Saw my first trashed flat screen TV today
 

While out for my usual evening walk tonight, I happened to look at the trash area behind my apartment. There, in a corner between one of three trash barrels and a concrete wall, was a Westinghouse large screen HDTV. I didn't have my digital camera with me and my cell phone doesn't have a camera, so I couldn't snap a picture of the beast. I couldn't see much of the TV because of where it was located, but I did see the Westinghouse "circle W" trademark on the display bezel. The set looked like (I'm making a wild guess) 40" or thereabouts.

I have no idea what was wrong with it, but, again making a wild guess, perhaps the screen was cracked or even shattered. There could have been other problems with the TV as well, but knowing how old TVs are dealt with these days when they go bad for any reason, I wasn't surprised. I did not try to drag the set into my place for at least three reasons: one, its size, two, the power cord was missing, and three, the remote was missing. I suppose I can add a fourth reason too, that I have no room in my apartment for a very large flat-screen HDTV, unless I were to hang it from a wall. Since I did not know whether or not the set worked, there is a chance as well that I would have wasted my time bringing it in here if it turned out not to be working properly, or at all, not to mention the time wasted hauling it back out to the trash from whence it came if it turned out not to be working.

I hope this isn't the start of a trend around this neighborhood, although with the short life spans of most flat screens I should probably expect to see more such sets biting the dust as time goes on, like that Westinghouse did. I don't know how many people in this building have flat screens, but I would guess most of them do (with the possible exception of my next-door neighbor, who still, AFAIK, has an RCA 25" CRT TV that looks like my RCA CTC185 19" set), since CRT sets are no longer available.

I wonder just how old that Westinghouse set was. I don't know for certain, but I would guess it may have been perhaps four years old and probably cost $1K or more when it was new. The owner's heart probably dropped with a loud plop when the set finally quit, as $1K is not small potatoes to most people.

Westinghouse LCD TV's are plagued with power supply problems and main board problems. More than likely it had a Wii Accident that is all too common. Along with Polaroid(more like hemorrhoid) and a few others are the bottom of the barrel for flat screen TV's. Best to leave it in the garbage where it belongs.

Who actually makes "Westinghouse" branded LCD televisions? I don't think they are made by Westinghouse itself, if the company even exists any longer -- which I doubt as well.

You mentioned a "Wii accident" that can ruin these TVs. What harm can a Wii video game console do to the set? Do the consoles run the panel at such high brightness (much higher than normal video drive levels) that the entire video chain eventually burns out, or the panel itself is damaged or destroyed by image burn-in? I realize image burn-in is not as common with LCD televisions as it is with plasma flat screens, but I do believe it is possible to burn a stationary image permanently onto an LCD screen if it is bright enough and it remains motionless on the screen long enough, not unlike screen burns on old CRT TVs.

It's a common saying for cracked screens due to not strapping the controller to you wrist while bowling etc. The controller fly's out of your hand right into the screen. See it all the time. usually kids that do it. Wii "accident"

Westinghouse TVs are made by Tsinghua TongFang Company, which also makes Apex, Element, Haier, iSymphony, RCA, Sceptre, Seiki, Sigmac, and Silo. Tsinghua TongFang build more TVs for many different brands than others in the world.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsinghua_Tongfang_Company

Tsinghua TongFang Company currently rates 23rd most-reliable video electronic manufacturer in the world.

http://www.avsforum.com/t/1403415/wh...#post_21914558

23rd most reliable in the world ?!? Don't speak to well of Gesundheit Snotbag company, does it ?!? (grin)

The "death" of my 37" Viewsonic would have been three years ago if I wasn't determined to find a backlight tube for it. That is when it "would have" hit the trash if I was just some regular consumer. This is an LCD from like six years ago (so yeah....it lasted like three years). I replaced it with a Samsung 55" LED backlit set, one of those REAL thin ones...and THAT one has been doing okay so far (I hear often these will have power supply capacitor problems).

My 37" Viewsonic still lives....but only because I DID find a junked set (shattered LCD)..and I R&R'd one of the two backlight tubes (REAL scary job by-the-way). It lives a VERY easy life now as a 37" HDMI computer monitor for a Microsoft FlightSim setup I have in a computer room. I remember paying around $1700 for that set, and getting only three years out of it, and was PISSED. At least I have so far rescued THAT set from hitting the wheelie bin in the alley so far.

I've given at least 3 or 4 Westinghouse LCD's to a neighborhood scrapper. I asked him what he finds on the street most. His reply was "Phillips". My experience with flatscreens failures are Polaroid, Phillips and Insignia leading the march off the cliff!

I picked up a Westinghouse 20" LCD on recycle Saturday. There was four bulging electrolytics on the power supply board. It was built in 2006, so it doesn't tune HD frequencies. Picture is not very impressive. :thumbsdn:

I picked up a nice 2009 Samsung 32" LCD that had a single bad cap in the power supply, replaced it and it's been working since.

The Cap was the lone oddball brand, probably a substandard supplier.
Samsung has had a lot of Cap issues from what I read.

They are probably sourced from different manufacturers. I traded the repair of a Westinghouse LCD flat panel TV for some stereo equipment and found a Chi Mei Optoelectronics panel and Delta power supply board inside it. Listening to it clearly revealed that the power supply was in distress and replacing every bloated cap I found on that board got it working again.

That was probably two years ago and the TV is still running. It's used in a local thrift store.

As such, quality is likely all over the map.

No. The Wii controllers themselves are the problem. They work by sensing motion and come with a wrist strap to keep them "under control". Sometimes people don't wear the retaining strap and a controller goes flying. At sufficient velocity, this can break the panel display.

When the new digital craze began awhile back, people all around here were throwing out their CRT TV's left and right. Foolish, because the cable company here still supports the old system. Anyway, about a year later, you'd see cheap Chinese built flat screen TV's laying out on the curb. Probably failed backlights and power supplies. Kind of makes me laugh, because I'm still using my old 27" JVC.

Maybe there are only 23 or 24 TV manufacturers IN the world!

Also, that reminds me of a song... "Seymour, the 142nd fastest gun in the west". :)

I bought a Sigmac 15-inch HDTV at the Fry's store near hear a few weeks ago, for $70 brand new. A true bottom-of-the-barrel TV, the complete opposite of classic American-made fine-wood-cabinet sets. I only expect to use it for ham-radio digital-TV signal experiments, but even at that give-away price, since I can fix things, I can probably keep it running for years.

My parents bought a 37" "Westinghouse" LCD HDTV back in 2006, since they had good reviews at the time. They paid around $1800 for it back then. Within the last year or so, dark semi-transparent blotches started appearing on the screen, almost as if the layers of the LCD panel were separating with age. I guess you could call it the LCD version of a color CRT cataract.

They recently replaced it with a 40" 1080P 240hz LED backlit Samsung Smart TV. The bezel around the screen is so thin that it is actually smaller than the Westinghouse it replaced, and only about 2" deep. It has wifi, surfs the web, supports Netflix, and cost $800.
LCD prices sure have fallen in the past six years.

I have a little TINY Westinghouse LCD...maybe 12 inches. I got it like four years ago at Costco because it was like a hundred bucks. It had so MANY little inputs as well as being an "okay" TV set. I love all it's inputs and use it for ANYTHING I need a monitor for on a workbench....VCRs, DVDs...computers both VGA and HDMI..or even S-video. As a TV set, it is stereo...and seems to handle all the ratios pretty well. It's sorta like a miniature version of my big 37" Viewsonic LCD.

It's seen VERY light duty in the last four years, but appears to still be doing quite well for what it is. It's thick enough that I'm pretty sure it's got flourescent backlighting. It HAS stood up to at least some mild abuse. I've wound cables all around it and thrown it in the back seat of one of the cars COUNTLESS times to go use it as a monitor for something or other at a friend's house. At this point...I guess I'd miss it if I did something bad to it. I would never set it up anywhere and really watch TV on it though. Not even in the kitchen where I like my 12" GE b/w set.

That might be the LVM-37W3, one of the first 1080P sets. I lusted after those, and came near to driving three hours to the only store in northern California that had them on sale for "only" $800 in early 2007.

A local shop I do some side work for has over 50 abandon flatscreens laying around. Not worth the money to fix, customer decided to buy a new one.

So theres a few more dumpsters full.

In the old days if a customer abandon a crt set you could almost always fix it and sell it for $50. Now a shop wont even take the risk of putting a $200 board in a flatscreen because they cant filp it.
The broke, indebted public is so brainwashed and set that new is the only way to go. (just put it on the credit card and add it to the typical household 10k$ in debt)

E-Waste in : E-Waste out

So glad I bought a new Toshiba 36" CRT TV it will be eight years ago next month. Still works like new and is on many hours daily.

I seem to have good luck w/ the dumpster finds. Two of my sets (37" Akai and 32" Polaroid) worked w/ no issues. A big heavy 2003 Toshiba plasma that would sometimes power up, sometimes not a neighbor bought. Found 3-4 others that were dead and sold them online for screens/parts. TV's for nothing that make me a little bit $$ are alright by me.

When I walk around my small town at dusk when it's dark enough to see the TV's in action in the homes, I'm amazed to see huge flatscreens in just about every home, including the very modest (to put it politely) homes. I shake my head and wonder if I'm the ONLY person still watching a CRT TV in this town. I've also noticed a huge number of 32" LCD TV's for sale on Craig's List. Seems everyone bought into the LCD fad with the smaller sets, and as soon as a bigger size is put on the market, they gotta trade up, to keep up with the neighbors. Did I see the other day, Sharp has come out with a 90" LED for around $10K?

I see the same thing in my small town near Cleveland. Flat screens have become so inexpensive these days (the smaller sizes, anyway) that just about anyone can afford at least one without breaking the bank. What you are probably seeing in your town are very large HDTVs, with Internet connectivity and all, that do still cost an arm and a leg. I pass by a house in my town during my evening walks that has a very large flat screen right where anyone can see it from the living room window; sometimes I wonder if they worry someone might see it and try to steal it when they are away. I'm sure that set must have set them back at least $1k; if so, I would think they would have found a less conspicuous spot for it, where it would not be visible from the street.

Was just noticing this last weekend (seems ads for TV sets get REAL popular during Labor Day weekend)....I guess now a 55" LED "thin" set like the Sammy I paid like $2500 for three years ago.....can be had for well under a thousand now. Mine isn't even a "Smart TV". I got it maybe just ONE model or two before the 3D sets...and it was probably the last generation of the Samsungs using those Yahoo "Widget" things that were abandoned almost immediately.

I was just surprised that a considerable "upgrade" to my 55" Sammy would actually cost like $1500 LESS than I got mine for during a Memorial Day sale in 2009. That is just VERY odd....and reminds me of the same thing with laptop computers. I'll likely replace the $2500 Sammy in a couple years when something goes pearshaped on it.....with a $500-$1000 set, AND it will likely be a HUGE feature upgrade at that. That logic alone will make some "electronic recycling" place or some tech friend "gather" another 55" LCD set WELL before I would have gotten rid of any CRT set. I'm not gonna spend a couple hundred to correct a problem on the Sammy....and then I don't want to put a 55" set in a bedroom. It's much harder to find a "secondary" location for such a big set, especially in a smaller flat. I did repurpose the 37" Viewsonic as a Microsoft FlightSim monitor....and even THAT is ridiculous looking sitting on a computer desk.

That wasn't Seymour, it was Irving, From the Bar-Mitzva spread. He always followed his mother's wishes. Even on the range, he used two sets of dishes. :D

According to the local newspaper police blotter, Flatscreens make it easy for lazy criminals to fence your TV again.:thumbsdn:

The only flatscreens at my house are the two PC monitors. A few of the neighbor-farmers are using 80's-90s sets w/DTV boxes, since I put antennas in their attic. :D Just one thing they donot need to spend $$ on.
Some neighbors are Amish and care even less for TV, but they are into wireless "phones" anyway L-O- freakin' L

Doncha remember the 1970 song "Welfare Cadilac" ?!? When the ginormous "Big Dish" satellite receivers were all the rage, EVERY single & double wide trailer in Tennessee had at least ONE of 'em close to it...Right next to the loaded 4X4 pick'em up w/the huge 40" tires & lift kit from Fred's House of Really Big & Stupid Tarrs, of course...(grin)

Have you considered mounting the Samsung above your bed in the bed room?....If you can't find a wall then the celing is always an option....

Never heard the phrase Pearshaped as a synonym for broken before.....

Pearshaped......Since I speak cantonese AND "HK English" which is a mix of slang/canto and British. I grew up hearing "pearshaped" to sorta mean "not round anymore"...and NO...I would not EVER want an LCD set mounted on a cieling, especially in a rented flat. The whole point in not wanting a BIG TV in the bedroom is that I SLEEP in there....and have no interest in much more than turning the "sleep timer" on with something insipid I'm not really watching (Southpark, Futurama,TBBT,etc). I have a little 23" Sammy in the room that serves that just fine. Also have a little TINY 7" "Auvio" mounted just at the top of the headboard cabinet if I REALLY don't even wanna turn on the 23". THAT one is mounted "facing down" and would be if I feel like looking up at a TV (very rarely).

I don't really watch the "collection" TV sets in the bedroom....because I have them ALL on one channel (my transmitter), and they ALL come on with a push of an X10 controller (At last count...37 sets...all at once...just for fun)

I just parted out an RCA 47 incher I was given. Once I took it apart to fix it all hell broke loose with it. I suspect the BGA chips were coming loose. Had a decent picture before I poked it.

It's gotta be tough to learn two languages.... I actually saw a smaller(like 17-27") FP set mounted over someone bed on a frame on it's canopy at a open house once...it seemed like an interesting idea to me.

TV in my bed room seems natural to me. I keep most of my good stuff in my bed room, spend much of my free time there, and watch nearly all of my TV there so that my folks won't bug me about not liking what I'm watching, wanting to change the channel, etc.

My Zenith Sentry 2 19" TV is in my bedroom, but I don't use it. I put my RCA CTC185 in there too after I bought a flat screen last year, but the RCA isn't in use now either. Those CRT sets are just in storage in case something happens to the FS set. I don't want to be without TV if the flat set goes bad; in fact, I am even toying with the idea of putting the RCA back in the living area permanently if the flat set quits, not unlike what VK member Tim (Kamakiri) mentioned in a post to another thread awhile back after he put an HD TV in his living room. The set had been part of a promotion (IIRC) by the automobile dealership from which he bought one of his cars. Tim said he'd use the flat screen as long as it works, but when it quits he will put his RCA Colortrak 2000 in the living room and use it on a cable box. Tim said he isn't that impressed with HD television, and I have to say I'm not crazy about the concept myself, not after all the hype over the DTV transition more than three years ago.

I really only use the big Samsung 55" if I'm watching a MOVIE....and I'm actually SITTING there watching it. Most days, I just turn on a little 6" Sanyo CRT "boombox" thing I have on the coffee table.

As far as HD is concerned.....TV now seems to cater to the lowest common denominator. NOBODY needs HD to see these squallering gossip singing and dancing things. I don't need to turn on an HD set to watch those Big Bang Theory guys. I can hear it...and really only need to GLANCE at the screen to just figure out what they are up to. DEFFINATELY don't need the HD to watch the local news or CNN.

The little CRT set is just fine until friends are over and I really want to put on a DVD or BluRay.