It Finally Happened

[andy]

Originally Posted by Kaye-Halbert TV

In a word; NO.

It's most always a failing/failed display, which costs more than a brand new top of the line Sony Bravia. I doubt if any early plasma set will ever be repaired, unless it was a gift from a very rich person's mother, and the mother passed away the next day. Only then might one ever be fixed. And not fixed by me for any reason!!!!!!!!

Charles

They're still worth picking up. Bronken plasma TVs regularly fetch $200-$600 on ebay. Even recent ones with smashed screens are worth money. I've been looking for one to play with, but I refuse to pay $500 for a broken TV that probably can't be fixed!

I wish I was running into a lot of plasma TVs in the trash.

[Chad Hauris]

I think a lot of the issue is that the older sets can be repaired fairly easily with industry standard parts whereas the newer ones cannot. Many of the tube type color sets I have are on their second or third CRT by now.

The majority of tube type color sets I see are from around 1967-1970 and many have new CRT's dating from 1974-1980 or so..so they were often getting about 10 yrs or less out of the CRT. The fact the sets cost a lot more then and had easily replaceable parts probably led to more of them being repaired rather than junked.
I think Andy is right about the typical "lifetime" of a set. Many of the tube type sets that are still around are on their 2nd or 3rd "life" with new CRT's, flybacks, tubes, caps etc.

[larschr]

I have never seen any plasma or LCD TV or computer monitor in the trash either. Most of the sets i see is from the early-mid 90s, sometimes late 90s. I only grabs them when i want something to crush. I always test them first, but i have never found a working one, so i drop them from the second floor and down in the basement. I collect TVs from the mid 80s and older; the "modern classics". The oldest one i have is from 1976. It is very unusual to find sets older than the late 70s here in Norway, but most of the sets i find is in pretty good shape. The only drawback is that the switching power supplies cannot be soft started. When i turn up the variac, nothing happens until i reach 120-170 volts, and then it "kicks in" at full power. I think it´s a good idea to collect theese sets now, when they are easily available at any dump, and they are usually not too difficult to repair if something happens. They are mostly discrete, and the few ICs are mostly op-amps. Most of my old sets outperforms my mothers 4 years old Finlux on both picture and sound. The old Philps sets with the twin speaker system sounds great, the picture is crystal clear if the CRT is not too worn, and the chassis are virtually bulletproof, except for some bad solderings from time to time.

[Jukin Jay]

Originally Posted by Kaye-Halbert TV

I haven't seen one yet in any house trash, but plenty in TV repair shop trash. Especially the early Phillips Magnavox plasma sets from the late 90s; the ones with the big external receiver box.

Big external receiver box, huh? I wonder if those will become like Predictas are to us in around 2050.

[dr.ido]

I've seen quite a few LCD monitors in the trash, but so far all but one has had a smashed screen. The only one without a smashed display had been plugged into the wrong power supply. I tried to follow the power supply, but eventually gave up trying to trace through the multilayer board and identify unmarked SMD components. I sold it on as is. I've seen a few LCD TVs come through the junk auction (where most of the stuff comes from people who collect it off the side of the road). One was a small 6" model from a car system. It had a broken mounting bracket and flex cable. One had a dead backlight, but appeared to be okay otherwise. One seemed to power up okay and display the blue background with OSD but I couldn't get it to display a signal. All went higher than I was willing to pay for something to play around with. I've fixed laptop LCD displays before, but they usually fail predictably (backlight or flexcable). I've changed a driver IC on an old mono display, but I doubt I could do it on a modern display.

I can think of a couple of places that where space is at a premium and picture quality isn't critical where I'd use an LCD if I found one cheap enough, but I'll stick to CRTs everywhere else.