Expert: cleggsan - 10/27/2004

Question
Re the 42" Magnavox:  I checked the sticker on the back and it is only 10 yrs old so I'm wondering if that makes a difference in whether I should put some money into it.  
Also, I noticed for the first time last night that articles that are bright blue-green have no sharpness.  I was watching a program and one of the charactors was wearing a bright blue-green dress. While the other images were clear the dress was very blurred.

Thank you



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Followup To
Question -
I have a Magnavox 42" TV that is approximately 14 years old.  THe picture isn't as bright or as sharp as it used to be and occasionally there are 2 faint red spots about the size of baseballs toward the middle of the screen.  I have dusted the lamps and the mirror and that helped a little.

Is this caused by the age of the unit and it's time to replace it or are there some reasonable cost things that I can do or have done to brighten and sharpen the picture?
Answer -
Probably the high voltage system needs some tuning up; the voltage is what accelerates the electrons for full color and brightness.  And, yes, age and general use is the main culprit you are facing.

The average life expectancy of this set is around 12 to 14 years. In my opinion, anything you do to enhance its quality of life will soon be followed with failures else where.  In the long run you will be better off putting the money and effort into a new set.

So, you can tune it up and have the high voltage circuits checked out by a service tech, but it may not be a very wise investment of the money.

The red spots are from either burns on the red projection tube or  a convergance board that needs servicing.  Either way, the repairs are quite expensive.

You are so very lucky the set has lasted this long; congratulations are in order.

All the best,
Cleggsan  

Answer
Consumer reports, with which I concur, recommends that a set of this size be replaced rather than repaired if it is over 4 years of age.

The reasons are because of increasing cost of repair and decreasing cost of new sets.  But there is another factor that is more overpowering than these arguments: MTBF or Mean Time Between Failures.  There is a statistical phenomenen at work here.  The parts that are used in tv sets are all selected and life tested for around the same life span in order to keep the cost of the set as economical as possible for the consumer. But what this means is that once you have a failure(s) it is only a matter of a short period of time until another failure will occur. Some call it Murphy's law, but in reality it is that failure will likely occur soon because the parts (of which there are about 3,000 in a modern tv set; and that does not include some ICs that have as many as 1 million transistors within them) are all destined to start failing somewhere around the same time.

So, in my opinion, unless you need the learning experience or emotionally attached to the set, it would be wise to budget for a replacement tv.

Have a great day,
Cleggsan