Here's your story. Your TV just went out recently. Maybe lightning hit a utility pole and shorted out your TV during a storm. Maybe you're an experienced electrician who thinks that "hey, I've been doing electrical work on a wide variety of appliances over several years and have a bit of knowledge about computer repair, surely, TV's can't be that different?" Or maybe you're just a DIYer who likes to figure things out and knows a bit more than the average Joe or Jane on all things electronics-related. So you're like, "Hey, I'll just jump on Google and search for my TV model. Piece of cake, right?" Well, actually, it's not that simple. 

You see, TV's aren't like computers in that the individual parts (as in the RAM, the graphics card, Network Interface Card (NIC), etc) are universal. That is, you can go to any electronics store, whether online or in-store, and buy these parts and put them into your computer so as long as your motherboard supports that card's or memory's specs. 

TV's are different with that respect. The manner in which TV manufacturer's build TV's and their respective components is set up such that no single TV model will share the same exact parts. What does that mean? That means every TV model that's out there, regardless of brands? They may have the same TV model label sticker slapped on the back of the TV but the parts inside are totally different from another identical TV of the same model sitting on the shelf of a BestBuy or any one of several local electronics stores in your area. Why is that? Because they don't want independent TV repair centers (or everyday DIYer's) trying to fix their TV's, if they ever decide to break (and they will--given enough time and heat). They want customers to bring their TV's to their "authorized service centers" of those respective TV brands so that they can charge you out the ass to fix them. Essentially, it all boils down to money and control. Pretty evil, right? Yea, we agree but you got to admit, it's also a pretty clever scheme to push out competitors and maintain their oligopoly in the electronics industry.

And every few years, the manufacturers will change up their system which keeps everyone guessing. So not only does every TV that's out there contain different parts per model and/or series, they also require the "correct" TV panel that goes along with it. On top of that, some manufacturers like Sony and Sharp, for instance, make their circuit boards serial number specific and/or batch number specific (meaning that unless the parts came from a specific serial number range or batch number range, and despite having the same part number, it won't work if you try to put it in your TV). But wait, there's more. Other manufacturers like Samsung and Philips make their circuit boards such that only if the Main Board and T-Con Board or Main Board and Logic Board are from the same revision number or same version number will work together--otherwise, it won't work. At this point, you probably have that "WTF" expression on your face. We hear you and we totally understand how confusing and, more importantly, frustrating it can be. But then again, that's why we're here to educate you all with what we know so we can all benefit from this knowledge.

The good news is that every TV model will have a specific "set" of TV parts and TV panels (what the layman's would call "the screen"). So at the most, every TV model will only contain about 5-7 different sets of parts and TV panels. Why? Because it's not cost effective for the manufacturers to make more due to inflation and consumer demand for newer (albeit, not necessarily better) TV's. At this point, it's a just a matter of figuring out what the part number is and we'd like to point out that this is where it can get especially frustrating. Every TV Brand will have two sets of part numbers. One from the manufacturer and one from the supplier who made the circuit board. You can think of it this way. The manufacturer designs the blueprints for the circuit boards but it's the suppliers that actually make the boards. In most cases, the manufacturer's part number will not be readily apparent or available nor will they be freely given out by calling the manufacturer's customer care centers (at least not without jumping through some hoops and being placed on hold for a number of hours). In fact, it's not even something that they advertise to the general public. So how does one find the part number? Well, the only other way is to use the part number supplied by the circuit board itself (in other words, the supplier's part number). And in most instances, one can certainly figure it out. Most part numbers will generally be found on a serial number sticker that's located directly on the surface of the circuit board. Sometimes, it's not so obviously displayed like "P/N: 1234567XYZ." Sometimes, only a partial part number is found buried within the serial number sticker itself. Sometimes, there won't even be a serial number sticker but some obscure serial number stamp that's engraved on the board itself. There's just too many variations out there to cover in this entry but just know that in most instances, the part number is found on either the serial number sticker found on the surface of a circuit board or it's a serial number stamp that's engraved on the board. 

Lastly, most online retailer's will use the supplier's part number that can be found on the circuit board itself, not the manufacturer's, although some bigger companies will include both. We use predominantly the supplier's part number as opposed to the manufacturer's part number (but we do include them, if available) so if you're searching on our website TVPartsGuy.com, please use the part number that's found on the circuit board itself. Hopefully, this clears up any confusion that's going on in the World Wide Web.