Vizio parts

Certainly not Vizio :

That means you need to operate like a junkyard now. Groups like this might become like a parts wanted BBS because that's the only way most of this junk is going to get fixed. You could try Shopjimmy, but you have to read their site ; some parts are teasted, some aren't, whatever. You can send stuff back but they charge a pretty hefty restocking fee. Then the problem is sometimes it's hard to tell if the replacement was bad or the diagnosis was wrong, or one fault caused another.

Maybe I should go into vintage audio. Or make doughnuts.

J

Cute. I stupidly bought a Polaroid TV from Circuit City without checking the service arrangements. No docs, no schematics, no service, and of course, no parts.

Yep. Welcome to eBay parts and pieces:

5000 items for sale. The problem is that most of the boards are really guaranteed and are probably pull-outs.

I do much the same thing when I have a TV that's not worth fixing (i.e. broken LCD screen). I part it out, and sell the pieces on eBay. If I know the board is bad, it goes to the recyclers.

I'm drifting into fixing sewing machines. If it moves, it breaks.

--
Jeff Liebermann     jeffl@cruzio.com
150 Felker St #D    http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann     AE6KS    831-336-2558

Vizio TVs are the armpit of the industry (Polaroid, Element, Memorex, etc are from a point even lower). For Vizio plasma TVs, most of the stuff that fails is part of the plasma panel - sustains, buffers, etc and can be found by looking for the vendors part number. If you find numbers that start with LJ, it's a Samsung panel; LG Electronics starts their part numbers with 6871. The power supply may be supplied by Samsung or LG Electronics, or it may be from a third party. The same applies to the main board, although it is more likely that it is a Vizio product.

Visio LCD TVs are more of a problem - they often are a mismash of parts - one vendor supplying the power supply, someone else supplying the LCD panel, the inverter from a third party, and Visio supplying the main board.

Possible sources include eBay (but you must be very careful about feedback and description) and places like Discount TV Parts, Shop Jimmy, etc. Googling the board number should bring up a number of sources.

One important detail - most sellers indicate their boards are from TVs with damaged screens, and are good. Some even offer a warranty. Given the number of different TVs, and the time it would take to test the boards, that is reasonable. But be very cautious about those who state nothing more than 'Untested'.

One additional resource -

has a 'Troubleshooting TV and Video Sources' section. Some of the people there are pretty good at troubleshooting common problems.

PlainBill

On Wed, 01 Feb 2012 11:32:02 -0800, Jeff Liebermann wrote: (...)

I sorta blundered onto the Sears site, which sells Vizio parts (no components, just boards and mechanical pieces):

No experience, but depending on what you're looking to buy, it might be useful.

--
# Jeff Liebermann 150 Felker St #D Santa Cruz CA 95060
# 831-336-2558
# http://802.11junk.com               jeffl@cruzio.com
# http://www.LearnByDestroying.com               AE6KS

There's still a lot of money fixing and/or buying and re-selling test equipment. I gave up on all consumer electronics over a decade ago.

Google turned up several sources, all in the US. On another note, I was at Wal-Mart this evening, and saw a Vizio combo pack. It contained a 42" 3D capable LCD TV, with Vizio bluray, also 3D ready, and four pairs of polarized glasses. Cost was $780, and the 3D demo was rather impressive. I'd watch it, and I'm picky. No wonder Vizio is the #1 selling brand in America.

pack.

and

rather

I'm viewing this e-mail on a ViewSonic CRT monitor, which was recommended by a friend, and turned out to be better than any Sony I'd owned. (It uses a Mitsubishi Trinitron.) Vizio was founded by the same man who founded ViewSonic.

I was surprised at the "unkind" remarks about Vizio. I bought a 32" Vizio for my den several years ago, and it is startlingly good. (For example, the horizontal viewing angle is 179 degrees.) My living room display is a 60" KURO, and the Vizio /does not/ provoke a "yuck" reaction in comparison. With good program material (especially NBC), the Vizio is a knockout. This sort of quality does not happen by accident.

Perhaps you haven't explored the process of manufacturing a plasma or LCD tv. Vizio, Philips, Panasonic, Sony all follow the same general process. They buy an LCD panel from one of the limited numbers of companies which manufacture them (Samsung, LG Electronics, Sharp are major suppliers). That panel includes the tcon and backlight system (CCFLs and inverter, or LEDs and LED driver). The TV manufacturer then adds a power supply, main board (which includes video processing and control components, tuners and inputs), speakers, etc. and puts it in a case. Thus the difference between a Vizio LCD TV built around a Samsung panel and a Sony built around the identical panel is the main board, the case, and other incidental parts. Even the major parts of the main board come from a very limited number of suppliers.

When receiving a digital broadcase the signal is received as digital, is processed, and sent to the tcon where the digital information is directed to the appropriate pixels at the proper time. Other than the component and composite inputs everything is digital. There is no difference in the way the signal is processed.

I would expect that TVs built with identical panels would produce identical quality pictures when adjusted to the user's preferences. So where does the difference between Vizio and LG Electronics lie?

1. The components on the power supply and main board, in particular the capacitors. Vizio is notorious for using cheap Chinese caps in their power supply. Capxon Elite, and Lelon are popular brands. Capxon is popularly known as Crapxon, the other brands are even worse. A bad filter cap in the power supply will not affect the picture until it deteriorates to the point the main board will not function.
2. The warranty, warranty service, and especially out of warranty service. Vizio does not want to see your TV ones it leaves their factory. They will grudginly replace a TV that fails within the warranty period. The usual replacement is a 'refurbished' model; under some circumstnces they have required the owner to return the failed TV at the owners expense. Once it is out of warranty, they do not want to have anything to do with it. All you can do is take it to an independent shop and hope they can repair it without schematics.

PlainBill

Back at WallyWorld this afternoon, checked out the Vizio 3D set, its now on "special" for $698. They also have a 65" Vizio LED LCD for $1795. Talking to my local TV shop, who sells LG, he says that Vizio uses parts from a whole bunch of name brands...panels and power supplies from LG. Panel supplier depends on size.

Not Viewsonic, but Princeton Graphics.

-- # Jeff Liebermann 150 Felker St #D Santa Cruz CA 95060 # 831-336-2558 #

snipped-for-privacy@cruzio.com # AE6KS

and MAG too.

I sort of liked their older monitors before they got cheap and shitty looking with strange curves.

The Taiwanese were pretty good at making decent computer monitors.

I bought a mainboard for a 32" Vizio from Sears:

These guys also had the same part:

The remanufactured board with shipping was around $130 from Sears. Vizparts was more and they also have a restocking fee of 15% and charge a 'core' fee which you can get back if you return the bad board. Sear doesn't have those restrictions. The hardest part of my repair was removing and replacing the zillion screws. TV is working like a champ now.

-N.Morrow

go to

There can be a difference in the quality of scaling algorithms implmented i n the main board. This determines the visual quality of images with lower r esolution than the panel, and many are quite poor. That makes non-HD channe ls look much worse than they should, in this regard CRT are way better at d isplaying them.