Vertical line on a 46" Sony LCD

[IsthmusTV]

Greetings,

Lately I've been noticing a thin vertical line appearing at the edge of the display on my 4.5 year old Sony Bravia KDLW4600. It's about one or two pixels wide (it seems to vary) and runs the entire length of the panel, from top to bottom. It's only visible with certain picture content. It is not visible if the image is solid white or solid black. It seems to be most prominent when the image is mid brightness and a solid color, like blue. Any idea what's causing this? Is it likely to get worse? Right now, it's really not much of a problem particularly since it's only about 1/2" from the right edge of the display.

Thanks in advance,

Clark

[mstaton]

More than the likely screen is going, VERY common on Sony's and Samsung(Sony uses Samsung LCD's in most of their TV's). I've parted out more Sony's than any other LCD TV's due to bad screens. Such a waste. Luckily mine has a Sharp made screen. Use it until it gets so bad that's not watchable. BTW, Sony is getting out of the TV business altogether.

[IsthmusTV]

Hi mstaton,

Thanks for the reply. That's what I was afraid of. I was hoping maybe it was just a flaky contact or two on the ribbon connector. This is a pretty low mileage set so it really is a shame. Like you say, I'll just use it until it's too annoying to watch.

-Clark

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by mstaton

BTW, Sony is getting out of the TV business altogether.

After all these years? I don't know why Sony would do such a thing. Their TVs were quite good in the late '60s-'70s (I had a great-aunt who owned one, a 12" color Trinitron portable, for 20 years; the set never gave her a bit of trouble, and she bought another Sony after that which she used until her death -- again, the second set gave her absolutely no trouble), and their XBR and Bravia series of HDTVs looked as if they were doing well too. Maybe Sony isn't selling enough of these sets anymore, though I can't imagine why. The XBR and Bravia series, albeit high-end and expensive, were good for home theater and other uses of very large-screen HDTVs.

Although Sony is leaving the television business, they are still, and will continue to be for the foreseeable future, actively involved in home audio and video games. I just purchased a set of Sony stereo headphones from Best Buy and am awaiting their arrival (should be here next week some time); a friend of mine has a Sony PlayStation 3 that he uses daily, and likes it a lot. He also had a PS2 in which the disk drive failed after a short time.

Oh, well. As I said, it may well be Sony was disappointed in the sales (or lack thereof) of their premier line of HDTVs although, as I mentioned above, I don't know why. Many people nowadays are buying very large-screen HDTVs and 5.1+-channel surround sound systems for their home theater setups, but I guess a lot of those HDTVs aren't Sonys. The only thing I can come up with is that some folks had a lot of trouble with Sony's plasma TVs, such as image burn-in, excessive heat from the screen, and possibly other issues as well; the image burn-in problem is one reason I did not buy a plasma HDTV when I was looking for a flat set to replace my aging late-model RCA CRT TV.

[dieseljeep]

Originally Posted by mstaton

More than the likely screen is going, VERY common on Sony's and Samsung(Sony uses Samsung LCD's in most of their TV's). I've parted out more Sony's than any other LCD TV's due to bad screens. Such a waste. Luckily mine has a Sharp made screen. Use it until it gets so bad that's not watchable. BTW, Sony is getting out of the TV business altogether.

I remember reading another big Japanese electronic firm bought out Sanyo, or was it Sharp?
If Sony bought them out, the Sanyo line would be their TV product line.

[andy]

...

[Geoff Bourquin]

I read that Sony has thrown in the towel on OLED sets, but didn't hear about them quitting TV altogether, although they appear to be bleeding red ink by the bucketful. I hear Sharp is also loosing tons of money on TV, as is Panasonic. Latest I read on them is that Panasonic is planning on leaving plasma behind in 2015 and scaling back LCD production right now. They did buy Sanyo, but I understand the reason is so they can keep the profitable parts, like the battery division then sell off/throw away what is left. Mitsubishi quit LCD almost 2 years ago, and in December they announced that effective immediately they are ending production of DLP, which I guess spells the end of DLP for consumer TV. Unless one of these companies comes up with something revolutionary soon, the Japanese TV industry will join the American manufacturers in the history books.

Oh yeah, this thread is about a thin vertical line on a Sony LCD set. I agree with others, it's likely to be a bad panel. It might be a bad tab bond on one of the ribbons sticking out of the glass, but I would not attempt any of the (risky and unreliable) cures floating around online until you are ready to use the set for target practice.

[StellarTV]

I replaced hoards of these panels when I serviced in home extended warrantys for Best Buy... I found out that vertical lines in the LCDs were caused by faulty connections where the ribbons fasten to the panel on the top; sometimes stuffing some foam in between the edge of the panel and the LCD would apply sufficient pressure and cure the bad connection.

[Username1]

The vertical lines are a bad screen, seen it already on the early imac's 17" G5's and first run intel imacs. on the imacs the line started as a single, then got wider, I have seen up to 3" before the owners decided to dump them.
Samsung just bought I think it was 20% of Sharp because they (Sharp) bleeding money because of LCD display and tv market. Sanyo still makes money, and so does Toshiba and strangely enough they make money with their "world CRT tv's" I call them "World tv's" but these two companies build and sell CRT sets as the cheap and more rugged types of sets that go to third world markets. CRT sets withstand bomb blasts, and falling off shelves much better than the flat screens. These world sets basically have a power supply that adjusts to line voltage, and tuners that cover every market band. They are really amazing. Sanyo builds the chassis, I think Toshiba still supplies the tubes.

[Grim Reaper]

The vertical line is either a bad connection with the ribbon cable and connector or a bad IC that drives the LCD such as what happened with LCD screens in Dell laptops due to a chip manufacturing defect (I personally know this from experience with it that cost me $100 DIY to replace the LCD in my daughter's Latitude 810 laptop. Dell acknowledged the defect and replaced those LCDs for free in the U.S. but not Canada where I live).

[IsthmusTV]

Originally Posted by StellarTV

I replaced hoards of these panels when I serviced in home extended warrantys for Best Buy... I found out that vertical lines in the LCDs were caused by faulty connections where the ribbons fasten to the panel on the top; sometimes stuffing some foam in between the edge of the panel and the LCD would apply sufficient pressure and cure the bad connection.

You hit the nail on the head. I disassembled the set and removed the frame around the panel. I could get the line to disappear by pressing on the ribbon cable at the top of the panel right above where the line was visible. But of course, as soon as I put the frame back on, the line would reappear. I experimented with pieces of foam and other materials to try and maintain the pressure with the frame back on. then I got the "brilliant" idea of using double sided foam tape. It was working OK until I tired to reposition the tape one more time and I ended up tearing part of the ribbon I tried in vain to reattach it but then something must have shorted and the ribbon cables stated getting hot and the screen darkened badly on the left side. Well, that ended that, and I ended up buying a Samsung LED "smart" TV. I hated to do it, but I took the Sony in to Best Buy for recycling. I just wanted it out of my sight.

-Clark