Repair plasma television or get new TV?
Re: Repair plasma television or get new TV?
OP, I had the exact same TV as you until four months ago. 2020 Plasma crew checking in.
Due to a home move, I gave away the TV (still in perfect working condition) and purchased a 65" Sony X950G. To be clear here, it's an LED TV, not OLED.
I'm more than happy with the change. A couple specific talking points:
-Motion: I highly prefer to watch content at its native framerate and absolutely hate the interpolation function on modern TVs. New, high-end TVs don't have any issues with motion at either 24 or 30 fps. There's been absolutely zero reduced performance compared to plasma, which as you know, doesn't really refresh at 600Hz anyways.
-Brightness: I can now watch TV at any time of the day. Peak brightness is pushing 1000 nits, and I'm more than happy around 500 in the daytime.
-Resolution: 4k offers real, tangible benefits at standard viewing distances. You'll notice and enjoy the difference. All the big streaming services offer native 4k content, so content availability is no longer an issue anymore. The upscaling is also very good on this particular TV, so your 1080p content will look a little sharper on a 4k vs 1080p TV.
-OLED vs LED: At the high end, there's way less of a difference than people imagine. Shop display units always run screen-saver like animations on OLED for a reason - putting vivid colors against pitch black looks very nice. Problem is - this kind of color contrast never occurs in live content, and is still rare with animated content. There's generally going to be a color/luminosity gradient - except with title shots against pitch black - that cancels out the benefits of OLED. Title shots are the only time I notice "bloom" on my LED.
It sounds like you are happy with your plasma, and there's no compelling reason to change at this point - but don't fall for the fear that the post-plasma world is inferior. It couldn't be further from the truth.
Due to a home move, I gave away the TV (still in perfect working condition) and purchased a 65" Sony X950G. To be clear here, it's an LED TV, not OLED.
I'm more than happy with the change. A couple specific talking points:
-Motion: I highly prefer to watch content at its native framerate and absolutely hate the interpolation function on modern TVs. New, high-end TVs don't have any issues with motion at either 24 or 30 fps. There's been absolutely zero reduced performance compared to plasma, which as you know, doesn't really refresh at 600Hz anyways.
-Brightness: I can now watch TV at any time of the day. Peak brightness is pushing 1000 nits, and I'm more than happy around 500 in the daytime.
-Resolution: 4k offers real, tangible benefits at standard viewing distances. You'll notice and enjoy the difference. All the big streaming services offer native 4k content, so content availability is no longer an issue anymore. The upscaling is also very good on this particular TV, so your 1080p content will look a little sharper on a 4k vs 1080p TV.
-OLED vs LED: At the high end, there's way less of a difference than people imagine. Shop display units always run screen-saver like animations on OLED for a reason - putting vivid colors against pitch black looks very nice. Problem is - this kind of color contrast never occurs in live content, and is still rare with animated content. There's generally going to be a color/luminosity gradient - except with title shots against pitch black - that cancels out the benefits of OLED. Title shots are the only time I notice "bloom" on my LED.
It sounds like you are happy with your plasma, and there's no compelling reason to change at this point - but don't fall for the fear that the post-plasma world is inferior. It couldn't be further from the truth.
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Re: Repair plasma television or get new TV?
I'm a EE and at 2 years and 2 months (2 months outside the extended warranty) my $3000 2008 58" panny plasma died. In 2010, the repair shop folks wanted $750 "bench fee" just to open the TV in the living room to see what the problem was. If the parts and labor added up to less than $750 there would be no additional charge (Gee thanks).
My EE pride would not let me go that route so I took to the internet and found the shop manual for the TV. Diagnosed the blink code on the power button LED, Measured a few terminal voltages then went to ebay and shopjimmy.com and found some boards from TVs with broken screens.
First choice was the power supply. It turned on then immediately off so I could not run it continuously. First replaced all bulging power supply caps (~$40). Nope. Then replaced the board (~100) nope..... Replaced the digital input board (per the debugging guide in the manual)..($60) nope. Rubbing my back pockets now..... Then I inspected the few remaining boards and saw some burn marks on one of the transistors. Not obvious but definiately darkening the fiberglass board when the other transistors didnt have that. Bit the bullet on a final try and change the side power distribution board. Voila!!! Came up. Tested a few voltage setpoints and adjusted according to the manual. Put the back on and reinstalled in the cabinet. All in all it figure it took about 20 hours of my time (researching testing measuring, ordering, installing etc.) plus ~$200 in parts.
Even if I pay myself $15/hour (burger flipping money now-a-days) I'm in for $700.
That was 10 years ago and she's still kicking so it worked out for me. I will not repair it again of it starts doing what yours is doing. I cant wait for it to croak so i can step up to an OLED.
Love the picture but hate the heat. It is in the flow path to my AC return and when it is on the rest of the house is freezing because it tricks the thermostat. When the TV is off, temps are even through the house. :/
I figure its throwing off 500 watts of heat by the way my LED lights on the same circuit will flicker when the scenes on the TV go from dark to light. I also cannot run the vacuum on the same circuit or I get to make a trip to the breaker box. :/
Beautiful technology but its passed its prime. This will be the old Vinyl Albums vs CD sound quality arguments.
Live with it as long as you can then treat youself to a OLED.
My EE pride would not let me go that route so I took to the internet and found the shop manual for the TV. Diagnosed the blink code on the power button LED, Measured a few terminal voltages then went to ebay and shopjimmy.com and found some boards from TVs with broken screens.
First choice was the power supply. It turned on then immediately off so I could not run it continuously. First replaced all bulging power supply caps (~$40). Nope. Then replaced the board (~100) nope..... Replaced the digital input board (per the debugging guide in the manual)..($60) nope. Rubbing my back pockets now..... Then I inspected the few remaining boards and saw some burn marks on one of the transistors. Not obvious but definiately darkening the fiberglass board when the other transistors didnt have that. Bit the bullet on a final try and change the side power distribution board. Voila!!! Came up. Tested a few voltage setpoints and adjusted according to the manual. Put the back on and reinstalled in the cabinet. All in all it figure it took about 20 hours of my time (researching testing measuring, ordering, installing etc.) plus ~$200 in parts.
Even if I pay myself $15/hour (burger flipping money now-a-days) I'm in for $700.
That was 10 years ago and she's still kicking so it worked out for me. I will not repair it again of it starts doing what yours is doing. I cant wait for it to croak so i can step up to an OLED.
Love the picture but hate the heat. It is in the flow path to my AC return and when it is on the rest of the house is freezing because it tricks the thermostat. When the TV is off, temps are even through the house. :/
I figure its throwing off 500 watts of heat by the way my LED lights on the same circuit will flicker when the scenes on the TV go from dark to light. I also cannot run the vacuum on the same circuit or I get to make a trip to the breaker box. :/
Beautiful technology but its passed its prime. This will be the old Vinyl Albums vs CD sound quality arguments.
Live with it as long as you can then treat youself to a OLED.
Re: Repair plasma television or get new TV?
I have both a top-rated Panasonic plasma and an LG OLED. There's no competition. Maybe the plasma has an advantage for motion, doesn't seem to matter for the stuff I watch. But OLED's advantages are huge especially in daytime/bright room viewing. Plasma cannot get bright enough under those conditions and won't look as good as OLED (leaving HDR and 4K completely aside). Also, I experienced some light burn-in on the plasma even with careful use, no issues with the (2015-era) OLED.ossipago wrote: ↑Thu Sep 10, 2020 11:37 amYes, it's true there is no plasma with HDR and 4K. But there is also no TV technology that matches the smoothness of motion that a plasma offers. In my use case, 4K offers little benefit due to lack of content and viewing distance, and HDR looks unnatural except for certain video game content.bubbadog wrote: ↑Thu Sep 10, 2020 9:58 amI would agree with TomatoTomahto. I have both. I have a 77 inch LG OLED downstairs and a 58 inch Panasonic plasma upstairs. With 4K content, the OLED picture quality is much better than the plasma. Although, I still prefer my 10 year old plasma over most lower tier new LED TVs.TomatoTomahto wrote: ↑Thu Sep 10, 2020 8:22 amWith respect, because I loved my plasma screens also, but I think you posted with your heart rather than your eyes (or perhaps you have a very early OLED). Plasma can’t compete with OLED with 4K, HDR, etc.
Re: Repair plasma television or get new TV?
If you like sports repair the plasma! Plasma is the best (I even like it better than the OLED) for sports.
If you are primarily into movies/shows replace it. You can get relative cheap TVs that will look better with movies/shows than your current plasma tv.
If you are primarily into movies/shows replace it. You can get relative cheap TVs that will look better with movies/shows than your current plasma tv.
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Re: Repair plasma television or get new TV?
I don’t watch much sports any more, but there’s something to be said for Formula 1 on a 77” OLED. I don’t know what max size on plasma was, but I think max was 55”
I get the FI part but not the RE part of FIRE.
Re: Repair plasma television or get new TV?
I have a 63" plasma, which was the largest I could get in 2009. At the time, it was a downsize from my 67" DLP (Digital Light Projection) TV that it replaced.
Re: Repair plasma television or get new TV?
I have a flagship Panasonic Plasma I bought in 2012 https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0075 ... UTF8&psc=1 that ended up needing a repair about 2 years later - I want to say it cost about $250, and replaced a major board. But since the TV cost me $2000 (and that was on sale from $2500), I thought it was worth it. It's worked great every since so 8 years and going since that repair.
Re: Repair plasma television or get new TV?
that series panny was effectively the pioneer elite television with panasonic branding. loved those tvs.
Re: Repair plasma television or get new TV?
My plasma was 64 inches. But yes there is still a huge difference between 77 and 64. So if you factor that size OLED could pass up plasma for sports. But if you compare the same size I would take plasma every time.TomatoTomahto wrote: ↑Fri Sep 11, 2020 2:16 pmI don’t watch much sports any more, but there’s something to be said for Formula 1 on a 77” OLED. I don’t know what max size on plasma was, but I think max was 55”
I bought a 55 inch OLED (back when a 55 inch cost the same as a 77 inch one cost now) after someone destroyed my plasma. Was disappointed with how much worse sports looked on it than my plasma. I know technically OLED is suppose to have a better picture but to me it is just a less "natural" picture. So returned the expensive 55 inch OLED and bought a 1k 65 inch tv. This one is terrible for sports (pretty good for movies/shows). But now I am use to the terrible quality so when I buy an 80-85 inch OLED in 2-3 years I will be both get a nice increase in size and sports picture quality (instead of the disappointment I had last time buying an OLED).
Re: Repair plasma television or get new TV?
We have a Panasonic plasma, probably about 13 years old. Still going. When it dies, I won't try to fix ithnd wrote: ↑Wed Sep 09, 2020 9:23 am I have 2 Panasonic Plasmas in our house a 60" S series in the basement for the kids and a 46" V Series in the garage. both are well over 10 years old and eventually were relegated out of the main tv spot. the Vseries had an issue where i had to take it in. since i considered this tv the cadillac of tv's i took it to get repaired. the guy was like we dont' repair a ton of tvs and have expanded into other repair services (phones and what not). it was 500 bucks for some small thing to get repaired. the tv still runs so the repair was worth it, but that guy is out of business. I bought a 6 series TCL on a black friday and i've never been happier.
Re: Repair plasma television or get new TV?
All fair points... It depends on viewing conditions and content. In my case the main room I watch in is darker (even in daytime) and most of my content consumption are nowhere near 4K (unfortunately). While I have fibre, it's the greedy Verizon version so 720P - maybe. Most shows I watch from streaming are 1080P but rarely 4K and are more "cinematic" rather than sports. The real issues are the blacks, the lack of color richness and lack of contrast on the oled. I've played around with the various "best" settings on the internet etc but none are close to the plasma to my eyes. It's not memory as I still have the plasma and will watch sometimes in the other room - I'm often taken with how much nicer the picture is to my eyes. Never had issues with dead pixels or burn in on plasma. It's fatal flaw is the size is only 42" compared to basically double that with the oled.02nz wrote: ↑Fri Sep 11, 2020 1:54 pmI have both a top-rated Panasonic plasma and an LG OLED. There's no competition. Maybe the plasma has an advantage for motion, doesn't seem to matter for the stuff I watch. But OLED's advantages are huge especially in daytime/bright room viewing. Plasma cannot get bright enough under those conditions and won't look as good as OLED (leaving HDR and 4K completely aside). Also, I experienced some light burn-in on the plasma even with careful use, no issues with the (2015-era) OLED.ossipago wrote: ↑Thu Sep 10, 2020 11:37 amYes, it's true there is no plasma with HDR and 4K. But there is also no TV technology that matches the smoothness of motion that a plasma offers. In my use case, 4K offers little benefit due to lack of content and viewing distance, and HDR looks unnatural except for certain video game content.bubbadog wrote: ↑Thu Sep 10, 2020 9:58 amI would agree with TomatoTomahto. I have both. I have a 77 inch LG OLED downstairs and a 58 inch Panasonic plasma upstairs. With 4K content, the OLED picture quality is much better than the plasma. Although, I still prefer my 10 year old plasma over most lower tier new LED TVs.TomatoTomahto wrote: ↑Thu Sep 10, 2020 8:22 amWith respect, because I loved my plasma screens also, but I think you posted with your heart rather than your eyes (or perhaps you have a very early OLED). Plasma can’t compete with OLED with 4K, HDR, etc.
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Re: Repair plasma television or get new TV?
I totally get the love of Plasma. I have a Panasonic VIERA TC-P65ST50 65-Inch 1080p 600Hz Full HD 3D Plasma TV that I purchased in 2012 for $1600. I love the picture and nothing better for watching sports. It does throw off some heat that you can actually feel when near it, so not the most energy efficient. I have read that these Plasma's often have board issues, probably from the prolonged heat and usage. I have had zero issue with it, but I'm sure it's only a matter of time before an issue comes up. When this happens, the Engineer in me (like another poster suggested), will push me to the internet for repair ideas that I can do myself (yes, I have background in soldering as a Tech, so I have the experience and appropriate tools). Being there is new technology available, if I could not repair for ~<$200 I would opt for a new larger flat screen. Really, no way to get someone to fix it for you less than this price point, so unless you can fix it yourself, best to move on. Op, you indicated you may have a local tech at a reasonable price point. Please don't leave this thread hanging with no update. Let the BH community know what direction you took to help others that may be facing similar decisions in the future. Good luck.
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Re: Repair plasma television or get new TV?
Can you rent an oled and see what it looks like in the house?
Re: Repair plasma television or get new TV?
Another try and fix it yourself vote.
I have two 1080P Panasonic plasmas from 2010 and 2012. I've done 2 board fixes through EBay, $35 and $50, scouring the internet for the blink code and common issues for that blink code. This is cheaper than my time to get the components and do a board repair myself.
Both are still working, I'm one for throwing $50 at something before it goes to the landfill. My 2 cents, no harm in trying, $50 is a learning expense with the potential feeling of accomplishment, and keeping the superior technology for the time going (OLEDs are better now). Engineering is not needed here, just good research skills on the web, and maybe a $12 multimeter. You don't need a 100Ghz scope for this .
I value my plasmas, I can't stand cheap LCD panels. And quite frankly, I really disagree with just throwing something out that's a quality thing that could have a potential cheap fix.
I have two 1080P Panasonic plasmas from 2010 and 2012. I've done 2 board fixes through EBay, $35 and $50, scouring the internet for the blink code and common issues for that blink code. This is cheaper than my time to get the components and do a board repair myself.
Both are still working, I'm one for throwing $50 at something before it goes to the landfill. My 2 cents, no harm in trying, $50 is a learning expense with the potential feeling of accomplishment, and keeping the superior technology for the time going (OLEDs are better now). Engineering is not needed here, just good research skills on the web, and maybe a $12 multimeter. You don't need a 100Ghz scope for this .
I value my plasmas, I can't stand cheap LCD panels. And quite frankly, I really disagree with just throwing something out that's a quality thing that could have a potential cheap fix.
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Re: Repair plasma television or get new TV?
I really miss my old Sony Bravia plasma TV. But the diss decided to throw a tow one day and that was the end of that. Now I got a TLC Roku TV and cut the cord (added a Bose sound bar) and are happy. But nothing came close to the colors, blacks and refresh rate of that old Plasma.
Re: Repair plasma television or get new TV?
I just went through this a month ago. 58" Samsung plasma crapped out. I too am an EE, so I tore into it myself. I replaced 4 questionable capacitors, but still had issues.
I found entire boards on ebay for $100-$150. What folks recomend is you replace one board, and if that doesn't fix it, you return it and try the next board. There were 4 boards in mine.
In the mean time, I researched new TVs. I went and looked at a few, and was very impressed with what I saw. So I abandoned all repair attempts.
I had my heart set on an OLED. But in my research, I found that they are even more susceptible to screen burn in than plasma. And since I tend to have a news channel on for hours a day, that was a concern for me.
So I eventually settled on a 65" Samsung QLED. Not quite as much contrast as an OLED, but it is brighter.
And I have been blown away! It is soooo much better than the plasma. 4K makes a huge improvement, even for lower res content. Everything looks better on it than on the plasma. And I'm a pretty serious videophile.
And I also saw a drop in my electric bill. The plasma pulled 700 watts, the LCD is around 75 watts. It ways half as much, so it's much easier to move around.
I'm extremely pleased with it,and I'm kicking myself for wasting a month trying to fix the old plasma.
I found entire boards on ebay for $100-$150. What folks recomend is you replace one board, and if that doesn't fix it, you return it and try the next board. There were 4 boards in mine.
In the mean time, I researched new TVs. I went and looked at a few, and was very impressed with what I saw. So I abandoned all repair attempts.
I had my heart set on an OLED. But in my research, I found that they are even more susceptible to screen burn in than plasma. And since I tend to have a news channel on for hours a day, that was a concern for me.
So I eventually settled on a 65" Samsung QLED. Not quite as much contrast as an OLED, but it is brighter.
And I have been blown away! It is soooo much better than the plasma. 4K makes a huge improvement, even for lower res content. Everything looks better on it than on the plasma. And I'm a pretty serious videophile.
And I also saw a drop in my electric bill. The plasma pulled 700 watts, the LCD is around 75 watts. It ways half as much, so it's much easier to move around.
I'm extremely pleased with it,and I'm kicking myself for wasting a month trying to fix the old plasma.
Time is what we want most, but what we use worst. William Penn
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Re: Repair plasma television or get new TV?
Black levels and pitch black do matter in my opinion during movies and video games. Not necessarily an issue for cable news or sports though.seppatown wrote: ↑Thu Sep 10, 2020 12:52 pm OP, I had the exact same TV as you until four months ago. 2020 Plasma crew checking in.
Due to a home move, I gave away the TV (still in perfect working condition) and purchased a 65" Sony X950G. To be clear here, it's an LED TV, not OLED.
I'm more than happy with the change. A couple specific talking points:
-Motion: I highly prefer to watch content at its native framerate and absolutely hate the interpolation function on modern TVs. New, high-end TVs don't have any issues with motion at either 24 or 30 fps. There's been absolutely zero reduced performance compared to plasma, which as you know, doesn't really refresh at 600Hz anyways.
-Brightness: I can now watch TV at any time of the day. Peak brightness is pushing 1000 nits, and I'm more than happy around 500 in the daytime.
-Resolution: 4k offers real, tangible benefits at standard viewing distances. You'll notice and enjoy the difference. All the big streaming services offer native 4k content, so content availability is no longer an issue anymore. The upscaling is also very good on this particular TV, so your 1080p content will look a little sharper on a 4k vs 1080p TV.
-OLED vs LED: At the high end, there's way less of a difference than people imagine. Shop display units always run screen-saver like animations on OLED for a reason - putting vivid colors against pitch black looks very nice. Problem is - this kind of color contrast never occurs in live content, and is still rare with animated content. There's generally going to be a color/luminosity gradient - except with title shots against pitch black - that cancels out the benefits of OLED. Title shots are the only time I notice "bloom" on my LED.
It sounds like you are happy with your plasma, and there's no compelling reason to change at this point - but don't fall for the fear that the post-plasma world is inferior. It couldn't be further from the truth.
The most precious gift we can offer anyone is our attention. - Thich Nhat Hanh
Re: Repair plasma television or get new TV?
OP here. I am 95% certain that this is a power board failure. My plan is to pull it, send it to one of the online repair shops, and see if that fixes it. It's less than $75 all-in and seems worth it to me. It'll be a few weeks before I can update on the results.
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Re: Repair plasma television or get new TV?
Good luck!ossipago wrote: ↑Sat Sep 12, 2020 2:55 pm OP here. I am 95% certain that this is a power board failure. My plan is to pull it, send it to one of the online repair shops, and see if that fixes it. It's less than $75 all-in and seems worth it to me. It'll be a few weeks before I can update on the results.
Regardless of outcome, when you post a follow-up please include the name of the shop (if within the rules of this forum) so that others of us who may face the same issue can have a data point about the shop's service.
Re: Repair plasma television or get new TV?
Take pictures as you disassemble, have a pillbox or something for the screws and note where they came from, it will be a lot of screws.
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Re: Repair plasma television or get new TV?
Cell phone pics work well IME. One of my Panasonics also had some "hidden" screws that viewing a YouTube prior to proceeding helped me with.
Re: Repair plasma television or get new TV?
Be sure to calibrate your beloved plasma every once in while - especially after a board repair.
Get a good test pattern DVD and put it through its paces.
Those into high-def home theater can search AVS Forum for their model's calibration settings. They have a dedicated Display Calibration forum.
Get a good test pattern DVD and put it through its paces.
Those into high-def home theater can search AVS Forum for their model's calibration settings. They have a dedicated Display Calibration forum.
Re: Repair plasma television or get new TV?
Just a quick update as requested. We pulled and sent out the power board. The repair worked, and the TV now powers on, but there is still no video, meaning that the blown fuse on the power board most likely shorted the main or Y-board. So we tried, but we now plan on getting a new OLED shortly.
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Re: Repair plasma television or get new TV?
I have a 50 inch Panasonic Plasma in my office that I watched about a trillion hours of video on over the years and also watch TV on at times. I love the old beast and it has rich colors and the blacks seem better. We have the new Samsung 8K at our house QLED 85inch, I think we paid about 5 grand for it...I would take the old plasma anyday of the week....I guess beauty is in the eye as they say...
Re: Repair plasma television or get new TV?
A few weeks ago, I finally realized that my 63" plasma was simply too noisy and somewhat soft. With a stimulus check burning a hole in my pocket, I helped my local small business high-def home theater specialty store and went for the 65" LG CX OLED. The business has specialty installers who deal with this on a daily basis.LadyGeek wrote: ↑Wed Sep 09, 2020 9:16 am My 63" Samsung plasma PN63B550T2F, manufactured in July 2009, is still going strong. When I first got it, this model had a problem with a noisy power supply. At high current draw, i.e. white picture, you could hear the supply buzz from across the room. At the time, it was a common problem with the design.
I convinced Samsung to do a warranty electronics board replacement. It helped, but didn't fix the problem. (All service was done in-home.)
The display draws close to 500 Watts of power at full brightness. That's a lot of heat to dump in a room.
Glass is heavy. The display is 116 lb. and will be a "challenge" to move, to say the least.
OTOH, the quality of a plasma display can't be matched. However, I'm curious to see what the OLED displays can do.
If it fails, I'll replace it due to heat, power supply buzz, and weight concerns.
I paid for delivery of the new TV, removal and disposal of the plasma. There's no way I could remove the plasma by myself. Even with help, you really have to know how to handle a large and heavy slab of glass around tight corners and down steps. (Correction - the plasma weighs 134 lb.)
Welcome to the world of 4K resolution (Ultra High-Def "UHD"). Wow.
In preparation for 4K, I upgraded my Verizon FiOS boxes. It's an increase of $15/month since I wasn't on contract. I couldn't stay at the old pricing, as the options had changed. I went for a 2-year contract.
Also, I upgraded Netflix to premium, $4/month extra. Netflix has lots of programs in HDR / Dolby Vision / Dolby Atmos format - once you upgrade your package.
Amazon Prime has 4K content - search for "Amazon Prime free UHD 4k". However, you'll see they charge extra for just about anything except a very few movies.
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Re: Repair plasma television or get new TV?
I missed my plasma for a bit (no pun intended ), but the OLEDs have surpassed any expectations I could have had. Welcome to the OLED club.
I get the FI part but not the RE part of FIRE.
Re: Repair plasma television or get new TV?
I realize this post is now 6 months old and OP has likely done whatever he/she was going to do. I was in a similar situation in January, with the exact same model (51PN8500) that just went black one day while we were using it. No power whatsoever.
So I elected for both options. I immediately replaced it with a 55" Sony OLED, which was exactly the same size as the 51" plasma, so fit great in the same spot. I then removed the power board, and sent it to Coppell TV in Texas, who charged me $89.95 to repair it (including return shipping). When it returned, the once again perfectly-functional plasma with 10,016 hours on the panel found a new life mounted in our basement spare bedroom.
In my mind, it was definitely worth $100 or so to bring the last great plasma back to life.
So I elected for both options. I immediately replaced it with a 55" Sony OLED, which was exactly the same size as the 51" plasma, so fit great in the same spot. I then removed the power board, and sent it to Coppell TV in Texas, who charged me $89.95 to repair it (including return shipping). When it returned, the once again perfectly-functional plasma with 10,016 hours on the panel found a new life mounted in our basement spare bedroom.
In my mind, it was definitely worth $100 or so to bring the last great plasma back to life.