All of the manufacturers other than Mitsubishi have given up on rear projection completely in favor of flat panels. They are simply following the trend in purchasing.
As for an extended warranty, that is your choice, depending on whether you feel you need the insurance or not. Generally, they are not a good value. With a Samsung, they may be. Samsung did have lots of problems with their DLP products, largely due to decisions to build them to sell cheap relative to competitors. If you have one of the LED based sets, these seem to have been more reliable than the lamp based sets, but they also have not been in the field as long yet.
The other point about extended warranties is that you may find it harder and harder to get good service in the future. There has been a trend among the warranty companies and TPAs toward reducing labor rates, increasing the paperwork, using cumbersome parts systems, and generally making life harder for servicers. Many servicers are beginning to drop some of the big warranty companies because they are making it too difficult to do business. The result is the use of larger service contractors that may or may not have a presense in your area. I suggest that any warranty you buy should be researched carefully to find out who in your area provides the service. I just might be some yahoo working out of his garage that can't do much more than swap computer boards.
As for an extended warranty, that is your choice, depending on whether you feel you need the insurance or not. Generally, they are not a good value. With a Samsung, they may be. Samsung did have lots of problems with their DLP products, largely due to decisions to build them to sell cheap relative to competitors. If you have one of the LED based sets, these seem to have been more reliable than the lamp based sets, but they also have not been in the field as long yet.
The other point about extended warranties is that you may find it harder and harder to get good service in the future. There has been a trend among the warranty companies and TPAs toward reducing labor rates, increasing the paperwork, using cumbersome parts systems, and generally making life harder for servicers. Many servicers are beginning to drop some of the big warranty companies because they are making it too difficult to do business. The result is the use of larger service contractors that may or may not have a presense in your area. I suggest that any warranty you buy should be researched carefully to find out who in your area provides the service. I just might be some yahoo working out of his garage that can't do much more than swap computer boards.
