[Shrey_1520]

I have a Sony Bravia LCD which served me well for close to 10 long years. Now I see horizontal lines on the top of the screen. I have ordered a Panasonic 40 inch smart TV on flipkart for an exchange with the current TV. The final price is 17,249.

[Turbo yoda]

Voted for xiaomi. Having used a lot of non-phone mi products, I'm a fan.
Low cost but very good quality.
I have mi tv, mi polarized sunglasses, mi dashcam and I'm happy with their quality

[knan]

I had bought two VU TVs - a 55'' LED in 2016 and a 32'' LED in 2017.

While I cannot comment on the 32'' as it's installed in my teachers' home, it has been uneventful as his usage is pretty low.

On the other hand, the 55'' is in my hometown and its' usage is extreme. It generally runs for about 16 hours everyday and undergoes all types of shutoffs due to power cutoffs, kids switching it off, etc. In 2018, it went for a toss, just before the warranty was about to expire. VU replaced it with another set, but that also had the same issue. They replaced it again and it has been working ever since. I had the warranty extended for 3 years post that.

Panel Type - I do not remember the panel type, but it is good. As others have mentioned, we cannot put it in the class of the premium ones.

Bang for the buck - Definitely. Though my parents rarely use the smart features, getting a 55'' in the price range of 50K in 2016, with decent clarity and sound, it does get a vote in my parents' handbook.

Long-term performance - I covered this above. Uneventful except the major ones. I understood that these new TVs would work like a charm when it does, but would break down completely when you are out of luck.

Usage - Primary, and therefore the events.

Service and warranty-related experience - One call to the service center, and an assigned engineer comes within 24-48 hours. You must check on their website about the warranty period against your serial number, and it shows the details. Prompt!

Smart capabilities & UI - I have rarely used it, but IMO, basic.

Technical Prowess such as 4K / HDR etc. - Not available in this model.

Sound Quality (Great / Alright / Trash) - Alright. I remember my friends' complaining that the sound of the new LED tvs are not great due to small speakers. So I specifically searched for better speakers when I bought them. It has either 30+30 or 40+40 setup. Much better than others.

Availability & positioning of ports - Rear facing. It has all the bells and whistles you would need from a 2016 TV and some more. Again, my parents don't use anything except the HDMI port for the DTH.

[MoTo_meister]

I guess I shall be the nonconformist here. We got home our first LED TV as an upgrade to our LG CRT TV in 2010; this was a 40" Samsung which was somewhere in the ballpark of ₹1,00,000. That TV lasted us a good 9 years and it was only sometime in 2019 that the display started showing vertical bands. Since this was almost a decade old model, parts were scarce and hence repairing it didn't make financial sense. This was replaced by a Telefunken 55" 4K Smart LED TV (https://www.amazon.in/gp/product/B07...?ie=UTF8&psc=1) which we got for ₹27k during the Amazon Diwali sale. The best part was when my grandfather asked which TV was being installed in his room, I said "Telefunken" and he immediately recognized the name and exclaimed that he has had experience with radios and communication equipment from Telefunken back in his days in the Indian Army.

The two other mainstream-brand TVs in our home are from LG - a 47" non smart LED TV and 42" smart LED TV which were purchased in 2011 and 2017 respectively. The 47" LG's screen started showing dead pixels, which was repaired for ~5k IIRC from UrbanClap and then we exchanged this TV for a Blaupunkt 55" 4K Smart LED TV w/ soundbar (https://www.flipkart.com/blaupunkt-1...ZHRZ8DWV4ZMPPA).

The 42" LG had a screen burn-in issue in the middle of the screen, which was surprising for us as both the other TVs had started giving issues after almost half a decade of usage. Nonetheless, this was repaired from UrbanClap in 2019 and has been working just fine till now.


So here it is then,
Non-Chinese? Check.
Non-mainstream? Check.
Frugal? Double check.

[aniketvu]

When my TV gave up sometime in May this year, I bought a Sanyo 43" non-smart TV on Amazon for about 15k post card discounts. Main reasons were good picture quality reviews from some friends and the fact that it is manufactured in India. The sound is just adequate and I will end up adding a sound bar sometime. However, the price is well worth what you get.

I dont like Smart TV's much due to app/OS update issues. Have been using an Android Box that I bought 3 years ago for all smart TV needs and it is serving just fine with updates even now. Given that I bought the box for just about 3k, its been a worthwhile investment since we dont use cable/DTH at home at all.

[Maverick Avi]

Originally Posted by frewper

I have a 4k as well. The number of times I have watched 4k is less than 5 times in 5 years. 1080p is very good enough and is default on my TV and to watch 4K i have to get much better internet connection, a better netflix subscription and then not everthing is available in 4K. To top it all off we now have 8K.

4k content is going mainstream now but yeah if its through a data connection then you need to invest in a good internet connection along with appropriate subscriptions which people don't find much worthy as 1080p suffices for most. I have Airtel DTH hooked to my 4K Panasonic TV and am pretty much satisfied watching the 80 odd 1080P channels. But what really makes me happy that I went for 4K TV are the 4K videos that I create using my DSLR or mobile. Almost all good phones today above INR 20K produce a decent 4k footage which looks great on a 4K TV. DSLRs 4k footage with fast prime lens viewed on my Panasonic just makes my day and puts a wide smile on my face specially considering the price I paid for it!!!

[puneetakhouri]

Purchased a Vu 43" full HD for my parents in 2016 and was super impressed with its quality. So purchased another one for myself which is a 43" 4k Android tv for a steal price of 35k.

Although my parents' TV is performing flawlessly, my android one now has a white line running along the bottom bezel on the display. Looks like the display is going kaput. Let's see how long it lasts.

But overall a good value for money TV it is.

[charanreddy]

I bought a 55 inch MI LED thin smart TV some 2 yrs back. Costed 45k and works fine till now, though the interface and software and built in apps could have been better.

At the price it is doing it’s job, but given current circumstances I would definitely stay away from a non India manufactured TV.

[SKC-auto]

We bought a TV for our in laws in the recent amazon sale.

Criteria:
1) Not a China product.
2) Reputed electronics company preferred.
3) Cheaper
4) Ok with Full HD or HD, mainly used for bhakthi TV
5) 43 inches.

We got a Sanyo ( from Panasonic) full HD 43 inches smart android TV for ₹22K( 4K is available at ₹26K).

[omzworld]

Originally Posted by Maverick Avi

Surprised to see that Sanyo is not there on this list. They are manufactured at Panasonic facility and aftersales and service is also provided by Panasonic itself. I have around 5 of them in my near family and all work great with good color accuracy due to IPS panel.

When my turn came to replace my 10 year old LG 32 inch TV this year I got an astonishing deal on Panasonic 50 inch 4k which was almost equivalent to these chinese brands. So I got home a Panasonic.

If I had to opt for any one the brands listed then would have gone for Sanyo or Iffalcon. VUs used to good but seeing a decline in their product lineup and marketing so not sure about their future plans.

100% agree. To me Sanyo picture quality to value ratio is easy to recommend. This coming from Panasonic plasma St60, experience for last 8 years.

[psmenon]

There is an Indian brand called Impex that produces good quality panels and their 50" screens used to be well under 40k. I have a 32" tv from the brand and it had been running well for 7 years now, the speaker failed on me but the display is good for the 5.5k I paid for it.

[jeganatu]

Recently I purchased a 32 inch Non branded Chinese TV for Rs.8,500/- used purely for CCTV viewing purpose.

Nowadays we get lot of such non branded TVs in the market and it serves the purpose well. I have almost 3 tvs (1-16 inch, 2-32 inch) for CCTV and all of them are from such brands. Only once faced power-IC issue and it was replaced with new costing about Rs.2500 /- with labour from local electronic market.

Here is a link to such item on offer

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace...3334445062315/

[shreevardhan]

3 years with a Sanyo 49" TV and it is working perfectly. No issues whatsoever. So, I bought another 32 inch smart TV of the same brand recently and am very happy with it.

[NiInJa]

Couldn't have come at a more opportune time.

My take: There are some under-rated brands which one can give a try. Sure, branded ones have better software and features but for average Joes like me, it doesn't matter much as long as the purpose is served.

I have a Philips 40in TV which was a steal when I bought it 6 years ago, It was almost 10k cheaper than Sony/LG. The contrast and color reproduction was accurate, but the only problem was there was no ultra-soft mode like Sony TV, so connecting Laptop/Computers to do office work (Excel/Doc editing) would hurt my eyes. Then the speakers were very bad, so I removed them and soldered some old Logitech laptop speakers were excellent, the sound quality has improved by such levels that my parents no longer have to turn on the external speakers (which they find a big task anyway)

Recently, It was subjected to severe abuse by my kid and myself when I dropped the TV and my speaker jugaad hit the panel from bottom, so there are a few lines going black and pink at the bottom and the left side of the panel. I don't plan to sell it or replace it till the kid turns 5

There is a Haier 21 inch TV in our house too which was 8k cheaper than the famed Samsung backlit LEDs in those times. It was been working flawlessly since 2009. The best part of it is the audio hardware/software inside it. While its own speakers are crap, connecting good external speakers turns it into a small theatre of sorts.

My brother has a 55 inch Vu TV which I really liked. The colors were not as punchy as Samsung's or Sony's but clarity was good and it did the job pretty well.

On a different note: Does it make sense to have a big TV fixed in your drawing room, or having a good Tablet (Samsung) with AMOLED display which you can use to binge-watch in the bed with a good set of headphones ? I personally have shifted to watching on Tab and TV is used mostly by parents.

[pugram]

Voted for VU.

Got a VU 42 inch Non SMART TV in 2015 for 27k. Still works flawlessly. Blacks are really deep almost bordering Sony. LG 's black was dark grey actually.

Downside is the bottom firing speaker as in most TV's. So fixed it up with a Panasonic 2.1.