I have a 2004 Panasonic plasma and the display is screwed up, anybody have any ideas?

Question

When I am simply watching cable television, there are no problems. However, when I switch to another input, such as my DVD player or XBox, the screen looks as follows: it will show the left-most 2/3 of the screen, followed by a squiggly vertical line, and then the left-most 1/3 of the screen again. Needless to say it's pretty hard to watch a movie or play a game this way.

I called a few TV repair shops recommended by Panasonic, and since it is past warranty the best offers I have gotten are $200 to come to me to merely diagnose the problem (it's free if I bring to them but I don't have a car and live in Manhattan), and then a minimum of another $200 to fix the problem (could be more than that).

If anybody has an idea what the problem is and how much it might be to fix it, I'd think about fixing it. Otherwise, I'll give the TV to someone in my family and tell them to pay to fix it if they want to do anything besides watch cable, then just buy a new TV.

Answer 1

This is a simple fix.  You will not be able to get the part yourself.  Call Panasonic customer care.  [phone]  They won't pay for the repair, but they'll help you find an authorized service center.  Tell the service center the picture is shifted by 2/3 only on 480i signal.  Have your model number and serial number ready.  If the technician does not know the fix, tell them to call Panasonic Technical support and ask for Lee.  He will know the fix and the technician will be able to give you a real estimate and not have to come out to diagnose the problem.  This way you can decide if you want to keep it or not.  This is for only this problem that this solution will work.  Just have blind faith on me with this one.  You can have your TV working like normal in a week if you do this.