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Up till 3 months ago, I worked on flat-panels tv sets EVERY day. I Mainly did the "board repairs" and was the "high level tech" to come to when the "kids" were unable to "fix" a set, by routine board replacement.
I saw a LOT of bad panels. More bad LCD panels than plasma sets, but plasma sets were NOT reliable at all, and often needed multiple boards, such as the Y-buffers AND sustains, to fix. Many of the panels we saw bad, had bad backlights, with CCFL or LED strings out. Some just would not "work right", and a common problem was "panel separation" in where the front electrode connecting the panel to the T-con or main board, would separate from the front of the panel, ruining it. This was NOT "soldered on" in the normal sense, but ultrasonically soldered, and we had no way to repair this. This usually happened after 6 months to a year of use or so.
SO...NO the flat-panels are NOT NEARLY as reliable as the classic Solid-state sets, such as the Zenith CC1 flat chassis SS or CCII or the RCA modular XL-100 series from 1971-77. And the picture tubes , in general, lasted as long then, as about 3-4 flat panels will today.
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