How To Fix A Broken Plasma Screen

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: Sep 13, 2001

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My son today threw a ball at the screen of my TV and the TV turned off. I then found out that I had the 7 blinking lights which seems like from googling, it might be the Y Sustain board.

But then I took it off the wall and looked closer and the damn screen is cracked. It's got the typical "ball crack" that you would see from impact.

Is there anyway at all to replace the screens on these things or am I going to just have to buy a new TV? I'm pretty sure I'd have to replace the board which is like $80 (not too bad) but replacing the glass, is that even a possibility?

And if not, I'm so out of the loop for TV's and am wondering what type of TV I should be looking for. I had a 60" ST50 so probably around that size is what I would be looking for.

: Oct 9, 1999

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For plasma TV's there is little that you can do for broken glass. Some (and I really do mean just a few) had a protective glass layer before the panel itself. If you happened to have one of the very few models which had that, you might have been able to go to a glass manufacturer/supply and get a piece of glass cut to fit and replace it. But almost all the plasma TVs (especially the later ones like yours) would require getting a replacement panel (which given that they are not made anymore and the fact that typically they cost as much as a new TV) making it just not practical to fix.Best you can do is see if you can do is see if you can find another ST50 for sale for parts (i.e. has a bad board or something) that you can get to swap out the panel with. I suspect that you won't find one though...

Welcome to the looking for a new TV club. Personally I would either get a cheap hold-over TV ($300-400) or spend the cash to get one of the few ones with HDMI 2.1. These will all be 4k and/or 8k (way too soon for 8k if you ask me) TV's which have some of, if not the best panels out there today. For best image quality, avoid edge lit LCD, and get the thicker TV's which have a full array local dimming or take the plunge into OLED (I'm still not certain on this as we don't know longevity yet or how well it will avoid burn-in). If you really had to ask me, I would look at the 65 inch LG 65SM9000PUA. This TV is does have HDMI 2.1+HFR+VRR+ALLM+eARC support (which is basically all the optional 2.1 features, however, eARC is only on HDMI port 2). This is probably the screen that I will be purchasing shortly.

: Sep 13, 2001

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Thanks and yeah from the research I've done, I think it's completely f'ed at this point. The crack isn't one you can feel with your finger so it's under some piece of glass or something. But on top of that, the picture doesn't come on either.

I went to Best Buy yesterday and I think I'm either going to get a $700 or like $1050 Samsung TV. The pictures looked great and I've always had good experiences with Samsung. It just depends how much I want to spend.

No chance I'm getting an OLED or anything. I already have a projector in my HT so this is for our main family room where we just have a TV on the wall. I want a decent one but I never game or watch movies up here unless it's just a comedy or something we're streaming. Like I don't even care about 4k or HDR or any of that crap. I do like the smart functionality in these TV's though so I can get rid of my Amazon Firestick most likely.

: May 30, 2000

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Did you call your local Panasonic repair center? They should be able to give you a ballpark figure on what it would cost to fix .

: Sep 13, 2001

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No I don't even know if there is one around, but I ended up getting a 65" 8 series Samsung this morning at Best Buy. Got a really good open box deal on last year's model, which after doing some research, actually seemed to be better reviewed slightly than this years model.

: Oct 9, 1999

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Let us know what you think of the TV. I'm torn as I want to upgrade my main TV but I really don't like the fact that Samsung doesn't support Dolby Vision and we have yet to see tests of any of the HDMI 2.1 features (since there are no source devices yet). I am thinking of just holding off till next year at this point.

Last edited: Jun 16, 2019

: Sep 13, 2001

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I like it a lot. When I first saw the TV in Best Buy I thought it was one of if not the best picture that wasn't on an OLED screen. I ran through some settings I found when googling but I still need to run my WOW disc through it. The picture is great.

The only thing I don't like about it is the viewing angles. It's really not a big deal at all but when walking into the room, from the side the picture just looks so washed out. But I realize unless I get an OLED that I'm not really going to get the viewing angle of a plasma. In the big picture though it's not a big deal at all though.

The 2019 model is normally $1400, but it's like "on sale" everywhere for $1050 right now. This open box of the 2018 model I got for $675. It came with no stand and they gave me a random Samsung smart remote that ended up working no problem with it. There is a small scratch on the bottom right of the bezel but other than that it looks brand new. I was going to probably get the 7 series for $700 so getting an 8 series for less was a no brainer.

: Dec 23, 2006

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I have a 50" Panasonic plasma sitting in my garage. I retired it because of energy consumption. It never failed me for more than 10 years. I have a 55" TCL R617. China is #1 for value with the TCL sets. You don't want to spend too much with 8K and HDMI 2.1 around the corner.

: Sep 13, 2001

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I don't care about 8k at all. I don't care about 4k at all or HDR either. I watch movies, sports, and game in my HT on a 120" screen at 1080p anyways and it's more than good enough for me.

: Dec 23, 2006

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I don't care about 8k at all. I don't care about 4k at all or HDR either. I watch movies, sports, and game in my HT on a 120" screen at 1080p anyways and it's more than good enough for me.

Please list the specs of your gear.

: Sep 13, 2001

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Please list the specs of your gear.

Found this in an old post from here:

avr - denon 4311ci
projector - panasonic ae8000
amp - europower ep4000 (used only to power the subs)
screen - 120" elite screen sable frame
mains - jtr triple 12's
surrounds - jtr triple 8's
subs - jtr captivator 2400's
chairs - berkline 12000 powered

Here is a pretty recent pic:

: Aug 11, 2001

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I have a 50" Panasonic plasma sitting in my garage. I retired it because of energy consumption. It never failed me for more than 10 years. I have a 55" TCL R617. China is #1 for value with the TCL sets. You don't want to spend too much with 8K and HDMI 2.1 around the corner.

Don't take advantage of (4K) content just trickling in today, suffer worse quality now, because someday in the future you'll want to pay even more for the latest and greatest?

Makes no sense. 8K sets will sell for a premium and have hardly any content till enough time has passed that any (frequently used) set sold today dies of old age.

: Oct 9, 1999

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I entirely agree on the 8k. Don't expect there to be any physical media yet unless they decide to sell extremely fast SD based drives with the movie on it (because they will never allow it to be copied to a computer and current networking in the US is about 10-100 times too slow for streaming without massive loss in quality from compression, and streaming in general will be too expensive from a server standpoint as well since even with 10Gbps connection to the internet, the server could only handle 20-30 streams before maxing out the network bandwidth).

The point is, 8k requires a whole bunch of massive leaps in distribution technology before you will see content anywhere. 4K is barely doable with the current technology and even then on the streaming side, 4K is way too heavily compressed with plenty of visual artifacts/degradation compared to disc based content. Pretty much anyone can tell the difference.

As for wide angle viewing of LCD TVs, it really comes down to the panel. I have to say that nothing beats an IPS panel for this. Samsung's Q90R is probably as good as it gets for a MVA based panel (they added a quantum dot layer to help as they are light emitting and thus project their light in more directions (unlike the light that is passing through the LCD film and as such has been effectively polarized)).

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