Ask The Reader: We asked, and it turns out you really don’t like the direction TVs are going in

Many What Hi-Fi? readers are cinephiles. So we expect strong opinions whenever we ask about home cinema hardware.

But even we were taken aback by the sheer fervour of your responses when we asked if you care which company makes your TV at the start of the month, after fresh news broke that Panasonic is selling its European TV business to Skyworth – mere weeks after Sony confirmed a similar “partnership” with TCL.

We were also surprised that not all of you agree on the topic, which has proven to be a particularly thorny one for many of you.

What’s in a name?

Unsurprisingly, given your reaction when we asked if you care who owns a hi-fi brand, regardless of your feelings on a specific company, you all put quality and performance first. This was succinctly expressed by reader Karl, who told us: “I don't care. Whoever makes the TV with the best picture quality at my price point.”

Others were even more flippant about the importance of a brand, arguing that so many companies make them, they’ve become largely interchangeable, including commenter Amir Bobby Behlim, who told us, “TVs are like phones now; any old brand makes them. Huawei should make a TV and beat everyone.”

Editor’s note: Huawei has made TVs before, but they never made it to Western markets.

However, while you all agreed that quality and performance are tantamount, many pointed out that certain brands have a stronger track record than others, which does factor into your shopping habits.

Website reader, Daniel, summed this up, pointing out he also cares about build quality, which to his mind many smaller, newer brands can’t deliver on.

“Yes. It matters a lot to me. I need to know that I can trust the workmanship and standards that go into a product that is the centrepiece of my daily life. It saddens me when I see people who just get hung up on specs. Then, years down the line, wonder where the quality has gone,” wrote Daniel.

He added that this is a key reason he isn’t positive about the recent Sony and Panasonic news.

“Some brands don't shout from the rooftops about ABC metrics, but just go about their business, making the best product they can. I respect that, and I am frankly very sad to see two major names who often embody that philosophy call time on their independent involvement in this game. I absolutely would have continued to shop with these brands, even if they were priced as borderline boutique, as long as the quality was retained.”

Reader, Skalamanga, went on to argue that they also factor in a company’s customer support, an area he frequently finds lacking, suggesting most don’t properly support TVs for long-term use.

“Absolutely, I will vet anyone I am purchasing from based on their customer support. Sadly, none I have found will sell replacement parts for repair, and most ensure incompatibility between models, making it impossible. If someone came out with a modular system with documented and open firmware, I’d be at the front of the queue,” they wrote.

Our hot take

There’s no denying that TV brands tend to have a specific character. While this does evolve over time, it tends to do so slowly. So, outside of the occasional massive leap forward, or surprise, TVs within a family of products tend to share at least some similarities. So we understand why some readers prefer to stay loyal to one they like.

But, at What Hi-Fi? we review every set that passes through our testing room with as little bias as we can. That means we judge it purely by how it holds up against rivals in today’s market, regardless of the brand. Just because a company was good in the past, doesn’t mean it’ll automatically score well now – as evidenced by the constantly changing list of Product of the Year winners we crown every 12 months at the What Hi-Fi? Awards.

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