In your opinion does North America or any region need more TV brand choices?

[wattsndrive90]

Just curious - I live in a very rural area of East Coast USA, my local Wal-Mart (the only store selling TV's within 50-55 miles) sells generally Vizio, LG, Samsung. They also have some TCL, Hisense, Phllips, and Wal-Mart's ONN brand.

TCL outside of LG, Vizio, and Samsung is about the only ones you see a lot of purchases on. Now this is just one Wal-Mart of course, but as a rule of thumb most people who are really into movies or just TV go with LG, Sony, or Samsung. So Sony is the only brand missing at our Wal-Mart.

If I go on Amazon - Best Buy's website a get a couple more options - like Insigna, Amazon's Name Brand, and Sony.

I hear in Europe for example (I think anyway) Panasonic make good TV's whereas here nothing. Anywho Sorry if I went on to long - I just kinda wish Phillips for example would make good TV's again - I feel like they just stay on the shelf - and frankly based on reviews of the Wal-Mart one's I don't trust them.



Thanks - leave opinions if you wish.

[Trekkie313]

Yes, Panasonic and Pioneer made a huge mistake exiting the HDTV game in NA. I do not trust all these budget Chinese 4Ks to deliver quality and many barely have more than 3 HDMI ports.

[HDTV1080P]

I would like to see Pioneer and Panasonic return to North America for displays. But let us not forget that even though Pioneer was the best in 2008 for plasmas, the reason they exited the plasma business was because they lost several billions of dollars on research and development, since the average consumer does not want to pay for a display that offers the best picture and a display that can last 20+ years under ideal conditions. People are happy with displays that last up to 10 years, however some of the under $1,000 generic brand displays at nationwide retailers only last between 3-5 years since they have poor construction quality of the power supplies and other components along with a picture quality that is average or below average.

China makes both high-end, medium quality, and lower end electronics depending on what the engineering department tells the China automated factories what type of components to purchase. If you want more inputs and better quality then consumers need to be willing to pay more regardless of what country makes the display. Pioneer plasmas were engineered in Japan and assembled in the USA, but today no display is assembled in the USA as far as I am aware. Usually the assembling of various parts from China and other countries occurs in either Mexico or Canada. I doubt Panasonic will want to re-enter the USA market, too many consumers complaining about price and therefore no reason for Pioneer and Panasonic to sale displays in the USA (unless that changes and the American consumer is willing to pay for better picture quality that lasts longer than the competition).

LG and Samsung make some nice high-end OLED displays that are made in South Korea. Those are on the USA market. Sony out of Japan makes some nice OLED displays for the USA market also.

[LexInHD]

I would stop buying Samsung TVs without hesitation, if I could get the Panasonic product lines in Murica. In the UK, Panasonic still offers a good selection of Full-HD 32/40/43-inch Smart TVs, which would pair perfectly with the Panasonic BD players that I have stockpiled. I picked up some Vizio BD players recently, so I'm gonna get Vizio's newest 43-inch HDTV to go with them and use that as my main streaming/physical media watching TV. Since we're on the subject of things the market needs more of, I'd love to see Amazon offer a UHD-BD player to go with their Amazon-branded UHDTVs, which are now equipped with Dolby Vision and HDR10+. They could also continue venturing into the soundbar market and make a good amount of money, with lossless-capable soundbar systems.

[HDTV1080P]

We do not have Panasonic OLED TV's in America, however I have heard that the latest Panasonic OLED TV's have both Dolby Vision HDR and HDR10+ which is a huge selling advantage for videophiles that want all the HDR formats.

[RFK]

If only more people would have paid the extra cost for the superior quality of Panasonic televisions they would have never stopped sales in the US. People weren't buying there sets, and like any business they had to drop the US from their television market.

[meremortal]

The market for tvs under like $500 or so is insanely competitive. It obviously gets much less so at the fringes as price really increases. But I'm really impressed how decent budget tvs can look these days.

[wattsndrive90]

Originally Posted by meremortal

The market for tvs under like $500 or so is insanely competitive. It obviously gets much less so at the fringes as price really increases. But I'm really impressed how decent budger tvs can look these days.

I agree, as a budget TV buyer because of income I can safely say they've never been in a better position. I have a 65in TCL 4-Series, looks great, to great for $398 (before taxes of course). I am strongly considering buying another 4-series to replace my 1080p 55in LG in my living room. Also I had a Hisense 4k TV 58in (don;t remember the model number) but my dad helped with my move recently and I gave it to him as a thank you, it was a good 4k budget TV as well.

Also those 4-Series TCL are my favorites because they have 4 HDMI ports. Thats a big plus for me anyway.