Its true that the socketed chips in the older machine make them easy to repair but the suface mounted chips are suposed to more reliable its what is called progress but as with all modern stuff its cheaply made, so manafacturers can make more profit/money no modern stuff is reliable as the older stuff quality is rare these days .cars, computers ,hifi and 90% of what is made is today is poor quality crap made of plastic.
I remember when my dads telivsions used to last over 10 years without repair his modern philips had to be repaired under warranty after 2 years of use and just this week the remote control has died not good on this set because it has a known problem with the on off switch wich can even cause fire ,switch was replaced once but philips recomend using the remote to put it into standby rather than use it . :-?