52" Sony Bravia, shattered. That's awesome.

HardDrive · 05-04-2010, 12:49 PM

Happened last weekend. Some of our best friends kids and our daughter were playing in the basement. Throwing things around. No one saw anything hit the TV. We discovered it later. We don't think the kids are lying. Guilty party unknown, so they're all guilty. Whole %$%# drama going on there that I'm not going to discuss here.

Is there any point in trying to get this fixed? Sony wants $275 minimum just to come look at the thing. I can find the same or very similar units for $1600 these days. I've had several folks tell me it will be cheaper to buy a new one.

Any thoughts?

The remains of my Sony KDL-52W3000:

vash · vash's Garage

i would line those kids up side by side and do a stooge slap. "hey mo!"

i would buy a new one. damn.

jyl · jyl's Garage

Ouch, puch. Unless you have some insurance-like coverage, I'd buy a new one, and look into a thick glass protector or maybe a lightweight plastic one.

I've heard several stories of shattered LCD TVs. My co-worker's llittle boy (2 y/o) threw the remote and shattered a big one. Kids were smashing screens with Wii controllers. Just bad luck.

BRPORSCHE · 05-04-2010, 01:52 PM

Ouch! Even more scary is that I wall mounted my 46" yesterday. I'll make sure I keep the kids away.

Porsche-O-Phile · Porsche-O-Phile's Garage

That sux.

If you're up for a challenge you can find a wealth of spare parts on FeeBay. Spare screens aren't too bad - certainly less than a new one, but I couldn't begin to guess how easy (or hard) it might be to do that.

I do know a guy who used to buy all the "defective" returned electronics from Costco (flat panels, stereos, whatever) en masse for pennies on the dollar. He hired a few guys cheap and taught them how to disassemble stuff and solder circuit boards, etc. Used to swap out the bad components and refurbish them, then sell at about 50% of the price of a new unit. People flocked to this place - he literally made MILLIONS within 2-3 years. Since retired.

So yeah, it can be done, but I don't know if it's something you want to get into.

Heel n Toe · 03:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HardDrive

Any thoughts?

Yeah, stick a used, pitiful little 13-incher down there until they come up with the dough to replace it. Oh, yeah, everyone's grounded until it's replaced at no cost to you, too.

Heh heh. I realize that's not real world.

Maybe give it a week or two to see if maybe the parents of the other kids offer to step up and chip in... you know, let's say there were 7 kids down there playing, divide the cost of repairing or replacing it by 7, all parents chip in for the total based on the number of munchkins they had present at the time of the crime.

Or suggest everyone chip in using that formula... I'm sure it's what you'd do if it happened at someone else's place and your daughter was there.

At any rate, after there's a big screen back down there, use a huge, sloppy bead of gelatinous Super Glue or JB Weld to affix a 1/4" thick sheet of Lexan to the front of it.

scottmandue · 05-04-2010, 02:13 PM

Get a new one, these things are pretty much disposable.

And get a Samsung.

gtc · gtc's Garage

Will your home-owners insurance cover it?

I wouldn't go after the other parents to chip in.

Zeke · 05-04-2010, 04:17 PM

I have a friend that happened to only it was his own little brat that did it. He found out that it was cheaper/easier to buy a new one. And, he has a 1/4" plastic cover on this one.

Quote:

Originally Posted by scottmandue

And get a Samsung.

Why?

BRPORSCHE · 05-04-2010, 04:32 PM

+1

Scuba Steve · 05-04-2010, 05:37 PM

I've got a 13" black and white TV if you'd like to teach them a lesson.

BlueSkyJaunte · 05-04-2010, 06:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by scottmandue

And get a Samsung.

I had two Samsungs crap out in a row before I settled on my Phillips. The first one developed a huge black bar running down the right 1/3rd of the screen inside of six months. The second one (next gen of the same model) was defective on arrival. The tuner would heat up past critical and stop picking up HDTV signals within 20 minutes of powering on.

I will NEVER own another Samsung.

HardDrive · 05-04-2010, 07:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by scottmandue

And get a Samsung.

No, I'm getting another Sony. My sister and I bought TVs at virtually the same time. Her Samsung has tons of dead pixels, in some cases lines of the them. Our Sony had none, not one dead pixel after 2 years. I like the picture on the Sony better as well. The Olympics in HD were amazing.

Brando · Brando's Garage

That's an easy fix, just switch over to Video 1

All kidding aside, that sucks horribly. My parents just replaced their DLP TV with a Samsung flatscreen and couldn't be happier. For some reason the screen progressively de-interlaced and eventually got so bad that it couldn't be repaired for less than a new TV.

Quote:

Originally Posted by HardDrive

island911 · 05-05-2010, 08:14 AM

Josh, I got a great deal on an XBR9 from the Sony outlet store, up on the casino reserve. --they had MUCH better pricing than anyone else. ...and the XBR's kick ass on color spectrum and speed.

Aside, Samsung makes some fine gear, but if you want to minimize the number of remotes, having all Sony gear makes it happen well. (read; why have to buy another HT system to play nicely with the new display?)

Talewinds · Talewinds's Garage

I swore off Sony years ago following one failed Sony product after another, not product line specific, but have slowly gotten back on the Sony wagon.
I have a Pioneer plasma and the color saturations just crush, it's great.
Have a smaller Samsung LCD, it's nice too.
Have a Panasonic HD LCD projector firing at a 125" DaLite screen, awesome.

Having said all of the above, my folks have a Sony XBR w/ just standard antenna terestrial HD, and it's just ridiculously awesome. I think it's better than any of my equipment picture-wise.

scottmandue · 05-05-2010, 09:14 AM

Dunno about Samsung's past but we bought a bunch of them here at work and they look fantastic.

Won't know about their reliability for a year or two.

IMHO Sony was the top of the line a few years back but I think they are living off their reputation, i.e. when I look at them side by side with other flat screens in the store the picture doesn't look all that much better (if at all).

YMMV

island911 · 05-05-2010, 09:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Talewinds

..., my folks have a Sony XBR w/ just standard antenna terestrial HD, and it's just ridiculously awesome. I think it's better than any of my equipment picture-wise.

I think that Samsung has one TV with similar color-depth and speed. --it's one of the 3-D sets, when running in 2D, that looks just as awesome. (running Bluray 1080p)

It's weird, that it can be a bit too life-like .. . like you're just standing on a movie-set rather than at the movies. --the 24 frames/second of a movie give a certain 'quality' ...whereas the 240 (interpolated) frames/second (combined with great color-depth) give so much realism...

island911 · 05-05-2010, 09:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by scottmandue

...

IMHO Sony was the top of the line a few years back but I think they are living off their reputation, i.e. when I look at them side by side with other flat screens in the store the picture doesn't look all that much better (if at all).

YMMV

It depends on what you are comparing. Sony has a LOT of mid-stream product. (like everyone else) On the high end, they are still pushing the technology.