NEC Plasma Issue

About 4 years ago i spashed out many thousands of dollars for a 50" NEC 50MP1 - which has conveniently now gone black. I am now finding out that apparently no-one can fix them because repairs/parts are proprietary. Can this be true? Is there no way around this? NEC want me to ship it to them and they'll send me a refurb for $5K. This seems ridiculous to me or am i being naive??? Any help or thoughts greatly appreciated.