Mitsubishi 45" Big Screen Rear Projection TV Destruction Pictures - A Television Repair Gone Bad

Mitsubishi 45" Projection TV Demolition
Pictures of my friends and I destroying our faulty 45 inch Mitsubishi big screen rear projection television.

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$800 TV Repair Bill?

Or Destroy It?

During my last year of college at the University of Florida in Gainesville FL, my treasured 45" Mitsubishi rear projection television burned out. One of my roommate's helped me load the big screen TV into the bed of his truck and we went to a television repair shop for an estimate.

The wrinkled old man at the repair shop handed me his estimate after a quick diagnostics. His eyes told me that it wasn't going to be pretty. A total of $800.00 was required to replace the bulbs and other components.

Since I was in college at the time, there was no way I could afford to spend eight hundred dollars to repair an old television that had served us faithfully for more than 10 years.

I gave my friends the nod that signaled we were going to go ahead with plan "B". A mischievous smile crept across their faces while a frown dominated mine.

I asked my friends to give me a few moments with my beautiful big screen television so that I could say goodbye to an old friend who had helped me waste countless hours watching movies or playing video games when I should have been studying. Once my goodbyes were said, it was time for TV destruction and demolition fun!

We employed large cinder blocks, 2x4 pieces of wood, and an empty keg to facilitate the "reverse engineering" of this complicated Japanese-made rear projection TV. At one point I wrapped the repair shop estimate around a rock and tossed it into the screen. I won't be needing those new Mitsubishi OEM projector bulbs, high voltage generator, or power supply.

Television Rubble

After my old Mitsubishi 45 inch TV was reduced to rubble we disposed of it in the nearest dumpster. Who wants to wait for bulk trash day anyway? That's the only reason that we spent an hour demolishing the old television rather than just putting it out by the trash cans on the curb.

TV In The Dumpster

Now that we lacked a television in the living room of our "charming" college bachelor apartment, we needed a replacement. We pondered over Picture-Tube CRT TVs, LCD Flat Panels, Plasma Flat-Panel screens, and huge Rear Projection television. Yet again, our measly college student budget reared it's ugly head and we went with a modest 25" Samsung picture tube TV with front and rear composite cable hookups for our Nintendo 64 and Sony Playstation. (Yes, this happened many years ago.)

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