If one is an innovator, then two means it’s becoming a trend, right? Well, the bandwagon may still have a few good seats available, but Bang & Olufsen has followed in Sharp’s footsteps by incorporating a Blu-ray player as part of the TV.
B&O’s flagship BeoVision 7 40-inch LCD has been given an upgrade from integrated DVD player to integrated Blu-ray player (plus it comes with an integrated full-throttle stereo or center-channel speaker too).
After DVD had gone through its commoditization stage and became as mainstream as VCRs had, plenty of smaller TVs came packaged with built-in players almost as more of a convenience, especially for a kitchen or bedroom TV/DVD combo without the extra wiring.
Of course, Blu-ray drives are backwards compatible with DVDs so you can still play your standard-def DVD collection, but Blu-ray discs are more meant for larger screens. That means bothering with a built-in Blu-ray player probably doesn’t make sense for a manufacturer on its TVs smaller than 37 inches.
Back at CES in January, Sharp debuted a line of Aquos LCDs with built-in Blu-ray players, in sizes of 32, 37, 42, 46 and 52 inches (pictured below, the LC52BD80U).
So one less source to connect to the TV, one less HDMI cable to worry about, one less space in the equipment rack. Does having the built-in Blu-ray drive entice you more to an HDTV, or maybe get you thinking about Blu-ray more than if you were to buy a stand-alone player as an add-on during a TV purchase?
Granted, there’s a humongous price difference between B&O’s $13,500 TV and Sharp’s 52-incher that can be had for less than $1,800 on Amazon right now, but we can see other display manufacturers filling up the bandwagon, maybe at the upcoming CEDIA and CES shows. With the Blu-ray format still making inroads (and still being dominated by DVD), and 3D not quite there yet, chances are manufacturers are bouncing around other ways to broaden the TVs reach—looks like networking and widgets will be foremost to that end, but don’t be shocked to see more of these HDTVs with built-in Blu-ray. You buying?
Ok, now you are opening up a completely different can of worms. If the unit is out of warranty, I say all bets are off.
Yes I find it repugnant that some products always seem to die right after the warranty expires. If a manufacturer provides a 1 year warranty to a product, why do people assume the product will be problem free for much longer than that time? I would assume that the manufacturer knows how long 95-99% of their products will last, and bases their warranty on this information.
If I don’t like how a certain manufacturer’s products ‘always’ die right after their warranty expires, I can choose to not buy that brand anymore. I can also educate myself by talking to people like you that have inside information on this stuff. Otherwise, as little as I like it, I got what I paid for.
Paul,
Most of the sub standard part failures or poor quality design flaws we see happen 1 1/2 to 2 years after purchase. These fall outside of any warranty the manufacturer has on the product.
We had a VCR we sold one time from a very good manufacturer. I had 10 of the 15 units we sold come back with load mechanism problems. The plastic tracks were drying out and falling apart. All of these happened at about a 1 1/2 years. When I contacted our sales rep he said they hadn’t had any problems with this unit. I called Tech support and they said the same thing. We went to a service school for the manufacturer on a different product and techs from all over the south were talking about the problem with this VCR. Even then we were told by the factory rep that it must have been just isolated incidents because they had had no reports of a problem though all of us had called tech support about the same thing. This was a major issue with a well known manufacturer that they never admitted because if fell outside of the warranty period.
I know of a major TV manufacturer that has a problem with a chassis assembly that requires 120 capacitors be replaced on the boards after 3 to 4 years. These chassis must be sent back to the factory for rebuild. If the customer calls Customer service they are told that this is a rare incident but that the manufacturer will cover the cost of the part this time only. I have seen 20 of these so far and I was told at a training class by the instructor off to the side that they had to double there staff to take care of all the chassis coming back for rebuild.
You’re right I haven’t ever worked in a service center, but I have worked as a senior purchaser of electronic components for one of the largest consumer goods manufacturers in the world.
While I understand that the bottom line is the primary concern, there are also warrenties to consider. No manufacturer can survive with high failure rates, as they get hammered on the warranty side of things. If you supply parts to really big companies like the one I worked for, they are known for suing or charging suppliers if the parts provided are substandard.
I’m not arguing your assertion that these things fail, I’m disputing the volume of repairs as a percentage of the whole.
100% agree with you Mike. I have owned, and seen numerous DVD players that trays will not open (at least not on their own), media will not load, or any number of problems that can occur when reading off of a disc. This is not something that bluray players are immune to and I for one would not like the hassle of having to send in my TV to get the disc player working. I like the concept, but in all practicality it really becomes more of a problem than a solution when something goes wrong.
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I have a different take. I have a need for a clean installation on a wall for a “small” (26”-32”) TV with a Blu-ray player and a QAM tuner. One device plugged in to the wall—I am done. I think that most TV that are 42” and larger are going to be connected to a good sound system and will have the place for a Cable/Satallite box with on demand and a good Blu-ray player. V2.0 of course.
Smaller TVs will not have the HD resolution available from a Blu-ray, but they will allow me to use my ever increasing DVD/Blu-ray disk collection.
While outdoors on the patio without dragging “the big set with all the boxes.”
Maybe it sould be cheaper to build a Blu-ray reader with only 720p out rather than the full 1080p or more.
I really do not understand why manufactors add an integrated player to the large class sets where they are more probably attached to a big home entertainment system and ignore the small size sets where they are more likely to be used. Just ask a college student—Hell ask me!