Which Brand is Best?

Before I say anything else,
Disclaimer: You make the decision of what you want to buy based on what you want, how much you are willing to spend, and what annoyances you are willing to tolerate. I don't do investment councelling, or future predicting. I'm only sharing my experiences, knowledge, and opinions.

First of all, I want to dispel a myth:
"The old brands aren't any better for the price. You're just paying for the name."
This is a complete falsehood, probably started by the typical source of misinformation in the electronics world: salespeople in the big box electronics retailers.

Manufacturers have learned that the average Canadian customer is either so confused, so apathetic, or so cheap, that they are now just inventing new names to go on their products. As Canadian consumers, we have collectively said to the manufacturers, 'The reliable brand names like Sony, Panasonic, or Yamaha no longer mean that much to us, and neither does the quality they represent. We are quite happy to spend our money on an inferior product with a short lifespan, as long as it's cheap!' This explains the flood of off-brand garbage electronics that has come into this country over the last several years.

If you only get one bit of information off this page, let it be this:

You DON'T get what you DON'T pay for!

Over the past few years, warranties on new TVs have been cut back from 3, to 2, to 1 year for most brands, and there are some being sold with only 90 days warranty! (Obviously the manufacturers don't even have faith in their own products!) This disposable junk fills the electronics department of Wal-Mart, and every other "low-end specialty store" in this country.

Brand Name Reviews

All reviews below are my opinions formed by years in the audio/video service field, seeing the durability and flaws of each brand while it's been on my bench, doing business with each manufacturer directly, and seeing how they perceive their own product during warranty, and after the warranty has run out. All brand names are listed in alphabetical order. If the brand you are looking for is not listed, then it's probably an extreme low-end product. For the information I have on those brands, click here.

Admiral - Not Recommended

This company used to build excellent TVs before going out of business decades ago. Any product you see with this name now, is one which has "borrowed" the name, and should probably be avoided. VCRs and DVD players with the Admiral name are occasionally being sold in the U.S.

Apex - Not Recommended

This name is found most often on bargain-basement priced CD players, DVD players, and televisions. A web surfer emailed me about his experiences with an Apex DVD player: Right out of the box it skipped on new DVDs and CDs, and basically wouldn't play CD-RWs at all, despite that it was advertised as being able to! Wal-Mart reportedly exchanged it for another, which did the same thing. He exchanged the second machine for a third one which performed just as poorly! After this he says he demanded a refund, which they eventually gave, but not without argument. That sums up my opinion well.
I've seen this name on TVs as well, and wouldn't bother to take any of them home.

Belcor - See Daewoo

This was a name under which Daewoo sold their products. As far as I know, it has been discontinued, and was a reasonably good product.

Candle - See J.I.L.

Citizen - See J.I.L.

Curtis - Not Recommended

Very low-end product. Performance is usually poor and lifespan is very short. Hang onto your receipt, as you'll need that warranty!

Curtis Mathes - Not Recommended

A few years back, this name was on placed on many TVs built by Zenith. To the best of my knowledge, they have placed this name on many different brand sets, but I think this name has been discontinued in Canada.

Daewoo - Not Recommended

This company has been around for years, but just recently has started releasing products with it's own name. They also built Pulser and Belcor products. Up until they changed distributors here in Canada, they had a 2-year warranty on their VCRs, and a 3-year warranty on their TVs, although this has dropped to a 1-year exchange warranty, much to my disappointment. Daewoo's Canadian office has now been changed to Super Electric, and these guys aren't much for customer service. I, and all other Daewoo retailers had our accounts closed when Super Electric took over, and had to have a minimum $3000 order ready to place before they would consider re-opening an account. That's a heck of a big order when you just have to top up stock! Parts are handled by the highly incompetent Global Electronics Supplies, who can be exceedingly slow to deal with at times.

Durabrand - Not Recommended Also see Store Brands

Wal-Mart brags in their sales flyers that this brand is "Exclusive to Wal-Mart". This means that they've hired the anonymous manufacturer, and since Wal-Mart isn't the least bit interested in providing TV repair parts, you're basically out your investment if it breaks out of warranty. Besides, these sets have the poorest performance and worst pictures of all the sets in any Wal-Mart I've ever been in - even when compared to their stripped down GEs, so why spend your money on the worst product that nobody stands behind? Interestingly, I had a Wal-Mart sales manager tell me that she thought that Durabrand TVs were cheap junk and not a good investment.

Electrohome - Low Average

Electrohome used to be an excellent quality product built by Mitsubishi, and sold in Canada, however, when Mitsubishi ceased building direct-view TVs (sets with picture tubes) Electrohome had become a defunct brand name with a good reputation. Well, Jutan (see J.I.L, below) scooped up this name and started using it on it's own products and hired (I think) Emerson/Orion to built the TVs and VCRs, but I'm not sure about the DVD players. As such, all the new sets you see with the Electrohome name on them are Emersons inside. Jutan will be handling the parts supply for Electrohome, and the last time I checked, they were doing a reasonable job.

Emerson - Not Recommended

They are also known as Orion, and scooped up the Sansui name when that company when down. I've seen them use the name "Otake" too. Very mediocre products come from this company that, in my opinion, could do a lot better job of standing behind it's wares. To the best of my knowledge, Emerson has no parts warehouse here in Canada. This means a longer delay while repair parts are shipped in from the U.S. The parts warehouse located in the U.S., (that I believe is the only one) does a poor job of customer service, and financially penalizes servicers through grossly overpriced shipping and handling charges. (The Canadian government also adds on GST and a handling fee to pay for collecting the GST) As a result, these sub-standard products can be rather pricey and time consuming to repair.

Fisher - See Sanyo

Funai - Not Recommended

This company makes mostly what I call crap but Wal-Mart calls VCRs, DVD players, and TVs. I think they are quickly slapped together with the cheapest plastic parts available, and are far from durable. As far as I know, they built units for J.I.L., Philips/Magnavox, and others. They occasionally have the courage to use their own name. In my opinion, you would do well to avoid this trash at all costs.

GE - See Thomson Consumer Products.

Genexxa - See Store Brands

Goldstar - Not Recommended

An old name used by L.G. Electronics, they have discontinued using the Goldstar name on products. They bought the bankrupt Zenith Radio Corporation in the 90s and used that name on their Goldstar products for a while. (an attempt to float on the last few shreds of Zenith's good reputation?) L.G. was terrible back then, but seem to have pulled their act together. Scroll down to L.G. for more details.

Hitachi - Recommended

This company builds a good product, although it's hard to find in this area. They have set up a website so that all service shops have access to their service information, schematics, manuals, and tips! (Excellent work, Hitachi!) Their high-end units are good, but TVs 20 inch and under are reportedly built by Goldstar. :( Their big-screen projection sets are close to top notch, and with such incredible help from the manufacturer, servicing Hitachi is no problem! Just watch out for those little sets.

JC Penney - See Store Brands

JIL - Low Average

Jutan International Limited uses the names Candle, Citizen, Concerto, and Electrohome. VCRs and DVD players were usually built by Funai, but now by Emerson/Orion. The units branded with the Electrohome name are slightly better than the others. Their TV's are reasonable if you want a low-end set and don't care too much about the long term.

JVC - Not Recommended

I used to recommend JVC, and many are surprised that I no longer do. JVC used to be a very high quality manufacturer, but got possibly got into some financial difficulty and started getting others (like Funai and Orion) to build their products. Maybe they figured nobody would notice. As the inventor of the VHS tape system, it's pretty pathetic that they were getting the someone else to build their VCRs near the end of their production. I don't see many JVC TVs coming in for service, but they were not widely available in this area either, until they went 'low-end' and started getting carried by Canadian Tire and Wal-Mart. The company gives next to no technical support to independant servicers though, and have chosen the incompetent Global Electronics Supplies to distribute parts.

L.G. - Recommended

LG is one of few manufacturers who have actually improved their product over the last several years. Originally known as Goldstar, they switched their logo to LG soon after buying out the last North American manufacturer, Zenith. Not having repaired many LG sets, despite there being local retailers, this tells me they are reliable. Also, I have chosen to carry LG's line of computer monitors. I haven't had one come back in years, and that means a lot to me. LG products seem to last longer than average and perform better than average.

LXI - See Store Brands

Magnavox - See Philips

Memorex - Not Recommended

It seems the magnetic tape manufacturer has rented out it's name to someone. I'm unsure who builds the TVs, but they appear really cheaply built and cheaply sold. VCRs and DVD players sure look like Funai to me. I wouldn't bother wasting my hard-earned dollars on this stuff.

Misakai - Not Recommended

See Store Brands

Another low end brand carried exclusively by Zellers. No repair parts, and an exchange-only warranty. Not exactly environmentally friendly or a good investment.

Mitsubishi - Recommended

This company also sold Electrohome in Canada, but sadly stopped building their excellent-quality direct view TVs because they couldn't build a Mitsubishi quality set and sell it at Wal-Mart prices. They still build good big-screen projection sets. Parts are reasonably easy to get, and Mitsubishi carries parts for quite some time. Servicing is better than average here in Canada because of very good technical support by phone from Mitsubishi.

NEC - Not Rated

NEC still exists, but they have ceased building TVs and VCRs. They were good quality, and therefore couldn't be sold to compete with Wal-Mart prices and the "cheaper is better" mentality of all too many Canadian customers. They still build computers as far as I know.

Nikko - See Goldstar

Orion - See Emerson

Panasonic - Recommended

Matsushita manufactures this good quality product. The sets perform well and are quite durable. They also built the once-popular Quasar. They build audio equipment under the name Technics, and it seems to be fairly well built also. Overall, Panasonic is worth the money. One bad point is that Matsushita tends to discontinue parts extremely quickly after the warranty has expired, but fortunately they prefer to use readily available generic parts. After 5 years, they may no longer have spare parts for one of their units, but chances are a generic parts supplier will.

Philips - Not Recommended

This cut-every-corner-you-can company also builds Magnavox, whose slogan is "Magnavox - Smart, very smart". Yeah, right! I think you'd be smartest to avoid this company who doesn't seem to give a hoot about their product, or their customers once the sale is done. They have completely closed their Canadian warehouses and offices years ago, and recently hired the incompetent Global Electronics Supplies to distribute spare parts for them. Global's track record is terrible, and delays of several months on parts orders are not unusual. I believe Philips hired Funai to build their VCRs, which are real shabby products. They are strong contenders in the "Ultimate low-end product" contest! ;-) Their TVs only seem to be slightly better quality. They provide very little after warranty repair parts, and sell their "tech support" via a 1-900 number (about which I've heard horror stories) in the U.S., but if you're Canadian, you don't even get that. Together with Funai and Memorex, they seem to be competing for the bottom spot on my list.

Prima - Not Recommended

No parts, no service, and apparently no pride in their product. Only appears to be sold through the discount electronics stores.

Proscan - See Thomson Consumer Products

Pulser - See Daewoo

Quasar - See Panasonic

Radio Shack - See Store Brands

RCA - See Thomson Consumer Products

Realistic - See Store Brands

Samsung - Low Average

Samsung built VCRs for many different companies, including Thomson Consumer Products. They build a fairly reasonable TV, but they prefer using their own proprietary (read high-priced) integrated circuits and semiconductors. What should be a $10 part might cost $90 just because it says Samsung on it. If you want a cheap TV then I guess Samsung is OK, but other than that, I think it's best to pass them by. Avoid the refurbished stuff. I've never seen any that works properly.

Sansui - See Emerson

Sanyo - Recommended

Sanyo is a long-established manufacturer who also built the higher-end line of products with the name Fisher. A "real" Sanyo is a good investment for the money, but unfortunately, Sanyo builds stripped-down models for the "low-end specialty stores". Those stripped down models are missing features, parts, and durability. The "real" Sanyo TVs are a very dependable set and can be identified easiest by model number. For current models, visit Sanyo Canada's website. Consumer Reports magazine has also given Sanyo a high mark for durability. When repairs are necessary, they are usually easy and economical due to the use of reasonably priced generic parts.

Sears - See Store Brands

Sharp - Not Recommended

Sharp has slipped considerably in the last few years, and I've had to change my rating of them accordingly. They seem to be joining the "who can build the ultimate low-end product" contest with Memorex and Philips. Unfortunately, this doesn't hold true for their parts. Years ago, I had the occasion to price out a system controller for a Sharp product. The part cost more at wholesale than the entire unit did at retail! There's also not really any tech support from the manufacturer.

Sony - Recommended

Sony seems to build decent home audio/video products, and the reliability of them is quite good. Sony does occasionally have design flaws creep into their products though. (some of their TV power supplies are not exactly stellar designs, and some of their TV tuners have an unusually high failure rate) but as a general rule, your investment in a Sony product will pay you back much more than many other brands. Just make sure you take it to a decent shop if it does break. It seems that Sony doesn't really have an elaborate screening process for their authorized service centers. One of the Sony ASC's in my area has a lousy reputation - can't fix a thing - but they're still authorized. I've seen a low-end Sony VCR used in commercial use for over 6 years. Try that with a Memorex!

Store Brands - Not Recommended

These are the units that department stores have put their own name on, like J.C Penney. They may also be a brand unique to a store, like Misakai is to Zellers. Sears has Sears Electronics, Kenmore, and LXI. Canadian Tire had Pulser, Wal-Mart has Durabrand, and Radio Shack has Realistic, Genexxa, and units that carry the store name. Store brand electronics such as these are a real box of "Forest Gump chocolates" - you never know what you're going to get. Usually the store asks for bids from several manufacturers, and whoever will build 50,000 at the cheapest possible price gets the contract. Of course, when a manufacturer is asked to build a really cheap product that they aren't going to have their own name put on, how good do you think they are going to make it? The store branded electronics are always the cheapest line the store carries, and since the manufacturer could be anyone, I think these are best to avoid.
For a while Sears was selling stripped-down Sanyos, then stripped-down RCA for their own lines, now I'm not sure. Canadian Tire's Pulser was all stripped-down Daewoo, but Daewoo wouldn't recognize Pulser as their own, and refused to sell parts. Radio Shack had Funai building their VCRs for a while. And if anyone knows where Wal-Mart's Durabrand comes from, let me know.
Of the big box and department stores, Sears is about the only one I would consider buying electronics from. Sears has better quality merchandise in their electronics departments, and even though we don't make consumer electronics in this country, Sears does have many Canadian made products in other departments.

Sylvania - Not Recommended

Here's another name that used to stand for quality and durability, then disappeared for a while, and has now come back "new and degraded". Sylvania used to be a name owned by Philips, but now it seems that it may be used by someone else. In any case, the manufacturer is striving for the ultimate low-end product. They are priced well below their competition, which should lead you to ask "What's inside the box?" You don't get something for nothing. Repair parts seem to be generally unavailable from a manufacturer standpoint, and longevity is poor. Right down there with Funai, Memorex, Philips, and Durabrand.

Technics - See Panasonic.

Panasonic used this name for their high-end audio line.

Thomson Consumer Products - Adequate

This company rarely sells products under it's own name. Instead, I think it chooses to float on the reputation of other companies by name borrowing. It uses the logo of General Electric (a company that has no interest in building consumer electronics), the RCA logo from the long-defunct Radio Corporation of America, and it's own name Proscan. The GE and RCA models are virtually identical, while the Proscan line is a little more "feature added". None of their products seem to me to be great quality, and the Thomson RCAs sure don't last 20 years like they used to - more like 1-6, depending on the model. I think the VCRs and DVD players are very poor, except for the occasional model. Thomson's TVs seem especially prone to breakdowns, but this company has bumped it's rating from a miserable one to "adequate" by setting up a technical support division which they call "Tech Line Indy", and providing absolutely outstanding technical support for the repair of their product! Parts are readily available for most models, even if they are distributed by Global. Not the best sets on the market, but better than most, and very repairable.

Toshiba - Not Recommended

Another company that used to get a high rating, but suddenly started putting their name on products built by other companies. The third party manufacturing, as well as the fact that Toshibas suddenly infiltrated Canadian Tire and Wal-Mart just screams to me "we're in financial difficulty and going down fast!" Quality took a huge nose-dive when they outsourced their manufacturing. Sadly, another one to avoid. Toshiba, too, has set up a special website just to provide technical support and service information to any repair shop that wants it, although it's not to the caliber of Thomson Consumer, or even Hitachi, it's definately a plus. Some of their big screen projection sets had frequent convergence amplifier troubles, but it was a reasonable repair.

Venturer - Not Recommended

Venturer builds very low-end audio and home theatre equipment. The products that I've seen with this name were miserable specimens, and the manufacturer seems to be completely unable to supply parts for their own product. They're basically a waste of money. One Wal-Mart employee told me in an email that "for every Venturer product we sell, *two* come back [under warranty]"

White Westinghouse - Not Recommended

This could almost classify as a Store Brand, because it's not really sold anywhere else but Zellers, and it's a name you'll see on TVs, DVD Players, VCRs, microwave ovens, as well as refrigeration equipment, and other large appliances. The large appliances are actually built by White-Westinghouse, and I've nothing against them at all, but the manufacturer seems to have loaned it's name out to be put on the electronics. The VCRs are all Funai-like inside, and, as such, I think they aren't worth taking home. The TVs look and seem equally poor, and I think they are a waste of hard-earned money. As for the microwave ovens, I'm not really sure as to their origin, but for the price they are asking, I can't see that you are going to get much.

Zenith - See Goldstar

Extreme Low-End Brands - Not Recommended

These are the scum of the electronics world. No pride is put into manufacture or design, and quality is a foreign concept. These are usually brand names that you've never heard of before, and probably never will hear of again after a few months. The companies generally are 'fly-by-night' and just manufacture enough product to make a fast buck and vanish. Usually they are products that do not require standards certification, such as DVD players, PVRs, and TVs powered by external 'brick type' power supplies. Brand names like Audio-Logic, Coby, Daenyx, Nextar, Norcent, Myron-Dayvis, Heier, Insignia, Dinner, Fuse, Triangle, Flatvision, ExxtremeView, Cybergear, CyberHome, E-Gear, iHome, DMTech, Olevia, Cybervision and many more cheesy-sounding names fit into this category. Since these 'brands' change names every few months, I can't attempt to list them all here. As near as I can tell, you run a great risk of having a lousy product that you curse at for 3 months for terrible performance, then find out the company is out of business when it completely quits in the 4th month of ownership. If you do manage to actually track down the manufacturer for your warranty claim, you will usually find that the store where you bought it will not take returns and you must send it back to the manufacturer yourself. More often than not, this means shipping the unit back to the distributor in the USA, or occasionally the manufacturer in China. For a small item, it's simply not worth the trouble for you, and they know that. For a large or heavy item, it can be cost prohibitive for you to package it up and ship it back to them, and they know that too. Many average Canadians would have no idea how to get a 46" LCD TV back to California, never mind China, so they simply don't bother. Of course, the manufacturers who sold it don't care. They've already got your money.

Cheaper is not better! For example, back when VCRs were $150 to $400 each, I saw a cheap $120 Goldstar VCR used in a business for "commercial use" (10AM-9PM daily). It lasted one year after which it was completely worn out. During that year it was repaired several times. It was replaced with another cheap $120 Goldstar, which lasted a year, during which it was also repaired several times. It was then replaced with a $300 Sony. It ran for well over six years with only two repairs. Hmm, six years out of one $300 VCR or six years out of $720 worth of cheap VCRs? Where would you spend your money?
It was hard to earn - spend it wisely.
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