I've had the RCA scenium HDLP50W151YX1 for 2 years in December. About 4 months ago, my picture started getting what I think looks like power surges (I have a 60 dollar surge protector on at all times). The image stays on, but the colors on the picture get lighter when the surge hits and the boundaries of the figures on the TV seem to blur a bit. This gets more and more frequent until the picture goes black, but the sound stays on. I leave the TV on and then suddenly, I hear the hum on the back on the TV kick again and then the picture comes back on(usually after 2-4 minutes). This whole cycle repeats itself multiple times, but sometimes the TV only has to be on for a few minutes to do it; other times, it is on for hours before this happens.
I have already left it unplugged for 10-20 minutes to allow a reboot to occur, but this hasn't helped at all.
Does anyone have any idea what the problem might be and about how much this problem might cost to fix it.
I've had a local repairman come out (from where I bought the TV) and he said that it could be one of several things and we would probably have to order one part at a time and see what actually fixes the problem.
The statement by the repairman hits the nail right on the head. Techies have no clue what causes these problems. Neither will the people on this board because it could be any number of problems. The light engine, The Board, the lamp, the color wheel...you get the picture.
Some of these problems involve a lot of dollars. Especially the light engine and 'Board'. Upwards of a $1,000 when you ad the item and the labor.
And, of course, I wont even get into the parts availability and the exhorbitant wait times in between the repairs.
So, your decisions are: live with the situation until your head blows up; Go through all the repairs one by one by one with the hope one of the repairs actually helps; Or, dump the set and buy a new one. A new set of the same size are now about a grand. So for all your tv viewing it cost about $500 a year. Well worth it!
Shawn, I really think these sets are only good for 2-5 years anyway. Sorry for your problems, but I went thru the repair steps one by one by one and the set never did get to working.