Exactly 10.3 years ago I got a Panasonic VIERA 42" flat screen television. It wasn’t top of the line a decade ago and it certainly isn’t today. I don’t remember what I paid for it, but I want to say it was maybe around $400.
This morning I discovered the tv died. I’m wondering how upset I should be. On the one hand, we did get a whole decade of use out of that tv and probably logged 8-12 hours of viewing a week on average during that time. OTOH it seems like a life expectancy for a tv should be more like 15 years. I mean that’s how long my previous tv lasted.
Checking around town, I see that there are a handful of businesses that actually still do television repairs. Who would have guessed. I wonder if it would be worth it financially to get it repaired? What if they could maybe fix it for under $100. Then again, that might be pouring good money into bad if additional repairs are waiting to happen in the coming months, as this tv is perhaps getting long in the tooth?
Looking at the Sam’s club ad I see they’ve got a brand new 43" tv priced on sale at $289…
Woe is me, life in the first world leaves one with so many decisions.
Was your Viera an HDTV or a SmarTV? Our TV in the bedroom died but we haven’t replaced it yet. When we replaced the one in the living room with an HDTV we were shocked, SHOCKED, I TELL YOU at how beautiful the picture is.
Do yourself a favor and get yourself a pretty new TV. You won’t regret it.
I bet you paid more then $400. I have had a Viera for about that long also although mine is a 50" plasma. It was over $1000. We use ours 8 to 12 hours a* day*. Still the best picture of any sets I have watched. Plasma sets do use a lot of electricity, the entire screen is 105 degrees F!
I bought a 40ish Sharp smart TV about 4 years ago in the mid $200 range and am quite happy with it.
I love Panasonic plasmas. I’d at least attempt a repair, since you can’t get plasmas anymore. The current crop of LCDs are great, and definitely outstrip a 10 year old set in many ways, but nothing beats the picture of a plasma IMHO.
The repair shops around here have a “bench charge” of $149 just to look at your TV. It’s included in the price of the repair if you choose to have them to repair it, but either way, it’ll cost more than $100.
The picture quality of that tv is, well, the best we’ve ever had. And we may very well have paid more than $400 for it. A smart tv would likely be wasted on me, as I am one of the five people in the western hemisphere that doesn’t even own a smart phone.
I’ve burned so many TVs. I think I’m allergic. They last about a year around here. It’s always on if I’m in the Livingroom, unless I’m asleep or gone. I would be gobsmacked to have one last 10 years. Buy a new one.
So how did it fail? Just refused to come on this morning, or did it act weird ahead of time?
I have the 50" Panasonic Viera smart TV from 2009, and I love it. I would like some warning so I can do exhaustive research before my family would force me to go buy a TV though, so I’m hoping it gave you some warning signs!
The tv would not recognize the (digital) television input and the screen displayed a ‘no signal’ message. According to the manual, it supposedly gives a warning where the red power light will blink a certain number of times to denote an error code when things are starting to go, but there was no blinking beforehand (at least not that we noticed). I tested the connection with a different tv set and it worked fine. I called one of the tv repair shops and the guy said it sounds like the main board has gone, and that they usually charge ~$180 to fix that.
I would stop by the corner TV repair shop to do that in a heartbeat. Unfortunately I can’t easily do so because the parking situation is so bad, what with the tv repair shop being wedged between a busy Western Union office, haberdasher, and photomat kiosk.
Apologies if this is too obvious, but have you checked the input (not the actual plug, but the “input” button on your remote, assuming there is one) to make sure it is set correctly? My mom recently had a “no signal” issue. Somehow, in a manner that defies logical explanation, the input got switched from HDMI-4 to HDMI-1. Setting it back again fixed things. Given you did not get any error code, that suggests there may in fact be nothing wrong with your TV.
I have fixed half a dozen older flat screens. In all cases it was the power supply that crapped out. Bought repaired replacements off Ebay in the $50 to $75 range and all worked just fine. I gave them all away through a church charity that helps low income people. Seeing the grins on kids knowing they now have a TV was worth it. Have a couple more in the garage I’m going to get to soon.
I had my 60" Samsung plasma die on me last year. I contemplated replacing it but to get comparable black levels I’d have to go with an OLED and I wasn’t ready to drop that kind of cash yet.
Had the main power supply board replaced for $200 and it’s been running fine for the past year. When it goes out again hopefully OLED prices will have fallen more.
A smart TV really isn’t the same as a smart phone. You can use a smart TV and if nobody told you it was smart you would likely never know.
You clearly use a computer… do you ever watch Netflix, YouTube, or Amazon Prime? If so you would just be able to do so on your new TV without having to go through the computer.
And for only watching 8-10 hours per week you don’t need top of the line. We are redoing the master bedroom and wanted a TV for the sitting area and also occasionally to fall asleep to. It won’t be used a lot but it will be nice to have. I found a 43" Toshiba 4K ultra HD Smart TV on sale at Best Buy for $199. Videophiles may turn their nose up to it but it is perfect for our situation and I think the picture is wonderful.