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Broken TV - hopeless/pointless to fix?

E

EyeOfThe

Senior member
Hi Guys,

I have a Hitachi 65" Rear-Projection HDTV that is about 7 years old. It's having a problem and I'm wondering if it can be fixed reasonably or is it absolutely time for a new TV.

I don't know the technical name for the problem, but basically there is a blue shadow and a red shadow on things. If I go into the Magic Focus config screen, I see the grid has lines that bend. The shadows get bigger toward the left side of the screen.
There is a bit of flickering horizontal lines in the upper area too.

Question is, about how much does this cost to fix?
Any recommendation on a new tv? (I was looking at a Panasonic v10 plasma 65", but the sale ended and it went from 2880 to 3204 so I'm waiting.)
If the old tv repair is too costly, can anything be done with it?
(Like some easy way to make it work for video games or photos but not tv, for example, or does it have any value for spare parts, or turning it on it's back and making a table out of it....)

Thanks!
 
Last edited:
I tried the Magic Focus function, which is supposed to do it automatically. It didn't work. And the way the grid lines were warped, rather than just unaligned seems to me that something is broken. I can try a manual focus - I havent tried it yet because not sure how to do it - but I do have the manual.
 
For a while there, I was a king.

I can remember when my Mom and brother came to visit. I had mentioned I was thinking about getting a new tv to upgrade from my current 13".

My brother walked into my tiny apartment, saw a 65" Homer Simpson looking at him and exclaimed "No-Way! No-Way!!"

My Mom walked right by it on the way to the bathroom. She didn't even notice it.
 
EyeOfThe said:
For a while there, I was a king.

I can remember when my Mom and brother came to visit. I had mentioned I was thinking about getting a new tv to upgrade from my current 13".

My brother walked into my tiny apartment, saw a 65" Homer Simpson looking at him and exclaimed "No-Way! No-Way!!"

My Mom walked right by it on the way to the bathroom. She didn't even notice it.
Click to expand...

Time to get a projector 🙂
 
Sounds like bad convergence chips, a very common failure point on rear-projection TVs - there's a recent discussion of it here. Genuine parts for the repair will cost around $40, you can find cheaper chinese counterfeit versions on ebay that will only last a few months to a year; with labor, you're probably looking at around ~$80 (depends on what the tech pays for parts). I've seen some warranty work done that used fake chips, which later failed; it might be a good idea to buy the parts yourself and have someone install them if you want this to last. Also, sometimes the flameproof resistors can fail in the convergence section, they will also need to be checked.
 
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