Just a couple of years ago, Sony got out of the plasma TV business and invested heavily into a joint partnership with Samsung to produce LCD panels for HDTV use, the S-LCD company. Sony's fledgling "Bravia" LCD flat panel HDTV line was the benefactor of this technological investment. According to the latest owner satisfaction ratings from research firm JD Power and Associates, they made the right choice with Sony attaining high satisfaction ratings in all three HDTV categories.
Sony's Bravia line ranks highest in overall owner satisfaction in the 37-inch to 49-inch HDTV class, with an overall score of 815. The nearest contender for the top honor was LG, whose LCD flat panel and plasma lines scored well (799 and 794, respectively).
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| Sony's Bravia LCD line took home the award for highest owner satisfaction in the 37-inch to 49-inch category. |
On the flip side, Pioneer chose to take plasma technology and run with it, escalating performance to a new level, with better and better plasma HDTVs each year. This decision has worked out well for Pioneer as well. Pioneer took home the top honor in owner satisfaction for the 50-inch to 65-inch HDTV category, and earned the highest overall score: 845. Sony also made a strong appearance in this category, with a score of 833 (again, for their Bravia LCDs) and LG's plasma line came in 3rd in this category as well with a score of 814.
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| Pioneer's plasma line scored the highest overall in the JD Power survey and took home the trophy for the 50-inch to 65-inch HDTV category. |
In the rear projection category, while HP jumped the DLP ship in 2006, Samsung, Toshiba and Mitsubishi (among others) have continued to support TI's DLP technology, and Samsung DLP sets earned the highest marks in this category with a score of 785. Sony again nabbed the second spot in this category (777), with their WEGA RPTV line. Sony's WEGA rear projection sets are split between two different technologies - 3LCD projection and SXRD (Sony's variant on LCOS technology). Toshiba made a strong 3rd place finish with overall rating of 777 for their DLP RPTV line.
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| Samsung took top honors in the RPTV category with its DLP HDTV line. |
The study was conducted by JD Power and Associates and included a pool of 5,000 HDTV owners, rating their televisions on picture and sound quality, styling, ease of use and overall feature set.
Get the complete brand ratings on the
JD Power web site or read the
press release.
