Looking for a good 32" TV for less than $300...

By DaDude
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DaDude

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My Samsung 32" TV is dying. Takes a bunch of power on and off cycles to finally stay on. It's ready to fail, so I need to be ready in case it goes completely dead one day.

 

Considering that this is my third consecutive Samsung electronic to give me issues, I want to stay away from that brand at all costs and try some other more durable brand. I'm looking for a decent 32" 1080 p LCD TV that has good picture quality for less than $300.

 

I looked through Best Buy's website and came across these three....

LG 32LN5300
Sharp LC-32LB150U
Toshiba 32L2400U

They are all on sale for $230. Any of these any good? What do you experts out there recommend? I'm not looking for anything top of the line. Just a best bang for the buck TV that's 32" and costs less than $300.

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_dandy_

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this is my third consecutive Samsung electronic to give me issues, I want to stay away from that brand at all costs and try some other more durable brand

 

Samsung "electronic", in general, or TV?

 

I don't think you'll have much choice for TVs--Samsung manufactures the panels for a lot of TV makers these days.  I linked to this (https://ca.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100528202127AA5hSbn) yesterday somewhere in another thread.

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DaDude

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I'm surprised at the lack responses here. I was looking at the displays at Best Buy and PC Richards and frankly, I'm a bit disappointed at how HDTVs have gone downhill. My current Samsung 32" HDTV that's failing has 3 HDMI ports, 2 Component ports, 2 Composite ports and 1 PC port. Almost all the 32" HDTVs I saw only have 2 HDMI ports, and 1 Component/Composite port, with the Component and Composite being shared and therefore, can't be used together. And not to mention that I wasn't too particularly pleased with the picture quality on most TV sets. Sadly, the Samsung TVs seems to have the best picture quality, but I refuse to get that brand because while they do deliver great picture, they're not durable and will not last long. Even in my office at work, we have 20 Dell LCD monitors and 6 Samsung LCD monitors. All the Samsung monitors broke within 1-3 years of use while all the Dell monitors are still working. So, Samsung is not a good brand if you want something long lasting. So, I need to find another brand. LG is just as bad as Samsung in the reliability department, so that's out. So, that leaves only Sony, Toshiba or Sharp. I looked at the Toshiba and Sharp HDTVs and they all look so dull in terms of picture quality. With Sony, I only saw one model at PC Richards that was 32". It was the Sony KDL32R420B, but I'm disappointed that it was 720p instead of 1080p. I was hoping to upgrade to 1080p at this point, but it seems like all the non-Samsung 32" HDTVs now are all garbage.

 

I may have to just go with the Sony even though it's only 720p. Surprisingly, when I was at the store, the Sony seem to have better picture quality than many of the other 32" TVs that were 1080p. Now that was ironinc. You'd think the higher resolution TVs would look better. So, maybe I'm going crazy.

Grand Master

+E.Worm Jimmy Subscriber¹

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You have to get LG IPS panel TV.    The quality is unbelievable. Samsung manages to get it beat, but only on higher end models that are more expensive then LG's alternatives.

 

 

 

For PC monitors I have longed switched to IPS, and I love the quality of colors and viewing angles.

Grand Master

+Raze Subscriber²

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My nephew recently purchased this one - http://www.amazon.com/LG-Electronics-32LB5800-32-Inch-1080p/dp/B00IGXEAQI/ref=sr_1_6?s=tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1404612448&sr=1-6

and http://www.lg.com/ca_en/tvs/lg-32LB5800-led-tv  for additional info.

 

The picture is bright, good contrast and colors.  He loves it.

 

 

edit - oops...just noticed the less than $300 requirement, sorry.

Experienced

CactuzJak

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http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2012/10/how-samsung-spent-300-fixing-my-out-of-warranty-tvs-click-of-death/ this is what's wrong with your tv. there was a class action lawsuit against samsung, but i believe it's expired now so you can't get samsung to pay for it to be fixed any longer. i had the same problem with a 46" tv, but i'm in canada and the lawsuit was usa only. so i just paid some local guy $200 to fix it. wasn't about to spend $600+ on a new tv. works like new again.

Grand Master

T3X4S

Posted
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This happens a lot in computers.

Some person says, "well I had [insert crappy brand name] and it worked great! " or "My friend had a [insert reliable brand name] and it died after 6 months!"

As if to say, all of the information in the industry, and all of the patterns and businesses following this information which clearly suggests that [crappy brand] is indeed crap & [reliable brand] is indeed reliable - must be a complete conspiracy !  Misinformation to throw everyone off !  AND YOU FIGURED IT OUT !!

Of course, there is no brand with 100% failure rate, or a brand which never makes a mistake.  Furthermore, there are many other factors to consider. meehhhh - here I go again explaining it.  Im going back to HH


This always gets to me, because I dont have the energy,time, and patience to explain when looking over the course of hundreds, or thousands of products; patterns emerge.  So I just shake my head, go back to my cave, & hope when I wake up those people will no longer infect the gene pool.


Just so nobody gets upset thinking this is about them; it may or may not be ....

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DaDude

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Ok, I made a decision to buy the Sony KDL32R420B, but I couldn't find any PC Richard's store that carries it. I went to three different stores and they claimed they're sold out because this is a popular model. I call BS on that because the sales rank on that TV at Amazon is very low compared to the Samsung and LG TVs and PC Richard's had plenty of those in stock. I think Sony just doesn't produce a lot of these and only ships limited quantities to stores. How frustrating!

Grand Master

Ryoken

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For the record, Samsung TV's are by far the most reliable. Ask anyone who has worked at at a big electronics store.

After Samsung is Sony, but you pay a brand tax on that, getting fewer options for the same price.

 

There's not much after that aside from no-name brands and smaller name brands that can be far more hit-or-miss.


Ok, I made a decision to buy the Sony KDL32R420B, but I couldn't find any PC Richard's store that carries it. I went to three different stores and they claimed they're sold out because this is a popular model. I call BS on that because the sales rank on that TV at Amazon is very low compared to the Samsung and LG TVs and PC Richard's had plenty of those in stock. I think Sony just doesn't produce a lot of these and only ships limited quantities to stores. How frustrating!

OR, despite being popular, they sell far fewer of them and as such keep far more Samsung TV's in stock. 

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DaDude

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For the record, Samsung TV's are by far the most reliable. Ask anyone who has worked at at a big electronics store.

After Samsung is Sony, but you pay a brand tax on that, getting fewer options for the same price.

 

There's not much after that aside from no-name brands and smaller name brands that can be far more hit-or-miss.

 

My Samsung 32" TV is only 5 1/2 years old and already the capacitors are failing. My uncle and cousin both have Sony Bravia TVs and are over 6 years old and still work fine. How do you explain that? Google "Samsung TV click of death." This is not rocket science. It's obvious that Samsung doesn't build their TVs to last.

Grand Master

Steven P. Administrators

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My local pub has a 32" LG hanging on the wall, cheapest model (free with a mobile phone contract) and it is four years old, if that helps. I have never had an LG TV but I am rocking dual 23" LG LED monitors for two years, no dead pixels and great looking screens :)


Ok, I made a decision to buy the Sony KDL32R420B, but I couldn't find any PC Richard's store that carries it. I went to three different stores and they claimed they're sold out because this is a popular model. I call BS on that because the sales rank on that TV at Amazon is very low compared to the Samsung and LG TVs and PC Richard's had plenty of those in stock. I think Sony just doesn't produce a lot of these and only ships limited quantities to stores. How frustrating!

Whoops didn't see this, good luck with your purchase :)

Grand Master

Ryoken

Posted
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My Samsung 32" TV is only 5 1/2 years old and already the capacitors are failing. My uncle and cousin both have Sony Bravia TVs and are over 6 years old and still work fine. How do you explain that? Google "Samsung TV click of death." This is not rocket science. It's obvious that Samsung doesn't build their TVs to last.

And I have a Samsung TV that's 10 years old and going strong. My parents had a Sony that died after two years. It proves nothing.

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DaDude

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And I have a Samsung TV that's 10 years old and going strong. My parents had a Sony that died after two years. It proves nothing.

 

Ok fine. But still, google "click of death" and you will see that this is a widespread issue with Samsung TVs and evidently, Samsung hasn't improved upon this and still insists on using cheap underpowered capacitors on their TVs 'til this day.

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DaDude

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Ok, I surrender. I will settle for the Samsung UN32EH5000 because it has pretty much the same features as the Sony TV and in addition, it's 1080p and it's $50 less. I know Samsung TVs will probably only last 3 years but at least it will be a 3 happy years. The picture quality on the Sammy TVs is just too good to pass up and here's my opportunity to finally get a 1080p TV at an affordable price.

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Tidosho

Posted
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My Samsung 32" TV is only 5 1/2 years old and already the capacitors are failing. My uncle and cousin both have Sony Bravia TVs and are over 6 years old and still work fine. How do you explain that? Google "Samsung TV click of death." This is not rocket science. It's obvious that Samsung doesn't build their TVs to last.

The "capacitor plague" as it was known was HUGE. There was a chinese company who stole an incomplete electrolyte formula, millions of capacitors were made with these caps in, even today I'm still repairing equipment with these capacitors in. Any device using them is at risk, not just Samsung stuff.

 

It isn't a problem with newer solid state caps, but I generally only use Japanese capacitors in my repair business, most of the crappy ones are Chinese brands like Chang, once I replace them the equipment never comes back for more repairs.

 

To the OP, I'll gladly take your old TV off your hands, where are you based? USA? I'm in the UK.

Grand Master

HawkMan

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Samsung keys decent TVs from high mode end and up. But up  and including the 5 series their picture quality and reliability is crap.

 

You'll get a much better TV from a cheaper brand in fact. Sure there's a bigger chance of a problem with a budget brand, but you looking at (at worst) 5% vs 3% failure rate during the first 5 years. So even if its higher, its extremely unlikely. And some of the better budget brands have as good failure rate stats as high end manufacturers( and no Samsung isn't one of them actually, they have a fairly high failure rate)

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