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TV issues + questions (1 Viewer)

KarmaPolice

KarmaPolice

Footballguy
About a year and a half ago I bought a Vizio 55" TV for the living room.  After about a year (of course after the 1 yr warranty was gone), the damn thing just shuts off at random times.  Nothing wrong with the picture at all, but when it does it 5X in the course of 1 hour TV show, it really gets the blood boiling.  Of course I didn't get any extended warranty (got it a Target), because I hate those damn things. 

I got the Vizio because at the time it seemed like most of the websites I looked at that rate TVs had it as the best bang for the buck picture b/c of the way it lights and the bigger contrast ratio.  Again, I started looking at rating for the price range, and that they come up again.  So...

1.  I know the brand has been thrown around a few times in threads.  Have any of you had issues like this with the brand?  After it started, I looked at more customer ratings, and it did seem to be a common complaint starting around the 1 year mark. 

2.  If you did have any issues, how was their customer service, or the service with any extended warranty you might have had?

3.  If not Vizio what other brands/TVs should I be looking at?  I am not a typical FBG, so I think the budget is about $600 max.  I have no desire to have a 4K either, so that should help. 

Long story short, do I stick with Vizio and maybe just get a warranty for it, or should I look at another brand?  Also, is the warranty worth it in general? (Wife say yes always, I usually go to the side of No).  We have a Costco membership, but it looks like they have a lot Vizio, but also some LG and Samsung if I remember correctly. 

 
when i was doing my (exhaustive) research on my first smart TV purchase, only one brand - through the hundreds of reviews i read - had zero complaints about technical glitches, and that was SONY. 

2 years in, and not one single problem. 

fwiw, Vizio did offer the 'bang for buck', but I read waaaayyyy too many bad reviews citing your exact problem (indiscriminate powering off). 

 
otb_lifer said:
when i was doing my (exhaustive) research on my first smart TV purchase, only one brand - through the hundreds of reviews i read - had zero complaints about technical glitches, and that was SONY. 

2 years in, and not one single problem. 

fwiw, Vizio did offer the 'bang for buck', but I read waaaayyyy too many bad reviews citing your exact problem (indiscriminate powering off). 
Click to expand...
Sony also seems to be one of the pricer options, but will dig deeper. Thanks.

 
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I have 2 Vizio TVs and no issues. Got 60" in 2013 and 42" for bedroom in 2014. 

I wanted to look at another but it seems they are moving away from remote controls. I don't have enough battery life in my phone to act as a remote. 

Best of luck with the issue. 

 
KarmaPolice said:
Sony also seems to be one of the pricer options, but will dig deeper.
Click to expand...


no doubt ... iirc, the Vizio was running close to $300 cheaper at my time of purchase (55 inch) - but those damn reviews, and the customer service horror stories, spooked me into shelling out the extra coin for the peace of mind. 

believe the main bug on the Viz was that the motherboards were wonky - dunno if it's been rectified, but, ya gets what ya pay for. 

Samsung was my second choice, with LG being somewhat respectable, as wel . 

 
I bought my current TV at Costco, one helluva warranty when I bought this, 7 years anytime I can return it if need be. Purposely opened a membership just to buy the TV, they stand behind their products, tough to beat  ;)

 
Ministry of Pain said:
I bought my current TV at Costco, one helluva warranty when I bought this, 7 years anytime I can return it if need be. Purposely opened a membership just to buy the TV, they stand behind their products, tough to beat  ;)
Click to expand...
What brand, and is part of the warranty via an outside company, or are all 7 years a Costco thing? 

 
Walking Boot said:
Brands barely matter, the screen panel elements themselves are all usually made at the same factory or two in ina. I remember digging in the sup.  er-TV-nerd forums back when I was shopping around for a TV, they could tell you which factory and which batch the screen panel came from based on the serial #, and whether it was a good buy or not.

I remember passing on an LG from a local store when all their serial numbers for the model I was looking for came from a bad batch from whichever Sharp factory in China the actual panels were made at. Instead, I bought a Vizio from the good batch. No problems after 4 years.
Click to expand...
Interesting.  I also remember people warning of some stores like Walmart having store only models on the cheap that cut costs on important components  

 
I also agree that brands don't matter that much anymore.  I still usually stick with Samsung.  Haven't done me wrong.  But there's nothing wrong with vizio

 
I bought a 50 inch Vizeo about 1.5 years ago, was their mid level series. I've had no issues. The picture isn't the best ever but it's good and works fine.

 
I have Vizios and love them.

What's your model?  If it's smart, has it updated it's firmware recently?  I'd start there and check that.  I did have to call customer support once for a flakey WIFI NIC in my living room model (doesn't like mixed WPA/WPA2 negotiation), and they were great.  

 
Walking Boot said:
Absolutely true. Just like you can't cost-compare mattresses between Sears, Sleepy's, Macy's, and everywhere else, because each store gets it's own branded and coded ID so you can't tell that a Serta 1000 is actually the same as Simmons 1145, each retailer can get their own model #s from whichever brand, skimp on whatever parts, and still advertise the brand name. 

TVs are weird, years back growing up, the big names were Panasonic, Hitachi, Mitsubishi, Phillips Magnavox, Pioneer, RCA, Zenith... now it's all random companies that seem to have popped up out of nowhere in the last 10-15 years and have taken over the industry by bundling and packaging individual parts manufactured all over China into cheap boxes. None are actually designing and manufacturing their own TVs in-house. It's all just "let's get a 50-inch screen from this guy, HDMI connectors from that guy, the remote control circuitry from that guy, the software from some kids in India, and send 'em all to the factory that makes the bezels and stands and have them put them together for us".
Click to expand...
Yep! :thumbup:

This is especially during the holiday season where you can get a 55" Samsung TV for $100.  What you don't know is that it's not the great Samsung J6200UAHX model that gets great reviews, but the Samsung J6200UAHX-ZF model which is specifically for that store and is missing 3/4th of the features of the same model that they can fool you into thinking your getting.

Oh, and the panel for the TV was made at a Bicycle shop in Vietnam.

 
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I have a Vizio that we've had what seems like forever. Only problem I've had is sometimes when I turn the TV on the screen stays black but the audio comes through , restarting always fixes the issue.

From what I understand about Vizio is they source many different parts in their sets. So one model number could have different sourced components from set to set

 
What is the oldest "modern" TV anyone owns?

I am still rocking a 2007 Sony 1080p 120hz  tv that has seen a ridiculous amount of use over the years.  I do have to buy a bulb every couple of years but other than that simple maintenance, it has been flawless.  

 
NewlyRetired said:
What is the oldest "modern" TV anyone owns?

I am still rocking a 2007 Sony 1080p 120hz  tv that has seen a ridiculous amount of use over the years.  I do have to buy a bulb every couple of years but other than that simple maintenance, it has been flawless.  
Click to expand...
I just got rid of my 51" Sony rear projection TV like 2 years ago :bag:  replaced it with a 51" Vizio I won at a golf outing (no issues so far)

Living room TV is a 32" Samsung.   I guess it's somewhere between 5-10 years old, probably more like 8-10.  I wouldn't mind replacing it with a 42" or something like that, but there's really nothing wrong with it

 
Walking Boot said:
Brands barely matter, the screen panel elements themselves are all usually made at the same factory or two in China. I remember digging in the super-TV-nerd forums back when I was shopping around for a TV, they could tell you which factory and which batch the screen panel came from based on the serial #, and whether it was a good buy or not.

I remember passing on an LG from a local store when all their serial numbers for the model I was looking for came from a bad batch from whichever Sharp factory in China the actual panels were made at. I asked the store manager if he'd let me dig around in warehouse for one with the right digit in the serial number, but he said no, even though I was offering cash.  You'd think just knowing you want an LG-V55-X-Whatever-1234 TV would be enough to know, but these days you really have to dig.

Instead, I bought a Vizio from the good batch at another store. No problems after 4 years.
Click to expand...
So Samsung and LG make the majority of their own panels, especially in the higher priced sets. Panasonic did (but they fell off the face of the earth after their move to LED). I'd go LG over anything at this point with all the legal trouble Samsung is in and will be getting into in the future.

 
Walking Boot said:
Absolutely true. Just like you can't cost-compare mattresses between Sears, Sleepy's, Macy's, and everywhere else, because each store gets it's own branded and coded ID so you can't tell that a Serta 1000 is actually the same as Simmons 1145, each retailer can get their own model #s from whichever brand, skimp on whatever parts, and still advertise the brand name. 

TVs are weird, years back growing up, the big names were Panasonic, Hitachi, Mitsubishi, Phillips Magnavox, Pioneer, RCA, Zenith... now it's all random companies that seem to have popped up out of nowhere in the last 10-15 years and have taken over the industry by bundling and packaging individual parts manufactured all over China into cheap boxes. None are actually designing and manufacturing their own TVs in-house. It's all just "let's get a 50-inch screen from this guy, HDMI connectors from that guy, the remote control circuitry from that guy, the software from some kids in India, and send 'em all to the factory that makes the bezels and stands and have them put them together for us".
Click to expand...
Like I said IMO there are only two brands for TVs as of right now. Samsung and LG. Vizio outsources all of their panels. Sony uses Samsung and has much higher prices.

 
NewlyRetired said:
What is the oldest "modern" TV anyone owns?

I am still rocking a 2007 Sony 1080p 120hz  tv that has seen a ridiculous amount of use over the years.  I do have to buy a bulb every couple of years but other than that simple maintenance, it has been flawless.  
Click to expand...
Had a 2007 I think Samsung DLP

Bought it the year Pittsburgh beat Seattle. Bought it for the Superbowl

Replaced it with my projector

 
KarmaPolice said:
What brand, and is part of the warranty via an outside company, or are all 7 years a Costco thing? 
Click to expand...
Panasonic, nothing crazy but had it 5 years already. The warranty Costco can provide seems unparalleled. 

It's too bad that place otherwise sucks and by that I mean it sucks money from people's pockets they never knew or thought they would spend or need. 

Its a trap!

 
Hawks64 said:
So Samsung and LG make the majority of their own panels, especially in the higher priced sets. Panasonic did (but they fell off the face of the earth after their move to LED). I'd go LG over anything at this point with all the legal trouble Samsung is in and will be getting into in the future.
Click to expand...
What type of legal trouble and how do you see it effecting their product? I have two Samsungs after my nerd brother in law that follows all of that stuff convinced me to pay a little more because I would be happy I did. That was five years ago and I am happy with the purchase and planned on being a Samsunger for life. 

 
captain_amazing said:
I have Vizios and love them.

What's your model?  If it's smart, has it updated it's firmware recently?  I'd start there and check that.  I did have to call customer support once for a flakey WIFI NIC in my living room model (doesn't like mixed WPA/WPA2 negotiation), and they were great.  
Click to expand...
Not 100% sure, but it was an E series.  I did make sure that it was updated. 

 
Ministry of Pain said:
Panasonic, nothing crazy but had it 5 years already. The warranty Costco can provide seems unparalleled. 

It's too bad that place otherwise sucks and by that I mean it sucks money from people's pockets they never knew or thought they would spend or need. 

Its a trap!
Click to expand...
Me and my 5lbs of Gummy Bears say otherwise, friend. 

 
Am I correct in staying away from a 4K TV?  Part of me says that if I am getting something, I should think about it for the future, but I also have read that:

1.  content still hasn't 100% caught up with it yet.  I don't have streaming, so 4K stuff on Netflix is out. 

2.  It can make non-4K content look not great.

3.  Don't bother if you aren't getting a bigger screen/sitting close enough to the TV to tell the difference. 

That last one was a big one that stood out, and I remember reading similar when looking for the TV I have.  Essentially, there are cutoff distances where you can't tell the difference between 4K and 1080p, and further back same went for 1080p vs. 720.   Currently the couch is about 10' from the TV, and I think I saw that it was about 7' and in for a 55" to pick get the benefit of the 4K.  Is this a thing? 

 
Beef Ravioli said:
What type of legal trouble and how do you see it effecting their product? I have two Samsungs after my nerd brother in law that follows all of that stuff convinced me to pay a little more because I would be happy I did. That was five years ago and I am happy with the purchase and planned on being a Samsunger for life. 
Click to expand...
Their execs are under investigation and their defacto chairman could be in big trouble for corruption, add in the issues with the Note 7 they may take a decent hit here.

 
KarmaPolice said:
Am I correct in staying away from a 4K TV?  Part of me says that if I am getting something, I should think about it for the future, but I also have read that:

1.  content still hasn't 100% caught up with it yet.  I don't have streaming, so 4K stuff on Netflix is out. 

2.  It can make non-4K content look not great.

3.  Don't bother if you aren't getting a bigger screen/sitting close enough to the TV to tell the difference. 

That last one was a big one that stood out, and I remember reading similar when looking for the TV I have.  Essentially, there are cutoff distances where you can't tell the difference between 4K and 1080p, and further back same went for 1080p vs. 720.   Currently the couch is about 10' from the TV, and I think I saw that it was about 7' and in for a 55" to pick get the benefit of the 4K.  Is this a thing? 
Click to expand...
It would be very difficult to avoid 4k at this point, the more important things to make sure you have is HDR10 and Dolby Vision compatibility. That allows for your TV to work with new and future devices.

This is a great site to check TV sizes vs seating distance.

ETA I don't know of a site that you can plug in a model to determine panel manufacturer, I'd check avsforums.

 
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Bought a 50" Sony Bravia in 2008, screen died after 3 years. Paid $1200 I believe. Will never buy another Sony TV.

Two 32" Samsungs bought the same year still going strong. 47" Vizio and 55" Samsung bought in 2011, same.

Currently looking at 60" 4K models, will buy at Costco, most likely Samsung. I wasn't aware of the screen batch number information, I may look into that.

 
I have a 50" Samsung Plasma that we bought back in 2010. Haven't had any problems until about a year ago when a single black line went right across the middle of the screen. Recently we got a 2nd black line. It's annoying but we've gotten used to it. According to research I've done it's likely a bad buffer board that could cost a few hundo, and may or may not even fix it. So we're just waiting for it to eventually crap out.

At any rate there's some good info here and we'll likely be in the market soon, so :blackdot:

 
NewlyRetired said:
What is the oldest "modern" TV anyone owns?

I am still rocking a 2007 Sony 1080p 120hz  tv that has seen a ridiculous amount of use over the years.  I do have to buy a bulb every couple of years but other than that simple maintenance, it has been flawless.  
Click to expand...
This one? Mine still going strong (furiously knocks on wood) with the occasional bulb replacement as well. I buy a couple bulbs at a time thru Amazon and get a year or two out of each one.

I could get a 55" OLED for what I paid for that beast :lmao:

 
heckmanm said:
This one? Mine still going strong (furiously knocks on wood) with the occasional bulb replacement as well. I buy a couple bulbs at a time thru Amazon and get a year or two out of each one.
Click to expand...
yes!  That is the exact model.  I am so happy with it.

One mistake I made was to get a really cheap Chinese knock off bulb.  The one died very quickly.  Now I just stick to the Phillips brand and they last much longer.

I don't remember what I paid for the TV but I do remember getting a good deal because Sony had recently cancelled the line because they could not figure out how to get the LCOS pricing down on the chips.

 
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strykerpks said:
I have a 50" Samsung Plasma that we bought back in 2010. Haven't had any problems until about a year ago when a single black line went right across the middle of the screen. Recently we got a 2nd black line. It's annoying but we've gotten used to it. According to research I've done it's likely a bad buffer board that could cost a few hundo, and may or may not even fix it. So we're just waiting for it to eventually crap out.

At any rate there's some good info here and we'll likely be in the market soon, so :blackdot:
Click to expand...
We may have the same TV! I haven't run into the line on the screen issues yet, but I have noticed the burn in is starting to set in more and more.

 
NewlyRetired said:
yes!  That is the exact model.  I am so happy with it.

One mistake I made was to get a really cheap Chinese knock off bulb.  The one died very quickly.  Now I just stick to the Phillips brand and they last much longer.

I don't remember what I paid for the TV but I do remember getting a good deal because Sony had recently cancelled the line because they could not figure out how to get the LCOS pricing down on the chips.
Click to expand...
I'm getting the "bulb nearing end of life" message on screen now, so it's time to (a) make sure I have a spare bulb and (b) look at ordering 1 or 2 more while they're still reasonably-priced on Amazon.

 
NewlyRetired said:
What is the oldest "modern" TV anyone owns?

I am still rocking a 2007 Sony 1080p 120hz  tv that has seen a ridiculous amount of use over the years.  I do have to buy a bulb every couple of years but other than that simple maintenance, it has been flawless.  
Click to expand...
That beat mine.  I think my Sony is a 2008 or 2009.  Fairly basic, I think it is 40" inches or so, 720p.  Was our main living room TV until we moved an needed a bigger one.  It now sits on the three season porch and gets regular use spring though fall, then sits in a semi insulated porch for three months where the temps go way down.  Still fires up and have had zero issues or maintenance on it.

 
heckmanm said:
I'm getting the "bulb nearing end of life" message on screen now, so it's time to (a) make sure I have a spare bulb and (b) look at ordering 1 or 2 more while they're still reasonably-priced on Amazon.
Click to expand...
this is what we do as well.  With the TV now getting older, it might be tougher to find the bulbs as the years progress so we always buy 2 at a time and then not worry about it for a while.

 
Was just at Costco.  Told my wife I would keep it under $600.  They had:

Samsung 60" for $550

LG 55" for 600

Vizio 55" 4K for $540

Leaning towards the Samsung, but will have to look at them a little closer.  I did notice the Samsung only had 2 HDMI inputs which is mildly annoying, but we could always use the PS4 for movies or get an HDMI splitter or something. 

ETA:  I think the LG might have been 4K as well.

 
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