Nelson Au

Help, Sony 32" TV dying?

I fear my Sony XBR 32" direct view CRT TV bought new in 1993 could be dying. Perhaps someone has experienced the following. Recently, upon initially turning it on, there is a pop sound from it and the image on the screen 'twitches'. This has happened for the past 2 or 3 months. Tonight it took the next step, after the pop, the image on the screen went wacko and was very fuzzy and pinched in on the sides, or pinched at the bottom with lots of static sound. After a minute of this, it popped again, the screen went black with blue, green and red dots in the center and then popped again and the picture came back to normal. Then did it all over again and popped back to normal and worked fine for the next hour.

Do TV repair men still make house calls and what do they charge?

If the TV is on it's dying days, I'll be considering a Plasma screen much earlier then planned. But I would be open to those very nice and compact Sony RPTV table top models. And it would finally allow me to go 16:9 and HDTV or be HDTV ready.

Thanks.

Nelson

Norm

I'm in the same boat my 1994 Sony's color control won't work. I'm tired of looking at everything in Pink tint. I gave it away. Now looking into a Panny 34" Widescreen or Plasma 42" EDTV not sure which brand at this point.

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Nelson Au

Sorry to hear about your Sony Norm and thanks for the input.

I checked with my Dad and he suspects the problem could be a bad vertical oscillator module. It may not be worth fixing.

In which case when my Sony does go DOA, I am now seriously considering taking the HDTV route and plasma or RPTV. Any advice from the members? I'll start my research. And as for a RPTV, I'd like a compact model. My room is big enough, 22 x 14 feet and bright during the daytime. As for size, I'll have to find the formula to calulate that, if it is plasma, 42" might be enough for my HT needs. Oh well, too bad about Sony, I guess it is true, their quality is going down.

Thanks, Nelson

Norm

A Plasma EDTV IMO is not worth a $3000 investment at this point in time. I had an ESA Plasma in my room too try for a few days & SD Direct TV just doesn't look that good on it. So I just traded it in for a Panny CT34WX54 for half the price plus I will be HD ready when I upgrade to HD- Direct TV-TIVO.

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Steve Berger

If the set still works OK at times then I would suspect one of two basic type of problems. Solder connections or intermittent tuner.

If it's soldering then it is important to get the work done before components start shorting out. At 11 years old it will be worth your while to get some friends and haul the set in yourself , depending on the servicer it could be a $50 repair ($50 -100 at most).

If it's a tuner then you could use the video inputs to substitute another video source to verify it (DVD or VCR , etc). Putting a tuner (~ $100 part) in a 1993 Tv is probably not a good investmant but since you will need a digital converter box at some near future point using a VCR or Cable box (with video output - not just channel3) temporarily is not an unreasonable idea. The TV would still make a good display device. Since the tuner shares the data and control lines with all the other ICs in the set it can actually cause almost any failure symptom you care to think of when it goes intermittent.

Nelson Au

Steve-

Interesting input, thanks for the suggestions. Funny, today and last evening the TV worked fine, no pops or video distortions. I guess it sensed I was ready to toss it. It worked fine for TV reception, DVD play back and PS2 play.

The next time it starts to act up, I will test with a VCR to check if it's a tuner issue. It is a pity, the picture still looks great with good color reproduction. I agree the cost of a digital tuner converter box might not be worth it, I might as well invest the money into the future.