Samsung LN46A550 intermittent right half screen dark

I was visiting my parents out of state who own a Samsung LN46A550 they bought 7/2008, it has been having a intermittent problem where screen on right half goes dark and gets lines on it, not sure what to make of this, was down there this weekend and took some pics with my cell phone, am curious what others make of it. Problem has been going on for probably 6 weeks or so.

They say it almost always does this when powering up the TV, often only lasts for 15-30 seconds then intermittently comes and goes while watching TV.

They're using a Denon A/V receiver where source devices are plugged into Denon with HDMI then Denon outputs HDMI to the TV. To simplify things I connected their BluRay player directly to the TV via HDMI on the side HDMI port (different port than the one the Denon is connected to) but still got same problem so definitely TV, not loose HDMI connection or some such. Any thoughts??

They don't have an extended warranty. My parents concern is if they have Samsung come out they'll charge them $100 whether any work is done or not and that the repair will probably be high say $400+ when you can buy a brand new comparable Samsung for $800 and then get an inexpensive extended warranty on it from somewhere like Square Trade.

bump! anyone have any ideas??

wow, thanks for the link. Any idea what 'TAB' means on the 2nd pic when it says 'caused by TAB'?

So perhaps like CFL bulbs act where they don't go to immediate brightness right away perhaps this one is starting to have problems where it literally takes 10-15 minutes to get fully bright -- and if true I'd think it will eventually fail.

Any idea cost to replace a CFL in a flat screen TV (by repair shop, not me)?

Nope, am concerned about having an expensive service call just to be told it will cost $500+ to fix which isn't worth it considering what a newer version of this could be purchased for.