Well we ended up getting a Slim as a gift.  So that decision was made for us.  And we LOVE it!  Not for any practical reasons but mostly because it's new and TINY.  It's also a big plus that it's free.  We ended up moving the old 60gb to the bedroom and are passing off our previous bedroom 40gig to the gift givers. 

A am still torn on the backwards compatibility.  I don't have a HUGE PS2 library I want to play.  It's basically two franchises.  Kingdom Hearts and God of War.  I play both of those often enough that I want backwards compatibiliy.  With the God of War compilation half of my worry is gone, and by moving it in the bedroom I still have the option to play Kingdom Hearts should I get the urge.  Other than those two series, I only have the Lunar remakes from the PS1 that I occasionally like to play every few years or so.  I love that series but I'm not that fond of the changes in the PS1 versions, so I'll probably stick to firing up the old SegaCD when that itch comes along.  What's weird about the backwards compatibility debates, is someone always suggests a PS2.  It makes me feel incredibly weird, I have a PS2!  I guess I'm the only PS2 owner who detests the idea of still leaving it connected when I've upgraded my console.  I feel like my PS3 would, should and could play these games and that I've moved on from the PS2 days.  Plus we have limited shelf space in the living room (HD Tivo, PS3, 360 and Wii all sharing three shelves).  I guess it's knowing that there's no practical reason I can't play my PS2 games on my PS3 that really irks me.  Sony's had trouble getting people to buy PS3 games and instead of focusing on and creating compelling titles for the library, they instead hinder backwards compatibility.  I guess these are the usual points, it's just bizarre to me.  When I bought my console at launch B/C was one of the bigger selling points that it had over MS and I feel somewhat betrayed now.  They sure didn't have a problem taking trash at the competition when they had better B/C, now that the tables have turned it's just a bit hard to swallow. 

But that's all besides the point.  Thanks for your input and thoughtful responses though!  And great job on fixing your TV.  That sort of stuff intimidates me way too much.  I did manage to find a "fix" for my 60gig PS3 along the same lines.  After doing a bit of investigation I found out that 1 1/2 of my USB ports still work.  The first port works most of the time, and the third port works about half the time.  What scared me is that plugging them in causes all sorts of horrible scraping noise and you can literally see the pins in there being mangled.  So I hopped on eBay and bought a USB hub for about $3.  I plugged it into the first port and it works, I figure as long as I don't unplug it I should be good for the life of the console!  And now I have four ports again.  It's not an ideal solution, now I have this ugly sparkly grey cable permanently sticking out of the front of my console… but saving $147 is worth that price!  Not quite as adventurous as your solution, but it made me feel proud!  lol  How'd your TV repair go?

Actually Xbox 360 Failure Rate Reaches 54%

A new survey published in Game Informer\'s print edition indicates the Xbox 360 failure rate has climbed to a shocking 54.2%. The magazine surveyed nearly 5000 readers, asking them about their experience dealing with broken consoles.

Here are their findings:

Console failure rate

Xbox 360 – 54.2%
Playstation 3 – 10.6%
Wii – 6.8%

Percentage of console owners who suffered a second hardware failure after the original repair.

Xbox 360 – 41.2%
Playstation 3 – 14.7%
Wii – 11%

Percentage of people who rate their customer service experience \"very helpful\"

Nintendo – 56.1%
Sony – 51.1%
Microsoft – 37.7%

Percentage of respondents whose friends have had console hardware failures.

Xbox 360 – 69.9%
Playstation 3 – 12.4%
Wii – 6%

Source: http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/101/1014486p1.html

Thought it was PS3 – 11%
360-36-50%
My friends 360\'s all died…..lol