In case you are unaware, this tv is manufactured by Vestel. Not saying it is a bad tv, though don't expect Panasonic build quality or longevity.

If you buy a Panasonic then the model number will be a 300A, 300B or 400B as this one. I think there was a 350B and a 410B also. On the box and on the tv it will say assembled in Turkey. If it's a genuine Panasonic it will probably have been made in the Czech Republic. Not sure if they assemble anywhere else in Europe but a tour round Currys looking at the boxes or tv's on the shop floor will confirm. Problem is with Vestel like the above post states their tv's use very cheap parts and I haven't seen any links with any other top brand manufacturers such as Samsung, Sony or LG.

Vestel have links with a lot of old names from the 80's and later including Sharp which was mentioned above as UMC but there is a Sharp link with Vestel as well as Hitachi, Toshiba, Phillips and Polaroid. It makes me laugh when I see the quality of the hdmi splitters and leads in Asda under the Polaroid brand. I bought an hdmi splitter. It didn't work, was made of very poor quality and it wasn't particularly cheap at £17.00. I took it back. For me I don't care how cheap or what spec they claim to have on their tv's I wouldn't be buying at any price. Buy a Samsung, LG or Sony and although you can't guarantee who's panel it will have in it you can be assured that it is not a clone of another tv which is what the panasonic is. It is a Vestel tv with a panasonic badge on it. I only found this out a few years ago but it's actually put me off their brand on other products such as bluray and sound bars. We have some of their TZ range cameras in our family and can' t fault those but I will be cautious in the future. Panasonic have the wrong strategy here in my opinion. If you can't make a product to be competitive then you don't make the product especially when one of the reasons people buy your brand is because of it's quality associated with it's brand status. Something the 300 and 400 range appear to be lacking. The 300 is an awful tv. Picture quality of an unbranded tv I had 10 years ago. The 400 4k tv though in Currys had quite a nice picture in it's 55" version sat next to a Samsung in Currys. Maybe they had the wrong sign on it lol.

They don't make jack for LG fella!

Wish I needed a new TV!!!!!! Hot

hot

In case you are unaware, this tv is manufactured by Vestel. Not saying it is a bad tv, though don't expect Panasonic build quality or longevity.

Whats so hot about a tv thats last years model and a refurb? The new version is around £500 and if panasonic ebay store has so many of them doesnt it say something about the amount of them that people have returned maybe?

Carp reviews, from what I can see unfortunately

Not just this one but nearly all TV descriptions... Love the way they say "future proof"

Our Panasonic TV has just gone wrong after 8 months. The engineer said that they are not reliable which if they're actually made by Vestel explains it.

I looked on there last week, the bargain was the 802B refurb for £800. New they are about £1200. They were one of the lowest end 4K sets I would consider buying, as they are HDR compatible. I see they put the price up to £1000 again now though.

Who or what is a Vestel? :man:

Vestel is a third party TV manufacturer based in Turkey that makes TVs for Panasonic LG etc

I think you missed a word... certainly they have been using Vestel for a while on their lower priced models. The problem is TVs are dirt cheap these days so the only way for a premium brand to "compete" is by outsourcing to a cheaper supplier. Pretty sad of course.

I'm sure the percentage of people who'd want and are willing to pay for a quality product made in Japan, UK (Wales) or Slovakia (all are/were manufacturing sites for Panasonic TVs) is significantly smaller than those who want a 4K TV for £350.

future proof? never. things always will become outdate. inc wifes and tvs

this people, they ban you if you return a genuinely proven faulty item. Anyway, this tv is vestel crap. Also, upscale on a much more expensive tv was really crap when compared with my older 1080p Samsung, not sure about the 2016 range.

According to Which reliability survey's both Panasonic and Sony which feature a wide range of Vestel models in their range are more reliable than Samsung and LG who don't.

http://blogs.which.co.uk/technology/tvs/how-long-will-your-tv-last-we-can-tell-you/

In fact Panasonic and average reliability are not that far apart. The weakest for reliability appears to be Technika which is a Tesco brand made by UMC which also makes Blaupunkt and Sharp as well as shop brands like some models for the home shopping group - Bush, Alba I think.

Statistically I don't think Vestel are that bad. Generally Turkish goods are reliable despite their low price. Beko for example has great reliability according to Which even beating Miele for dishwasher reliability and Vestel is highly regarded in Turkey for its washing machines which are Vestel branded there.

To be honest I'd rather have a Vestel based tv rather than UMC or a direct import from China which some of the smaller tv's are. The issue with Vestel is more about refinement of design rather than reliability.

I wasn't aware that Sony used Vestel.

It is only the budget Panasonic TVs that use Vestel screens, so that survey is fairly useless, and potentially misleading, as we have no idea whether the people surveyed had high or low end models.

Should be Vegetable not vestel

Oh man this was just too funny!

I wouldn't trust any poll from Which, they seen to attract a certain type of person to their service...

Personally I don't trust Which reviews. As someone who's seen the inside of a number of recent Vestel Models I can assure you that UMC and even some of the Chinese manufactures produce far more reliable TV's than Vestel do. Vestel make all of their boards in-house and as far as I'm aware do not supply them to any other manufacturer. The only item they outsource is the panels which they get from a number of manufacturers either as a full assembly or just the lcd matrix itself and they use their own backlighting.

Vestel go cheap on EVERYTHING, Caps, Diodes, Plastics, Heat sinks and even Solder that's why the have a higher than average failure rate. They use cheap components borderline underrated for their task. As a side note Capacitor failure is rare now even for cheaper caps.

what Hz does it run at 4k?

I fail to understand why a premier brand likr Panasonic allow their name to be associated with an inferior product. It's like Mercedes putting their badge on a Lada. I have a 6 yr old Panasonic plasma and the picture quality trumps anything I've seen since, bar 4k.

Sony have never used Vestel in any of their sets. I have been in the repair industry for 10 years and I've never come across a Vestel/Sony set.

Sony are using Foxconn as the minute to manufacture their sets for them

Honestly, the TV's UMC/Cello/China knock out are far more reliable than Vestel. Vestel make all their own boards in-house and being a budget TV manufacturer cut as much of the cost they possibly can. UMC and Cello on the other hand buy in bulk all their boards from China and pretty much all the examples I've seen have been cheap but well made, especially the power supplies which is where the bulk of the failures occur on a Vestel.

Failures aside, you have to ask yourself why does Panasonic have so many of their Vestel manufactured TV's for sale as refurbs?

These tv's are terrible, I'm on my second one in just one week!! It won't come off standby, when it does come on after 5-6 attempts it switches off after 10mins.. It can play up when watching dvd's too.. It also makes a really loud buzzing noise on certain watching modes, as long as you don't use the natural or dynamic setting it doesn't make the buzzing noise.. I have not even attempted to use it as a smart TV and after reading the terrible reviews online I wilł be demanding a full refund.. It's a shame though as when they do work they are really nice tv's..

Matt nunn as in works for sky??

So which 48" panasonic is not Vestel &/0r what 48" tv should you go for then???
(At say £500 mark)

I have noticed a varied amount of UHD screens in curry's at various PQI, PMI and HZ

Can anyone please advise wha the difference is, what they mean and which is the best to go for?

I've got a 43" pioneer 1080p HD Plasma which seems to me to hav ea decent picture and exceptional sound.
Am I going to notice much improvement in one of these TV's? I'm not interested in the smart side as I use PS3 and Amazon firesticks for web stuff???

Is it just recently Vestel has been making TVs for Panasonic or has this been going on for years? How do you confirm if your set is indeed a Vestel?

If you buy a Panasonic then the model number will be a 300A, 300B or 400B as this one. I think there was a 350B and a 410B also. On the box and on the tv it will say assembled in Turkey. If it's a genuine Panasonic it will probably have been made in the Czech Republic. Not sure if they assemble anywhere else in Europe but a tour round Currys looking at the boxes or tv's on the shop floor will confirm. Problem is with Vestel like the above post states their tv's use very cheap parts and I haven't seen any links with any other top brand manufacturers such as Samsung, Sony or LG.

Vestel have links with a lot of old names from the 80's and later including Sharp which was mentioned above as UMC but there is a Sharp link with Vestel as well as Hitachi, Toshiba, Phillips and Polaroid. It makes me laugh when I see the quality of the hdmi splitters and leads in Asda under the Polaroid brand. I bought an hdmi splitter. It didn't work, was made of very poor quality and it wasn't particularly cheap at £17.00. I took it back. For me I don't care how cheap or what spec they claim to have on their tv's I wouldn't be buying at any price. Buy a Samsung, LG or Sony and although you can't guarantee who's panel it will have in it you can be assured that it is not a clone of another tv which is what the panasonic is. It is a Vestel tv with a panasonic badge on it. I only found this out a few years ago but it's actually put me off their brand on other products such as bluray and sound bars. We have some of their TZ range cameras in our family and can' t fault those but I will be cautious in the future. Panasonic have the wrong strategy here in my opinion. If you can't make a product to be competitive then you don't make the product especially when one of the reasons people buy your brand is because of it's quality associated with it's brand status. Something the 300 and 400 range appear to be lacking. The 300 is an awful tv. Picture quality of an unbranded tv I had 10 years ago. The 400 4k tv though in Currys had quite a nice picture in it's 55" version sat next to a Samsung in Currys. Maybe they had the wrong sign on it lol.

this is ebay outlet store and not ebuyer, when thing do go wrong these ignorants at the Panasonic outlet customers service they ban ebay members to prevent any further biddings, they are so stupid that they do not realize that people can get other screen names to bid if they wish to make any damage or genuinely buy other items. Vestel build up are all mostly in the same looking case but they are build with different specifications at the request of whatever tv make, Panasonic in this case. Forget that this model would include chroma 4-4-4 [email protected] as otherwise they will not sell the more expensive anymore. I made a little search in the past and I do not think it does at all. On the other hand, a similar build like the hitachi 43" (100%vestel) only for sell at argos it does as I got one. I wish to know if the Toshiba 48" with 3d from argos at £399 would do chroma 4-4-4 [email protected] as I would buy one, surely it does but cannot find any info at all, if it does would be a real bargain as my hitachi 43" input lag is unnoticeable with the pc, I cannot actually see any difference against my expensive Samsung 1440p monitor and picture is amazingly sharper and brighter, for the rest all 4k TV's are still crap unless used with proper 4k material

Yes it does seem like I am mistaken about the Vestel connection. A quick google around the internet doesn't bring up any supporting evidence for me.

I see a repair kit that links Bush and Sony but its for a plasma tv.

http://www.ohmsupplies.co.uk/PDP42V7-PLASMA-REPAIR

Some comments in forums state Sony have had televisions made by Vestel or Beko in Turkey that were sold in supermarkets but no model numbers to check.

The foxconn connection seems to go back to 2010 so seems like if Sony have used other supplier's its before that date. While foxconn do have a Turkish factory it appears to be only for pc's and logic boards.

If you put Beko and Sony in the same google search you seem to come up with some reference to Sony on the Beko site but not sure why. Maybe that is the Turkish connection.

I remember seeing a Sony in a supermarket though that was utterly basic with poor menu's quite a few years ago and sure I read a review stating a Sony set had been sourced from a low end supplier.

Anyway Panasonic certainly aren't alone in using Vestel there are many japanese brands that are manufactured by Vestel. It certainly hasn't damaged Panasonic's reliability reputation either statistically it seems. User satisfaction levels are another matter.

I disagree about UMC and Cello being more reliable. I remember reading about a Cello tv being very poorly assembled and as previously stated the UMC Technika's were reported to be the least reliable television brand by Which consumer's reliability survey by some margin.

Also the same Panasonic outlet is full of refurbished models from all sorts of Panasonic televisions including high end and those are models you wouldn't expect to see as many of as they make a small percentage of sales. Also all the other refurbished products too from the whole range of Panasonic goods.

If only we all had Netflix, it could be a good excuse to buy a Panasonic, genuine of course. Over in Japan they must think we all have it over here but I only ever bought one of their tv's once. Why manufacturers think its a good idea to put dedicated buttons on their remotes for random services I don't know. What is it Sony put on theirs, fooball is it. Its about time someone told Sony not everyone in the UK watches football.

In 2010 we needed a new tv for our bedroom. I bought what I thought was a bit of a bargain from Argos. I had always wanted a Panasonic. Switched it on, played with the settings and thought it looked a bit green. Two days later switched it on and a vertical line on the screen. Took it back and have never bought one of their tv's since and doubt I ever will. This could have been an early Vestel perhaps. Who knows but been quite happy with the LG's I bought since. Even the new one that I moaned loads about appears to be behaving itself and picture looks amazing now since I cleaned my glasses lol.

They only have 19 tv's for sale in total. That's not many considering how many tv's they must sell.

Who makes Matsui brand?
One set lasted us 14 years and current one is in its 9th year.
Amazingly reliable cheap make

Well lets agree to disagree then. I've done more than read about them, I've been inside various models of Vestel, UMC, Technika, Panasonic, Polaroid, Samsung, LG Sony etc from LCD to Plasma and I've personally found UMC/Cello to be better generally build quality wise, fit and finish of plastics, quality of components used are far better than Vestel equivalents.

Your not arguing with my opinion you are arguing against a whole consumer group reliability survey of no doubt thousands of people possibly 10's of thousands with regards UMC.

Freakstyler, you say you've been "inside" all theses TVs, I hope you don't mean in the same manner David Cameron was alleged to have been "inside" that pig!?