[ejonesie22]

As an avid Video/Audiophile I am shocked to make this recommendation:

Samsung.

Ouch, got to let that settle.

Ok, I shopped for 3 years before making the HDTV Jump, I wanted something to fit my Adcom/Magnapan (now Klipsch, cat issue)audio side. I had been using a Sony XBR tube because I only bought Sony Video. Thats what the studios use, that is what the signal is normally engineered with.

Sony has had issues since all the management shake up back in 2000 or so. Their commercial division is still solid but less of that engineering has filtered down to consumer line.

That sent me shopping, for months. Finally got a Samsung 52 Inch Plasma. That was after cruising both low end and high end stores all over the Southeast.

Even their entry level units are good product.

It hurts, trust me. Samsung used to represent crap. But they are going after the Big Boys and doing a good job of it.

[Mike Darancette]

Don’t Sony and Samsung use the same screens?

[Vermont Lt]

I have to tell you, I can to the same conclusion. It took a while, but in the end it looked like the best deal.

This part is funny. It went into the porch area (4-season enclosed) to replace an old 30” tube. We installed it the week before Christmas. Since then no one watches the “big” TV any more. In fact, the cable box died on us and no one noticed for three weeks. The only thing the kids watch downstairs are Chuck Norris VHS tapes.

I bought the thing so I could watch MY shows. Forget it.

[ThisLittleLightofMine]

Not shocked at all....our first dvd player was a Samsung and it still works perfectly well. It was the cheapest at the time so we took a risk.

[AnotherUnixGeek]

Sony has had issues since all the management shake up back in 2000 or so. Their commercial division is still solid but less of that engineering has filtered down to consumer line.

Perhaps someone better informed can verify or deny this, but I've heard that Sony has begun moving manufacturing out of Japan and quality has dropped off as a result. My last 36" Trinitron XBR broke down within two years of purchase, which certainly never happened with any previous Sony TV I bought. Also, Sony's engineering and electronics products seem to be increasingly dominated and crippled by the intellectual-property protection demands of their entertainment division, which cripples products such as the PSP. The rootkit introduced into buyers computers by one of Sony's music CDs convinced me - no more Sony.

I keep seeing good reviews on Samsung for LCD televisions, and I'm considering Pioneer for plasma.