Home audio & video forum: Brand of TV. Which is best? Sony, Panasonic, Samsung

http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/magazine-archive/2011/march/electronics-computers/tvs/tv-brand-performance/index.htm

This repeats what I've noticed. The brands you noted are all about the same. HOWEVER if one has a failure with one of these they usually will not agree.

The problem as I see it is very simple. The ONE YEAR WARRANTY is testament to the fact these are shorter lived things than what anyone expected. On average I'm seeing 4 to 5 year life spans. That could be higher but most folk are opting out of repairs and replacing the sets.
Bob

I got myself a 50 inch Panny plasma TV for Christmas before last. The deal was through Amazon, was a good price, and included a "free" sound bar. I did burn in and hooked up cable input to sound bar, and bar to HDMI1, put a BluRay player on HDMI2 and a dongle on USB port to get wireless to my computer router (for Netflix and Pandora). Everything worked fine for about 9 months, then the sound bar and HDMI1 refused to handle cable signal (no sound or picture). When bypassing sound bar also didn't work I assumed HDMI1 failed.
I switched cable to HDMI2 and BluRay to HDMI3 (it has a third HDMI input) and everything works just fine -- just no sound bar, which was good, but TV speakers are okay, too. I also switch between BluRay and my old VHS player that feeds through to my old DVD recorder (a cheapie I got at Radio Shack) and have embarked on transfering some of my collection tapes to disk. I have a lot of old magic tapes and some TV shows that I taped (operas and the like). I am not bothering with anything I can stream from Netflix.
When this whole thing goes in a few years, there will be new choices available I'm sure. But everything about the Panny was good -- except you have to use their remote for VieraCast. An additional problem: the TV used to go blank for a second or two at random moments and I tried all kinds of things line line filters and putting in better HDMI cables. After switching to HDMI2 input, all that went away. It would appear that I got a set with a weak HDMI input which eventually failed. I came to this point just after the one year warranty ran out. That's the breaks.
Oh yes, one more thing. There is no audio out, so I can't plug in a transmitter and use wireless earphones.

Look up white dots on Samsung TV . They have a problem with a chip and it is a $500 fix . All Samsungs should have a recall on them. You get what you pay for with a Sony.

Ive had both Samsung and LG before. In terms of my experience I have had both for same amount of time but the huge difference was the treatment and assurance ive received from the a/s service from LG was extremely professional and I was like im sticking with LG. Price wise not much difference but LG sure knows how to maintain wellness of its customers!!!