A Very Sick WEGA

Our television has developed a fatal disease. The poor thing, and at the tender age of 6. That's far too young for a television to die. A TV of six should have many shows and movies left in it. After all, it's still relatively modern, sporting HDMI and High Def (although, admittedly, not 1080p).

 

Oh, it's not dead yet. The malady it has contracted is a wasting disease. A well known one in this model actually. And it's warranty was extended, although we never knew until it was too late.

 

In technical terms, our family television (hard as it is to believe in today's world, we have only one TV) has developed a deterioration of the organic pigments in the high-energy blue LCD of the Optical Block. The Optical Block is also known as the "Light Engine", and it's the module that creates the television picture. If that looks (see pic) and sounds like an expensive repair to you, you are correct. It's the most expensive part in the television, costing somewhere around $600, and it's buried so far inside so many other delicate and complex components that the labor is a killer. This issue plagued the "WEGA Engine" Sonys until they were replaced with the newer "Bravia Engine" in 2007. In fact, that's pretty much why they retired the WEGA name.

 

We don't want to buy a new TV yet, we're waiting until we get a new theater next year. So we're living with the crazy effects of this illness, manifesting as blue dots and organic shapes slowly growing across the screen.

 

It's going to get worse until the picture is completely degraded and we have to shoot the poor beast out behind the barn.