Yeah unfortunately this is not the case - I left the set on for a few hours and it’s still there.
I’ve had my Samsung 40" LCD HDTV for about 18 months and not a single issue. It’s been working great. A co-worker bought the exact same model as mine about 3 weeks after me, and It’s been fine too. Maybe it’s just their rear projection TV’s? Eh, I refuse to buy rear projection for other reasons anyways.
When I was researching what TV to buy, for a while I was pretty set on the DLP’s (eventually decided on Westy LCD). At that time I was about to buy a Samsung but research revealed a LOT of people unsatisified with the customer service, so I decided not to go that route. Sorry to hear about your experiences.
I’m a fan of Samsung. Their PC monitors and CRT TV’s have served me well over the years.
With any brand you are going to get a few duds.
Thread necromancy!
I just picked up the 60" version of that set – holy CRAP is it a nice-looking TV. Amazon’s selling 'em for $2000 or so, including shipping (think $2007, actually), got a local place to price-match.
Hell of an upgrade from an old 27" trinitron, I tell you what. And Dead Rising is finally legible, woo!
Two Samsung TVs here, one a 55" DLP three years old–zero issues.
Yep, our 2.5-year-old Sammy DLP also works just peachy.
It’s like throwing a f’ing dart. I’ve never had any problems with any of the Sony equipment I own (HDTV, Vaio, other misc stuff) but I know I’m in the minority…
My Samsung DLP has been fine, but my Samsung cellular telephones are such incredible crap they have turned me off Samsung completely. Bad signal reception and ridiculously fragile.
Bought this 32" LCD a couple weeks ago. Looks great and all, but the other day I touch the VGA cable and suddenly there’s a vertical line that won’t go away. (Yes, I checked the VGA connections, removed the VGA cable entirely, turned it off for a while, etc.)
So Best Buy is sending a technician out tomorrow to tell me I’m an asshole.
I blame Sony for your troubles Gary. I like to think they are the blame for anything electronically faulty.
I’ve had a Samsung 215TW LCD monitor for a year now and been very happy with it. Was I lucky, or the others unlucky?
To be fair, following the major second major repair to my HDTV it’s been working fine.
And to be fair to my TV, I just noticed a shadow appearing on the right side of the screen that is the symptom of the infamous “light tunnel collapse” problem. Now that I am well out of warranty, I get to foot the bill myself for a new light engine…
Edit: I have obtained a digital copy of the Service Manual for many of the Samsung DLPs. It has all kinds of goodie information in it about adjusting the picture. It’s fully of things the repair techs never did. If you are interested in it, let me know, and I’ll send you a copy.
Update: The technician told me to take the TV back and exchange it. He printed me a special receipt to show at Best Buy. Doesn’t really make any difference in this case, since I bought the thing less than a month ago.
Later, at CompUSA, I saw the same TV on sale for $200 less, till Friday! So if BB won’t match the price when I make the exchange, I just will return the thing and head over to CompUSA.
QUESTION – Using that TV as a monitor is pretty cool, but it won’t display 1280x720 through VGA cables, which prevents me from running certain things full screen. Does anyone know how other TVs compare in this department?
The westinghouse 1080p 32, 37 and 47" sets all display pixel perfect 1920x1080 via the DVI-1 port. That’s the only TV I have experience with as a monitor. It can do 720p as well via scaling but naturally it doesn’t look as nice since it’s not the native resolution.
I keep reading how good the service is from Vizio, so I’m probably going to buy the HDTV from them. I think it also makes sense to spend a little less now because it’s likely that the technology will continue to improve and become cheaper so you’ll want to spend more later anyway.
37" LCD for $759.99… sounds about right. You could also get their 42" plasma for $999.99. And their service, according to a lot of reports on AVSForum, seems excellent.
I’ve got two Samsungs (the aforementioned 61" 1080p and a 46" 720p DLP) and both are great with no issues. Very happy with both purchases.
I bought a Vizio 42" LCD from Walmart (yes, wealth and intelligence have eluded me all these years) about 3 months ago. Couldn’t be happier with it. It’s only 720p, but I don’t mind. I had a 32" Mitsubishi before the Vizio, which I bought in 1990. 720p is beauty to me :)
Time to dig up an old thread, in case anybody finds this information useful.
My shadow problem is such a common occurence that Samsung has issued a TSB to service centers about it, and are covering the repairs for it, even if the TV is outside the original warranty. Mine was 8 months out of warranty, and they covered the repair 100%. Gold star for them stepping up on their own and not being forced to do it through a mandated recall.
The problem is the mirrors come loose from the cheap adhesive holding them in place in the light tunnel. You get a very small dimmer area on one side of the TV that will slowly work it’s way across the screen as the mirror moves more and more. They are replacing the original light tunnel with a redesigned version that I am told “solves the problem for good”. We’ll see about that, but atleast for now, my TV is fixed.