What is wrong with my AKAI HDTV 1080i rear projection TV?

Question

The thing made a sound, the picture skewed, there is red/blue around the images and a pungent burning plastic stink. I unplugged it but what could it be so I have some idea before some repair person tries to fleece me?

Answer 1

Based on your description, it sounds like you have a 3-chip LCD based rear projection display. One for the red, green and blue colors to form a picture. A DLP or CRT based rear projector wouldn't give you a partial picture, more like all or nothing for them except CRTs can go B&W on you in some circumstances. Losing one of your UHP bulbs is the most common source of pops but not a burning smell, followed by an off color image. Moreover, 3-chip systems often share a single bulb for quite some time to save money so that would also result no picture at all. So the burning smell sounds more like a capacitor explosion somewhere in the TV, because that also makes a pop and definitely smells bad. This means an entire board will have to be replaced and they rarely have those items in stock.