"oddvark" wrote in message
oups.com...
Hello,

Have any of you had experience working on the newer 30 in Wegas? Are
they problematic? My dad wants a 30 inch wide screen, preferably flat,
but I've heard lots about problems with the wegas. Are the new ones
any better?

Thanks.


Would you like the good news or bad news first?

What the heck, here's the bad news:
I had to immediately return the first unit I brought home because the
timer/clock chip was faulty and the convergence was absolutely horrendous.
Edge and corner convergence is generally pretty crummy on WEGAs (or at least
was) considering they cost (or did when I got mine) much more than the
competitors.
The second unit I brought home had much much better convergence throughout,
so factory alignment isn't very consistent, either -- even given a generous
misconvergence allowance.
I'm comfortable making a blanket statement such as this regarding the
convergence, as I visited numerous retail stores which had these on display,
both in and out of town -- yes, I had too much time on my hands, but I also
had other things I needed to go pick up, so...
Every last one of the units in the stores, plus the two I brought home, had
varying degrees of misconvergence in the edges and corners. All were highly
noticeable and I'd go so far as to say unacceptable for Sony. Maybe they've
improved with tighter tolerances since I got mine. shrugh
Before people jump all over me for this, let me say that I've done my fair
share of yoke/convergence adjustments over the years and am well aware of
the difficulties in obtaining "perfect" (it's in quotes for a reason) corner
and edge convergence, particularly with larger CRT's, and especially when
rushed to do so (as factory techs would be). But that awareness doesn't
make it any less disappointing in a premium product that demands a mucher
higher price than its competitors (at that time anyway).
I compared the WEGAs side-by-side with other sets and some of the
competitors had far better convergence, but the overall pic quality was
inferior for other various reasons, which explains why I ended up buying the
WEGA anyway.
So why am I complaining then?!? Because I (unreasonably perhaps, so what)
expect more from Sony. ahh, looking through the flyers, I see WEGAs are
downright cheap nowadays compared to 5 years ago, so I'm still annoyed. :P
Yeah yeah, I hear you folks.. if I want zero misconvergence, buy a freakin
LCD or plasma set! That's a good idea. When can I expect you to cut me a
check?
Here's another prob an LCD unit would remedy: this WEGA's flyback started
squealing about 8 months or so after purchase. That is far too soon in my
view, and it's highly annoying. This thing is heavy heavy, so I haven't
bothered pulling it from my entertainment center to open it up and dope the
FBT and/or check solder joints, etc. It has sufficed thus far to simply tap
the cabinet or shut 'er down for a while and power 'er back up and
experience blissful FBT silence. Why not take advantage of the warranty
then? Well, it's HEAVY.. and frankly, the prob isn't severe enough to be
worthy of hauling it 40 miles out of town and damn sure not worth the cost
of shipping it. Besides, I don't want to risk getting a unit returned back
to me that's in worse shape than what I sent in, or worse a new unit with
far worse convergence.

And now, for something completely different (the good news):
My 27" WEGA is still going strong after 5 years, requiring no "actual"
repairs. While the factory alignment tolerances are annoyingly generous and
the flyback transformer prematurely sings, WEGAs are obviously designed to
produce a like-new pic way past the warranty period.