So a local guy (about two hours away) wants to trade a head unit and amp that have been sitting in my garage not being used for ~9 months for a 3 year old 52" Samsung HDTV. Apparently he recently had the convergence chips replaced and it needs to be "aligned", but I don't know anything about HDTV's...anybody know anything about how common this is or how difficult it is to do and does that look like what's going on in these pictures?





Is it worth the drive to pick it up or is it junk?

 

I have one similar, convergence is pretty easy to do with the remote. If it were me, I'd tell him to converge and then send new pics, so that you can be sure you're not buying a piece before you set off. Yes, that's what's going on in the pictures.

A bigger question might be; what will you get out of it if you do get this thing? You're about to be away from home for awhile, and single servicemembers aren't allowed to move the same amount as hitched ones. Something to consider.

 

This is true, but when I leave my little brother (ten y.o) will take over my room and all of my stuff will stay right where it's at now. If I was buying it I wouldn't buy it, but since it's helping to clean out my garage (getting rid of old car audio stuff I have no use/desire for) it's actually benefiting me except for the gas I will use to get it.

He's under the impression that he needs all kinds of special tools to re-align it which from my limited research is not true. I kinda want to tell him this and make him do it, but if he does he'll probably want more than an ~$80 stereo and ~$50 amp for it. What are the odds that it's something more serious than needing an alignment? When I asked if he had proof of swapping ot the chips with new ones he said he'd have the old ones in a bag to go along with the tv... so

 

If you don't care about the stuff you're trading for it, go for it then. If it turns out to need more than he says you're not out too much, and once it's fixed you'll have a 52" TV for cheap.

For reference, I paid $325 for my 47" HDTV so $130 for a 52" is a steal.

 

If I think Convergence calibration means what I think it means, you may not be able to get it perfectly calibrated without the device the pro's use.