Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Avera seems to be a joint venture American/Chinese company that looks to only be about 18mos in the tv business. It gives off the vibe of Vizio 10yrs ago. They sell cheap tvs by the truck load and work out the bugs later. I suspect the reliability may be questionable in the beginning but that remains to be seen.
Good information SabresFan. RCA's 55" was about $55 more than Avera's so if I was going to buy one I'd probably pay the extra. Have been happy with my 42" RCA, picture quality and reliability so far. It's just when I saw the current prices listed for the 55" they seemed almost too good to pass up. But I will for now. Can't have it all I guess.
I've had good luck with the 42" RCA LED I purchased almost four years ago. Bought it on Walmart's website and it came with free shipping. Amazon has it listed on their site but it's currently unavailable. Just to give you an idea of what it's like I'll include the link. One reason I bought it is it doesn't have a large border around the edges. Whenever my friend stops by for a visit he raves about the picture quality. I've had no problems with it yet, and neither has my mother who I bought one for also about the same time. https://www.amazon.com/RCA-LED42C45R.../dp/B0093YV4R2
...
One of my co-workers had a RCA TV that lasted a good while. He dismantled it when it died, just for fun. He said it had Samsung stamped on the components.
But ymmv. It seems that the same relatively few companies are making the screens, in particular, and the major differences in brands and models are the electronics and the features that the manufacturers attach to those screens. There are also rumors going around that some of the lower priced TVs with excellent pictures are made with older screen designs and/or "Grade B" screens that the more expensive brand names pass by.
I'm not certain that any of the current LED TVs are meant to be long lasting. I combed through numerous customer reviews of 1080p 40"-43" LED TVs and there are complaints, no matter what brand or price, about doesn't power on anymore, lines appear in the display, too many dead or non-color-change pixels, other screen defects, or wonky color that can't be adjusted. Since the stories sounded like SSDD regardless of brand, and I didn't want smart TV or 4k, I bought 2 non-smart Westinghouse 40" TVs from Best Buy when they had the $189 sale, got the 2 year service plan on both and called it a day. The screens on these are very, very "Samsung" in appearance. Gorgeous. Almost 3D. You see texture in fabrics, masonry, etc. No lines, no dead / wrong pixels. Plenty of sound volume but it's not sound bar quality. So, we shall see how long those last. They certainly were inexpensive enough.
The technology seems to consistently improve, so maybe only keeping a TV a couple of years at most and not spending a lot on one is sensible. If I get 1 year out of mine, each one has cost me under $20/month including warranty and sales tax. If they run 2 years, it's less than $10/month.
My dad has a 1080p 40" Philips smart TV bought in Feb. 2015. He runs it constantly and it still runs flawlessly.
Avera seems to be a joint venture American/Chinese company that looks to only be about 18mos in the tv business. It gives off the vibe of Vizio 10yrs ago. They sell cheap tvs by the truck load and work out the bugs later. I suspect the reliability may be questionable in the beginning but that remains to be seen.
Sell TVs by the truckload and let customers be the QC test department seems to be what they all do now. There are plenty of customer complaints that say "my Vizio worked great until it just quit," or "TV was dead out of the box." Or screen had lines / dead pixels / blurry appearance. Wal-Mart offers a lot of refurbished Vizios, Samsungs, and others.
Most of the venerable Japanese brands were sold to Chinese companies in the past few years. I got the impression from combing through forums and reading customer's reviews that there has been a lot of consolidation in the industry and many of these TVs are just generic products with a big name badge applied to them.
We bought a 46" Samsung in 2006. It's still in daily use, but I fixed the power supply a few years ago. TVs of that vintage had the same "bulging capacitor" problem that plagued computers. 60" Samsung from 3 years ago is still going strong.
I will say... both of these had to be returned before getting a "copy" that worked. I love the Samsung stuff, but their first impression on TV's leaves something to be desired.
What was built 5+ years ago does not have the same quality as it does now as now has less. The label on the outside may not match what is on the inside. For example, I ordered a Proscan last week and it arrived with a issue. Went to their website and it no longer exists. www.proscanvideo.com
Did a little research and it came back as a NEC and they don't support it.
Called up the company I ordered it from and they stated they are in liquidation. Got my RA and call tag for it to go back.
Thus the OPs question of Anyone make long lasting TVs any more? would probably be better answered by people who've purchased TVs within the past 2-3 years.
fwiw imo Samsung is no longer a quality product either as I've had three different product categories from them fail within the first two years.
Interesting to note all the failures considering how simple these sets are - a PS, a few switching components for input choice, a panel and a backlight setup. No moving parts. Pre-LED backlights have limited lifetime, like all fluorescent tubes, but don't seem to be a major failure point.
a day ago I was thinking how nifty my 10 year old Sony XBR was, but woke up today and no picture...can't even get the TV menu to appear, have the green power light. I think I may need a new TV
My Panny Plasma is still running strong. Still a freaking awesome tv. I freaking swear, Plasma was so under-rated. The best money I ever spent. Should have bought a few more Panny Plasma before it went out business.
Household of 5, three of them kids. 1 Panasonic purchased in 2004 I think and 2 LG's purchased in 2006. All going strong with daily use and video game playing. Son saved and bought a top of the line Sony for his room. Three months in he had to take it back. Stopped working. They exchanged it for a supposedly newer and better model. He has had it a year now.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
