Be careful buying philips branded electronics

[Modelworks]

I usually keep up on the re-branding stuff but missed this somehow. My brother bought one of those cheap bluray players from walmart on black friday, a Magnavox NB500MG1. He needed a firmware update so I started looking for it then came across the info that Magnavox and Philips have sold off the brand name to funai. If you are not familiar with funai they are about as low end in quality as possible, right next to durabrand. Surprised Philips would take this route , but I guess the brand just couldn't keep up with the bigger names.

There is no firmware update for his player so he is SOL with some of the newer movies that require it.



http://www.funai.us/topics/2008/080409.html

Funai Electric Co., Ltd. (TSE/OSE 6839) today announced to enter into a brand licensing agreement in perspective with Royal Philips (AEXHI, NYSEHG)under which Funai will assume responsibility for the sourcing, distribution, marketing and sales activities of Philips’ consumer television business in the United States and Canada. The five-year minimum agreement takes effect September 1, 2008 and stipulates Funai will pay royalty payments in exchange for Funai’s right to exclusively use the Philips and Magnavox brand names for the TV offering in North America during this period. Completion of this intended agreement is subject to any mandatory governmental regulatory approvals.

 

[JackBurton]

No surprise, you get what you pay for. ESPECIALLY when you are talking about a Magnavox BD player sold at Walmart. That just has "crap" written all over it.

 

[sivart]

Hasn't Funai owned them for a couple of years now? I remember hearing about this back when the first Blu-ray players were being sold at Wal-Mart a couple of years ago.

 

[jtvang125]

I wouldn't touch Phillips with a 10 ft pole. Don't think Magnavox is even around anymore. Funny my first CD player was a Magnavox and it was actually pretty good but that was over 10 years ago.

 

[0roo0roo]

another one bites the dust. philips used to mean something.
shame they trash their name this way now.

 

[Modelworks]

Hasn't Funai owned them for a couple of years now? I remember hearing about this back when the first Blu-ray players were being sold at Wal-Mart a couple of years ago.

Yeah it was 2008 when they changed over but I missed it somehow.
Philips and Magnavox were once good brands but I should have known something was wrong when they started selling at walmart.

 

[Soundmanred]

The only Philips products I recommend to anyone are the DVD players with DIVX capability.
Apart from that, I wouldn't recommend any of their stuff (and definitely not Magnavox).

 

[Modelworks]

For those that got one of the walmart players I did manage to find the firmware site. They really don't put it somewhere easy to find.
http://funaiservice.com/information/firmware.cfm

 

[Destiny]

I found out that Magnavox and Phillips where branding from the exact same factory when i bought a Phillips 32in HDTV a few years back from SAMs Club... It was an open box item and missing the remote so the sales person gave me a Magnavox remote and told me it was the same thing... ... so far it is still working so I have no complaints...

 

[0roo0roo]

Yea i find it kinda dodgy its even allowed. Seems a bit fraudy

 

[Modelworks]

I found out that Magnavox and Phillips where branding from the exact same factory when i bought a Phillips 32in HDTV a few years back from SAMs Club... It was an open box item and missing the remote so the sales person gave me a Magnavox remote and told me it was the same thing... ... so far it is still working so I have no complaints...

Magnavox and philips have been the same company for about 15 years
Some others ones:
RCA/GE
Zenith/LG
Panasonic/Technics/Sanyo
Insignia/Vestel
Emerson/Funai

Sometimes Pioneer and Sharp , depends on the product

 

[lupi]

For those that got one of the walmart players I did manage to find the firmware site. They really don't put it somewhere easy to find.
http://funaiservice.com/information/firmware.cfm

doing a quick google, first three links alone with "funai firmware" all seem to be relevant links, shouldn't have been that hard a search.

 

[manimal]

Funai is a member of the BD alliance. They make a startlingly large amount of products. The oem chinese movers these days make up most of what we play. Funai made a few generations of samsung blue ray player chipsets.

if you dont want something made in china better look real hard..

 

[Modelworks]

doing a quick google, first three links alone with "funai firmware" all seem to be relevant links, shouldn't have been that hard a search.

It is if you search for magnavox and the model number which is how 99% of consumers will look for it.

 

[Modelworks]

Funai is a member of the BD alliance. They make a startlingly large amount of products. The oem chinese movers these days make up most of what we play. Funai made a few generations of samsung blue ray player chipsets.

if you dont want something made in china better look real hard..

Funai doesn't make chipsets. They are an end assembly company. They buy whatever components are cheapest and assemble them in a final product. So one version may have a laser assembly from samsung while another may be from sony.

That would not be bad because both companies make good products, but they cut corners in other areas like the PCB quality, power supply and design that make it like putting a $10K engine in a $2 car.

 

[lupi]

It is if you search for magnavox and the model number which is how 99% of consumers will look for it.

Then 99% of these consumers are going to have trouble as many of the support options I've seen use scripted option boxes for the actual model numbers and a search isn't going to work on those.

 

[alkalinetaupehat]

That press release referred to the Phillips TV series, not their entire consumer electronics division. Their TV's have been subpar for a while, and I recall a line of 19" TVs which required the end-user to install active cooling inside it to prevent overheating and component failure.

 

[Emulex]

phillips shoqbox lol - great looks - poor implementation - like everything else they sell. straight up half-assed