between the pannasonic and sony stuff i've brough over the past 10 years not a thing has gone wrong.
the sony 14" tv i brought 10 years back still works fine and the picture is still deadly sharp.
my panasonic vcr is 6 years old the picture quality is still as good as the first few month i had it still better than any othe brand of vcr i've seen. and the jet rewind has only broke the second tape i used in it.
brought othe bits and peices that are also still going strong.
most other stuff prior to that is knackered, including ferguson and thorn vcrs.
Has anyone else come across transcontinents as a brand. I've a 21 and a 28 inch tv by them and they're very good in picture and sound quality but evidently they keep their prices down by not prettifying the box, just pale grey plastic which actually does look okay. This is in France but it looks like it would be sold all around Europe, just wondered if they've hit the UK yet.
I'd like to defend Sony for their vcrs, as mine is over four years old and extremely good in its performance; two Matsui vcrs I've owned in the past were total rubbish I'm afraid.
most other stuff prior to that is knackered, including ferguson and thorn vcrs.
IMO Ferguson VCR's are very well built and take a bit of bashing to stop working (I've had a videostar for a while now and it gives pretty good performance).
I had a Hitachi 28 w/s TV - was an absolute nightmare. Kept turning itself off and had a pretty lousy picture.
Now gone back to my old favourite - Sony. I know they're not what they were, but I'm surprised to hear so many people lumping them with Bush/Alba/Goodmans etc, which when I worked at Currys were a constant source of returns.
I now own a Sony Minidisc separate, 28" WS TV, 4 head Video, 2 DVD players, Minidisc Walkman and CD separate, Dolby 5.1 surround system. I wouldn't trade them. They're sturdy, well built and top quality.
From Sony experience, it seems to me if you get a duff model, it'll never be right. I know people that have had no end of problems. But if you get a decent one (which the majority seem to be) it should last you years.
IMO Ferguson VCR's are very well built and take a bit of bashing to stop working (I've had a videostar for a while now and it gives pretty good performance).
Maybe old school ones when Ferguson was still Ferguson. And didn't they sell rebadged JVC videos at one point. I remember buying a very complicated JVC one - it was completely incomprehensible and would do things like changing channels without warning - and I'm sure it was available from retail chains as a Ferguson and independents as a JVC.
Thorn Television Rentals (parent company of Radio Rentals. DER and MultiBroadcast) used to use their own television sets for rental, rebadged to the rental chains identity and used JVC equipment for video equipment.
I remember renting an 8924 video recorder 'way back in '84. It was a cumbersome bugger but it was (and in many ways still is) a good feature-packed machine with more buttons on it's fascia than a flight deck and reciprocal buttons on the huge remote control. For '84 it had Dolby Noise Reduction, direct camera input as well as a lot of clever other features. Does anyone remember this machine?
I also have recordings made from a 8900 (piano key machine) and looking back at some of them. the quality of recording was excellent. You could get an optional remote control for it's similar brother - but it was operated with a wire connected between the handset and the unit - deadly for tripping over with! - Here's a picture of one here
I remember those amazing early JVC / Ferguson video recorders!..... they were the most advanced machines in their day.... front loading when all others were top loaders, dolby linear stereo with more features than anything else on earth!
And oddly at the same time they released the 'piano key' top loader 3vo1 ... however they were so well built and people still use them today (due to not being affected by macrovision copy protection!) - I used to service some of those machines... they were so mechanical compared to the modern junk!
Ferguson (Thorn), JVC and Telefunken had a joint venture back in the 1980's where they shared VHS manufacturing factories - known as 'J2T' - (JVC, Thorn, Telefunken)
Still, those early VHS machines cost about £300 - probably nowadays that equates to £3000 or so ?
I've got a 27 year old (could be older) Hitachi VCR with Stereo sound that my uncle gave me. It's heads need cleaning/changing but other than that it works perfectly!!
I'll go in the garage tomorrow and get the model number and take a photo maybe.
I wouldn't go near Sony with a 10 foot barge pole. I've had nothing but trouble with pretty much every Sony product I've had.
Panasonic stuff = goes on forever and a day, and I've never really had any problems with any cheap brands. Got a few goodmans and bush bits, and they've all been fine.
The oldest thing we have in the house is a "Saisho" ( i think thats right) video, that must be over 15 years old now, and is still going strong. I'll put money on it out-living any of the modern ones they sell these days!
I am quite old fashioned about this kinda stuff though... im not really a fan of digital TV, and ill never be converted to bloody dvd's over good old videos!
IFrom Sony experience, it seems to me if you get a duff model, it'll never be right. I know people that have had no end of problems. But if you get a decent one (which the majority seem to be) it should last you years.
Basically, anything they make themselves is good; it's the stuff they re-brand themselves which may be more likely to go wrong, for example the VCRs. Of course this stuff can often be fine too, I am sure Sony have fairly stringent quality checks. Their stuff will obviously go wrong sometimes, they are still a mass market brand. Their TV's are still some of the best, though.
Quite a few people are mentioning VCRs - they certainly don't make them like they used to. Early 80s models where built like tanks and weighed a ton, so it is still possible to service them even now and get a very good quality recording - often bettering today's models. However, I calculated that one of these would have cost up to £3000 in today's money, so I am quite happy buying something for £80 now which will only last 4 years. Even if the old ones never needed servicing, it would take 38 years to make it worthwhile. You get a remote too .
The oldest thing we have in the house is a "Saisho" ( i think thats right) video, that must be over 15 years old now, and is still going strong. I'll put money on it out-living any of the modern ones they sell these days!
I think I remember some of their stuff looking the same as Ferguson. I could be very wrong.
Well I've found really expense products just don't go the distance. Let's face it, if you can afford them in the first place, you aint overly bothered about how much use you get out them!
Generally B&O was good, although you pay for the styling...
Many B&O products were variants on other manufacturers designs... for example, some B&O video recorders were Philips with some extra circuitry for B&O special features... Thomson TV chassis were often used in 1990's era B&O TV sets, again highly modified versions.
I had a B&O 22" TV a few years ago, their own design and very slimline (came with a very solid metal remote) - the pictures were amazing and far superior to any TV I've come across since (yes I've seen a few while running a TV workshop for 15 years!)
Anyhow, I dare say the modern ones are as good or bad as any other brand.
I have to disagree. Most people would say Phillips is a decent middle of the road manufacturer, but in my experience they have been nothing short of awful. Off hand, I don't think I own anything made by them now because it has all broken. And I have tried quite a few over the years.
I have had far better experiences with Alba, Bush, Matsui, Beko and even generic products and I would actually pay more for them.
I would say LG and Samsung are two of the most under-rated brands. Ferguson TV’s seem tough too.
I love phillips customer service, was very helpful, first time i called no guy to help me on phone so ok, we'll call you back very shortly keep around... so I did, i didnt get a call back for another 3 days or so.
Send the engineer to our house, so sorry that werent satisfied and wanted to provide best service they could, engineer didnt bother turning up.
Internet customer serivce email, recieve response guaranteeing a response within 48 hours, well its been a month and i haven't seen anything.... lol
My Philips 28 inch widescreen died the other day, 14 months old. Damn.
My mums 28 inch widescreen Thomson died 14 months into it's life. Damn.
My first TV was a white Sharp 14" in 1987. It still runs a dream. no problems at all.
We used to have a Sharp VCR in 1986, and it looked good then, still in the loft. It had a remote on a wire (the I.R. one was loads more IIRC). It was £500 i think. My mate has the same one, but the display lit up a different colour, and that was Matsui or Orion branded.
The JVC one (a few posts above) is the one I always tend to see on car boot sales that has the local second hand 'Electrical baron' on it.
I had a dodgy Mitsubishi TV in 1998. Took it back and had another dodgy one in it's place, same fault. Got an AKAI instead and it was fantastic. I bet it still looks stylish now, (I sold it last year).
You can still get Akura in Safeway (TV Video combi).
Is Thorn now in with the fire extinguisher company KIDDE? I think we use them at work and it rings a bell.
Now watching TV on a 14" Daewoo Video/TV combi. That has been bashed about for the last 6 years (we moved about a lot) and its like the day it was bought!
I love phillips customer service, was very helpful, first time i called no guy to help me on phone so ok, we'll call you back very shortly keep around... so I did, i didnt get a call back for another 3 days or so.
Send the engineer to our house, so sorry that werent satisfied and wanted to provide best service they could, engineer didnt bother turning up.
Internet customer serivce email, recieve response guaranteeing a response within 48 hours, well its been a month and i haven't seen anything.... lol
Not surprising; they are probably very busy at Phillips customer services and complaints departments .
I have to disagree, I have a B&O tv which was my nans, and they looked after it and got it serviced etc, and its older than my sister, who is 22, so there you go. and its picture is fine. although the screen is slightly curved compared to my tv downstairs (sony 32" widescreen) it has a very nice to watch picture which im sure will be much improved when i get a decent aerial.
This is a reply I gave to a different thread on another forum:
Denon, very good, good quality, build quality.
I have a Technics (Panasonic's sister company), very good, good, solid build. You won't go wrong with: Pionner-excellent, Technics-very very good, Yamaha make very good audio equipment, Kenwood I have heard make very good audio equipment, Mission, KEF, B&W speakers - you won't go wrong with any of those. For slightly cheaper stuff - JVC, Panasonic - won't go wrong with those very good for the price. Sony, were good, but the previous two makes are better. I had a JVC that was my Aunts for a few years - very good, it got humped around rooms too still worked - good and solid - meanwhile after 3 house moves my other Aunts - the one that lived up (t)here the speaker connections have gone and have needed to be sorted. However, I am next in the running for her Sony, I might hook it up to some Mission speakers and I am on a winner, and keep her amp/tape decks and put a new CD player in - it doesen't like my CDRs so I would have to get a new CD player seperate. And sell the Technics on. The JVC had better quality components in it, but duff, dreadful speakers on it (which are next to me here), on the other hand the Sony has poorer quality components, the buttons are getting a bit loose, but damn site better speakers than the JVC.
I thought you might like to hear my experience of TV's in 2002 and this is very much true (no joke!)
June 2002, PYE TV that I had owned sice 1990 died, during the world cup, drat!
1) Replaced it with a 28 widescreen beko, good picture and average sound. over the course of the next month, kept giving static noises so returned it.
2) got a Sharp 28 wide TV from asda, Excellent sound apart from very loud bass when the left speaker vibrated! picture quality had RF lines on it, over the next 3 weeks changed all scart and rf leeds, still got problem, plugged another tv in, fine. Returned it.
3) swapped for same sharp tv, got home no RF lines but channel 5 looked like the ready break adverts from the 70/80's (white lines round everything), plugged another TV in, fine! returned
4) went to powerhouse and bought a panasonic TV with surround sound, this lasted a couple of days and right hand side of the screen went green!, Powerhouse told me it was due to a faulty speaker install and to return it!
5) Returned home with identical panasonic and the picture was wider on the right than the left, I couldn't believe it, took it straight back the next morning
We are now in August 2002!
6) went to comet and Purchased a phillips TV/Video package with surround sound speakers( like panasonic, but wireless), the TV had a similar problem to the panasonic with green screen (maybe it was made in the same factory!)
7) replaced with same model, got it home and it was intermittently buzzing. Returned to comet and their policy id they have to notice the fault, well picture your lounge to a comet store with all the noise of tv's, hi - fi and air conditioning! It was there,but they said it was minor! After 3 hours of arguing and phoning their head office they evntually changed it.
8) Got home and after a couple of days we noticed the channel button on the top of the TV was faulty. My wife took this one back, as i couldn't do with the hassle. As they couldn't argue with the fault, they changed it, But they tried to give my wife back the buzzing one, she recognised the box. Thankfully the delivery boy wasn't fussed and got another one.
9) This TV was fine, but we did notice it had a minor fault of the picture slopping slightly, but after all the problems I couldn't be bothered calling an engineer to rotate the image. The surround sound was a bit hit and miss and got radio wave interference from allsorts! The phillips VCR that came with the package chewed tapes occasionally though.
In november a friend persuaded me to sell him my phillips TV/video package as he liked it and knew i wasn't that keen, so i sold it for a £140 loss from new.
10) went to apollo 2000 and bought a Sony TV/video package, There was a pixel missing in the screen, so you had an obvious white spot
whenthere was blue sky etc, but believe it or not after 3 days this quickly developed the green screen problem previously had, phoned Sony CS and they told me to return to Apollo
11) returned home with another expensive Sony TV(same model) and the Tv speaker frame was all warped, looked like the speaker had been ramed in. Returned this, just before closing and swapped for another
12) Got home took TV out of Box, part of the TV was scuffed and damaged in transit, looked a right mess, didn't even plug it in. next morning returned it!
13) Insisted on opening the next one and inspecting it in store, as they were giving me funny looks, the manager said as we were waiting that I should't have returned the one woth the warped speakers!!!! I told him for £600 i expected it to be flush like all the models in the store and not warped and substandard, to which he reluctantly agreed. The new sony Tv arrived and they took it out of the box and the cabinet was smashed to bits. The store staff changed there attitude at this point!
14) The next Sony TV however was opened up and was fine and still is today, fifth sony TV lucky, making 14 TV's in all. The sony video however makes a funny wining noise that has got better with age. The Sony video's are made by Samsung (don't make their own anymore).
I also soon after bought a cheap bush 28 widescreen for the bedroom for less than half the cost, which works fine.
My experience is that most stuff seems to be crap and the customer service wasn't the best either. Will never shop at Comet again, but Asda's customer service was no problem at all.
Looks like you got all the bad eggs! Must admit that I don't think that the stores handle the products with enough care and you can see the fed up look in their eye when you're coming for an exchange.
Looks like you got all the bad eggs! Must admit that I don't think that the stores handle the products with enough care and you can see the fed up look in their eye when you're coming for an exchange.
It does make you not want to go any buy anything, I worry now that when I get somethig home it will be knackered
Comments
the sony 14" tv i brought 10 years back still works fine and the picture is still deadly sharp.
my panasonic vcr is 6 years old the picture quality is still as good as the first few month i had it still better than any othe brand of vcr i've seen. and the jet rewind has only broke the second tape i used in it.
brought othe bits and peices that are also still going strong.
most other stuff prior to that is knackered, including ferguson and thorn vcrs.
I'd like to defend Sony for their vcrs, as mine is over four years old and extremely good in its performance; two Matsui vcrs I've owned in the past were total rubbish I'm afraid.
Now gone back to my old favourite - Sony. I know they're not what they were, but I'm surprised to hear so many people lumping them with Bush/Alba/Goodmans etc, which when I worked at Currys were a constant source of returns.
I now own a Sony Minidisc separate, 28" WS TV, 4 head Video, 2 DVD players, Minidisc Walkman and CD separate, Dolby 5.1 surround system. I wouldn't trade them. They're sturdy, well built and top quality.
From Sony experience, it seems to me if you get a duff model, it'll never be right. I know people that have had no end of problems. But if you get a decent one (which the majority seem to be) it should last you years.
Maybe old school ones when Ferguson was still Ferguson. And didn't they sell rebadged JVC videos at one point. I remember buying a very complicated JVC one - it was completely incomprehensible and would do things like changing channels without warning - and I'm sure it was available from retail chains as a Ferguson and independents as a JVC.
I remember renting an 8924 video recorder 'way back in '84. It was a cumbersome bugger but it was (and in many ways still is) a good feature-packed machine with more buttons on it's fascia than a flight deck and reciprocal buttons on the huge remote control. For '84 it had Dolby Noise Reduction, direct camera input as well as a lot of clever other features. Does anyone remember this machine?
I also have recordings made from a 8900 (piano key machine) and looking back at some of them. the quality of recording was excellent. You could get an optional remote control for it's similar brother - but it was operated with a wire connected between the handset and the unit - deadly for tripping over with! - Here's a picture of one here
[Just here!
And oddly at the same time they released the 'piano key' top loader 3vo1 ... however they were so well built and people still use them today (due to not being affected by macrovision copy protection!) - I used to service some of those machines... they were so mechanical compared to the modern junk!
Ferguson (Thorn), JVC and Telefunken had a joint venture back in the 1980's where they shared VHS manufacturing factories - known as 'J2T' - (JVC, Thorn, Telefunken)
Still, those early VHS machines cost about £300 - probably nowadays that equates to £3000 or so ?
I'll go in the garage tomorrow and get the model number and take a photo maybe.
I wouldn't go near Sony with a 10 foot barge pole. I've had nothing but trouble with pretty much every Sony product I've had.
Panasonic stuff = goes on forever and a day, and I've never really had any problems with any cheap brands. Got a few goodmans and bush bits, and they've all been fine.
The oldest thing we have in the house is a "Saisho" ( i think thats right) video, that must be over 15 years old now, and is still going strong. I'll put money on it out-living any of the modern ones they sell these days!
I am quite old fashioned about this kinda stuff though... im not really a fan of digital TV, and ill never be converted to bloody dvd's over good old videos!
Quite a few people are mentioning VCRs - they certainly don't make them like they used to. Early 80s models where built like tanks and weighed a ton, so it is still possible to service them even now and get a very good quality recording - often bettering today's models. However, I calculated that one of these would have cost up to £3000 in today's money, so I am quite happy buying something for £80 now which will only last 4 years. Even if the old ones never needed servicing, it would take 38 years to make it worthwhile. You get a remote too
I think I remember some of their stuff looking the same as Ferguson. I could be very wrong.
crap!!!
Many B&O products were variants on other manufacturers designs... for example, some B&O video recorders were Philips with some extra circuitry for B&O special features... Thomson TV chassis were often used in 1990's era B&O TV sets, again highly modified versions.
I had a B&O 22" TV a few years ago, their own design and very slimline (came with a very solid metal remote) - the pictures were amazing and far superior to any TV I've come across since (yes I've seen a few while running a TV workshop for 15 years!)
Anyhow, I dare say the modern ones are as good or bad as any other brand.
I love phillips customer service, was very helpful, first time i called no guy to help me on phone so ok, we'll call you back very shortly keep around... so I did, i didnt get a call back for another 3 days or so.
Send the engineer to our house, so sorry that werent satisfied and wanted to provide best service they could, engineer didnt bother turning up.
Internet customer serivce email, recieve response guaranteeing a response within 48 hours, well its been a month and i haven't seen anything.... lol
My Philips 28 inch widescreen died the other day, 14 months old. Damn.
My mums 28 inch widescreen Thomson died 14 months into it's life. Damn.
My first TV was a white Sharp 14" in 1987. It still runs a dream. no problems at all.
We used to have a Sharp VCR in 1986, and it looked good then, still in the loft. It had a remote on a wire (the I.R. one was loads more IIRC). It was £500 i think. My mate has the same one, but the display lit up a different colour, and that was Matsui or Orion branded.
The JVC one (a few posts above) is the one I always tend to see on car boot sales that has the local second hand 'Electrical baron' on it.
I had a dodgy Mitsubishi TV in 1998. Took it back and had another dodgy one in it's place, same fault. Got an AKAI instead and it was fantastic. I bet it still looks stylish now, (I sold it last year).
You can still get Akura in Safeway (TV Video combi).
Is Thorn now in with the fire extinguisher company KIDDE? I think we use them at work and it rings a bell.
Now watching TV on a 14" Daewoo Video/TV combi. That has been bashed about for the last 6 years (we moved about a lot) and its like the day it was bought!
I have to disagree, I have a B&O tv which was my nans, and they looked after it and got it serviced etc, and its older than my sister, who is 22, so there you go. and its picture is fine. although the screen is slightly curved compared to my tv downstairs (sony 32" widescreen) it has a very nice to watch picture which im sure will be much improved when i get a decent aerial.
I have got an old Bush 'Ranger 2' b&w 12'' TV from 1978 and it is still going strong.
I don't think things are made as well as they used to be because some TV s nowadays die after 14 months :eek:
I love Phillips, Sharp, Aiwa and Sony Have had many of their products for years and no problems at all.
Denon, very good, good quality, build quality.
I have a Technics (Panasonic's sister company), very good, good, solid build. You won't go wrong with: Pionner-excellent, Technics-very very good, Yamaha make very good audio equipment, Kenwood I have heard make very good audio equipment, Mission, KEF, B&W speakers - you won't go wrong with any of those. For slightly cheaper stuff - JVC, Panasonic - won't go wrong with those very good for the price. Sony, were good, but the previous two makes are better. I had a JVC that was my Aunts for a few years - very good, it got humped around rooms too still worked - good and solid - meanwhile after 3 house moves my other Aunts - the one that lived up (t)here the speaker connections have gone and have needed to be sorted. However, I am next in the running for her Sony, I might hook it up to some Mission speakers and I am on a winner, and keep her amp/tape decks and put a new CD player in - it doesen't like my CDRs so I would have to get a new CD player seperate. And sell the Technics on. The JVC had better quality components in it, but duff, dreadful speakers on it (which are next to me here), on the other hand the Sony has poorer quality components, the buttons are getting a bit loose, but damn site better speakers than the JVC.
Alex
June 2002, PYE TV that I had owned sice 1990 died, during the world cup, drat!
1) Replaced it with a 28 widescreen beko, good picture and average sound. over the course of the next month, kept giving static noises so returned it.
2) got a Sharp 28 wide TV from asda, Excellent sound apart from very loud bass when the left speaker vibrated! picture quality had RF lines on it, over the next 3 weeks changed all scart and rf leeds, still got problem, plugged another tv in, fine. Returned it.
3) swapped for same sharp tv, got home no RF lines but channel 5 looked like the ready break adverts from the 70/80's (white lines round everything), plugged another TV in, fine! returned
4) went to powerhouse and bought a panasonic TV with surround sound, this lasted a couple of days and right hand side of the screen went green!, Powerhouse told me it was due to a faulty speaker install and to return it!
5) Returned home with identical panasonic and the picture was wider on the right than the left, I couldn't believe it, took it straight back the next morning
We are now in August 2002!
6) went to comet and Purchased a phillips TV/Video package with surround sound speakers( like panasonic, but wireless), the TV had a similar problem to the panasonic with green screen (maybe it was made in the same factory!)
7) replaced with same model, got it home and it was intermittently buzzing. Returned to comet and their policy id they have to notice the fault, well picture your lounge to a comet store with all the noise of tv's, hi - fi and air conditioning! It was there,but they said it was minor! After 3 hours of arguing and phoning their head office they evntually changed it.
8) Got home and after a couple of days we noticed the channel button on the top of the TV was faulty. My wife took this one back, as i couldn't do with the hassle. As they couldn't argue with the fault, they changed it, But they tried to give my wife back the buzzing one, she recognised the box. Thankfully the delivery boy wasn't fussed and got another one.
9) This TV was fine, but we did notice it had a minor fault of the picture slopping slightly, but after all the problems I couldn't be bothered calling an engineer to rotate the image. The surround sound was a bit hit and miss and got radio wave interference from allsorts! The phillips VCR that came with the package chewed tapes occasionally though.
In november a friend persuaded me to sell him my phillips TV/video package as he liked it and knew i wasn't that keen, so i sold it for a £140 loss from new.
10) went to apollo 2000 and bought a Sony TV/video package, There was a pixel missing in the screen, so you had an obvious white spot
whenthere was blue sky etc, but believe it or not after 3 days this quickly developed the green screen problem previously had, phoned Sony CS and they told me to return to Apollo
11) returned home with another expensive Sony TV(same model) and the Tv speaker frame was all warped, looked like the speaker had been ramed in. Returned this, just before closing and swapped for another
12) Got home took TV out of Box, part of the TV was scuffed and damaged in transit, looked a right mess, didn't even plug it in. next morning returned it!
13) Insisted on opening the next one and inspecting it in store, as they were giving me funny looks, the manager said as we were waiting that I should't have returned the one woth the warped speakers!!!! I told him for £600 i expected it to be flush like all the models in the store and not warped and substandard, to which he reluctantly agreed. The new sony Tv arrived and they took it out of the box and the cabinet was smashed to bits. The store staff changed there attitude at this point!
14) The next Sony TV however was opened up and was fine and still is today, fifth sony TV lucky, making 14 TV's in all. The sony video however makes a funny wining noise that has got better with age. The Sony video's are made by Samsung (don't make their own anymore).
I also soon after bought a cheap bush 28 widescreen for the bedroom for less than half the cost, which works fine.
My experience is that most stuff seems to be crap and the customer service wasn't the best either. Will never shop at Comet again, but Asda's customer service was no problem at all.
I hope your current TV gives you good service... sounds like you deserve it!