LG and Samsung are high level quality TVs

Sony, Vizio, etc are mid level

Seiki, Element, Westinghouse, are low end.

I think it is hard to say which vendor has the best TV in any given year since they are always changing the model but looking at the picture is the first step and getting a good warranty to cover any problems. Buying at Costco for the warranty would be hard to beat.

My Vizio is seven years old and still works great so I got another one, 43 inch, today for $248 at Walmart.

I had to take my old Zenith to the dump this year which was purchased in 1990. The only thing I had to replace was the sound board during that time.

I have had good luck with both LG and Vizio.

I have had several Samsungs with good success except for a directional problem, picture washes out a bit at certain angles. I avoid anything Sony. Over the years, any Sony product I bought went belly-up in no time, whether it was a TV, VCR, cassette deck, you name it. Finally dawned on me that perhaps most expensive did not equal best quality. In the days before flat screens, I had one of those 75 lb big screen Sony TV's that went bad. The TV repairman (remember those) told me that the set had the worst soldering inside he'd ever seen. Would probably go with LG today. Waiting for the price to come down on those new models.

We had a Vizeo that crapped out at just two years old. We replaced it with a Samsung, 55", 4K. No problems, so far.