Are Sony flatscreens really better than non-Sonys and how are they better if at all?

For actual picture quality I don’t think Sony actually makes the panels. I think Samsung makes them all and then Sony slaps them in a pretty case. Like how Apple doesn’t make the displays (actual LCD screen) used in iMacs. Samsung and LG make most of them.

Samsung makes the panels used by Sony, under a subsidiary called S-LCD which was originally a joint-venture.

I expect there’s differences in the electronics, but even many of those components are typically made by other manufacturers. I doubt there’s any significant difference in quality here.

The biggest difference is the price. Sony is relatively expensive. I expect they market their products toward the more affluent consumer—The more money than sense crowd.

No. Twenty years ago, Sony had a great reputation for making top quality equipment. And charging top dollar, but it was worth it.

There is no difference between a Sony flat panel and another high-end brand (samsung, Panasonic, for example). Except for the price tag.

There is a difference between Sony level and (for example) Verio or various other house brands like at Best buy.

Picture quality is somewhat in the eye of the beholder. What looks great to one person may not look so to someone else. Also, whatever the brand or price, a TV that’s been professionally calibrated in the owner’s home, adjusted to that room’s size and lighting, will look far better than it looked in the store.

No answer here, but I didn’t know Sony got their TV’s made by others. So…essentially, it would make no difference in quality if I got a Samsung or LG (or whoever makes their stuff) as opposed to a Sony? I have an LG set and I love it.

@Symbeline :: For the most part it wouldn’t. Sony could be individually calibrating each tv in a rigorous way. But I doubt it. That isn’t to say that the different TV’s don’t have different interfaces. My Magnavox is confusing to do anything with. The software might be different but the actual screen is pretty much the same.