Insignia brand TVs - Calgarypuck Forums - The Unofficial Calgary Flames Fan Community

RedMileDJ · 12-22-2012, 06:59 PM

Anyone own one? How happy are you with them?

I'm looking at getting this: http://www.bestbuy.ca/en-CA/product/...3c7a0c89efen02

I still need to compare it to a few other brands, but I just wanted to hear from owners of Insignia products, to see if they're happy or not.

Cheers!

sclitheroe · 12-22-2012, 07:34 PM

I can't comment on current ones - I have a roughly 6 year old Sharp Aquos and an Insignia from the same time frame, and the Aquos blows it away. I think the big difference is going to be in the image processing electronics. Panels only come from so many factories, but I notice a lot of weird blocking artifacts and less than ideal motion compensation on the Insignia compared to the Aquos.

Yamer · 12-22-2012, 07:51 PM

I have a 42" LCD Insignia in the living room and I use it entirely to watch HDTV and the occasional movie. It serves its purpose well, and has for the last 3 years. Although I do have a 47" LED LG in the basement that I use primarily for gaming and to watch while working out. Things do look a little better on the LG, but I have to admit that I bought the Insignia because it was on sale and matched all the specs I was looking for. I did a lot more research on the LG.

All in all, I guess it depends on what you are using it for and how picky you are. I like my Insignia, and I would buy another one for like a bedroom or common area like a living room.

In fact, I am looking at the 24" model at Futureshop for $149 for a bedroom.

As a side note, if I were you I would wait until Boxing Day...TVs are always a huge sale item on Boxing Day (that's when I bought my LG for $400 off). Of course, you have to put up with the environment and craziness, but you can usually find a helluva deal while browsing offline then just drop in and pick one up.

Red Flag Deals should have most Boxing Day flyers up on their site by now. They do for the Red Deer area, anyway.

Ben_in_Canada · 12-22-2012, 07:56 PM

I bought one a couple of years ago. (LCD).
The remote is virtually useless, you need impossible precision to use it. (I've tried universal remotes also with no luck). That's the only negative I have.
The picture and sound are still pretty good after 4 years.

sclitheroe · 12-22-2012, 08:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fotze

I absolutely HATE less than ideal motion compensation.

This Insignia I have is bad. If someone is talking, I can see the area around their mouth swimming on their head, shifting around slightly. It's so distracting. My wife, of course, sees none of this, so it stays.

You Need a Thneed · 12-22-2012, 09:52 PM

I bought a insignia CRT TV years ago, set it up, hated the picture, and returned it. Got a toshiba instead, which was much better.

Regulator75 · 12-23-2012, 04:15 AM

So what have we learned? Don't be cheap and get a crappy off brand TV.

Daradon · 12-23-2012, 05:02 AM

I have an Insigna iPod dock/alarm and it stopped working properly after about six months. The alarm would go off at random times, the charging was hit and miss and the interface was not very user friendly. Which of course had nothing to do with the six months, heh. There's a few other things wrong with it, which aren't coming to me right now. It was just a total lemon. Or infected with a gremlin.

Would never buy Insignia again. Actually talked to one of the Future Shop guys about it (it's their brand isn't it?) and he just smiled and nodded.

Vulcan · 12-23-2012, 05:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Regulator75

So what have we learned? Don't be cheap and get a crappy off brand TV.

and I don't normally recommend the extended warrantee but in this case

Yakbutter · 12-23-2012, 06:18 AM

I bought a 45" Insignia LCD in 2008 and it's worked fantastically since then. Not a single problem with it. The price was right and you can't really notice the difference between it and higher quality tv's unless they are right beside each other. and even then the difference is miniscule at best. The only negative thing I guess would be the sound isn't the greatest. If you want to turn it up loud then it will distort, but you can't really fault the tv for that, get a sound system.

RedMileDJ · 12-23-2012, 08:10 AM

Thanks for all the feedback. I appreciate it.

I'm still looking at a couple Samsung and LG models.

Cheers!

FlameOn · 12-23-2012, 08:14 AM

Insignia branded TVs are manufactured sometimes by cheap Chinese no name brands but in recent years they are done by LG. What LG usually does is dump their last year's internals into these TVs and drastically reduces the costs of these components.

Depends if you are okay running potentially two year old technology and image processors. Certainly it makes for very crappy upscaling and blockiness for SD video on the model I bought for my parents exercise room. Mind you this was a couple of years ago now since I bought one, things might have changed since then.

OldDutch · 12-23-2012, 09:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Regulator75

So what have we learned? Don't be cheap and get a crappy off brand TV.

I just picked up a Sony HX850 55" for $2000. That is disgusting cheap (compared to a few years ago) for the second best Sony of 2012, and one of (if not the) best LED picture of 2012.

I have no idea how these guys make money anymore, but hey it's not my problem I guess.

On reliability, I am not so sure. Sony has been rock solid for me, my other TV is an XBR from 2009 that has been great. However, I had a high end Toshiba that has just gone on the fritz and it's manufacture date is Oct 2008. So I am not sure if name brand garuntees reliability.

So I would find the best value TV out there with great picture. Look at reviews, in fact Insingnia just got a good one from CNET. Sharp makes some awesome value sets.

Just don't god with price only, or brand only. Get good picture first.

Inglewood Jack · 12-23-2012, 09:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vulcan

and I don't normally recommend the extended warrantee but in this case

If you're gonna budget for the warranty, might as well put that into a better brand of tv instead. Can't go wrong with LG and their entry level stuff is comparable in price to these Best Buy house brands.

PIMking · 12-23-2012, 10:34 AM

I was given one 3 years ago for Christmas, it was a 32" 1080 TV with 60hz refresh rate. We used it as the main tv for about 6 months until we got the 46" Plazma. Now it's used for and only for the xbox. It was too big for the bedroom and now just sits in the man cave hooked up to the xbox.

The picture was fine, when it was hooked up to Directv and HDMI It was great.

I guess it just depends on what you're going to use it for.

nickerjones · 12-23-2012, 10:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vulcan

and I don't normally recommend the extended warrantee but in this case

Quote:

Originally Posted by Inglewood Jack

If you're gonna budget for the warranty, might as well put that into a better brand of tv instead. Can't go wrong with LG and their entry level stuff is comparable in price to these Best Buy house brands.

The good thing about insignia ( at least in the states) is if you buy it at Best Buy, they give you a 2 yr warranty instead of a 1 year one that comes with most TVs. I bought a 50" Insignia Plasma TV a few years back for something like 698 bucks. It worked for 6 months and started having problems with the plasma board ( or whatever they called it). They said it would take a few weeks to get a replacement in. I told them I wasnt willing to wait a few a weeks so they said I could return the TV for a replacement. BestBuy didnt have any of these models so they gave me the closest Samsung replacement . The samsung was selling for 1200 at the time. I havent had a problem with this one in 2 yrs+.

ken0042 · 12-23-2012, 11:25 AM

I have 2 Insignia TVs- both about 6 years old. Both have been fine for their purposes; TV in the garage and TV in the main floor bathroom. (Yes, it was installed by "single-guy Ken.")

Like others have said, the picture quality isn't as good as most of the other TVs I own. The one TV that I bought that I am more disappointed with is Sony. They used to be "the" name in TVs back in the CRT days, but the one I have is really lacking.

For a budget TV the one brand I was pleasantly surprised with was RCA. It was bought just because it has a DC input so it could be used in the RV. However the picture quality is still quite good.

Circa89 · 12-29-2012, 02:32 PM

I have had an Insignia 32" flat panel for the last 5 years and it has been absolutely adequate. Nothing great, but definetly a fine TV for the price.

I bought the Insignia after spending the big bucks on a Panasonic and a Toshiba, both of which blew up at the 30 month mark.

I figured an upgrade in size was needed and bought an LG LED 42 on boxing day. However when I moved the insignia to another room in the house it no longer turns on! Any idea what happened? Absolutely no power, no light, no indication of any juice what so ever. I assume it is a fuse? If so can anyone point me in the right direction to either buy a fuse or know of a cheap TV repair guy?

Thanks

RedMileDJ · 12-29-2012, 02:58 PM

I ended up getting this: http://forum.calgarypuck.com/showpos...5&postcount=33

For $599.99, I couldn't pass up that kind of deal.

Circa89 · 12-29-2012, 04:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Red-Mile-DJ

I ended up getting this: http://forum.calgarypuck.com/showpos...5&postcount=33

For $599.99, I couldn't pass up that kind of deal.

You'll enjoy that. Great Bang for the buck.

p.s. Took apart the TV and removed the fuse. Now where to find a 6.3A 250 V ceramic fuse... I have ruled out Lowes, Home Depot, Canadian Tire, London Drugs and the local Dollar store. I think I'll try the source tomorrow. If they have it it and it works it is a $1.79 fix.