I have a KP-51HW40 set that I purchased in 2002. I noticed the flicker issue only months after buying the set but nobody else said they could see it. Over time, the problem got worse. I found that Sony acknowledges a problem with some of their tubes and I strongly suspect my set is one with the defective tubes.
Onto the problem... in my area there are very few Sony authorized service centers. The few that I have found are rental centers or stores who are only servicing sets purchased from them. I have found one service center that is willing to come out and evaluate the set for the flicker issue. The catch is that they only do warranty work OR work on their own sets. If they evaluate the set and it isn't the flicker problem, they walk out the door. I then have to find another service shop willing to come out (no small task) and pay them another service call fee just to diagnose the problem not to mention any additional work to fix it.
I have a service man locally that has done work for me before and I trust him completely but he is not Sony authorized. If I can give him the information he needs (the technical bulletin that covers this problem) he could do the evaluation. If it is the flicker issue I could then call the Sony center and have them come on out. They could then do their own evaluation and fix the set under warranty.
Does anyone out there have the specific information on identifying sets with this defect?
