Tweeti went with LCD as well. Plasma will fade over time and therefore the quality diminishes. With LCD it is either working right or its not one at all.

TweetFollowing up; The new bulb arrived yesterday. You should see the difference in quality from the Philips bulb and the cheap ass bulb that the in-home service guy used. It's rediculous. They're supposed to use the same or better. I guess he never thought I'd open it up and change it myself? I mean, wtf? Philips bulbs are what come in pretty much every LCD and DLP tv. People with TVs that operate with that type lamp, make sure when the bulb does go that it's replaced with a Philips.
I should have taken a picture of the 2 side by side so you could see what I mean. That thing was a cheap pos.

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Originally Posted by horsepwr

ahhg! I coulda had it here today if I would've ordered by 4pm yesterday. And apparently this model TV is known for going thru lamps because of inadequate cooling after shut off. I always hear the fan running when I shut it off. I guess it doesn't run long enough. that sucks. When this happened last time, I told my wife that we need to go ahead and get a spare for next time. Who would've thought 'next time' wouldn't even be a year. I tell ya what I need to do. I need to pull the bulb and see if that little non-English speaking man used the OEM part, or if he went cheap on me. I'm betting on the latter simply because of the durability. I just read up, and Hitachi uses a Phillips lamp. I need to learn up a little more though. can't just believe the first thing I read.

Can you get a better fan? I found out the hard way about our computers. I hav e3noissues with emachines but I found out they use a very very cheap power source and when it goes, not if but when, it typically takes the mother board with it. We found this out on my wife's new computer. So, I immediately took mine in and had them run tests and got a new power supply. So, I wonder if you can get a better fan or an additional fan to cool it down better. I bet if you called around to some TV geeks, they will have some kind of thing you can do to prevent that.

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Originally Posted by horsepwr

Following up; The new bulb arrived yesterday. You should see the difference in quality from the Philips bulb and the cheap ass bulb that the in-home service guy used. It's rediculous. They're supposed to use the same or better. I guess he never thought I'd open it up and change it myself? I mean, wtf? Philips bulbs are what come in pretty much every LCD and DLP tv. People with TVs that operate with that type lamp, make sure when the bulb does go that it's replaced with a Philips.
I should have taken a picture of the 2 side by side so you could see what I mean. That thing was a cheap pos.

Yep, cheap parts equal poor results. I bet this one lasts a lot longer.