We had a flat screen 47" Sony, but it was the giant box kind, and we got it in 2004. We upgraded to a 55" flat panel Phillps smart TV last year. The giant Sony started taking a long time to `warm up`

DD has a 42" wall mount flat panel they got about 5 years ago-its been move half a dozen times, and its got no problems. I think its a Sony. You might check about having it cleaned, that might help. We had an annual servicing, and we use of our old TV, and now I use the compressed canned air to blow out dust on the new one every month or so. Also do that to my PC.

PS-please excuse the typos. I am using my phone and I can`t always catch the yypos. Autocorrect only works when texting!

What type of TV is it? Is it plasma, LED or LCD? We bought our first flat-screen (a Phillips plasma) way back in the foggy days of 2005. The picture was still perfect at Christmas when we got a new TV and handed it over to my mom. I would do a google search for "LCD black stripe" (or whatever type it is) and you'll probably get hits for a bunch of forums where folks have discussed the issue. Hopefully that will give you some idea of what's going on.

I left a 10 year old LG flat panel in my house when I moved out last month. Once in a while the color would go wacky and it would all be green or pink. Turning it off and on cleared it up though. My parents has a plasma tv and it lasted about 5 years.

We have two Sharp Aquos. We have had them for around 10 years, maybe slightly longer. We have never had a problem with either of them. I have been toying with replacing the smaller one in our kitchen/family room with a larger wall mounted one and plan to get Samsung which is getting the highest ratings these days.

I've had our flat screen Sony (can't recall the size at the moment) for more than six years and haven't had a single problem. It is well used in our house.

We bought a Sony Bravia 40" flat screen about 4&1/2 years ago, and just had to buy a new t.v. this week as a matter of fact. The Sony just up and died out of the clear blue sky, we had no previous problems with it, so it's a mystery as to why it went.

We replaced it with a 42" Vizio, and boy have the prices of these things finally gone down! The Sony cost about $1,000., and this new t.v. was half that, lol!

Hopefully, this one will last longer......

Don't have one yet. Several years ago we were given a giant Sony old school picture tube tv set; at one time it was the largest screen size they made, about 40" I think. This monster is ENORMOUS, so heavy that it took 3 very strong young guys to haul it into our LR.

It still works fine, so although I sometimes think a flat screen would be nice, a new tv set is pretty low on my list of Things I Want To Buy :).

It's not the age of the TV
but the amount of hours you use it
when deciding on how good a particular brand or type is..

We've had a 42" Vizio for at least 5 years, maybe longer, no problems....and we watch a lot of TV. We've redone the house and are going to put this in the den and get a 55-60" for the main TV room...DH is looking at Samsung and Sony because of the Internet features...Sony has always been considered top notch, but maybe not anymore....I keep telling him they are all probably made in the same factory in China!

Ours is a LCD. I did a search when it first started and it seems to be a faulty control panel, and cheaper to buy a new tv (not Sony!). There are other tvs with the same problem though, it's not just Sony. Like I said, my dd has an LG.

So, maybe to clarify...Our smaller tv (~10 yrs old) gets lots of use. It is on from about 5-10 pm at minimum on weekdays and more on the weekend. The larger tv doesn't get quite as much use, but it still gets a fair amount. That is about 26,000 hours (I rounded to 50 hours for the weekly average) on the smaller tv in the 10 years. I do not know what is considered average or expected for the life of a flat screen, but I just looked for an answer and the plasmas are supposed to last 100,000 hours and I expect the LED/LCD are similar. That is a lot of tv watching. If we get 100,000 hours, that would mean about 40 years! Four years does not seem like very much time. I would be very unhappy.

We have a 47 inch Pioneer Elite Plasma tv that is 11 years old. It has many hours of use. It is on a lift that raises and lowers it into a cabinet. I always wonder when the lift will stop working or when the tv will burn out but so far no problems at all. We also have a Sony flat screen that is 6 years old and going strong.

Well may I just wore ours out. lol

This one is on at least 12 hours a day. I can't stand silence when I'm home alone.

Our Hitachi plasma is about 7 years old, and we are going to replace it with a new one for this remodel. We have another, even older, Akai.

There has been a lot of consolidation in the LCD and Plasma panel industries. Many of the former names in TV are indeed made by a few players in China and the big brands in Korea. The quality has also declined as the prices declined, especially those made under sub-contract to the original brands.

Have a 50" Pioneer Elite plasma that we've had for 9 years, including several moves, one of which was international and the plasma was run on not quite the right voltage for 3 years. No problems with it at all. It was our main TV for many years and has been the kids' TV for the last 3 years, so plenty of use.

Our other plasma was purchased 3 years ago and it is a 65" Panasonic. We first purchased a 63" Samsung and after replacing it 3 times in the first month we returned it and got the Panasonic. Panasonic and Pioneer (no longer sold) are/were rated much higher than other brands and priiced higher, but better build quality and picture quality are worth the upcharge.

I've had a 42 inch for eight years but I only use it three hours a day. I would think that the more you use it the more wear and tear it gets. My daughter had the black line after only two years and went and bought a new one and then her husband decided to check out a repairman and see how much to fix the old one. It was only 65.00 and it runs beautifully in their bedroom now.

We have had a 46" Samsung LCD for about 5 years. It has very nice picture quality. No problems other than DH wishes we had gone even larger, LOL.

You can really get a decent TV for a good price now.

Mine is a 50" (I think) Sony Bravia brought in 2009. Immediately after the warranty went out I too got the darker line at the top. The TV has only been moved twice. I had a repair man out and he said that the cost of repair would be apprximately $700!!! However, Sony no longer sold the part needed to repair.

I'm used to the line now since it been about 2 1/2 years. It's on my list to buy another one just hate making decisions about electronics. One thing I do know, it won't be another Sony.