Vizio Black Screen of Death

Call me lucky I guess but I seem to get them all. We are accustomed to the Window's "Blue Screen of Death" and then their is the old IBM/Hitachi hard drive "Click of Death" but now I have the Vizio "Black Screen of Death". Neil Cavuto was happily describing Japan's most recent tragedy of nuclear explosion and my Vizio went black. Neil still sounded fine but he was nowhere in sight.

Googling tells me this is common Vizio behavior. There is no way for me to tell how common. This TV is not yet three years old. I guess the replacement will not be Vizio. This makes me sad because the new Vizios have so many features at such a great price. I wonder what hidden pitfalls Samsung has to offer me ... the "Explosion of Death" perhaps.

In the meantime I will see what the heavily accented Hispanic repair shop has to say. I am not expecting good news. Hasta la vista. He ended up being Indian (dots not feathers).

Now call me crazy but I'm thinking of a Philips, yikes.

Reviewers on Amazon love it. I know, why so small? It needs to be physically no wider than 39 inches to avoid remodeling the room or we would be looking at 55 inch screens and Neil's head would be truly scary.

I would love the wireless model (40PFL7705DV/F7) but for the extra money I could use another wireless media provider so when the TV assumes room temperature I would not lose everything in an all-in-one meltdown. My Bluray already streams Netfix. I wonder if the wired net model can use a wifi NIC? I suppose but don't know compatibility. They don't brag much about what is available online so I still think I'll just save the hundred bucks. Here is the underwhelming list of net availability.

Philips

40PFL7505D/F7 no net $598 Sam's

40PFL7705D/F7 is wired net $699 BB

40PFL7705DV/F7 is wireless $749 BB

My wife has the van so I can't go get one and it won't fit in my old BMW. I've downloaded the firmware update, so I'm ready so get on over to Sam's. Pick up toilet paper, smoked salmon and salsa while you are there:)

Got the toilet paper and the Philips. Reviews were right, the picture is crazy sharp. The 2 year old Vizio was good but this Philips is ridiculously good. It might show a little more reflection of light on the screen but I am anxious to try a bluray on it. The "soap opera" look takes a little getting use to but the images are stunningly clear and I can now finally verify that Geraldo Rivera is truly a Muppet character.

Get ready to lust after a bigger screen but then it wouldn't be $598 would it.

Sound is fine at the upper levels and voice is clear. Unfortunately the lower levels create a speaker rattle. I don't know if there is a blown woofer or what. I thought it may be rattling something that the TV is sitting on so I picked up the TV and held it. The rattling continued. Battle Star Galactica drives it crazy. I called Philips and they are sending out another TV by UPS. Let's hope it is new and not a refurb. or I will get cranky. I throw this one in the box and return it. Case reference number is 471133 which I need to label on the return box. I had to give them a credit card number which is reasonable being they are sending me a TV. I had already prepared myself to add a surround system but I do want the thing to work right.

Bad news on the Philips replacement, well, good and bad. The speakers worked fine but it was refurbished and an earlier model. I'm sending the replacement back to Philips. I called Sam's and they explained their 90 day return policy. I'm heading to Sam's today and all should be good. Lesson learned, I should have called Sam's first but I was convinced Sam's would give me the run around. Gotta love Sam's.

So I now have the replacement new Philips from Sam's and it does the same thing. Final analysis? The speakers are complete junk. I will eventually want a surround sound system anyway - for when my wife gets her 55 inch (I hope you are laughing at some of these) - so I will consider buying a surround sound system not impulsive and lavish but planning ahead and prudent.

I have yet to try playing files from the USB except to flash the firmware. The colors are beautiful. Would I buy this again? Yes, yes, yes.

Now if my Spanish friends can fix the black screened Vizio, I will have a TV for the bedroom. I'll let you know.

Universal Remote Codes Maybe it is in this list. The one measly code Comcast provided did not work so I used the search function on my Comcast remote. Then using the read code function my result is 0690.

My se habla espanol repair guy had an interesting take on things ... "they are all junk". I tend to agree but then again what to do. He said to always buy the extended warranty, which I never do. I guess I could throw on a three year warranty from SquareTrade and call it the cost of doing business. Sam's extended warranty cost was similar but I'm not sure of the length. I should call SquareTrade and see how I would fix it under warranty if something went wrong.

Still no word on cost of repair on the Vizio. He might have a used board. This could be an adventure.

Got a call this morning from some guy looking for a "Stevie", an obvious wrong number, turned out to be my repair guy calling about the "TV" - oops, no used board, new main board is $169 and labor is $100. That extended warranty is looking better. I said go ahead and am clearing out a bedroom home for my repaired Vizio.

Called Square Trade and I have 90 days from purchase to buy the warranty on a new item (30 days on used eBay). If the TV is over 37 inch you send it to them (they send a prepaid shipping box). If 38 inch plus it qualifies for in home repair. Either way there is a 5 day turn around guaranty or the warranty cost is refunded and the item is repaired for free. The skeptic in me doubts this will all work seamlessly but it at least their intentions are good. And 38 inch plus is definitely the way to go. I do not want to be packing up and shipping a TV but prepaid box would relieve some of the pain. Here is SquareTrade's FAQ.

Why hesitate? It is insurance and they are still in business. Either people are buying and not claiming even though broken or most electronics last the three years. On the other hand certain electronics could be worse than others but if I had some way to determine that, I would not buy it in the first place. So the decision is not as straight forward as it may seem. The last time I was tempted to buy a warranty was on my laptop. It has gone the distance and is still kicking so not buying the warranty was a win. Should I maintain my self insure philosophy? Still thinking .....