Have you had many problems with your HDTVs? Have you had zero problems and are completely happy with your HDTVs?

We know what our trusty friends at the AVS Forum have recommended in terms of plasma TVs and LCD screens. PC World magazine did its own poll of readers—16,000 TV owners—to see what they thought when it came to their annual “Reliability and Service” survey.

The big winner? That would be Sony, which scored better than average in the most categories, including the “overall satisfaction with reliability” category—in that one, Sony was only joined by Panasonic and Samsung.

Other brands that scored well in the reliability realm were LG, Panasonic, Samsung, Sharp and Vizio. On the flip side, Westinghouse, Hitachi and Mitsubishi earned “worse” than average overall satisfaction, and Toshiba, Hitachi, JVC and Mitsubishi chalked up multiple “worse” nods.

Interestingly, one of the commenters on Engadget HD offered up some results from a similar Consumer Reports survey, on LCDs only, posting the percentage of brands reported needing repairs. The results aren’t identical, but certain brands are near the top on both, and certain ones are near the bottom on both:
Sanyo - 1%
Sony - 2%
Sylvania - 2%
Panasonic - 2%
JVC - 2%
Sharp - 2%
Toshiba - 3%
Vizio - 3%
Samsung - 3%
Philips Magnavox - 3%
Olevia - 4%
LG - 4%
Hitachi - 4%
Westinghouse - 5%
Polaroid - 6%
Mitsubishi - 7%

So what do you think? Check out the PC World chart below, and let us know how reliable your TV brand is—or what kinds of problems you’ve had.

Arlen Schweiger - Editor of Electronic House Magazine

Arlen writes about home technology installations and product news and reviews for electronichouse.com and Electronic House magazine.