Consumer Reports rates HDTV reliability

Posted Wednesday, November 28, 2007

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December issue also features Ratings of HDTVs; Advice on extended warranties for TVs

 

Consumer Reports’ new reliability data provides consumers with more detailed information for specific brands. Panasonic, whose 50-inch TH-50PZ700U plasma model was recently named Consumer Reports’ best flat-panel TV ever tested, had very few repairs, only a 2 percent average repair rate, in both LCD and plasma categories. This new reliability data reinforces Consumer Reports long-standing advice that consumers skip the extended warranty when buying a flat-panel TV.
 
Consumer Reports found little difference between the average repair rate for LCD and plasma TVs – overall, they both had a 3 percent repair rate. Among LCDs, Dell (which recently stopped selling its own brand of TVs) and Hitachi were among the less reliable brands, as were Philips plasma TVs. Aside from Panasonic, other brands with low repair rates include Sony, Sharp, Samsung, Toshiba and JVC in LCDs. For plasma sets, Panasonic, Pioneer and Samsung also had low repair rates.

Among the tiny percentage of sets with problems, most repairs were free, presumably because they were covered by the manufacturer’s standard warranty. The few respondents who paid out of pocket for repairs spent an average of $264 on LCD sets and $395 on plasma.
 

Consumer Reports frequency-of-repair charts cover microdisplay sets using DLP and LCD rear-projection technologies. Toshiba and RCA DLP sets stood out as the most repair-prone. Hitachi LCD-based sets were more repair-prone than Sony and Panasonic sets of this type.

About one-quarter of repairs involved replacing the bulb, an issue unique to rear-projection TVs. Many bulb failures occurred early in a set’s life and appeared to have been covered by a standard warranty. Respondents who paid for any repairs out of pocket spent $300 on average.

Unlike the flat-panel reliability analysis, the rear-projection analysis includes sets covered by an extended warranty. For these sets, warranties were much more prevalent, with about 40 percent of respondents having one, than they were for flat panel sets. Repair rates for the two types are not directly comparable. Taking this into account on average, flat-panel sets are still much more reliable than rear-projection sets with their average 18% repair rate.

Despite the relatively high repair rate for rear-projection TVs, CR still finds that buying the often expensive extended warranty and service contracts that salespeople offer is not a good idea. Consumers who insist on buying an extended warranty for their rear-projection TV set should consider one if:

• They want to buy a TV from a more repair-prone brand because it’s low-priced.
• The TV will be used for 5,000 hours, the claimed life of many bulbs, within the time covered by an extended warranty, and the warranty covers bulb replacement.
• The warranty does not cost more than the bulb ($200 to $300) or 15 percent of the TVs price, whichever is less. CR recommends bargaining for a lower price; warranties have a high profit margin.

The full HDTV Ratings are available in the December 2007 issue of Consumer Reports, available wherever magazines are sold. Portions of the report will be available on www.ConsumerReports.org.

Consumer Reports has no commercial relationship with any advertiser or sponsor appearing on this newspaper's web site.