When is a Plasma TV beyond repair?
 

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So is something like this beyond repair? I would like to possibly pick up something like this (I see these from this seller from time to time...) and make a project of it...it might be fun. I know my way around electronics pretty well...but I'm by no means a pro.

Anyways, this seems like the glass is all that's broke, all though if the screen itself is damaged it's DOA...but can't the glass be replaced? And really what would an authorized Zenith repair on this run?

It can be more serious than that. The guy's obviously selling junk. He didn't say if he took apart the plasma set. For all I know, he could've took out the processing chipset, which I don't think you can buy. And he didn't show the bottom half of the set, which could be sawed off. But hey it's your money.

There is no way I'd touch this.

I haven't done much research into this subject, but why wouldn't you just buy something like this...

http://www.gateway.com/home/prod/hm_...oddetail.shtml

That's a "crack"?

http://images.auctionhelper.com/images/9436/388-441.jpg

Didn't say anything about getting any picture at all!

Okay...first things first, it's not like the guy didn't describe the condition in the ad, so read it. They are actually quite reliable sellers, and I've got a cordless phone from him that is perfect and has been for 2 years. He ends up putting up some good deals. I know a guy who bought a $1000 cisco router from him for $140 and it was basically new, and sold off in a equity sale of a bankrupt company. That doesn't mean this plasma set is gold, but ya know? Oh yeah, the bottom of the router was sawed off...:crap:

Secondly, the Gateway set doesn't do native HD resolution, and never will. It's actually well documented that it's kinda crappy.

Third, I'm quite able to afford a Pioneer Elite plasma right now, but I don't see any reason to throw money at one for a bunch of reasons- one being it's pointless right now. I was asking about something like this because I'm in a "take something that's essentially f-ed up and fix it for the fun and accomplisment of it" phase right now. If only the glass screen protector is shot, it would be fun to replace. And yeah, I guess just saying "a crack" was kinda light...lol.

Anyways, I just got a receiver (some Sony ES model, I don't remember the exact one) from my father's friend and played with it a bit, and fixed it all up (it has some blown transistors, the power supply was a bit weak...but it was free.) I threw $27 of parts at it and some solder work and it's all smooth now. And it was fun. I just started to get the old "tool man" grunt goin, and thought this could be a cool, fun project...

The "cracked" set only lists a resolution of 852 x 480p. The same as the Gateway. Hardly native HD resolution.

Yeah, I saw that after I posted the original post...Who in the hell in product development goes "let's sell a set that doesn't do HD resolution, but looks like it does?" I mean really, I have a marketing degree, and it still doesn't make any sense...which is REAL bad.

Also, this whole discussion makes me love my Sony RPTV all the more...Plasma just isn't priced right. yet.

I've also heard that there aren't too many servicable parts on plasma's. Anything beyond the few servicable parts, it just gets replaced by the factory.