Am-O-Tramp - seven years is a long time to keep spares on the shelf, I dare say longer than any other consumer manufacture of televisions. Who's better than Sony if you don't mind me asking?

Sounds like bucks to me. When the thing goes into a red tint do you see re-trace lines? They'd be yellowish-white lines running left to right slanting down a bit to the right side - say about 10 degrees or so?

- If so your television's high voltage transformer is going/gone bad and the set then turns itself off as part of the auto-protect.

If not exactly red/black/white colors are you sure that it's not going purple, yellow or cyan (sky blue)? That would mean one of your guns or its color channel is going. I doubt that you'd get confussed on the colors it's just another common color change problem.

- The good thing is that Sony builds good sets, they're easy to work on, parts are available, and diagrams are common. I would leave the set alone and get a technician into look at it as the red-tinted picture is going to be a major touble shooting aid. Find someone that is a factory authorized repair as you've got 1 year labor and 2 on parts if I recall correctly.

Nothing like getting a dead set or one that the auto-protect won't even let fire up. High voltage problems can run a few dollars for a bad cap to $80-125 for the HV transformer (flyback). Figure about twice that to include the labor.

I use to repair televisions for 15 years before I got too smart and donned the SBE Certified Professional Broadcast Engineer title.

I just bought the 36" Sony Wega KV36FS27 for $720 (after rebates - list $1299) replacing a well travelled five year old 27" XBR.

Wow the nightmare stories...

I picked up a 53" XBR a few years ago and have absolutely loved it. I've called Sony for a replacement remote (they upgraded it to one of their touchscreen ones for free!), modulator box for my sony dss (charged me half price and it's still being used for signal boost and splitting!), and finally for support on some problems I've had with the modulator and they simply sent me out another brand new one.

I buy all my video products from SONY and usually their XBR or top of the line models. The picture quality and colors were the best at the time and my DVD player is still the best I've seen put out.  I also understand that they're a HUGE company, so sometime I need to make amends as do they.

I imagine if you call their customer support and make it a point that you proudly owned one of their quality sets and you would like a replacement or repair and not have to cover costs, they will bend to your will. (For relatively newer stuff, not 7 year old shit! heehee) I always point out my "sony" products and that I am a big time "toy junkie" and customer support is key for me.

The $100 to ship the TV back and forth will be nothing to them over the continued support of their company.

(BTW - I dont buy any Sony audio components with the exception of my portable minidisk player. Sony is nowhere near the top in this category!!!)

Guess, I've just had good luck with them. Then again, I've gotten shafted by just about everyone else from RCA to JVC... and I wont buy those brands ever again. Give them hell in a polite manner and make the point that YOU are the consumer they do not want to lose.

Where the hell is Troy?  I think he'd buy a Sony house if they made one.  [:)]

I resemble those comments...

Remember, though: Sony makes everything from cheapie entry-level crap to high-end pro equipment.  There is going to be a difference in the quality and service you will get from the different product lines.

AR_Shorty,

It does sound like your power supply failed.  Normally, a tech will come out and replace it for you, so you won't need to ship it anywhere.

-Troy

XBR is Sony's top of the line branding...

Usually the products have better parts, some extras, and better warrenties and service. Although, it might just be me on the last bit!

I will say it again, Sony high end video products are very very good. Not the best, but incredible for the cost. (A $5k sony tv will outdo some $10k tv's I have seen...)

As for audio, I like sony digital stuff such as dvd and cd players (not to mention DTS, their own theater sound format), but after that I wouldn't touch the stuff unless I wanted something that was great quality cheap stuff. Their equipment is very solid and you get a LOT for the low prices, but high end stereo equipment does not carry the Sony label!

And I too like Alpine for my car!

]=)

Typically we buy televisions dozens at a time aboard ship. 50 27" televisions and 100 20" sets every three months. We have an inventory of nearly 1200 aboard a carrier and use sailors to operated them in all conditions from 120 degree steam rooms under the aircraft catapults to berthing compartments full of drunken sailors.

The Magnavox sets were banned from future purchase by me because the row of buttons under the tube couldn't stand-up to the abuse of sailors flight deck boots. We got stuck with a hundred or so of them and ended up going though dozens and dozens of the button assemblies. The other issue with the Magnavox sets were their RF connectors that would break loose under the vibration of the ship.

Personally I've use the mechanical on/off switch on my sets a few times a year. Normally the remotes are used. But then I rarely use my boots to operate my sets either.