[gkveda]

Originally Posted by AltoLXI

Youtube app is available to me since yesterday. I opened the site from the browser and it got installed on its own.

My TV is covered with Cellophane tape around the edges except the bottom edge. Do all TVs come with tape stuck like that? I still haven't removed that.
I read in some sites that demo piece is usually covered with tape. Is that true?

You can check the usage of TV panel in hours by opening the Service Menu in Panasonic TV. Assuming you have used 4 hours per day Multiplied by no. of days you have used this TV, Your Panel usage should be product of these two. If it is significantly higher than the mathematics you did, then, you can conclude this is a demo piece.

Here is the procedure to open Service Menu in Panasonic TV:
Service Menu to check number of hours run on panel (Do not go there if you do not know what you are doing)
* Hold down the {VOL -} button ON THE PLASMA.(NOT ON REMOTE )
* Press the {RECALL} button on the remote control 3 times.
* The Service Menu will be displayed with the following menus: ADJUST, WD-ADJUST, OPTION, AGING, SRV-TOOL. The {1} & {2} buttons move through menus (up/down).
* Press the {2} button once to select "SRV-TOOL".
* Then press the {OK} button to access it.
* Using the cursor keys, * highlight * the empty right side of the last option: PTCT :00.00.00.00.00
* Then press and hold the {MUTE} button for 3 seconds.
* Time and Count will be displayed in red color.
TIME = Hours and minutes of operation.
COUNT = Times the Plasma was powered on.
* To exit, press and hold the {POWER} button on the Plasma for few seconds.

[Gansan]

Can anyone give any idea about LYF TV from reliance? I am a brand man and have never looked beyond Sony or Samsung so far. But today I saw the LYF UHD TV at Reliance Digital and was impressed. Never heard of the brand. But the quality of picture was not too far off from the adjoining Sony and Samsung playing the same channel. Attractively priced at Rs40K for 43" and Rs 55K for the 50". They also have another lower priced brand called reconnect which also seems good. Both come with a full two year warranty.

I am also offered Samsung 49" K5100 and 43" K5100 FHD (no smart) for Rs 60.5K and Rs 45.2K respectively by another shop.

[dark.knight]

Originally Posted by Gansan

Can anyone give any idea about LYF TV from reliance? I am a brand man and have never looked beyond Sony or Samsung so far. But today I saw the LYF UHD TV at Reliance Digital and was impressed.

You should continue to be a brand man, now I wouldn't presume to know your exact requirements or budget but the trend for the past 4-5 years in India has been that a few in-grown manufacturers from India and China have made a mockery of R&D, testing and quality procedures done by a 7 decade old proven brand like Sony. I personally wouldn't touch a television which is a once in a decade investment, made by a funny-sounding unknown brand with a barge pole.

Reviews of Sony's display technology compared against a luxury brand like Bang & Olufsen's Beovision (which costs 8-10x more), still has Sony winning in terms of user interface, skin tones and colour reproduction, despite having LCD backlighting compared to Beovisions LED backlight. For what it costs it has great value across the range be it a 22 inch or a 55 inch.

I've seen my friend's Samsung set, its terrible to say the least, blacks are like blues and reds are too bright (oversaturation), it will not be a problem for 99.5% of the people but to me its way too cartoonish. As usual never trust the picture quality in a store.. they set the brightness to the highest level possible to blend with their showroom lights and also "sabotage" the picture quality in brands where their commissions/margins are less, i.e they tune the picture to be more or less same or worse than inferior brands.

Overall reliability of all brands are down today because LCD as a technology relies on so much circuitry and individual pixels of the LCD screen, so one small glitch and its hello, repair shop. I cannot vouch for the reliability of Sony anymore but I can say that I've been using their LCD products for 5 years, zero issues. To me the choice is obvious if true quality matters.

Edit : Just saw their latest launch in CES 2017, the Bravia A1E with OLED 4K display, with an Acoustic Display which has no speakers, its the individual pixels which vibrate and send out sound thus enabling a bezel-less display. Let "LYF" or "Micromax" try and copy that.

[KRN]

Originally Posted by dark.knight

Edit : Just saw their latest launch in CES 2017, the Bravia A1E with OLED 4K display, with an Acoustic Display which has no speakers, its the individual pixels which vibrate and send out sound thus enabling a bezel-less display. Let "LYF" or "Micromax" try and copy that.

It is interesting that you say this. As far as I know, all Sony panels are either Samsung or LG. I believe the Sony OLED 4K TV at CES had an LG panel. LG and Samsung had very impressive units at CES too.

My personal take is that Samsung over saturates colors to make things pop in the showroom. I find LG the best balanced in terms of colors.

In fact I have been advising people to skip Sony and buy LG or Samsung as the premium paid in India for Sony is not justified as the panels are anyway not from them. For most DTH transmission, you would be hard pressed to tell the difference.

Sony used to be a leader in the CRT days and no one could come close. I wouldnt put them on the same pedestal when it comes to the LCD/LED TVs now.

[diyguy]

Originally Posted by KRN

In fact I have been advising people to skip Sony and buy LG or Samsung as the premium paid in India for Sony is not justified as the panels are anyway not from them.

My recent experiences with service is that Sony technicians are not afraid to roll their sleeves up and perform component level diagnostics on Sony LCD/LED tvs and fix them where possible. I have had the same Sony technician fix three Sony TVs in the past few months, one as recent as today. These three constituted one of mine, one of an uncles and the third was a colleagues relative.
On the other hand, LG guys just come home, charge ~300rs for the visit and tell me board change without even opening the TV. This has again happened to three of us, colleagues at work. Two of us have had the board changed, while the third is now having it looked at by the Sony technician to see if he can fix it without a board change.
No experience with Samsung or any other brand.

[dark.knight]

Originally Posted by KRN

It is interesting that you say this. As far as I know, all Sony panels are either Samsung or LG. I believe the Sony OLED 4K TV at CES had an LG panel. LG and Samsung had very impressive units at CES too.

Factually, if one looks back a few more years, its evident that these were the chain of events :

1) Sony were always in-house manufacturing from the days of Trinitron.
2) LG's first televisions were nowhere in terms of quality but they supplied to the market of South Korea and were content in doing so.
3) LG acquired Zenith (U.S) and then their television quality improved.
4) They collaborated with Phillips for their LCD manufacturing and then bought it out (presently LG Display). LG by themselves had no expertise in building anything.
5) Sony used to make in-house LCD panels for a short duration (using the Sharp invention of LCD), they had a mutual factory in Foxconn.
6) Sony invented the first bendable OLED display ever, albeit small at 3 inches.
7) Sony was the first mainstream commercial entity to create their in-house OLED monitor @ 11 inches, subsequently they increased the sizes to 14, 17 and 20+. They have been manufacturing and supplying their own panels to the medical industry from their own factory in Nagoya, Japan for almost a decade. They are the highest quality but cost a bomb hence they never were made into televisions.
8) There was a collaboration of equal terms by Sony & Samsung, to leverage the workforce and skill, to lower manufacturing costs, only later did Samsung buy out Sony's share of the production plant and Sony decided to use the money whilst still borrowing the panels they made with Samsung.
9) Sony branched out into making LED panels with semiconductors called Crystal LED's, these had more life and predictably more speed than OLED's but again, costs kept them from large-scale manufacturing.
10) Samsung uses Sharp panels in their high-end sets (because they know their own panel isn't as good), but now since Foxconn has taken control of Sharp, they have stopped supply to Samsung effective 3 weeks ago.

Hence going by the sequence of events, Sharp & Sony are the true pioneers of LCD and LED respectively and they both remain the kings of displaying realistic tones and hues, and yes I use both, there's a Sharp display in office. Other than that Bang & Olufsen is a notch above but costs a fortune to buy. No other brand comes close in terms of realistic output (which is my benchmark for quality televisions). Phillips, Grundig etc were fantastic brands but couldn't survive the assault of the Asian companies.

[rav11stars]

A bit OT, but very relevant. I've recently bought a Samsung 55JU7000. You might be surprised why I've gone for a JU7000 when we already have this year's 55KU7000. For the uninitiated, Samsung's naming convention follows J- 2015 model, K-2016 and so on.

Prior to making this decison, I was looking all over the web for reviews and found rtings.com to be the best when it comes to in-depth reviews. I'm in no way affiliated with them; Just a grateful reader.
They're limited to the models available in US and so their reviews/comparisons majorly consist of Samsung, LG and Vizio. I'd suggest checking it out if you're interested in the details. I'm not regretting going for a 2015 model as the blacks and really deeper and picture better than this years 7 series.

On another note, never fall for the picture displayed in showroom. For starters, it'll be in store mode, so the picture will be in the dynamic mode, so the colours pop out.
Secondly, narrow down on a TV based on your preference. For example, I'd be watching Netflix, movies in most dark room; so the way the panel displays the blacks is very important. My earlier LG was an IPS and so not that great in the blacks.

[saleem_k]

Originally Posted by kvish

My 1.5 year old Samsung TV has developed Horizontal lines across the panel. Currently there are 2 lines across the panel at the bottom. I am worried its the panel. Unfortunately no warranty on this one. Has anyone faced similar issue?

I'm noticing multiple vertical and horizontals lines on my Sony 32" full HD LED tv, which turns 2 years old this Feb. These lines are there usually when the tv is switched on in the morning after more than 6-7 hours of being shut down, and disappear in about 10-15 seconds. If the tv is switched off during day time and if it is switched on after say 2 hours these lines don't appear. I fear this is just the beginning of the end of the panel. Not expected from a Sony

[TheTeacher]

Our 10+ year old LG CRT TV has problems with cold start. LG Tech says power transformer is dying and things will only get worse. No replacement available according to him. I'm sure a local chap can fix it, but don't know anybody who can come home (Near Meenakshi Mall) to do the job.

Most reviews are fake / fixed and crap, but I read the negative ones to get an idea of the product and service. It seems uniformly, regardless of the manufacturer, TVs available now fail between 14 and 36 months or immediately thereafter, necessitating a replacement. Even buying an extended warranty protects for a total of 3 years max, it looks like. And everything is failing - panel, motherboard, HDMI ports, etc. All the big guys have the disease - Sony, Samsung, LG, Panasonic, etc.

What is one to do? All I want is a dumb TV (not smart) between 40 and 50 inches in display size, Full HD (1920 x 1080). If the reliability is outstanding, I'll settle for a 32 incher. Looking for just decent PQ, we're not terribly keen movie or TV buffs.

Part of me says, crap, it's going to die in 3 years, just buy the cheapest and replace it every 3 years.

Any pointers or counsel will be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

[Gansan]

Originally Posted by TheTeacher

Any pointers or counsel will be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Scan the Olx, Quickr etc ads and pick up a nice outgoing 29" / 32" Sony Trinitron or equivalent. They can be had for a bargain. That will be the best idea for the time being.

[aargee]

Originally Posted by TheTeacher

What is one to do? All I want is a dumb TV (not smart) between 40 and 50 inches in display size, Full HD (1920 x 1080). If the reliability is outstanding, I'll settle for a 32 incher. Looking for just decent PQ, we're not terribly keen movie or TV buffs

32 inch LG dumb TV costs like 20 K; anything above 32 inch is only 43 & nothing in between unless its Panasonic etc etc. LED on normal usage (say using an average of 2-3 hours a day) should last you easily 5+ years

We recently replaced our LG 26" LCD TV (lasted 9 years) with LG 32 inch not so dumb TV; its severely dented our wallet Wish I could've bought that dumb TV & could've saved easily more than 5K

[diyguy]

Originally Posted by TheTeacher

All I want is a dumb TV (not smart) between 40 and 50 inches in display size, Full HD (1920 x 1080).

have a look at paytm. I searched and found non-smart LED 43 LG starting approx 33k (after cashback). I also saw a Sony LCD for about 20k. I am using a Sony LCD for about 8 years now. Had a color issue this year and Sony support fixed it for about 1200rs. On the other hand my 37" Lg LED failed in its 4th or 5th year and cost me 6k for board replacement. They do not do component repair.
There are quite a few options for your criteria in LG , Samsung and Panasonic.

[lamborghini]

Originally Posted by TheTeacher

Most reviews are fake / fixed and crap, but I read the negative ones to get an idea of the product and service. It seems uniformly, regardless of the manufacturer, TVs available now fail between 14 and 36 months or immediately thereafter, necessitating a replacement.
Part of me says, crap, it's going to die in 3 years, just buy the cheapest and replace it every 3 years.

Any pointers or counsel will be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

We had the same requirements, and basis feedback from others who haven't been so lucky with their Sony's and Samsung's - we decided to go and get a VU TV when our tv was up for replacement.

Comes with a 3 year warranty standard, and is a fair bit cheaper than a Samsung/Sony - enough to make replacing the TV after 3 years sound like a sensible risk. Quite a few of my friends have picked it up as well and are happy with it!

PQ better than Samsung IMO.

[TheTeacher]

Thanks all, food for thought.

Originally Posted by Gansan

Scan the Olx, Quickr etc ads and pick up a nice outgoing 29" / 32" Sony Trinitron or equivalent.

Would that be a CRT or LCD/LED? I'm a bit leery of second-hand stuff because intermittent problems cannot be detected (like in my TV now).

Originally Posted by aargee

LED on normal usage (say using an average of 2-3 hours a day) should last you easily 5+ years

Old TVs (made many years ago) do; mine is proof of that! It's the newer ones that are dying early deaths.

Originally Posted by diyguy

have a look at paytm. I searched and found non-smart LED 43 LG starting approx 33k (after cashback). I also saw a Sony LCD for about 20k. I am using a Sony LCD for about 8 years now. Had a color issue this year and Sony support fixed it for about 1200rs. On the other hand my 37" Lg LED failed in its 4th or 5th year and cost me 6k for board replacement. They do not do component repair.
There are quite a few options for your criteria in LG , Samsung and Panasonic.

1. See my immediate response above
2. From what I know, all these mfrs are still in the stone age and will not honor warranty if the product is bought online. My process is to reasearch online and buy from an authorized dealer. I hear the big chain appliance stores match or better online prices (except PayTM).

Originally Posted by lamborghini

We had the same requirements, and basis feedback from others who haven't been so lucky with their Sony's and Samsung's - we decided to go and get a VU TV when our tv was up for replacement.

Comes with a 3 year warranty standard, and is a fair bit cheaper than a Samsung/Sony - enough to make replacing the TV after 3 years sound like a sensible risk. Quite a few of my friends have picked it up as well and are happy with it!

PQ better than Samsung IMO.

I did think of this option, and your first-hand feedback helps enormously, thanks! Any idea how good VU's warranty / post warranty service is? I believe this is one brand I can buy online.

-----------------

We've always had good LG warranty & post warranty service, both in Chennai and Bangalore, so LG will be a fallback option. The only scary part is if an item is not covered in (extended) warranty and from what others have written here, their habit of doing wholesale replacements instead of repair.

[diyguy]

Originally Posted by TheTeacher

2. From what I know, all these mfrs are still in the stone age and will not honor warranty if the product is bought online.

I never purchase tvs from stores and it is always grey market and direct import. The tvs never have an issue in the first few years and as a result the warranty is not really much use. My 46" LCD Sony from grey market cost me 63k in 2010 while the store prices were 85k. My other two are a 37" LED and 32 LCD LG and Sony respectively were purchased in Malaysia and Singapore respectively. All are now 5 years and older. If you are in Chennai can hook you up to the bazaar guys I purchase from. Have picked up maybe 8 tvs so far for friends and family.