televisions - is it worth buying a well known brand?

[crisgal]

the telly went bang on christmas eve and so now we need to buy a new one - thank goodness for the january sales!
Anyway, i've noticed on the internet that you can get much more for your money if you buy a lesser known brand - matsui - technika - acoustic solutions etc.
My husband says it's false economy and we should stick to sony - phillips - jvc etc.
I would be grateful for your opinions, before i part with my hard earned cash!
thanks

[EAGLE5]

Not a direct answer to your question!, but I agree with your Hubby stick to sony-philips etc, never forget you only get what you pay for and this is very true in the manufacturing industry, cheaper brands use crap components therefore your product has a short lifespan. Tesco is doing a great deal just now on a 40" sony@ �599, normally �899. sounds a fantastic deal to me. I bought mine from John Lewis stores, they do a pricematch AND give a 5 YEAR PARTS AND LABOUR WARRANTY, now I think that's great for peace of mind!! Best of luck on your final choice!

[vehelpfulguy]

>Tesco is doing a great deal just now on a 40" sony@ �599, normally �899.

Be careful of some of these supermarket offers.

I was on the look out for a 32" model and saw one in Sainsbury's just before christmas that said �599 reduced to �449.

I did some research and found it was a discontinued model and only had one HDMI socket.

It was being sold at richer sounds for �399, see below:

http://www.richersounds.com/showproduct.php?cd a=showproduct&pid=TOSH-32A3030DB

On Boxing day I bought a better model Toshiba in Currys for �399 than the one I had seen in Sainsbury's at �449.

[vehelpfulguy]

To answer your question, it is a bit like asking if you should buy the Heinz baked beans or Tescos own brand baked beans.

Heinz have a reputation to keep up so will use the best quality beans and good quality tomato sauce.

Tescos (and other own brands) are probably lower quality beans, with tomato sauce that is 50% water.

Same with TVs.

Sony, Toshiba etc have a reputation to keep up, so will use the best quality screens and other components. If it goes wrong you are more likely to get good support.

Also, these companies probably do a fair bit of checking that it all works before it leaves the factory.

Brands like matsui will use lower grade screens and other components, and you may well have trouble getting support if it goes wrong.

They will also do less checking that the TV works and may well leave it to the customer to find the faults.

[vehelpfulguy]

By the way, do consider Richer sounds for your TV. I have bought a few things from there and never had a problem.

They often buy older models in bulk of TVs that have been superceeded or discontinued, but in the TV world this can be less than 9 months which is no time at all.

For example the 32" Toshiba that I mentioned above that I bought on Boxing Day.

This came out in about March 2007 and was over �650 at that time.

I guess it is coming to the end of its life and will probably be replaced early next year and I got it for only �400 so it does pay to look around.

Richer sounds web site

http://www.richersounds.com/splashpage.php

[kwicky]

A lot of the cheaper models are sets made by an unknown supplier contracted out by major retailers such as argos, comet and dixons. In fact if you look on their websites you will see identical sets but with different brand names with two different prices.

[ACtheTROLL]

The whole electrical brandname thing is a bag of worms.

currently LG are trying to establish their name .... so there are some good deals ....
because LG are starting a price war .... sony, toshiba hitachi etc are retaliating.

Because sales are down .... currys, comet etc are also in the fight trying to tempt you to buy from them.
(you could well find that buying from them online will save a few quid!!)

the best advice I would offer is .... compare prices ....
but most importantly .... go look at the things working ... touch them, listen to them ..... go get a coffee .... look again .... look on the web to compare prices (remember a TV can cost �30-50 in postage!!!!)

also remember that even a "small" 32" tv is bloo*y big ... you are probably going to need a stand ..... and that can be another �80-200 (if it's included .... it's quite a saving)

...... then buy the day after

Phillips sold under a couple of other names when their video2000 system launched (phillips, pye and grundig)- the manufacture was all done in eindoven .... and to keep costs down ... they only made one machine. The remotes (where supplied) all had different buttons (to make the different model's facilities available) . and the fronts were molded in silver, black and gold (an extra �150 when sold as grundig) and again had different buttons. They also produced a medical version which sold for 4 times the price of the domestic model ..... if you could get hold of a top of the range remote .... the bottom of the range machine took on a whole new personality.

the truth is there are only a couple of circuit board and screen mfrs in the whole of the east ... the colour/surrounds/stands and boxes are added later.



yep - you certainly get what you pay for!!

[crisgal]

wow! thanks everyone - I'm off to the shops!
(After much research online of course!)

[EAGLE5]

Hi again, I do hope you consider my advice regards the JOHN LEWIS PARTNERSHIP for your new TV, The 5 year parts and labour warranty is worth over �300, so if you consider that, Idon,t think you can beat them!!!