50” might do it for $15 (not a real big deal)....especially since we only watch it about an hour or two a day. PS: My wife just said it’s 3 years old ...time flies.
 
I have a 2016 or so 75” Samsung LCD TV that was demoted to the guest cabin because a bunch of diffusers fell off around 2019-2020. It still works, but with excessively bright spots throughout. The living room TV that replaced it was an expensive (but hopefully worth it) 77” LG OLED that caught my attention because the individual pixels light up. No problems with the LG, though I wish it had more HDMI ports.
 
2012 Panasonic TC-P50ST50 plasma. Bought on Cyber Monday 2012.

Love the picture quality.

Twice now, it’s had capacitors fail, and I’ve had to call a TV repair guy out, to the tune of about $60 per time.
 
My friend told me a ‘power surge’ could have fried it....IDK...maybe he’s right?
I've had a couple 2nd/3rd tier LCD TVs die within 2 years, and several LCD monitors lasted a bit longer.

I always attempt an autopsy and 80%+ of the time, they have failed capacitors. Back in the CFL backlighting days, a few had heat-stress, failed solder joints on the power board subcircuit for the CFL tube power.

Besides that, if it lasts more than a month but no bad caps, I usually assume a power surge.

Of all LCD TVs or monitors I've had, a Samsung 46" 1080p TV has the most running hours at around 10 years old, but also seems to have higher build quality, weighs a lot more than typical 50" sets sold today, yet barely even has any smart features for the $800 it cost at the time.

That influenced my choice to buy another Samsung a year ago, one of their lower end models for a different room, not to replace the 46". Knock on wood, I hope to get at least 4-5 years out of it. So far, very happy with it. I'm not a TV-spec nerd, am fine with the picture quality. Since I don't use the smart features much (aren't wanting to add apps), I'd rather have the Samsung Tyzen OS after my last Hisense set with Android was buggy for a long time... then eventually died at ~18mos. old. Definitely an android bug problem because once I stopped using it as a smart TV and disconnected internet access, the uptimes between crashes greatly increased. That !@#$ Hinsense would even crash when turned (soft-) OFF, needed wall plug pulled and fresh boot to work again. Newer firmware did not help.
 
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