EEVblog #725 - LG Plasma TV Teardown

Dave takes a peek inside the 50" LG Plasma TV found in the dumpster.

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[AlexMovitz]

At the company I used to work in, I scored a 63" plasma from one of the board rooms. The TV would click on, but not show an image. We tried replacing the power board and some capacitors, but no luck. I took it home and ended up replacing one of the plasma driver boards. The screen turns on and works perfectly and has for several years! It's a really huge TV that requires a solid steel stand to hold it up, but it's got great color and I've never had any troubles since I worked on it.

[MrBrainFear]

The Bulging and burst caps, for the love of god the caps! It's funny when your up close and not see the blown caps straight away. 

[Cavemaaaan]

DAVE!!! I'm a long-time fan of yours but you're killin' me on this one!!! Once I saw the problem, I kept waiting for you to point it out, but you never did!

There's a group of capacitors on the low-voltage power supply board (LVPS) where the caps are obviously domed and have leaked their electrolyte. If we go to the 7:00 mark in the video, there are six black vertical electrolytics that are obviously bad on the right between the two black heatsinks.

I completely understand why you're not interested in repairing this TV, but perhaps a student or hobbyist that you know would be happy to repair this and use it themselves before you scrap it out. The TV could prolly be fixed for $30-40 with good quality caps from Digikey or Mouser. I would more than likely replace most all of the electrolytic capacitor on that LVPS board. Of course check the other boards in the TV for any bad caps too :)

I stated some of the obvious things here, not at you Dave, but for other viewers who read this and may not know :)

Cheers, and keep up the great work Dave :)

[bluefoxtv]

I have a 50 inch Samsung plasma tv in my bedroom and when it comes to blacks nothing beats it. The same goes for power usage and heat output.

[Tangobaldy]

My mate spent over £5000 on a 50 inch plasma. He still got . The new LED not lcd tv in his bedroom looks so much better. I think he keeps the plasma as a radiator!

[KOTR]

Conductive tape is from 3M CN-3190. We use it for a completely different purpose, making flexible pressure mats from large sheets of the stuff.

[zigzigfuck]

Plasma tv technology gives a real better picture than any kind other LED tv.
wonderfull natural colors, very high contrast, deep black with a plasma tv.
the best plasma screens were made by Panasonic, Pioneer " Kuro " ( and also the Sony pro plasma monitors )

[Andrew-fqpu]

I'm still running my LG 60PG30FD from 2008 and it's had hard, hard use, primarily as a gaming monitor for my PC and consoles. It's probably had over 50, 000 hours by now.

[stephenwabaxter]

The first TVs I worked on with with late Father were B&W CRTs full of valves.

[lilturk]

I had one of these that my sister gave me. Once I did some research I tore it down and found out that mine had _no_ fans cooling the capacitors at all. That caused them to bulge and some had black soot on them as well. At the time I had no clue what to do with it, so I took all the PCBs (they were fetching almost $100 each on eBay) and saved them to be fixed at a later date. They are still sitting in my closet as I type, "waiting to be repaired".

[andljoy]

Plasmas are awesome! Better picture better build quality and so on . LCDs are kind of poor for a TV imo. OLED is better. 


Crappy caps are why you buy a panasonic plasma ( they have stopped now) Samsung still going

[ronb]

I was hoping for a comment about some of the back panel screws having arrows and a few not.

[manmohansehmby]

The steel frame is most likely stamped not die cast...

[macinman]

I currently own a Panasonic 42" Plasma model: TC-P42U1 purchased in 2010  This year it is 5 years old and still working like new.  It had initially two boards fail within warranty, but after they were replaced it's been fine since.  I have also calibrated the tV so the color is balanced, the screen doesn't run at full brightness, the back doesn't feel too hot after it's been on a couple hours.  I personally think if you do a good calibration job, it will reduce power draw and heat as the screen won't be running at max, and  appropriate settings will be correctly set for normal TV operation in the specific environment for which the TV is employed.

[Moletheus]

I just purchased a brand new 2014 model 60" LG plasma last October. The image quality is in my opinion far superior to a lcd display. Contrast ratio is much better, colors are more natural and the viewing angle is unlimited. I cannot say that about any lcd I have seen or owned. It is also only about 35 pounds and only about an inch and a half thick. In my personal opinion plasma televisions are not dead yet and I will continue to use them as my only televisions until they stop manufacturing them. After watching your video I noticed that there were a few blown caps on the low voltage power board. A simple fix to get rid of the flickering... You should really do some more research before saying these TV's are "ancient, obsolete and nobody wants them". 

[BenjaminEsposti]

But they produce a wonderful picture, very bright, and vivid colors. Also, you can even see them in the sunlight!

[ooakoo]

the crappy samwa caps in the low voltage power supply section are dead/leaky, they are easily repairable

[dgester]

How does he take the parts out he wants to scrap when he said he doesn't have the time to desolder? If you cut the leads too short from the top of the board wouldn't that make it really hard to reuse them??

[Mauronic]

panasonic plasmas are still the gold standard in hollywood for directors, cinematographers, etc. you will never get the same blacks on LCD, period. but for the rest of the world, who needs em?

[petera]

Dave, I been repairing tv's for 30 yeas and have worked on your unit in the video, I think I can see vented electrolytics on the sub power board to the right on the main power supply. They usually are 3300uf e. caps, replacing them should correct your issue. Plasmapete