There has been some discussion on this point over the years. Apparently this forum is linked to some other Web sites where they discuss troubleshooting for Philips brands (including Magnavox). So people searching the Web for help often come across those links or, increasingly, this forum. Philips also sells lots and lots of TVs.

Philips would not be my first choice for a guaranteed trouble-free experience. But given that almost no smaller TVs are designed to be repaired, there is an argument for not spending very much in the first place.

I don't think I'd let the frequency of Philips being mentioned here bother me much. The repair forums contain many postings for Sears (Craftsman) garage-door openers and there's nothing systemically wrong with LiftMaster/Chamberlain (the company that manufactures the GDOs for Sears). It's just that there are so many of them out there that even a small percentage of troubled users will seem like a lot.

Consumers Reports had posted for years that Magnavox and it's sister companies Philips, Philco, and Sylvania were among the lowest in reliability in name brand tube TVs.

Now that more and more TVs sold are flat panel I don't think you can use that old data. And the Sylvania name has been sold to a Chinese mfgr.

We gave our son and his family a 25 inch TV several years ago and it's still working fine. They've had no trouble at all with it.
We have a 19 inch Tv in one of the bedrooms that my wife watches TV on. It's several years old also and still working with the exception of the rmote. It seems to be a problem with the TV rather than the remote, as a new remote did not the problem.