Update on Maxent and Olevia TVs

Well,

Syntax-Brillian is in bankrupcy and will be reconstituted as Olevia International. The immediate result is the likely cancellation of warranty on all old Olevia TVs. Personally I would no longer buy an Olevia TV. One of the features I really liked about them is they would send you parts and instructions to perform your own warranty work. With the exception of the display (which is not fixable by anyone), working on flat panel TVs today is as easy as building your own computer, and I would pay more for a TV from a manufacturer who allows this.

Samsung and LG provide most of the panels for many TV manufacturers, and their label TVs have come down considerably in price. I would go with them for a new TV, or possibly consider Vizio.

Back to our Maxent TV. It was replaced under warranty with a refurb. When the box arrived, it had a hole in the bottom I didn't notice until removing the TV. I saw no damage to the TV though. The damn thing wouldn't turn on with the remote. I called Maxent customer service, and got automatically disconnected as usual. Then I called the Costco/Maxent direct line. The Maxent rep said he would prepare another RMA and ship it back to them at their expense (how thoughtful), and would contact us when they were ready. Two weeks later I haven't heard from him again.

The next day, my girlfriend discovered that sitting on our couch 10 feet away there was approximately 2 foot strike zone, with about 5 degrees of tolerance, where you could point the remote and it would work about 60% of the time. Anywhere else the remote wouldn't work at all. This was totally unlike our first Maxent where you could point the remote anywhere in the general direction and it worked 99% of the time.

I swear this replacement TV screen is much hotter looking than our original TV. I have been unable to adjust it out with brightness and contrast. And while analog TV reception is still almost faultless, digital reception on the new TV is awful. It never pixelates. But half the time digital reception won't come in on 2 or more of 6 stations. Sometimes stations will come in if you switch from the channel higher (6) down to the digital station (5.1), but not if you switch from the lower analog station (5) up to the digital (5.1).

Have I said yet to not buy Maxent TVs?