Which TV Brand did you Choose & Why?

[royalanalog]

The poll results as of yet are surprising.

Panasonic polled as second most preferred brand is unbelievable (maybe Plasma market keeps its position high ). Of course ! Who can beat Panasonic's plasmas except the discontinued Pioneer Kuro ?.

The funny part is that after LG, the most preferred brand which is Philips stands at 8% (some brand like Videocon must have occupied at around 15% ) !

Surprising to see SHARP overtaking Videocon . SHARP made some noise in mid 90's with the 7 year warranty scheme. But now many don't know if they still exist in India !

Also surprising to find the forgotten hero BPL scoring more than Onida. Onida's share is way too poor......just 1% ! No trace of Hitachi, JVC or SANYO hyeah: How are Sansui & Toshiba doing in the Indian LCD Market today ??

All in all, the Indian TV market today belongs to the multinational brands. Videocon, BPL and Onida are forgotten.:sad:.

 

[royalanalog]

I have a sharp 21" CRT bought in 1996 which still runs great. Never had one single problem with it. ............But i have not seen any CRT (even Sony) that could beat the Sharp "CINEMASCOPE" clarity as it calls. My vote for Sharp (First in the poll) as i find it better than my LG CRT.

Till date nobody has told me SHARP TV is bad. When I wanted a new TV SHARP was sadly not available in my town :sad:. So, I sadly had to settle down with Panasonic. Trust me, today's SONYs, LGs and Samsungs don't even come close to the contrast and color that SHARP produces. Their Shadow Mask Picture tubes beat any brand on those grounds. Happy viewing !

 

[royalanalog]

Does anyone own a GRUNDIG TV? Grundig came to India in late 90s through Solidaire (just as Sanyo through BPL) but left India due to poor market share. They were as expensive as a SONY (a CRT TV's cost was 20K INR !!!). I heard from a German friend that it's still a highly preferred brand in Germany making high quality electronics. She bought a 40" Grundig Plasma for 1600 Euros.

Visit: LED-TV Overview

 

[Asit]

I owned a Grundig CRT TV (multi-system) that we bought in late 1988 in Germany. This was a great TV. This TV travelled with us to the US in 1992 and ultimately came to India in a container at the end of 1994. Picture quality was simply superb (better than other quite expensive CRT TVs we have had in the family). Once, back in India, I called a Grundig service guy for some minor servicing. He told me that my TV was far superior in quality (including build quality and parts used) than the Grundig TVs being sold at that time in India. We gave away the TV about 10 years ago when still in great condition.

BTW, I selected a Panasonic CRT TV for my in-laws in late 1994 (despite my father-in-law being almost decided on a Sony). This TV after all these years of very very extensive use is still running in great condition (just checked it out a week ago when we visited them). They have another TV, but likes to watch everything on the Panasonic.

Currently, we have at home a Sony LCD and a Samsung flat CRT.

Regards.

 

[royalanalog]

@ Asit

Good to know that you'd owned and cherished a GRUNDIG TV. Somehow OLD IS GOLD and today's TVs (mostly) do not last that long.

Indian market's always a dumping ground for inferior products. Whether it is Electronics, cars or anything for that matter, we usually are dumped with scaled down stuff :lol:. On top of that, products are more expensive here ( I hear 42" Philips Full HD TVs being sold in the US for around 500 US$ ).

Meanwhile my German friend also spoke of an LCD TV brand named Metz, (which is way too expensive ...... starting price being 2500 Euros ! ). I also saw an inexpensive German LCD brand G-Hanz in Croma. Has anyone got a clue about these brands ???

 

[adder]

Till date nobody has told me SHARP TV is bad. When I wanted a new TV SHARP was sadly not available in my town :sad:. So, I sadly had to settle down with Panasonic. Trust me, today's SONYs, LGs and Samsungs don't even come close to the contrast and color that SHARP produces. Their Shadow Mask Picture tubes beat any brand on those grounds. Happy viewing !

Well thats your opinion about shadow mask.The aperture grill tvs have the contrast edge. Tvs from Sony,Mitshibushi,NEC tvs and some philips monitors had these picture tube under license from Sony.


About grundig they are okay,the TN government used to give it has free tv /village panchayat back in 1995 or 1996.Went kaput within 2 years.
My grandparents also had them it lasted for about 6 years ,after which was replaced with my old Sony Hi-black trinitron tv which was better in PQ.

 

[royalanalog]

@ adder ...

Technically you're right. However, as an owner of both shadow mask and aperture grille pic tube TVs, I disagree based on personal experience. Yes. Shadow mask was inferior to Aperture Grille. But not much after the Invar Shadow Mask was introduced by Toshiba. It greatly overcame the 'doming' problem inherent to the earlier S. masks. It produces near 'Trinitron like' images (though no match to it).

The contrast, white levels and colors(well, mostly and not always) on aperture grille are superb but the black levels suck. S. Mask tubes produce superb blacks ideal for sci fi movies. Also, on S. Mask tubes, images have a certain 3-D like field that looks cool to the eyes. Whereas on my SONY, images are extremely sharp and the overall images look planar. Somehow i feel the former looks more natural. So, sometimes images actually look better on Shadow Mask.

And I do not remember TN village Panchayats giving away Grundig (!) color TVs for free 15 years ago. Come on! A single Grundig CRT TV used to cost 500 bucks less than SONY ! Why would village Panchayats spend 20K per house ??? They must be duplicate GRUNDIGs or specially made for Govt. by (the Madras based TN centric brand) Solidaire with ultra cheap build quality! :lol:

 

[adder]

@ adder ...

Technically you're right. However, as an owner of both shadow mask and aperture grille pic tube TVs, I disagree based on personal experience. Yes. Shadow mask was inferior to Aperture Grille. But not much after the Invar Shadow Mask was introduced by Toshiba. It greatly overcame the 'doming' problem inherent to the earlier S. masks. It produces near 'Trinitron like' images (though no match to it).

The contrast, white levels and colors(well, mostly and not always) on aperture grille are superb but the black levels suck. S. Mask tubes produce superb blacks ideal for sci fi movies. Also, on S. Mask tubes, images have a certain 3-D like field that looks cool to the eyes. Whereas on my SONY, images are extremely sharp and the overall images look planar. Somehow i feel the former looks more natural. So, sometimes images actually look better on Shadow Mask.

And I do not remember TN village Panchayats giving away Grundig (!) color TVs for free 15 years ago. Come on! A single Grundig CRT TV used to cost 500 bucks less than SONY ! Why would village Panchayats spend 20K per house ??? They must be duplicate GRUNDIGs or specially made for Govt. by (the Madras based TN centric brand) Solidaire with ultra cheap build quality! :lol:

Well i to have owned tvs and monitors based on shadow mask and aperture grill,i stand by what i have said the contrast in aperture based tvs are clearly better.
As far as grundig,well its decision of the panchayat to get a grundig CRT.

 

[Asit]

About grundig they are okay,the TN government used to give it has free tv /village panchayat back in 1995 or 1996.Went kaput within 2 years.
My grandparents also had them it lasted for about 6 years ,after which was replaced with my old Sony Hi-black trinitron tv which was better in PQ.

I am not quite sure what you mean by the above statement. Grundig has been a very respected brand in Germany/Austria and Germans are very fussy about things. As I said, my Grundig was excellent and was in no way worse than anything I saw in India when we came back at the end of 1994, or anything we saw in the US the place where we were, immediately before coming back to India. As I also said, the Grundigs being marketed in India in the mid-90's were far worse in quality than mine, as opined by the service guy - result of a few over-smart guys in Grundig India marketing research, I'd suppose.

Can somebody throw some light on the following question of mine? I like to know. Were the Sony CRT TVs sold in India at the end of 1994 of international standard, that is, on par with Sony TVs sold elsewhere (especially in the advanced countries)? I am not sure, may be I am wrong. But when I chose the Panasonic over Sony in December 1994 for my father-in-law, the Sonys did not impress me that much (compared to what I had seen in the US and Europe just before that), and I had the feeling perhaps Sony at that point of time were not selling the then international top range in India. But I could be wrong of course.

Regards.

 

[royalanalog]

Well i to have owned tvs and monitors based on shadow mask and aperture grill,i stand by what i have said the contrast in aperture based tvs are clearly better....they lacked magic.
As far as grundig,well its decision of the panchayat to get a grundig CRT.

I personally feel A.Grille tubes are great for TVs and not for PC Monitors. I've seen a few Trinitron PC Monitors and their images were nothing superior to typical S. Mask monitor.

I'm sure it must have been Solidaire's move to supply Grundig TVs at that price and quality to Panchyats (Solidaire represented Grundig in India in '90s). Though a reputed brand, Grundig couldn't stand the competition from its rivals and has been sold to a Turkish businessman in Germany.

 

[adder]

I am not quite sure what you mean by the above statement. Grundig has been a very respected brand in Germany/Austria and Germans are very fussy about things. As I said, my Grundig was excellent and was in no way worse than anything I saw in India when we came back at the end of 1994, or anything we saw in the US the place where we were, immediately before coming back to India. As I also said, the Grundigs being marketed in India in the mid-90's were far worse in quality than mine, as opined by the service guy - result of a few over-smart guys in Grundig India marketing research, I'd suppose.

Can somebody throw some light on the following question of mine? I like to know. Were the Sony CRT TVs sold in India at the end of 1994 of international standard, that is, on par with Sony TVs sold elsewhere (especially in the advanced countries)? I am not sure, may be I am wrong. But when I chose the Panasonic over Sony in December 1994 for my father-in-law, the Sonys did not impress me that much (compared to what I had seen in the US and Europe just before that), and I had the feeling perhaps Sony at that point of time were not selling the then international top range in India. But I could be wrong of course.

Regards.

Well i didn't say its bad,but its certainly not the best.
Sony tvs sold until 2003 to 2004 were all of international standards "Made in Japan".There after it was made in thailand ,even the picture tube color(when it was OFF) was different from made in japan. Except for the wide screen crt tvs which were still made in japan and had the "super fine pitch" picture tube,these tvs used to be more expensive then lcds.

I personally feel A.Grille tubes are great for TVs and not for PC Monitors. I've seen a few Trinitron PC Monitors and their images were nothing superior to typical S. Mask monitor.

I'm sure it must have been Solidaire's move to supply Grundig TVs at that price and quality to Panchyats (Solidaire represented Grundig in India in '90s). Though a reputed brand, Grundig couldn't stand the competition from its rivals and has been sold to a Turkish businessman in Germany.

Like i said i have seen both,aperture grill CRT monitors were very expensive professional monitors from NEC and Sony were all aperture grill and not shadow mask .

Well its the decision of the particular Panchyat to get a Grundig,they could have gotten any brand.I am not sure whether the government sanctioned the money or its was collected from the villagers or was the personal money of the punchayat(who by the way was very rich) .But it was a Grundig.

 

[royalanalog]

even the picture tube color(when it was OFF) was different from made in japan.

Well, adder.... my KV-AZ213M83 WEGA's pic tube does not look 'dark black' but is rather grey when it's OFF. Does that mean it's not a Japanese pic tube? I think the older 'vertically flat' tubes were rather darker in color.

 

[hemantwaghe]

Sony tvs sold until 2003 to 2004 were all of international standards "Made in Japan".

are you sure? Mean "ALL" tvs till 2004 were "Made in Japan?" Is it first hand info?

 

[royalanalog]

are you sure? Mean "ALL" tvs till 2004 were "Made in Japan?" Is it first hand info?

Well, some Kirara Basso Trinitrons were made in Singapore, I think.

 

[hemantwaghe]

Well, some Kirara Basso Trinitrons were made in Singapore, I think.

You are right
.as even in Dubai in 2002 -2003 ( when I was with sony distri) I am kind of shure that not all TVs were "Made In Japan"

 

[royalanalog]

You are right
.as even in Dubai in 2002 -2003 ( when I was with sony distri) I am kind of shure that not all TVs were "Made In Japan"

You distributed SONY ? Great. What products were you marketing ? I owned a Mark III SONY Trinitron made in the early 80s. It was an original 'Made In Japan' model that had a vertically flat Trinitron pic tube. It used to have such smooth buttons (and a wooden cabinet) that the SONY TVs that came to India later were no match to it. Today's WEGAs don't even come close. Made in Japan is sth different indeed.

 

[hemantwaghe]

I was with Jumbo Electronics,once claimed biggest Sony distri in the world.

 

[adder]

Well, adder.... my KV-AZ213M83 WEGA's pic tube does not look 'dark black' but is rather grey when it's OFF. Does that mean it's not a Japanese pic tube? I think the older 'vertically flat' tubes were rather darker in color.

Well since i have the same tv used has a back up ,i can assure you that its not Made in Japan,i for one believe it was even outsourced to another company.
The picture processing and contrast is inferior to the earlier version prior to 2004.

Sony manufacturing facilities where in japan,thailand and Malyasia.Some models which had those extra woofer/speaker where mainly made for the indian and other S.E asian countries .Those were made in thailand or Malaysia even models before 2004.
The kirara basso tvs from what i have seen in india officialy and grey market where all "made in Japan".

 

[royalanalog]

Well since i have the same tv used has a back up ,i can assure you that its not Made in Japan,i for one believe it was even outsourced to another company.
The picture processing and contrast is inferior to the earlier version prior to 2004.

Sony manufacturing facilities where in japan,thailand and Malyasia.Some models which had those extra woofer/speaker where mainly made for the indian and other S.E asian countries .Those were made in thailand or Malaysia even models before 2004.
The kirara basso tvs from what i have seen in india officialy and grey market where all "made in Japan".

You're right ... this WEGA model's Made in Thailand officially. The TV's pic quality's pale for almost all channels except Animal Planet. Extremely boosted contrast & brightness corrupt the image's originality.

By the way, I heard from my cousin who owned Kirara Basso that the TV's Japanese parts were imported from Japan but was assembled in their Noida plant to cut manufacturing cost.

 

[royalanalog]

Well i didn't say its bad,but its certainly not the best.

Maybe we need to check this to understand the 'standard' of GRUNDIG : Grundig Elektronik To Make Sony Bravia Televisions | Sony Insider