Is your Sony Bravia flat-panel HDTV in danger of spontaneously combusting? Maybe. Sony has begun recalling 1.6 million Bravias due to a faulty component in the backlight systems. Sony spokesperson Yuki Shima told Bloomberg that the recall was occasioned by 11 incidents of smoking or burning TVs in Japan since 2008, the most recent of which was reported last month.
Although the overheating TVs appear to be confined to Japan so far, the electronics giant plans to broaden the recall to include Europe and the US. After contacting Sony, owners of the affected Bravia models will be visited by repair technicians. If the TV has the faulty transformer identified as the cause of the issue, it will be repaired. Shima said that the company "may offer a rental TV" if the customer is going to be without his or her set as a result of the recall. There will be no replacements or refunds, however.
According to the Daily Mail, the models affected are 40" HDTVs manufactured in 2007 and 2008. Model numbers covered by the recall include KDL-40D3400, KDL-40D3500, KDL-40D3550, KDL-40D3660, KDL-40V3000, KDL-40W3000, KDL-40X3000, and KDL-40Z3000.
The news of the recall comes hot on the heels of a Sony's revealing that its PlayStation Network came under attack by hackers once again, with 93,000 accounts compromised via a third-party. Sony is also having to replace batteries in up to 2 million mobile phones in Japan due to the possibility of their overheating and melting.
