Thanks for reading. I am a grad student who recently finished a stint at Best Buy and was able to take advantage of last summer's great deal on a 50" Panasonic PZ 750. During my move to school, my movers had some sort of problem (still will not tell me what happened, now avoid my calls:eek:) and much of my stuff was soaked. I had packed my tv (which I love) in its original box. When I received it, the bottom 4" of the box were soaked through to the point of crumbling apart when touched, although most of the box was dry (same was true for my Klipsch Reference speakers :( ). I waited a few days for the unit to dry out and hooked up my system. While the unit currently works, I am noticing a number of differences including a lot more banding (I had it calibrated before I left) and it seems to throw off a LOT more heat. I did have moving insurance, but don't feel that I can call the TV a complete loss since it works, and most people would not even notice a difference, but that difference is definitely there - you guys know what I mean. I feel like the humidity possibly "aged" the unit. Is my tv a ticking time bomb, likely about to break? Is there some sort of "damage" that I can claim and get fixed? Any and all advice is appreciated.

Well I hope you took pictures of the damage 1st of all. It is difficult to prove ANYTHING without pictures. If I were you I would call the insurance company and e-mail them the pictures. Water is never good for anything. If the moving company refuses to tell you what happened, then they are trying to hide something, which means that they are obviously at fault.

Call the insurance company and see what kind of recourse you have.

Insurance - Insurance - Insurance.

Should be obvious you either had it or you didn't and use it if you did.:)

I have insurance. Am I reading your posts that I should call the tv "broken" and require a replacement? My problem is that it shows a very good picture and generally works, just not as before, and I am concerned that it might fail in the near future. I think that many people would not have noticed a difference. Being a long-term AVS reader (and particular about my HT setup) and previous BBY Magnolia associate, I believe otherwise, it is just hard to quantify.

I have insurance. Am I reading your posts that I should call the tv "broken" and require a replacement? My problem is that it shows a very good picture and generally works, just not as before, and I am concerned that it might fail in the near future. I think that many people would not have noticed a difference. Being a long-term AVS reader (and particular about my HT setup) and previous BBY Magnolia associate, I believe otherwise, it is just hard to quantify.
I hope you took photos of the box; that, along with a copy of the manual page saying not to get any liquid in the TV, should be enough. You probably want to take photos of the TV screen and include an explanation of the picture defects, as well. Also, mention that it runs hotter. It sounds obvious that it is water damaged, so it doesn't matter that it runs pretty well, it still is not running optimally, and as you say, it may fail early.

I would have filed an insurance claim immediately and fully documented everything with pictures and statements from the movers, and also file a complaint against the unresponsive movers with the BBB and the department of consumer affairs. I would not tolerate any of my stuff getting wet during a move and i would not want to worry about it in the future. File a claim for as much as you can. They'll probably let you keep the damaged items after reimbursing you. You can get a better/newer plasma for less than the original one cost.

I have insurance. Am I reading your posts that I should call the tv "broken" and require a replacement? My problem is that it shows a very good picture and generally works, just not as before, and I am concerned that it might fail in the near future. I think that many people would not have noticed a difference. Being a long-term AVS reader (and particular about my HT setup) and previous BBY Magnolia associate, I believe otherwise, it is just hard to quantify.

Bottom line is you think there's an issue with your TV. The insurance will likely send out an authorized service repairman to run a diagnostics on the TV and if it checks out okay you probably don't have much recourse. I would let the service man know that the outside box was wet on the move so that he can look specifically for issues associated with that.

I would like to thank everyone for their comments. I have filed with my insurance company and will post my (happy?) results as they develop.