Survey: Sony HDTVs earn top marks for reliability

That's the consensus of more than 16,000 PC World readers, who also gave props to LG, Sharp, and Vizio. Coming in dead last: Mitsubishi.

The annual survey (spotted by the videophiles at Engadget HD) pitted a total of 16 manufactures against each other, with readers rating each company across nine categories, including overall satisfaction, ease of use, whether they encountered "significant" or "serious" problems, and customer service. You can check out the summary chart (which lists five of the nine categories) right here.

Overall, Sony beat out the competition with "better than average" marks in seven of nine categories, PC World reports, with glowing anecdotal reviews from many readers—"I've gone with Sony for many years, I find them reliable and high-quality, and they last a long time," cooed one reader who took the survey.

Also faring well were LG, Sharp, and bargain HDTV-maker Vizio, with readers reporting that Vizio sets were easy to use and had fewer "severe" problems.

Further down the list: Hitachi and JVC, with Mitsubishi pulling up the rear with "worse than average" marks in four categories, including "overall" reliability and frequency of severe problems.

I can't speak for Mitsubishi, but I've owned three Sony HDTV sets over the last 10 years, and they were all pretty solid. My first—a 32-inch tube-based WEGA, purchased in 1998—had some contrast and geometry problems (a common problem for flat-screen tube TVs back then), but otherwise it was reliable enough. Four years later, I upgraded to a progressive-scan 32-inch WEGA (another tube TV), and it was almost perfect—awesome picture, great geometry, and it never skipped a beat. Loved it.

I took a brief Sony break for a 42-inch Westinghouse 1080p LCD HDTV, and was less than impressed: so-so black levels, over- and underscan issues (depending on the screen setting), an iffy IR remote, and—most vexing of all—the set would occasionally become unresponsive unless I unplugged the power cord and plugged it back in. (Westinghouse lands in the bottom third of the PC World survey, by the way.) Now I'm back with Sony: a 46-inch Bravia LCD HDTV, and so far, so good; very reliable, above-average (if not inky) black levels, and yes—it turns on whenever I want it to.

Check out the full story at PC World.

So, what brand of HDTV has treated you the best? Got any gripes? Let us know.

Related:
Sony HDTVs Rated Most Reliable by PC World Readers [PC World, via Engadget HD]