Philips 32pw6006 Problems

[rodeoraymond]

Hi

I am having problems with a Philips 32/PW6006 tv (bought around October, 2002 - so therefore out of guarantee).

Over the past couple of weeks I have noticed discolouration in the bottom left-hand corner of the screen (sometimes it makes a green background look a bit blue, sometimes the discolouration is red). Switching off the tv and restarting after several times seems to sort the problem. However, in the last week or so, also when the tv is switched on after being off for a while (i.e. overnight) the picture is badly bent (curves inwards) down the right side of the screen. This bad distortion goes away after a minute or so. Images do however remain to seem suffer distortion when there is a lot of white in the picture i.e. straight vertical lines can appear bent at the top or bottom of an image on screen (I have always noticed some distortion i.e. the Tesco advert with a white background seems to appear wavy for a split second, but the problem seems to be worse now).

I have made sure there are no items close to the tv producing a magnetic field as I believe this can cause the discolouration of a corner of a screen. Lately, the tv doesn't always make the 'thud' sound when it is turned on (which I believe is the degaus of the screen) Is there a component that could be faulty that is making this happen?

The website suggests switching off, removing the plug from the wall socket, leaving unplugged for 20 minutes and restarting. I have tried this but it does not solve the above problems. They do however suggest trying this procedure up to five times - is it worth it? Would a screen that needs degaussing have the problems of the distortion on the right side of the screen?

The nearest approved service centre is some considerable distance away. There is a call-out fee of about £30, and would cost anything from about £60 to repair (if a simple fault to fix) up to about £350 (if the tube needed replacing - a new tv would be cheaper). As the picture quality is still very good I am a bit reluctant to send the tv on a long journey (as you know it is quite heavy and would also have to be taken down a flight of stairs). Is it possible though that if it is a minor problem that isn't looked at that it could eventually lead to a major failure of the tv (ie. the tube)?

Should I keep the tv switched on all the time as the problems only appear at switch-on, keep the tv in standby or switch off at night?

Any suggestions/advice would be much appreciated. Thank you.

P.S. Ever since I've had the tv, widescreen pictures don't seem to display the full width of the broadcast picture i.e. logos in the corners, or phone lines displayed during programmes sometimes have their first character missing - is this something that could be fixed by going into the service screen?