In the December issue of Consumer Reports, brand reliability gets put under the microscope for both direct view and rear projection televisions. It is the first time that Consumer Reports has published such a study. The study was conducted over a three year period from 2004 to 2007, and was compiled from a pool of 93,000 submitted product reliability surveys.

 

Their findings indicate that direct view displays are less prone to failure than rear projection televisions. Their study indicates that their is no significant difference in reliability between LCD and plasma models, but repairs on plasma models were about a third more costly than on LCD. Dell and Hitachi LCDs and Philips plasmas enter the Hall of Shame as most likely to need service of the surveyed brands. Most reliable were Panasonic, on the LCD side. For plasma, took top honors for reliability. CR found that the majority of repair costs on rear projection models were incurred by failed lamps, which are a user-replaceable part, and they advise not to bother with an extended warranty if you purchase a rear projection set.

 

The study is slightly flawed, as it should have filtered out lamp replacements in rear projection sets. However, it's nice for buyers to have another tool for helping to choose a display. If you're in the market for a direct view television, Panasonic and Samsung scored well on both LCD and plasma reliability.