Hitachi being replaced under warranty...crap..?

[Saint]

I've had my Hitachi 51f500 for over a year now...closer to two years. The power motherboard is defective and started making a high pitched noise.

They sent a technician who said he'd order the part, but apparently it's $1000 for a new board so they're just replacing the whole t.v.

The guy said it was likely that it would be a 51F510, the newer model. As far as I can tell the differences are:

- Silver case on the 51F510 instead of black/dark grey cabinet.
- HDMI interface on the 51F510 replaces the standard DVI interface found on the 51F500 (you can buy an adapter to use DVI devices with
HDMI)
- New remote control

I don't care about the remote since I use a universal, and the HDMI I suppose is nice to have (my DVI dvd player broke anyway), and it has stuff like virtual 1080p.

That said, normally I'd be pretty happy but:

- I semi-recently paid over $300 to have my TV pro configured by a technician. This money would be pretty much a completely wasted cost

- The t.v. ironically has stopped making the annoying noise, so I suppose I could DECLINE the replacement, but then if something else goes wrong they'd probably be justified in not warranting it or replacing it

- On the other hand, I'd get a completely new t.v. (would it be covered by my original extended warranty), and I suppose I waited 1.5 years to have the old one done, I could save up a few months to have this one done too.

Comments? Suggestions?

[Mort Corey]

If you had it ISF calibrated I'd not mention it to the warranty people. I've read that some manufactureres will void the warranty if any adjustments were made in the service menu......yeh, it's bogus, but I still would just keep quiet.

You'd have to read the verbage in the extended warranty, but generally, once they replace the set all bets are off. You get the new TV but their extended warranty ends with that. YMMV

Mort

[Duffinator]

Originally Posted by Saint

- On the other hand, I'd get a completely new t.v. (would it be covered by my original extended warranty), and I suppose I waited 1.5 years to have the old one done, I could save up a few months to have this one done too.

Comments? Suggestions?

I'd just exchange it and move on. I had a similar situation with my Toshiba 56H80 and they replaced my set. They told me the warranty started on the new set when I received it, so it was a new warranty and is backed up by the delivery invoice which included the serial number printed on it. But it could be different with Hitachi.