Quote Originally Posted by edtyct
To me, the prospect is attractive, for the very reasons that you give. As you say, we obviously have this privilege, to some extent, in the high-turnover computer industry, as well as, oddly enough, the upper echelons in audio, where companies like Meriden and Lexicon offer consumers upgrade opportunities for some of their big-ticket items by card, now and in the future. Computers, however, are largely manageable devices, in terms of their size and basic layout, for which user-installable parts exist simultaneously with the ones already in the computer. The system is geared to swapping out computer chips and cards relatively cheaply and easily. The high-end audio components capable of user upgrades are confined to the higher reaches of the arcane and the expensive; both the components and the upgrades for them tend to cost a lot of money and thus sell in small quantities. Moreover, the companies involved are little more than cottage industries, compared to the major TV manufacturers or the computer consortium.

RPTVs are often big, ungainly, and mysterious. Most people would not be comfortable opening one up, and they could easily disrupt something in doing so. Furthermore, simply unplugging one from the wall does not always eliminate dangerous voltages. As one who has been stung by a the insides of a CRT, I don't recommend anyone going inside without knowing exactly how to do it. The elements on a DLP or LCD chip would not seem to permit the comparably rough, or inexpert, handling that computer chips can stand.

You also have to ask what's in it for the various manufacturers? Take the DLP chip, which comes from Texas Instruments. Is it in, say, Samsung's interest to allow Texas Instruments to sell upgrade chips directly to their consumers? Or is it in Texas Instruments' interest to do so when most of their bread is buttered by manufacturers of scale? Sony at this point is even wary of consumers doing their own firmware upgrades for fear of how problems might rebound on the company. True, other companies seem to have no problem with it, but Sony's willingness to draw their line a little earlier might be a clue to what other companies would do when pushed a little further. Then, is it in Samsung's interests to stock and sell chips for TVs and technologies that have planned obsolescence written all over them? You can bet that the price of TVs takes into consideration the very life cycles that you mentioned. Regardless of how chip replacement might appeal to a small segment of the TV buying public, it's hard to imagine that the various manufacturers would see much benefit to it.

Well, that's my 2/100 of a dollar.

Ed
i'm sure you're right.. if there is ever to be any upgradability, it will be more of a service tech operation than merely adding some ram to my computer, tho it seems that could be designed around... but the bottom line, as usual, is the bottom line: the big mfgrs want to sell the whole new deal. it'll take some changes up and down the line, from consumer to retailer, to service tech, to manufacturers - to effect anything along this line. as i said, this is kinda what i do, so maybe i'll have a chance to mess around with the idea. talk to some industry folks in the context of 'reducing electronic waste', etc... already people are talking about 'take back' programs for old electronics, as well as other products (out of date pharmaceuticals, eg.) so this may not be out of the question in the future.