Panasonic Makes The Most Reliable HDTV Sets: PC World Survey

Panasonic makes the most reliable HDTV displays in the year 2010, according to an owner satisfaction survey conducted by PC World magazine. The Japanese corporation claimed this year’s HDTV reliability throne ahead of other TV manufacturers such as LG, Sony and Samsung.

Each year PC World asks its readers to rate the support and service among the major technology brands in an annual survey. This year, the magazine managed to recruit over 79,000 readers (through in-mag advertisements, online banners and its own mailing list) to take part in its “2010 Reliability and Service Survey”, where respondents have to give a score to five reliability measures across six product categories of desktop PC, laptop, digital camera, HDTV, printer and smartphone. For HDTVs, the five reliability measures were:

• Problem on arrival – whether there was any issue with the HDTV out of the box;
• Any significant problem – whether there was any issue with the HDTV throughout its lifespan;
• Severe problem – whether there was any issue which bricked the HDTV;
• Ease of use; and
• Overall satisfaction with reliability.

The collected responses were then statistically analysed to determine if a particular HDTV brand was either “below average”, “average” or “above average” in the reliability stakes. Panasonic HDTVs ranked above average in the “any significant problem” and “severe problem” measures, indicating that these television sets seldom develop serious problems. The brand was also one of the only two rated as above average for “overall satisfaction with reliability”.

Interestingly, Samsung HDTV owners seemed to be more than satisfied with the overall reliability of their TV sets, despite the brand getting a below average score for the “severe problem” measure (put another way, Samsung HDTVs are more likely to develop a fatal problem compared to other brands). LG and Vizio HDTV offerings topped the “ease of use” section, while Sharp was the only other TV maker besides Panasonic that scored above average in the “any significant problem” department.

The PC World survey also revealed that HDTVs on the whole have better reliability than desktop computers and laptops, with only 8.5% of HDTV users reporting a major problem with their products, compared to 30.7% and 25.9% for desktop and laptop users respectively.

Source: PC World