bought a xbr970 going on six months ago, it's been in the shop for six weeks of that... during which a sony rep told me that i could have the direct replacement shipped to me free of charge.... which was a 37" rear projection lcd......... didnt think i'd like it so i asked if i could pay to upgrade to a lcd.... he said sure, i'd have to pay the diff. i asked what that would be and he said roughly 200$ and maybe some shipping cost's.... i was fine with that, all said and done went to pay for it.... 600 and some change would be due, that was without shipping... said they prorate it and base it off what I paid.... Confused I called him back and he never said that i'd owe 200 he had just thrown that number out... and agreed that he may have misslead me.... and then said even if he did misslead me do I think sony should stand behind it?

anyway i gave up on sony and brought the tv to my service center after they missed 3 inhome service calls.... two weeks of waiting later I have it back, it has a new tube.... power supply and a "d board"........


Picture is horrable compaired to pre failure.....right half of the screen looks great, left half on the other hand is really dark, looks like when a store trys to show you hdmi vs another cable...... 2 sources and 3 hdmi cables and it still does it....

4:3 the picture is off center by a inch or so, 16:9 the screen is not completly full inch and a half on the right side, left side pretty much full less the middle where it bows in.....

there are a few other small issues but does anyone have any input as to what i can or should do?


thanx in advance

You should've taken the 37" despite the entry-level picture quality.

37 rear projection?

When he said you'd have to pay the $200 difference, he meant between the DLP and the LCD. The pro-rated value of your TV will be severely depreciated, and the price on their new set they quote will be top retail. It's basically a screw job to discourage people from doing this. They don't want to have to collect and dispose of their broken products, but most electronics makers are the same way.

The geometric stuff is correctable in the service menu easily, but the light/dark halves sound scary. Maybe a bad tube? Unfortunately your only options are to keep slugging it out with Sony until it's fixed, or cut your losses and buy another set. It depends on how much energy you have left for the fight. Me, I get discouraged after about ten minutes on the phone with "customer service representatives". Sorry about the bad experience. They're nice sets when they work. :rolleyes:

When he said you'd have to pay the $200 difference, he meant between the DLP and the LCD. The pro-rated value of your TV will be severely depreciated, and the price on their new set they quote will be top retail. It's basically a screw job to discourage people from doing this. They don't want to have to collect and dispose of their broken products, but most electronics makers are the same way.

The geometric stuff is correctable in the service menu easily, but the light/dark halves sound scary. Maybe a bad tube? Unfortunately your only options are to keep slugging it out with Sony until it's fixed, or cut your losses and buy another set. It depends on how much energy you have left for the fight. Me, I get discouraged after about ten minutes on the phone with "customer service representatives". Sorry about the bad experience. They're nice sets when they work. :rolleyes:

What he said.

37 rear projection?

Yes. It's priced around $999.99 MSRP. If you bought the CRT for that then
Sony should replace it with same value as the one you have with receipt. If
not you pay the difference.

I feed off stupid fights :-) so let's go.... lol.... my only issue with handing them 600 and change is i never really liked sony lol, just really like this and the price was great..... and i'd rather invest in a plasma than a lcd,....