Broke television: recycle, fix?

[Travis]

I have a Panasonic 43 inch LCD television that the sound recently stopped working.  It's the kind with the wider base and a big square lamp inside it.  The problem appears to be somewhere between the HDMI port and the sound board inside the tv.  The HMDI cable transmits video with no problem, but no sound will go across it.  The tv is at least 5 years old and I'm trying to figure out if it's worth trying to get it repaired and sell it or just take it to the county recycling center.

[MissPeach]

If you open up the TV can you actually see where the issue is coming from? My BF's TV has gone out twice. I don't know a lot about electronics but he worked when he was younger repairing stuff. Even though the source was usually in different places, you could clearly see it was from caps that blew out. In my limited experience you could pretty clearly see what the issue was when you pulled the cover off the TV. We were able to figure out how to fix it between youtube and the specs for the TV (which told us which part it was).

The first time we just ran to Fryes and the cap was crazy expensive at $5-10. The second time BF went to an electronic repair shop to purchase the cap and it was $0.25. I think we also bought a soldering gun for the first time in that $5-10.

I would also recommend googling and seeing if there is a common component that has similar issues. We have a Samsung and it had common issues with the power supply. That was one of the caps that blew.

[the fixer]

Check Craigslist for anyone offering to buy or repair TVs. I know there's a guy in the DC area who does this as his full-time job. He paid me cash for an old TV with some issues, then he either replaces whatever's broken or uses the TV for parts to repair others he collects from people.

[Travis]

I keep forgetting how versatile CL is.  I found two offers in my area to buy broken TVs and one offer to just take it off my hands for proper recycling. 

[Travis]

The Craigslist guy said it was above him and the local repair shop looked it up and the replacement part costs twice what the tv is worth (built in 2004).  I found a local electronics recycling company that will pick it up and strip it for parts and properly recycle the rest.  They'll come get it from the house at no cost.