KP51-WS500 - Flicker Started - Sony Covering In-home Repair (1 Viewer)

[hlain]

So after happily owning my KP51-WS500 for 11 months the flicker has begun. Sony has a bulliten listed on their page regarding this. They are extending their manufacturer warranties on the affected sets to get them repaired at zero cost to the customer. I called their service center and after describing what is going on and referencing their page, they opened a ticket and will be sending out a tech to perform the repair in home zero cost to me.

Will post to this thread after the repairs to report on the results.

Frustrating that Sony is not contacting customers proactively. Those that just chalk the flicker up to a bad TV signal or what not are not getting what they paid for. :-/

Go here --> products.sel.sony.com/SEL/service/conselec/news/flicker.shtml

Hans.

 

[hlain]

Got my tubes replaced today. Took the tech approximately 2 hours to replace. My set did not need the resistor swap. Apparently some of the sets already had the resistor swap but the old CRT guns.

Either way - my set is now flicker free!

The tech was ISF certified and recommended using a scene from Vertical Limit (actor against rock and snow field) to adjust picture, brightness and then color... leaving the hue in the middle and the sharpness all the way down. He advised that the sharpness level at 0 is giving you what is on the DVD and anything above 0 is the TV introducing noise into the image to give it a sharper appearance.

Hans.

 

[Gilbert_P]

That's great news, glad to hear your set was fixed quickly. my set has recently began flickering. i will be making the call to sony. did you have an extended warranty through the shop you bought it from? i got mine from Circuit city but i am thinking it is better to call Sony. where are you located? how long was the whole process?

 

[Jim Lenneman]

I had mine repaired a little over a year ago. Been fine ever since. It's better to call Sony, they're very familiar with the problem. The warrantee has been extended to cover this problem on certain sets. See here: http://products.sel.sony.com/SEL/ser...flicker.shtml. An in-home repair takes about 3 to 4 hours if you get a knowledgeable tech. There have been more than a few horror stories on the hometheaterspot.com where people have gotten less than qualified technicians.

Jim L

 

[hlain]

Jim covered it - the factory warranties are being extended to cover this manufacturing error on Sony's part(I don't have a Circuit City extended warranty). The work was done in home. I called in the problem on December 28th and the repair was done on January 2nd.

My repair time was roughly two hours. The tech stated that if flash focus completes - the guns are not that outta wack and you can replace one at a time and set them to the factory alignment(least that is how I interpreted his explanation).

Good news is that the tech stated that this really is the only issue they've seen with these sets - other than this they are a solid performer.

Hans.

 

[John S]

My hats off to Sony and other manufactures that own up to such issues and actually get them fixed for free, and especially beyond the warranty period.

Makes me actually consider Sony a little more than I had previously.


Thanks for the 411 on your experience with this.

 

[Jim Lenneman]

If you want to see the actual repair procedure, here's a link: http://www.hometheaterspot.com/htsth...ue#Post432518. If the resistors need to be replaced, that's done first. There have been several instances of the flicker returning up to a year after the repair. Sony has, to the best of my knowledge, repaired (or replaced) those sets as well.

Jim L

 

[hlain]

From what I've read - there were some sets in the early stages of the CRT replacements that were repaired with similar faulty tubes. DOH!

Hans.