John-Del wrote: "When my father in law tells the story, he said that when he saw me hosing out the TV guts in the
front yard he was thinking "oh sh$t I'm going to have to buy a new TV tomorrow".


Good story with happy ending! Nowadays most folks
won't let me adjust their PICTURE menus for them,
let alone go component level. Sets are so reliable
today, with consistent image quality, yet people wonder
why they burn out after only 3-5 years.

Backlit TVs(LCD, LED) require a backlight to be seen,
and very often this setting, along with the others, are
left in factory/showroom mode, shortening the life of
the appliance. Getting set owners to understand this
basic fact, along with the benefits of correct setting of
the basic adjustments(brightness, contrast, color, etc),
is well-nigh impossible! A $300 full calibration is often
not necessary to achieve these goals.