Entertainment Center: TVs, Stereos, VCRs and DVDs - Mitsubishi CS2724R TV picture flickering periodically

Hello, and thanks in advance for your help!

I recently bought a mitsubishi CS-2724R 27" TV in eBay (I think the TV is 12 years old). It works great most of the time with really sharp picture, great sound etc. but periodically the picture starts flickering, sometimes really badly. the flickering is minimal most of the time but gets worse sometimes and then goes back to the minimal flickering. Sometime's the flickering is accompanied by a crackling noise from the speakers (you can hear it when the sound is turned low). The TV has Picture-In-Picture, and this feature works fine.

What do you think the problem could be? And would it be expensive to fix?

Thanks again for your help.

Does flickering mean picture rolls vertically? When you do PIP, is the picture in the PIP flicker as well? You can also try to reverse the picture using PIP exchange function on the remote, do you notice any differences between the main screen and the small window?

Thanks for the quick follow-up!

It doesn't really roll vertically. Just flickers as if the power is fluctuating or something. Also, it seems to be very susceptible to vibration, if you tap the tv cabinet lightly it gets worse for a brief moment. Could it just be a loose connection?

I will take your suggestion and test the PIP this evening and post the result here.

Thanks again for your help.

I looked at the PIP and used the exchange function to reverse the PIP display. The flickering remained in both the main window and the PIP window in both cases.

I read in an earlier post about a filter capacitor in the low voltage power supply failing - could this problem be caused by the same culprit?

When the picture in the pip is rolling while the picture on the main screen is rolling, do both of them flickering at the same time? Look carefully since the main screen flickering always impact the pip screen, but within the PIP screen itself, does it flicker exactly the same as the big screen? If both flicker at the same rate, the problem comes from something common to both, like power supply or any common circuit that share between PIP and regular picture.

Since your picture is not rolling. Your problem is totally different from what I have experienced earlier with other Mitsubishi. You might want to get a schematic and start measuring the voltages at test points to see if you can locate the problem. This is a scientific way to fix your TV. I don't know what to guess at this point.