DLP old age issue

[rartist]

I have a high mile Sony Bravia 60" SXRD. Early in the year it went to the shop for failed cooling fan and cleaning at a fair cost. Its now becoming obvious that another problem is slowly running it down. I think the blue element is failing. The picture is becoming more green, especially when viewing B&W movies, there is a visible sort of large fuzzy "OO" image superimposed on the screen.

Its coming down to repair or replace. I gave the Best Buy site a quick look, and I can get a a 60" 3D LCD for about $2k. BUT, not being made of money, I'm hoping that a repair would cost a lot less. I'd appreciate it if anyone could give some advice, especially hints as to how much it would cost and what it would involve (E.G. "$$$ would buy you only the blue element leaving the red and green to fail later on"). Thanks for any help.

Edit: looks like I need to have the optical block replaced. Anyone know a ballpark cost of having this done?

[jautor]

Well, first off, SXRD is NOT a DLP...

But otherwise, your diagnosis is probably correct, and the fix/replace equation can be really bad on these for the major (non-lamp) problems. If the unit was in otherwise excellent shape, repairing it might be worth it. But with multiple problems (unless they're both symptoms of the same failure), fixing it is going to be expensive.

Now, that said, do your research and see if you can do the repair yourself. A lot of parts are available at ShopJimmy:

http://www.shopjimmy.com/

Type in your model number and you'll get the list. I've repaired my 60" DLP (not SXRD!) once and had a local shop do a repair once as well. I was in the same boat as you - really didn't want to plop down $2k for a new TV... But you're probably looking at at least $250-400 in parts - if you can fix it yourself, great. But know that you might also screw it up, and then just be out the cost of the parts in addition to needing a new TV.

On the replace side, right now through the Super Bowl will be the best time for a deal on a new display.

You might try a local TV repair place to get a quote. The small shop I used came and picked up the beast and took it back to their shop to fix, and had it back in a week. The fixes on these things are mostly procedures and swapping out parts - experience with the failure to know what to fix is the key, the "skill" required to make the repair isn't very high - so I'd have no problem using the cheapest guy on the block to do the repair.


Good luck!

Jeff

[rartist]

Think I'm going the replace route; not comfortable going more than elbow deep into the case. I saw the repair on youtube and it looks more involved than I care to deal with. Lots of seasonal sales going around, looking at a LED 3D same size. The picture on the Bravia is getting more yellow-green and perhaps dimmer on a somewhat recent bulb. A shop I called to get a price on the repair turned the job down.

I need to figure out what to do with the old TV. Technically it still runs, but is slowly slipping. Anything colorful looks mostly OK, anything gray looks green now. All of The Matrix has the green "transfer" look.