Repair or replace, your suggestions please

[ChrisWaller]

Hi,

I'm looking for some advice regarding my 1080i 42" Hitachi Plasma TV. It's served us well for five years now and we've been very happy with the picture quality and performance in that time. Now, however it's started to develop a slightly niggly fault. It seems to lose picture every now and again (so far only when replaying the odd recorded BBC HD show recorded on our Sky HD+, connected via HDMI). I'm fairly certain it's a fault with the HDMI port, but as there's only one I'm unable to say for certain - especially as it is a very intermittent problem (it's happened on five or six occasions with two specific recordings).

So what I'm wondering is:

1) Has anyone else experienced a similar problem who is therefore able to offer some advice on how terminal this might be?

2) Does anyone have any recommendations for reliable, honest TV repair company in the North West England/North Wales area?

3) Given the age, potential cost of repair and so forth is it worth simply ditching the TV and looking at buying a budget 42" LCD/Plasma as a replacement? Obviously, I'm talking _really_ budget as this is a bit of an unforeseen and unplanned expense.

Thanks All,

Chris

 

[John Duncan]

Don't ditch. First thing I'd try is a new HDMI cable, to see if that gives you a better connection in what is a notoriously wobbly socket design...

 

[matthewpiano]

Not sure if they deal with Hitachi, but I can wholeheartedly recommend North West Appliance Repairs in Blackpool, if that is close enough to you. We use them (they are an authorised Sony repair agent, amongst other brands) and they are absolutely first class.

In terms of your dilemma, have you tried a different HDMI lead?

I had a similar issue with the HDMI connection between my RDR-HXD995 recorder and Sony LCD. Simply pulling the HDMI connection out and putting it back in again seems to have solved the problem completely, and I've had similar experience in the shop.

HDMI is better than SCART but why couldn't they design in screws either side of the plug/socket as you get on a VGA cable?