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Bought the Dell w4201c

M

mehmetmunur

Senior member
I have been dying for a Plasma screen in my living room for some time now. I looked at PC Magazine's review, and they liked the previous one, I can only assume that they improved with this one. I do have a few concerns though. AVForum suggests that Dell refuses to do any kind of repairs on their hardware, unless under warranty. Anyone else who can confirm this with their TVs from Dell? Thanks for any input in advance...

And so I ordered at 11:30, then I was informed that I had an employee account that I could use. So I spent one hour with Dell only to realize that I had to cancel my order, and re-order. And when I tried to re-order, Dell would not give me the advertised price. The funny thing is the offer did not have anything to do with the w4201c, but instead applied to LCDs, but was still shown in the final price. Another hour or so of talking got me nowhere.

So, I am going to keep the TV, and if I have any problems in the first 21 days and I am returning it.
 
I just checked it out, but the brightness and the contrast ratio are not comparable. I have a feeling the dell 42" is newer generation than the panasonic you suggested, though I have read that the dell uses Panasonic screens.
 
Anyone other opinions? Strangely enough, when I went over to Bestbuy today, I saw a 50" Maxent., for about the same price that I will be spending on a 42" Dell. Though the extra 8 inches might be a little too big for the living room, I don't want to miss out on a good deal.
 
Originally posted by: mehmetmunur
Anyone other opinions? Strangely enough, when I went over to Bestbuy today, I saw a 50" Maxent., for about the same price that I will be spending on a 42" Dell. Though the extra 8 inches might be a little too big for the living room, I don't want to miss out on a good deal.
Click to expand...

You shoot down a Panasonic, and then bring up a Maxent? I've never even heard of a Maxent, but generally for things like displays there is a noticable difference between a brand name and a no name.
 
You are right. But the maxent was larger (50 instead of 42) and better resolution (13*7 instead of 12*7). But it turns out that the Maxnet has its own problems. It is cheap for a reason. I have pretty much decided on the Dell, for now, and hunting for coupons and whatnot...
 
Dude, I'd be weary of that dell. Stick with Panny or Pioneer and you'll be all set. Those HP's are suppose to be identical to the Panny 500U series. I'd personally go do some more reading over at avs.
 
Also, specs aren't everything. They are actually hardly anything.
Often they're inflated or incomparably measures, so be wary of rubbishing something just because its specs are worse, because in real terms they may not be.
 
Stick with Pansasonic or Pioneer.

FYI
The HP 42s/50" and the Maxent 50" have rebadged Panasonic internals
The Costco Vizio 50" is a rebadged LG, as is the Zenith 50" at bestbuy which has the Faroujda de-interlacer.
 
I hear you, but the financing and the price is really hard to beat. I think I am taking the plunge on this one despite 5 hours of research on AVSForums, the buzzing, the HDMI issues, and the pixel problems etc. The reviews of the w4201c seem to be a lot better, none of the old problems seem to surface. Furthermore there were some people who had w4200hd and had none of the issues mentioned in the old ones.
 
my father works for a company, that has one division that makes plasma panels as well as LCDs. He says that a LOT of the smaller companies like maxent, or sylvania etc whatever, the bargain brands just use the grade B panels from the major plasma panel companies (since there are only maybe 5-6 companies that even make panels, its the same with lcds).

so if like say samsung, or LG/phillips or whatever makes a plasma then its their own panel in it and of grade A quality.

anyways, my advice is to stick with a bigger name player. the company my father is with actually sells their panels to other companies as they do not really have a big retail presence. but dont chepa out on a $2000 tv that you'll have for 5 years and buy a maxent or something. also make sure you get a real HDTV not an EDTV. i think if you are going to spend $2k+ then you really should get an HD.
 
Real HD is not quite possible, from my knowledge, with 42 inch plasmas, since they only support 1024*768; therefore some sort of scaling is required. Only the 50 inchers support 13*7. So I realize that I will be getting what I pay for. The wife does not have the most discerning eye when it comes to video, and I only get anal about the highly compressed stuff over Time Warner's DVR, so I think we will be fine. Thanks for all the advice, but I will be pulling the trigger here in about 2 hours or so...
 
The price I found on BB was about $1899, which makes it about the same price as the Dell, which happens to have a lower resolution, I think. Either way, the plasma is looking great, but it is getting replaced with a newer one due to some speaker problems.
 
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