Last modified 01/26/2024

Flat Screen TV, LCD and Plasma TV real useful life :

Approximately, it is expected that the life of an LCD or flat screen T.V. goes around the 30 000 and 40 000 hours; this is, approximately 3 years of using it for 7 hours a day. But if some of the components fail or simply stop working, such as the ignition of the T.V. or if some circuit blows, the pixels worn out or if the illumination feedback system leaves a yellowish image, you could say that the useful life of a television is much lesser than the one the manufacturers assure.

And what is even worse is that when the television’s warranty has expired, many conclude that it is much better to get a new one, because repairing the components is as expensive as getting a new television and even a breakdown in the screen can cost more than 2 000 dollars; with these conditions, reparation is not our best option.

One of the clearest examples of wearing out in LCD televisions is the loss of brightness on its screens; this was proven after a study was made by the National Lab of Metrology and an organization in France, in which they made
LCD and flat screen T.V.’s undergo functioning and quality tests for a period of time of approximately 6 years and 5 months. The results showed that the brightness is lost approximately between a 20% and 40%; besides, its time of cooling is also reduced, which causes it to wear out and the appearance of spots in the screen, like on the edges of the figures. The wearing out of the loss of cooling time and the spots that can appear are a problem that cannot be avoided, but what can be changed is the loss of brightness that appears as time goes by, because fabrics that sell us excessively bright televisions, so this can be solved by changing the parameters of the T.V., activating the option of economizing the energy, which can be calibrated so the lifetime of the illumination feedback system can last a little bit longer.

Regarding the Plasma T.V.’s, they have the special feature that involves that they lose their colors as time goes by, this was proven by a study made to several brands of Plasma televisions, which resulted in a deviation of the color temperature; after six years, the image of the screen tends to get yellowish or orange, in the same way it could happen in the blue range which looses blends and it can also be seen that the screen appears to be marked. However, due to technology and to all progresses made, great improvements have been made to avoid the creation of the residual image, solving the problem of the marks that appeared in the screen for the constant usage, but the problem of the color temperature deviation is a problem that has not been solved yet, not even by modifying the fabric settings.

But this information, even when is true, is not very relevant when enjoying, because we usually but a television for its characteristics and the value they will give us, letting aside its useful life.