Philips 42PF7320A 42-Inch Widescreen Plasma HDTV
One Year On - Now 3 years on...
Update 1/17/2009: My TV finally went on the fritz at just under 3 years, last September 2008. A bunch of lines appeared across the picture, and some research says they are probably due to a failed XY-scan board or similar. I replaced it with a Samsung PN50A50 at ~$1500 (nice TV - so far!), and have finally gotten round to putting it in a local shop - initial estimate for repair is $300~$500, which I guess might be JUST worthwhile. The guy at the shop says he has worked on several of these. At first they weren't worth repairing, because Philips deliberately asked outrageous prices for spares, but prices have come down since Philips got pressured (sued?) by the State of California because so many were ending up in landfills!    My man says that pretty much everything other than Sony is being made in China with poor quality control, and will die sooner or later. The problem with most professional reviews, and even honest customer reviews from people like me, is that they tell you how good the new TV is, NOT how well it lasts. Plasmas run very hot, and if the components are not the very best, they will eventually fail.    Glad I didn't pay the Philips extended warranty - it would have cost me about $900 for the extra 2 years. Even if I had had it, their reputation for service is so poor, I think I would have regretted it!    I don't think I can change the stars with this edit - I would shift from 4 down to 2 if I could. Not a total lemon, but bad enough that Philips should be ashamed....    ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++    Just been looking over other reviews for this TV, so I have some input of my own.  We bought this for $1799 from Circuit City in the Black Friday sale the day after Thanksgiving 2005. It's still working, so they can't all be lemons.  (1) The HD picture is still fantastic - when I am watching HD on this TV, everything is as perfect as can be.  (2) Very occasionally, the picture on start-up looks like it is lacking one of the RGB Component lines, but it always clears up with a power cycle. I might have a slightly loose cable, for all I know.  (3) Personally, I thought the built-in speaker quality was pretty poor (but I always use my home theater tuner).  (4) I was checking out reviews here because Philips have just invited me to sign up for extended warranty at $449 a year for up to 3 years. Reading reviews of their service, I think I'll give it a pass. Even if they were as good as they claim to be, the risk to reward ratio isn't that great. In my (unqualified) experience, any electronics that gets through its first year burn in should be good for a while. And anyway, even if it goes belly up, I can probably replace it for not much more than the cost of 3 years' warranty extension.