Sony TRV7 LCD screen gone west!

[adrianl]

Does anyone please have any advice on fault developed by LCD screen of Sony TRV7E miniDV?

Fine up till today (no dimming or anything so I don't suspect backlight problems). Using it today the display was intermittent as if video cable connecting it to its driver electronics was fractured. Now the display looks really weird. Very gloomy and ghostly images as if one of the special effects were being used (it isn't!).

The colour viewfinder display is still fine so I know the guts of getting signal from heads/sensor to display is ok. Hence I suspect specific problem with connections/driver circuits to the 3.5inch LCD.

Anyone seen this or similar? Can anyone suggest a good outfit for repairs (in past Ive gone to Sony UK repair place near Heathrow but that's shut now and website is coy about where it's moved to!).

The camcorder is 8 years old and I suppose I should get a new one (more compact, 3 CCDs etc) but it's beautifully constructed (contradiction I know when I'm discussing a fault!). Picking up current models they feel horribly plasticky and controls operate very poorly compared with quality feel of TRV7. I've also modified it for DV-in so I can use it for editing and stuff. All in all I'd love to get it repaired if economic but otherwise realistic enough to throw it away and be happy with 8 years' good use/memories, though on average only shot about 3 hours per year during that time!).

Thanks for any input - have spent loads of time reading/contributing to dvd recorder/plasma/av amp sections of this forum but never visited this area before. Nice to meet you all.

Adrian