This, again, proves to me how incredibly important the #RightToRepair is and how stupidly expensive and challenging access to repair parts is for everyday folks and their everyday items like a (pretty expensive) TV.

Big shout-out to this guy who made the video that helped me repair my TV!

https://youtube.com/watch?v=7EJgA5pnSfI

Which is also a fantastic reminder of what used to be so great about YouTube. Just people sharing helpful videos.

At the time of the video creation, a new chip was about $5/3.5GBP/4€

I bought the chip two weeks ago. It was 40€ (incl. VAT and import fees). The lowest offer I could find was a French store for about 26€, but I didn't fully trust it since I couldn't verify the store.

So today I got the part. Opened up the TV. Switched out the chip. Put the TV back together and everything is working again.

It's the IR chip, and it's a super common issue in those TVs. It's often a failing capacitor. That cap would be at most(!) 30 cents.

The problem is, that cap is, I think, a 0402 size cap... Try soldering that at home!

I used a USB/BT remote for a while, but that locked away certain features (I couldn't access the picture/audio sub-menu).

It was only until about 2 weeks ago, that I stumbled across a YT video of some guy in the UK doing videos on TV repair.

This guy made a video on this exact issue I was running into... The remote suddenly stops working, and nothing is helping but RMA'ing the TV.