I am having an issue with my Sony KP-46WT510. It is a 46 inch rear projection TV I bought from a sony store. They tell me there is nothing they can do!!!! I payed 24,000 CAD for a there TV and they will do nothing to help me!?!?!?!?! WOW No more sony crap for me!

So the issue is, the screen has been getting proggressively darker over the last 1-2 years. I currently have the brightness at max and the Contrast/Picture at 30%. The whites are very bright and the rest of the image is starting to get to dark to ajust for.

What can I do?

PIC

You mean you paid $2,400 for it. ;)

As for what the Sony Store staffers told you, is it because you are trying to get them to fix the TV but the warranty has expired so they cannot do anything for you unless you pay for parts and service yourself?

We just need the technical info you got and we hope to get a better understanding of such a situation that would cause them to say that there is nothing they can do. Just the facts, please.

For the record, the Sony KP-46WT500/510/520 line of 1080i HDTVs were excellent (better with each version) although they predated HDMI (they do sport a digital video connector) and so may not connect optimally with modern Cable or Satellite receivers, high end disc players, or top end game consoles in the way that today's flat panels routinely do. They predated ATSC tuners too for Digital OTA reception. All in all they are starting to show up fairly commonly on web sites like Craigslist all across Canada.

Lastly please put your location into your user profile so that we can provide answers that may be more precise due to where you are.

Thanks for your response. They have not had a look at. They just told me striaght out that it probably needs a new CRT and that it would cost 800.00! They told me that this modal has a history of the "light engine" going bad on it after just a few years. I told them that the TV is not even 4 years old! They didn't care. I mean I have a 700.00 RCA 27 inch that has had 2 owners and is 15 years old and the picture is just fine!

sounds to me like a lamp failure is immanent

There are no lamps in that series - there are 3 CRTs inside (red, blue, green) mounted in lens housings. It is odd that they would be failing in unison after less than 4 years unless the TV had been left on 24 hrs a day all that time, which I'd be surprised to hear. To me I'd be thinking the problem is in one of the boards. A typical board swap diagnosis/repair job from a small shop in Toronto might run you between $300 and $600 rather than going through Sony, but you need to confirm that by calling around to a bunch of them in the Yellow Pages.

Apart from the dimness, is the picture still sharp or has it started to get fuzzy and a bit out of focus?

BTW the 510 series was built only until about the middle of 2004. The label sticker on the back tells the month and year of manufacture.

I know this doesn't help you, but my rule of thumb is you pay ~$600-800 per year for CRT RPTVs. Doesn't matter when you bought it, within the last 10 years or so. IOW, for a $2400 purchase price, you should expect 3-4 years and then it's gravy. Paid $4000 in 2002? Then you should get 5-7 years before "problems". This is just a rule of thumb as I said, but I've noticed it, and it also accounts for construction etc. quality (not necessarily performance though) that deteriorates over a technology's lifetime.

Sorry to say, but from what I've noticed over the years, you're at the stage of my observed pattern. It's not fair, just the way it seems to be...

I can tell you they built the later CRT RPTVs VERY cheaply compared to the earlier ones, started skimping like they always do in later electronics generations (IMO the 2nd gen. is almost always the best buy for durability, after the 1st gen bugs are ironed out but before the 3rd gen skimping starts due to accumulated experience).

Shawn, You could try to carefully clean the 3 CRTs and the mirror inside since they accumulate dust over the years. Not shure if it will help with your problem but it did give me a brighter image on my 5 years old Sony RPTV.

I am surprised. I owned a Sony rear projection CRT TV and finally noticed it was "dim" 8+ years after purchase and it was an $1100 demo set.

I also am surprised I've owned the same model as you for almost 5 years now, not one problem and kids watch it constantly the last 12 months. I had it looked at before warranty was out last February and was told be service tech that he hardly has issues with these sets. The service man also said to annually wipe off the dust from the bulbs and carefully remove any spider webs if present. Generally all that mightgo is the (chip / board). All around this is a good set to have.

I have the exact same TV, and I had the exact same problem last year. Over the course of about 6 months the black level got progressively darker and darker, though the white level (contrast) never changed. I had to keep cranking up the brightness every week to compensate. But the good news is that the fading stabilized itself before I had to set brightness to the max, and I haven't had to change it for the last 6 months. So maybe you'll also be lucky and the fading will stop as mysteriously as it started :)