CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

[d50q]

im my continued search for a sony pfm500a3wu b board i am amazed at all the used and broken plasma and lcd tv's out there.
they are on ebay,craigslist and such,seeing them would make me afraid to buy one if i were in the market for a tv.

[Curt Palme]

Funny, I had a call tonight from my ex installer that has heard me go on for years about how much junk is out there and how I refuse to sell digitals. He calls in a panic tonight, telling me how he changed a bulb in a flat screen TV, and now how 4 hours later the screen went 'funny' at the customer's house. Customer is mad, I tell him that if the internal menus look OK, it might be a bad connection to the TV, but if the menus look bad, the set is probably a writeoff. He's all pissed and panicked now. I laughed and told him that he shouldn't have gotten involved.

I went to the mall with the g/f today and yeah, I guess I missed the boat in selling these flat screens, as I'll bet there's twice as many on display now in that damn mall over say 10 years ago when flat panels were still over $10K minimum and everyone was still installing CRT TVs. But then I remember things like my tech calling me, and all of the pissed off customers I'd have at some point, and I'm glad I haven't gotten involved..

[Curt Palme]

Funny, I had a call tonight from my ex installer that has heard me go on for years about how much junk is out there and how I refuse to sell digitals. He calls in a panic tonight, telling me how he changed a bulb in a flat screen TV, and now how 4 hours later the screen went 'funny' at the customer's house. Customer is mad, I tell him that if the internal menus look OK, it might be a bad connection to the TV, but if the menus look bad, the set is probably a writeoff. He's all pissed and panicked now. I laughed and told him that he shouldn't have gotten involved.

I went to the mall with the g/f today and yeah, I guess I missed the boat in selling these flat screens, as I'll bet there's twice as many on display now in that damn mall over say 10 years ago when flat panels were still over $10K minimum and everyone was still installing CRT TVs. But then I remember things like my tech calling me, and all of the pissed off customers I'd have at some point, and I'm glad I haven't gotten involved..

[WanMan]

In August 2006 I bought a Vizio LCD flat panel from Costco to put in the family room as the boob-tube. Before a year past the video board went out on it. I do not doubt it was the quality and method of manufacturing, but I cannot blame Vizio as they are but one of many plug & play manufacturers of retail products. Now add tin whiskers to the equation.

Two things on this note is that Vizio spent the dime to replace the unit with a brand new unit and paid for the company to come into my home and unmount the broken unit and mount the new one. I didn't pay a penny. Terrific customer service, and now their relationship with Costco extends that level of customer service to two years. The second thing is that I have had much more trouble and grief with my Xbox 360 before I bought a forced-air solution to keep the mainboard cool enough.

But I guess it is how you look at product, really. For instance, I paid $1200 for that LCD flat panel NEW. What did the GE Imager cost NEW? How about the XG1351? Some things are designed as disposable, and as such are priced as such and reliable as such.

[garyfritz]

Good for Vizio. I'll keep that in mind if I'm ever in the market. I wouldn't buy one of those things without a good extended warranty.

[WanMan]

Well, I got even luckier, Gary. I bought the thing before Costco changed their return policy. I had the option of returning the original or getting satisfaction from Vizio. I asked about getting the Vizio replacement and how that impacted the Costco customer service return policy, and they told me that they do not track serial numbers, only product SKU and purchase date. In fact, they said I may want to get Vizio to replace it first (Costco return policy had changed between time I purchased it and when the problem came in) and if then it recurred to bring it back.

I keep kicking myself, though, because I am an idiot at times when staring good deals in the face at Costco. See a deal, never wait. For instance, they had and I missed 58" plasma (all be it 768P) for $1600. That would have been better for the family room as the resolution is only observed, or resolved, with bigger pixels due to the viewing distance. Now I cannot find Vizio-style companies offering 58" plasmas anymore.

[d50q]

my mom has a 13 inch lcd by vizio her upstairs landlords dishwasher leaked and sent water into the panel
it was plugged in but off so we let it dry out for a few weeks and all is fine lol

[d50q]

dang i think i might have found a b board
ill know more later on tonite

[d50q]

yes the b board is on its way from texas man i hope it works