My Panasonic TH-58PZ850U just developed a very troubling problem. A thin black line has appeared all of the sudden. It is a horizontal line, no thicker than a pencil point that spans the entire width of the screen about 12 inches from the bottom. My fear is that I have an entire "row" of dead pixels - essentially a defective panel. I've done some searching on this forum and on other sites and the majority of the comments agree with my fear - and also state that the cost to repair this is VERY expensive - potentially involving replacing the entire panel. The TV is only 15 months old and out of warranty. My question is this - Could this problem be anything else that might potentially be fixed relatively inexpensively? - Say... $500.00 or less? I'd hate to pay a service call fee if it is inevitable that the panel is bad and would cost almost the price of a new TV to fix. It would make more sense to just buy a new one, even though it would kill me. Any thoughts or advice would be greatly appreciated.
Need Some Advice From A Technician
-
Now Available: Tech Talk Podcast with Scott Wilkinson, Episode 19 Click here for details.
1 - 4 of 4 Posts
Joined
·
2,302 Posts
.. fm all sources; cable/sat., OTA & dvd player (?)
![]()
Joined
·
18,331 Posts
Chances are that the cost to repair it will exceed $500. Or even $1,000.......
Two things:
1. Panasonic has been very good about repairing these TVs even a few months after the warranty has expired. Someone here very recently got their 14 month old PZ800U repaired by Panasonic - they covered the cost of replacing the whole plasma panel. You might want to jump into his thread:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1226058
I have seen similar reports from other owners here over the past few years.
2. If Panasonic doesn't help you out with your TV, if you bought it with a good credit card it might have the feature where they add one year to the manufacturer's warranty and they cover the cost of the repair during the 2nd year.
Chances are that the cost to repair it will exceed $500. Or even $1,000.......
Two things:
1. Panasonic has been very good about repairing these TVs even a few months after the warranty has expired. Someone here very recently got their 14 month old PZ800U repaired by Panasonic - they covered the cost of replacing the whole plasma panel. You might want to jump into his thread:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1226058
I have seen similar reports from other owners here over the past few years.
2. If Panasonic doesn't help you out with your TV, if you bought it with a good credit card it might have the feature where they add one year to the manufacturer's warranty and they cover the cost of the repair during the 2nd year.
Thanks for your input. I took the TV in to the local Panasonic authorized service center. It turns out something called an SD Board went bad. The total cost to replace, including initial testing and diagnosis, was only $325.00 - Overall, I feel pretty lucky. Based on some of what I've read in this and other forums, It could have been a lot worse.
1 - 4 of 4 Posts
