Can I Actually Buy a TV Made in the USA?

                   Surprisingly, according to an article entitled “Made in the USA” in the March, 2008 edition of Popular Mechanics magazine, you can. It is the mid-priced Olevia brand of LCD TVs made by Syntax-Brillian, whose corporate headquarters are located in Tempe, AZ. According to the article, (which I could not find on the Popular Mechanics website), Syntax-Brillian is the first U.S. TV manufacturer to compete against the Asian “giants” since Zenith was bought by a Korean company in 1995. Syntax- Brillian bought Vivitar in 2006, and still produces their cameras and camcorders.

According to the article, the televisions are designed and engineered in City of Industry, CA, and then the components are made separately in Asia and shipped to the West Coast facility where the sets are assembled. Syntax-Brillian claims this allows put together the sets and deliver to U.S. customers faster than its Asian competition.  (Note: I am not 100% sure what the FTC rules are regarding labelling products “Made in America”, nor did the article address  whether they are labelled as such, but the title of the article was “Made in the USA”, so you can draw your own conclusions.)

While I am not a “Buy American” crusader, as it is almost impossible to ”Buy American” these days in some consumer categories, I was pleasantly surprised to see this article. In these recessionary times, it cannot be a bad thing to regain a lost manufacturing industry, televisions, even if it is only one company with 200 employees.  That’s 200 more people than were putting together televisions 5 years ago.

Oddly enough, I bought a 27” Olevia from Circuit City back in September of last year. (My old television was basically showing everything in a shade of either green or red.) I really didn’t want make the purchase at the time, but decided to go ahead and pull the trigger after I found a good deal at Circuit City. I had done some research online,  and found that Olevia was rated as a pretty good LCD TV for the price. Thus far, I have been very satisfied with the picture quality and the TV overall, my only complaint is I cannot get my cable remote to work with the TV, but that  could be my fault. So if you are looking to buy a budget level LCD TV, and would like to  “Buy American”, you may want to check out the Olevia brand of LCD TVs.

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