Let's hope B&O does not turn out like Nakamichi, a company which today is just the ghost of what it once was :-(

This may also work the other way ‘round.

You do know that LG earler on was Lucky-Goldstar....

....which used to be synonymous with el cheapo bargain basement goods.

Things are moving fast these days - where it goes, noone really knows.

MM

VANTAGE wrote:

Let's hope B&O does not turn out like Nakamichi, a company which today is just the ghost of what it once was :-(

Millemissen wrote:

This may also work the other way ‘round.

You do know that LG earler on was Lucky-Goldstar....

....which used to be synonymous with el cheapo bargain basement goods.

Things are moving fast these days - where it goes, noone really knows.

MM

LG and Hyundai made BILLIONS on entry-level products for people of moderate means, distributed through big box network. They were not hated for bad products because they met the basic needs of their customers (a car, a microwave, a tv, etc). They used their technology and money to raise their stature in their space. B&O does not have anything in common with that. 

Good point about nobody knowing where it will end. The model of raping your customers and dealers with sketchy, overpriced products and globally shameful business practices so you can feed an ever smaller team of accountants, lawyers, marketers, and consultants is a novel business approach, indeed. 

Hi Roger - thanks as always for your insights. This is sad news. Does this mean that they won’t fit a 2018 LG panel to the Eclipse this year, as was originally planned? What will happen when the 2017 LG panels run out? I can’t imagine that they have a contract for manufacturing 2017 panels just for B&O - or will the Eclipse go with the way of the Moment, and be gradually sunsetted as components run out..

Roger wrote:

Last year the dealers were told that the new design approach with LG for the Eclipse made it easier to swap the panels as LG continued to develop the OLED technology, making it possible for B&O to present a BeoVision with fresh screen tech for the years to come. This approach seems to be dropped now. Instead, the current Eclipse and Horizon will continue to run as-is.

That seems... unlikely? Difficult to understand?

LG are no longer making last year's panels, at some point they will no longer be in stock, I don't think you can get them now for retail. Unless B&O bought a huge number of the old panels and are still working through them to build today's Eclipses (why would they do that? keeping stock costs money) then at some point they will run out of the old LG panels.

Which means either: Eclipse production ceases due to no panels; or continues with the new LG panel. Since the Eclipse was designed with the ability to incorporate new LG panels, I would have thought that was the logical way to go; but you say otherwise.

You seem to be saying they will continue to produce the Eclipse with the old panels until the panels dry up, and then no more Eclipse? Is that correct as you understand it?

mikewalsh - snap!

The information is conflicting - but what was communicated a year ago was done so by another team. The stock was supposed to last till the new panel was available - how can this stock stretch to the Fall of 2019? Sales can't be that slow?

Also, another issue the Eclipse solved was the challenge with replacing obsolete panels under warranty. The BeoVision 7 series ran with older panels for a long time, resulting in replacement panels being a challenge for warranty repair - the Eclipse approach presented a year ago was said to solve this, too. What is communicated now is conflicting, as well. 

Roger

Emil Jensen wrote:

I very much enjoy my motorized stand every day, with my ECLIPSE,

This would be missed.

Also that everything is in one.

I have not regretted my first Beovision (ECLIPSE) It is a joy every day, much more than all the other system that I have had.

You echo my thoughts (except for me, it's the motorized wall bracket - it's magic when the TV silently swings into place and appears to be floating). 

I asked my dealer questions about panel upgrades and future warranty repair before I purchased, and got the answer about newer panels fitting into the sound center.  To me, it seemed like wishful thinking to expect a panel ~5 years into the future to just slide into the sound center, nor could I imagine stocking enough old panels for this to be workable.  5 years is forever in the consumer electronics business.  I bought the TV anyway.

Maybe history repeats for me as I bought one of the last Saabs.  Not a good track record on my part - assuming B&O follows thru with their plan to drop TVs... then again, I still enjoy my Saab (just pray there's no fender-bender and especially no back end damage (tail light assemblies are next to impossible to find), and hope to do the same with my Eclipse (and no worries about the Eclipse getting rear-ended  🙂)... just hope these OLED panels hold up for many years.

And it likely will....i never quite understood all the discussion about panel swapping anyway, these things do tend to last pretty long.

So i'd rest easy, your Eclipse will work fine for quite a few years - whether they continue to address software and integration issues is a separate question, but again i doubt they abandon it, at least for the next year or two.