Ah, the serial number-specific circuit boards. The first conception and use of this method by TV manufacturers is largely unknown but perhaps one of the first iterations of this started with Emerson (who also make TV's under other brands like Magnavox, Philips and Sylvania) and then later on, Sony and Toshiba adopted it as well. Nowadays with the advent and dominance of LED TV's in the common household, other lesser known brands like Vizio are slowly adopting this method as well. We think that in time, it would become commonplace for other manufacturers to start adopting this methodology to combat independent TV repair shops from effectively performing repairs for customers at a fraction of the cost that the major TV brands would ordinarily charge at their authorized service centers but this matter deserves an entry all on its own for another time. 

Today, we're going to talk about what the serial number-specific circuit board means to you and why you should be aware of it. Basically, this is how it works. Manufacturers make a series of TV panels and circuit boards that are designed only to work within certain batches of complete TV's. So they may be the same TV model "externally" as in the TV label sticker will insist that it's the same TV model but inside the TV, the parts may be completely different as well as the TV panel itself. Now, as you may know, TV manufacturers make their TV's in batches. They project what they think will sell given their research on consumer demand, the general condition of the market, whether the economy is growing or shrinking, and all that good stuff. And with this information, they project a set amount of TV's to make and ultimately, to sell to their sales channels (retailers, resellers, etc). And usually, for their first generations, they will pick a more costly and reputable supplier to make their TV's to give the end consumer, the everyday Joe and Jane who goes to Best Buy or Fry's to buy TV's, the impression that this is a great quality product--and it is, for all intents and purposes. It is actually the future generations of the same TV model (the next batches) where things change. They may pick a less costlier supplier to make the bulk of their second generation of the same TV model but still also produce a select, smaller batch of TV's from the original supplier. This goes on and on until that specific TV model either ceases to sell as much or their next generation of TV's are due to be released. Now, it used to be that certain circuit boards may be interchangeable with each other, despite the part number's being different. And to that extent, it still holds true for the circuit boards mentioned in that other entry, but not so much with the Main Boards and Digital Boards. 

So far as we know, when a serial number-specific Main Board is put into a TV that falls outside that serial number range, the TV won't work properly. In many instances, one will be confronted with a blank black screen but the TV otherwise "works," namely, that it turns on and stays on but nothing else seems to work except the power button. So functions like volume control and channel control won't work. The menu button also doesn't work as well as changing inputs, such as changing from one HDMI port to the next. It may often times lead DIYer's trying to repair their own TV's to believe that the board is faulty, which is actually false, if the individual knew that certain TV brands use serial number specific circuit boards. 

To our knowledge, these are the brands known to use serial number specific circuit boards: Sony, Emerson, Sylvania, Magnavox, Toshiba, and Vizio. Of these seven brands, Sony, Toshiba, and Vizio are probably the only brands that uses serial number specific boards in their flagship model TV's as well as some of their higher end models as well. Emerson, Sylvania, and Magnavox, on the other hand, have used serial number specific boards in all of their TV's regardless if they were their flagship models or lower end models. With that said, TV repair for the average DIYer just got that much more complicated.