Just as I suspected might happen ...

[woodman]

Loewe Opta - the TV set mfg. from Germany has announced that it is bowing out of the TV biz in America, as of the first of the year.

Whenever anyone asked at these boards about buying one of their sets, I usually tried my best to talk them out of it since I viewed that as a somewhat risky proposition. The current announcement merely exonerates my (what some viewed as pessimisstic) POV. This is precisely what I feared would happen.

Sorry 'bout that.

[topspeed]

Loewe Opta - the TV set mfg. from Germany has announced that it is bowing out of the TV biz in America, as of the first of the year.

Whenever anyone asked at these boards about buying one of their sets, I usually tried my best to talk them out of it since I viewed that as a somewhat risky proposition. The current announcement merely exonerates my (what some viewed as pessimisstic) POV. This is precisely what I feared would happen.

Sorry 'bout that.

Woodman, you are definitely the tv guru hear at AR but to be honest, I've never even heard of that company.

[dean_martin]

Loewe Opta - the TV set mfg. from Germany has announced that it is bowing out of the TV biz in America, as of the first of the year.

Whenever anyone asked at these boards about buying one of their sets, I usually tried my best to talk them out of it since I viewed that as a somewhat risky proposition. The current announcement merely exonerates my (what some viewed as pessimisstic) POV. This is precisely what I feared would happen.

Sorry 'bout that.

What struck me most about the newer Loewe tvs is their classy finish. I never really compared their picture quality to other brands, but I thought the Loewe flat panel with high gloss black finish would look good in a bedroom with sparse/simple/sleek modern decor, but since I don't have that bedroom yet...oh, well.

[woodman]

Count your blessings - both of you.

I had some limited experience trying to service the damned things ... yuck! Parts were extremely difficult to obtain, and "tech support" was virtually non-existent.

Good riddance, I say.

[poneal]

I'm still enjoying that Hitachi 50" LCD HDTV monitor you recommended. Still working great and fantastic picture.

[Sir Terrence the Terrible]

Another good reason to listen when Woodman speaks!

[Smokey]

Loewe Opta - the TV set mfg. from Germany has announced that it is bowing out of the TV biz in America, as of the first of the year.

Could it be they pulling out because they can not compete in term of price with TVs that are coming from southeast Asia and china

[woodman]

Could it be they pulling out because they can not compete in term of price with TVs that are coming from southeast Asia and china

No, Smokester ... they never intended to play "hardball" in the TV mfg. biz - ever. What they sought to do was to convince enough gullible souls with more money than common sense to invest in one of their vastly overpriced TV sets ... in other words, they tried to target the market segment that would establish their brand name as a sort of status symbol. They missed their target evidently. Buh-bye!

[AVMASTER]

Mr. Woodman,
is ther any truth to the rumor that Thompson SA supplied the CRT for some of thier models?

[woodman]

Mr. Woodman,
is ther any truth to the rumor that Thompson SA supplied the CRT for some of thier models?

I have no idea. When I was wandering about the insides of any Loewe sets, I didn't pay any attention to the identity of the CRT mfg. But the bottom-line question would have to be ... this would be meaningful info why ???????

[Mr Peabody]

I have to admit that Loewe's product was more than I wanted to pay for a TV but on the other hand the few that I saw had a unique feel to the picture as well as being very good. Watching the Loewe was more like looking through the camera. The panning of the picture was somehow different.

Anyone know if Proton still makes TV's? When I think of the marketing approach Loewe had it reminded me of Proton. A better than average product, in my opinion, and somewhat hard to find and when you did it was in some boutique type electronics store.

[hermanv]

I used to design color monitors so I learned how to look critically at pictures. The Loewe sets I looked at did not have technology to support their price point. On CRT sets picture size will change with average brightness. All TV's do it some more some less, the Loewe did it worse than many. Worse they allowed small localized horizontal displacement with bright areas of the picture and their black level clamp could have used a fair amount of help.

Well heeled folks will alway pay a little extra for the very best, and that's fine. You usually can't fool them for long. I agree the Loewe cabinet was nice but many TV outperformed the Loewe technically and for less money.