Repairing dead digital tuner in Sony LCD TV? (1 Viewer)

[ManW_TheUncool]

Hi, y'all.


Seems that the OTA digital tuners in Sony's Bravia line of LCD HDTVs may be quite prone to failure, and my in-laws' 2-yo, out-of-warranty unit (model KDL-40V4100) seems to have just such a failure and recently stopped receiving any OTA digital broadcasts -- they used to receive a ton of them, and a new, smaller Samsung LCD picks up even more right now.


Had a hard time finding all that much info on this issue, but did find this discussion thread on some Aussie forum site w/ some potential fix for it. However, I'm not experienced w/ (de)soldering anything, let alone trying to make sure it's actually a simple enough problem w/ a super-tiny, surface mount fuse (as discussed throughout most of that thread):


http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/1116800


My in-laws' previous Samsung DLP RPTV also had a colorwheel failure-of-sorts, ie. the fairly common Samsung colorwheel noise problem that's probably caused by issues w/ the device's ballbearing assembly AFAIK, and needed to be replaced (by moi of course). Although that colorwheel repair/replacement work isn't exactly quick-and-easy, it's certainly very doable for anyone who's handy enough w/ sifting thru the innards of a modestly complicated computerized assembly w/ some screwdrivers, etc and the help of various online resources, including a YouTube video series that I found useful as a guide/reference point to what one might find different depending on the exact RPTV model. And no, no (de)soldering nor extra, board-level electrical/electronic detective work needed for that repair (though some bit of detective work was needed to id all the right assembled parts and places since they differ some depending on the model).


Anyway, the Sony digital tuner issue seems like a tough one for me to fix since I don't really want to risk damaging the TV further by making a lame attempt at fixing it. Afterall, the TV still does work perfectly fine w/ everything else other than its built-in digital tuner. And unfortunately, sounds like replacing the entire tuner board, which would probably be easy enough to do, may be cost prohibitive given the quoted part price. I did find this "tuner" part listed cheaply at the PartStore.com but have no idea if that's actually the right part considering the drastic price diff and lack of detailed info:


http://www.partstore.com/Part/Sony/Sony/KDL40V4100/Sony/Sony/859766100/New.aspx


Anyone know if that's actually the right part that somehow got a huge, recent price slash perhaps?


If that's not it, seems crazy how much Sony's charging for the part, if I can even get it from them. Would be much better off just buying an STB instead.


BTW, any recommendations for a good, affordable OTA STB these days? Maybe something for

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

Found this series of recent/new OTA STBs that I'll probably suggest for my in-laws (and other relatives) to try since that's probably better than trying to muck around w/ the innards of their Sony LCD TV (even though I've already done stuff like replacing a DLP colorwheel):


http://www.channelmasterstore.com/Set_Top_Boxes_s/27.htm


Seems like a good choice although the non-DVR OTA/Clear-QAM HD STB looks like a new(?) product offering that won't be out til circa tax day.


_Man_


PS: FWIW, it's sad that HTF's (quality) traffic here has died down so much that I don't get a single comment (even about a possible OTA STB option) after 4 days (despite my 2-day-old comment about that both generally and specifically in the feedback section thread about the Homepage layout, etc.). The defunct search function here also doesn't help matters one bit. Had to resort to checking that other AV forum site to find out anything of use. Very sad indeed...