You shouldn't try to draw conclusions from so little information. My
How can you conclude "so little information"?
As to failures, of ~60 dead "big screen" TVs (I only look at things
larger than 40" as most smaller sets are "cheap"), ignoring projection,
I'd say ~40 were Vizio, 12 Samsung and the rest "onesies". What that
says about failure *rates* I have no idea -- as I indicated above
(it could be that Vizio has 99.3% of the market so seeing 66% of
them in the failure population could say *good* things about them!)
Plasmas *do* have lots of special magnetics. Far more than an LCD or
LED set. And, these are often only available from the manufacturer or
as "pulls" from other sets (um, if it failed in THIS set, what sort
of confidence do you have that a pull from some other AGED set will
last much longer?)
They *do* draw a lot of power -- for a given size.
And, sell price bears no relationship to "cost to manufacture".
If demand is down, price might be lowered but that doesn't
imply *cost* is lowered. The opposite may, in fact, be true.
The biggest USE downside to plasma is burn-in (and weight).
brother has a huge plasma TV he got some 6 years ago. I had heard that
plasma loses its brightness over time. This TV is working just fine
after many, many hours of operation. Plasma is actually less expensive
these days because the LED lit LCD displays have better brightness and
most people prefer the picture. So you *have* to have a lower price to
sell a plasma set.
[I.e., this seems to be an "obsolescent" technology -- though
that could just be because The Market is driven by folks looking
for "cheap product"]
No, plasma just isn't capable of being as bright. People prefer a nice,
bright display.
*We* apparently don't. :> Nor are we keen on dedicating a whole
wall to a "boob tube". E.g., I have a couple of projectors that
could easily throw a 6-10 ft image. But, no desire for that sort
of "domination" of the room. OTOH, I *would* like to explore
using projection with a retractable screen (to get yet another
big piece of kit out of the living room!)
I rescue (personally) probably one "big screen" TV every two months.
Once folks know you can fix things, you tend to find lots of stuff
dumped on your doorstep (easier to bring it to Don than to haul
it to the hazardous waste site!).
I don't mind as I see these as "distractions". *And*, things that
I don't have any "skin in the game" -- if I can't fix it, it was
garbage anyway! Some are delightful "teasers" (I've a small LCD
that likes to blow a fuse. Yet, takes a very long time to do
so and, if you probe the circuit, you'll see it is operating well
below the rating of the fuse. As we don't *need* that set, there's
no incentive to make time to fix it. Yet, no desire to dispose of
a perfectly good *puzzle*!)
Each time I fix a set, we set it up and decide if we would like
to "upgrade" (or downgrade or whatever) to this "new" set. So
far, we've stuck with the old plasma set -- finding the picture
"warmer" (though not using that term in the color temperature
sense). So, the "new" set gets put aside until someone's kid
is moving off to college or "first apartment" etc.
We probably spend more time "watching" the small set in the kitchen
than anywhere else. Not much else you can do *while* eating :>
