Got this Polaroid FLM-3232 from Circuit City back in 2006 when I first moved into my own place. I picked this because it was cheap compare to other name brand like Sony, Toshiba, Hitachi, Samsung, etc and the picture quality is not bad. It cost me $1100 instead of $1600 like some other brands
Then about 2 years ago it started taking longer and longer to power up depends on ambient temperature. It seems like a common problem to this model is the power supply dying and most people blame it on some Chinese capacitors. Mine seems to act differently as it looks to be either a cold solder or a borderline resonance/degration issue on the voltage supply toward the TV tuners (both analog and HDTV). It would always power on as a monitor for the DVD player and game console, but not a TV.
I have been either leaving it to warm up for 15-30 minutes before watching for 2 years, and then later with a hair dryer to accelerate the warm up. This weekend it finally stop responding to the hair dryer and I have to cycle through the power to catch an on cycle (about 20 on/off).
Wife has been bugging me to buy another TV because she has been missing shows. I tried delaying for so long and even opened up the TV to check for obvious bad capacitors. I couldn't find any visual defect and there were no power supply available to ordere because the company went out of business (defective design causes liability issue?).
Currently I'm using basic cable (analog) from Comcast and want to eventually switch to antenna when I have time to do the install. I'm thinking about 3 options:
1) Buy a new TV, that's going to cost something like $750 or so for a 42-46 in, 720p plasma or LCD, quality doesn't matter as I'm not paying for comcast HD and OTA HDTV still use only 720p mostly.
2) Buy a Tivo Series 2 for $25 without subscription, so I'm using it only as an analog receiver to get around my issues. Will be useless when I switch to antenna as it doesn't work with ATSC
3) Buy a Samsung QAM/ATSC tuner, I can use it to watch digital basic cable from Comcast, then when ready to switch to antenna, use it to watch ATSC. This guy is espensive ($80-200 on ebay) and popular, so I think in the worst case I can resell it, but ouch, it cost a lot for just a box.
4) Buy a CRT TV (old school) and fix the Polaroid in the mean time, I have to learn a whole bunch on switching power supply and could blow a few things up, or even need to modify a power supply from another TV to fit. I'm not sure if I have the time to do it and whether it is worth doing to only 1 unit. Beside, I have to get rid of the CRT later after I'm done fixing the Polaroid
5) Buy a 32" name brand TV for $400 or so. Whatever I should have gotten 4 years ago, and end up with a 32" monitor for DVD and games only.
Recommendation?
Then about 2 years ago it started taking longer and longer to power up depends on ambient temperature. It seems like a common problem to this model is the power supply dying and most people blame it on some Chinese capacitors. Mine seems to act differently as it looks to be either a cold solder or a borderline resonance/degration issue on the voltage supply toward the TV tuners (both analog and HDTV). It would always power on as a monitor for the DVD player and game console, but not a TV.
I have been either leaving it to warm up for 15-30 minutes before watching for 2 years, and then later with a hair dryer to accelerate the warm up. This weekend it finally stop responding to the hair dryer and I have to cycle through the power to catch an on cycle (about 20 on/off).
Wife has been bugging me to buy another TV because she has been missing shows. I tried delaying for so long and even opened up the TV to check for obvious bad capacitors. I couldn't find any visual defect and there were no power supply available to ordere because the company went out of business (defective design causes liability issue?).
Currently I'm using basic cable (analog) from Comcast and want to eventually switch to antenna when I have time to do the install. I'm thinking about 3 options:
1) Buy a new TV, that's going to cost something like $750 or so for a 42-46 in, 720p plasma or LCD, quality doesn't matter as I'm not paying for comcast HD and OTA HDTV still use only 720p mostly.
2) Buy a Tivo Series 2 for $25 without subscription, so I'm using it only as an analog receiver to get around my issues. Will be useless when I switch to antenna as it doesn't work with ATSC
3) Buy a Samsung QAM/ATSC tuner, I can use it to watch digital basic cable from Comcast, then when ready to switch to antenna, use it to watch ATSC. This guy is espensive ($80-200 on ebay) and popular, so I think in the worst case I can resell it, but ouch, it cost a lot for just a box.
4) Buy a CRT TV (old school) and fix the Polaroid in the mean time, I have to learn a whole bunch on switching power supply and could blow a few things up, or even need to modify a power supply from another TV to fit. I'm not sure if I have the time to do it and whether it is worth doing to only 1 unit. Beside, I have to get rid of the CRT later after I'm done fixing the Polaroid
5) Buy a 32" name brand TV for $400 or so. Whatever I should have gotten 4 years ago, and end up with a 32" monitor for DVD and games only.
Recommendation?
