New Energy Star TV's

[Shawn Clark]

At last we are getting some meaningful Energy Star ratings and choices in TV's: Have your HDTV and be green, too - HDTV- msnbc.com

The EPA’s voluntary Energy Star program sets different criteria for various products to meet before they can be labeled as compliant. The current Energy Star 3.0 guidelines state that televisions must use at least 30 percent less power than the average set in both powered-on and standby modes. For instance, under the 3.0 guidelines a 50-inch HDTV cannot use more than about 318 watts while powered on.
The guidelines become more stringent with each revision, and when products that meet Energy Star 4.0 arrive on the market next year, their power use will be 40 percent less than the average TV's power needs.

Of course the large LCD's use a bit more juice than the old CRT's did. LED backlit LCD's should bring that down. Plasma unfortunately is a massive energy hog.

Generally, plasma HDTV's are more power hungry than LCD models, requiring about three times the energy of cathode-ray tube sets. In contrast, LCD sets use about 43 percent more energy. LED back-lit LCD TVs, where LEDs replace fluorescent tubes to light the screen, use the least amount of power, as much as 50 percent less than a standard LCD HDTV.

It's finally about time to replace my 19 year old CRT. I've been waiting for the energy consumption of the newer models to drop.

[ceric]

Make sure you buy ext warranty on the newer-gen TV (LCD w/ w/o LED backlight).
They don't last as long as the good old CRT.
Cases in points:
- my 42" Plasma (Samsung) lasted only 5 years
- replaced it with Mitsubishi 46" LCD (120Hz). Vertical dead pixel lines showed within 6 months.
Replaced it under OE warranty (part costed about $1000!!! No kidding - the whole glass was replaced). Within another 7 months, same thing happened. This time it was out of warranty. Luckily I got ext warranty from Fry's electronics. Again, replaced the entire glass ($1000 cost) on Fry's. Fry's said that if it happens again, they will take it back and give me a new TV of equivalent price. I bought it for $1400 only. (my ext warranty costed me $189 - who said you always lose on ext warranty.?!)

Modern TV costs a lot to repair. Usually when something goes wrong, it does not make sense to fix. That is a waste of resource of our world!!!

The guy who repaired my TV said that typically LCD TVs do not last very long. Vertical dead pixel lines is one of the typical problems.

I don't know, man. My Sony 27" CRT still work after 15 years.....