Today, we're going to talk about whether all TV's are made the same. As you may have remembered from our previous entry, we mentioned that some brands tend to outperform all the rest and that there was a good reason for that. And that reason is quite simply that certain brands make their own circuit boards, rather than using generic circuit boards. Sounds pretty simply, right? We think so too. 

The following brands are known to make their own dedicated circuit boards:

• Panasonic
• Sony
• Samsung
• LG
• Sharp

As you might have noticed, it's not very many brands that make their own circuit boards. Keep in mind now that when we say that they make their own circuit boards, we don't necessarily mean that every single circuit board in each respective brand has the "Panasonic" insignia or "Sony" insignia stamped on the circuit boards themselves. No. We're saying the vast majority of the circuit boards have them and usually only the one's that really matter: Main Board, Power Supply, and Backlight Inverter. Interesting fact: Most T-Con Boards are supplied by Samsung or LG. Occasionally, Sony, Sharp, or Panasonic may make their own dedicated T-Con Boards (or in the case of Plasma TV's, they make their own dedicated Logic Boards), but typically, it is far, far more common to find a Samsung T-Con Board or an LG T-Con Board in these respective brands (or their equivalents for Plasma TV's). Now, here's an interesting twist. Samsung bought out AU Optronics (AUO) fairly recently and the vast majority of the entry-level to mid-level Samsung TV models tend to use AUO-made T-Con Boards with a Samsung-made Main Board and Power Supply and LG-made Backlight Inverter. Oh, but it doesn't stop there. All the TV Brands ever known in the industry have all, at one point in time, used parts made by Samsung or LG. To date, we only know Pioneer as being the only brand that exclusively made all their parts in-house. 

Of the five brands listed above, we personally think that Panasonic is the superior brand (so far as circuit boards are concerned) followed by Sony in 2nd place with Samsung and Sharp tailing for 3rd place while LG stands dead last. Even if LG is dead last on our list, this brand is still light years ahead of the competition, all things considered. And while we've heard various folks at various points in time swearing by certain lesser known brands or swearing by Samsung as number one of the five, we aren't saying that these are folks are necessarily wrong. We've seen some godly made TV's of the Plasma variety from the Samsung brand or LCD TV's for the lesser known brands, no doubt, but in more recent times, we've also seen some really poor quality LED TV's by the Samsung brand and lesser known brands as well. 

But there are certainly a place for the lesser known brands. These are aimed towards folks who cannot afford the retail prices that these big 5 manufacturers charge but still want a modern day flat-panel TV with similar specs. The often times remark expression "you get what you pay for" really applies in this case. In fact, about 3 weeks ago, we had received a call from a customer looking for the Power Supply for a Proscan PLDED3992A LED TV that she bought just a year ago and it went out on her just this past year. It was definitely one of those off-hand models that Proscan made in very limited quantities that we've never heard of. And we surmised that if we've never heard about it, that she'd have a pretty hard time finding this part anywhere else on the internet. And this is pretty much true for any of the lesser known brands as well. Another interesting fact: If you ever take a look at any one of these lesser known brands websites, you might notice that they don't have a dedicated link to a repair center to fix their TV's that are off-warranty. In other words, once the 1 year warranty is up, "it's your problem" is what they are saying. And in most instances, when the TV can't be repaired by independent shops, they end up in the trash bin where it would eventually end up in the landfill. And that's bad.

Nevertheless, the electronics industry is changing. Nay, it's shifting. And while we will miss the Plasma TV's of yesteryear and the tube TV's of the baby boomer generation that last literally forever (but can kill a lion if you were strong enough to hurl it), the shift to LED TV's in their various forms is certainly the future--for better or for worse. 

Lastly, don't buy into the 4K Ultra HD and "curved" TV hype. These are essentially LED TV's with a fancy screen in the case of 4K TV's. The parts are otherwise essentially the same but much thinner in design and architecture. On top of that, most people won't need all that resolution for everyday TV viewing unless gaming was involved or absolutely picture perfect streaming via Wifi or ethernet LAN is a must. And in the other instance, there's really nothing special inside or out about the curved TV's except the "strange" curvature of its external design.