I saw an incredible deal on a 32 lcd hdtv yesterday. It was $299 at best buy. Made by Dynex though, and I cant find out who is the real manufacture. Does anyone know who makes Dynex? Thanks

According to this link , Dynex TV's are manufactured by Magellan Technologies. Unfortunately, the only information I can fund about a company called Magellan Technologies leads me to a manufacturer of RFID devices and another that manufactures data loggers - no mention of TV's.

I found very quickly this site
http://www.dynexproducts.com/c-23-televisions.aspx

I read the manufacturer is Orion Electric. From Orion's site....."Customers include key electronics’ mass merchants (Wal-Mart, Target Stores, Best Buy, Shopko, Pamida) and many regional distributors and specialty marketers of electronic video equipment." Compare the LCD's from Orion's site with the Best Buy brand Dynex.

So now we know who - the next question might be where?

Well, there's this wiki entry , this Orion Electric product page , and finally this Orion Sales product page (which is the page that Keta quoted, I think). If those all relate to a single company and the Wiki entry is correct, then the Dynex LCD's are most likely being built in Thailand.

That's fine. My nOrh amps are made there.

i just asked a best buy guy who made what and he thinks that LG makes dynex and insignia brands as well as thier own. He says LG in mexico has three tiers of quality. dynex is there lowest tier, Insignia can compete with tier two brands and of course LG is up with the big boys. I've often heard only 4or 5 big O.E.M.'s make all our tv sets. Tatung makes a ton of tv's. (hatachi,polaroid,GE) A guy on shopnbc is always saying how safe we can feel with american brand names but, those names are no more than labels. every tv i see lately is made in mexico.

I'd be wary of what a salesperson at any store tells you about the origin of an unknown brand. They're very likely to tell you anything they think will convince you to buy the product. This has happened to me. My understanding is that both Dynex and Insignia are brands sold only in Best Buy. I'm not familiar with Insignia, but I know I've not seen Dynex outside of Best Buy.

I was a Quality Engineer at Zenith Electronics in 2000-2002, a wholly-owned subsidiary of LG Electronics since 1998. At that time, LG manufactured only Zenith and LG TV's. It's possible that has changed since, but I doubt it. Any TV they could produce will likely be close to the same price as their own brand in the same distribution channels. This is due to fixed manufacturing costs, particularly labor and facilities, and the very low margin in mass-distributed electronics. Unknown brands are typically significantly lower priced. I expect they are procured by contract from whomever is the lowest bidder, and that's likely to be someone that specializes in manufacturing low-end products. That's not to mean these brands are bad. My personal observation is that products costing approximately the same in the same distribution channel provide similar quality and performance. Marketing costs for a well-known versus obscure brand can account for some small difference, but the old addage "you get what you pay for" still usually holds true. There does come a point where there is diminishing return in value as price paid goes up, and the challenge becomes determining where diminishing returns begins.

I made interesting observations about the consumer electronics industry while at Zenith. Brands buy subassemblies or whole chassis from various manufacturers to assemble their final product depending on the intended price-point. A single brand may have TV's from several origins depending on the end price. For example, LG/Zenith purchased complete direct-view TVs 19" and under from a contract manufacturer while building larger sizes in their own factory. And Zenith direct-view TVs with chassis built in their factory had first Philips and then Panasonic CRT's. LG, in a joint venture with Philips, is a very large producer of LCD panels whom they sell to other TV and monitor manufacturers. LG also sells electronic subassemblies. So, it's possible an unknown brand could have an LG display panel or some electronics, yet be assembled elsewhere. And it's also quite possible for panels that don't meet the performance requirements at LG, for example, to be sold to someone willing to buy them at lower cost for a bargain-priced TV where performance may not be as critical.

There are still some excellent American specialty manufacturers, but most of the mass-distributed, big-name brands have been sold to distributors of mostly lower-end products today. Large, heavy items, like big screen TVs become uncompetitive to ship to the Americas from overseas manufacturers, so Mexico is a prime location for these items due to the close proximity to the huge market in the US. Thus, the number of products originating there.

Bill