Why does the color fade after watching television a few hours?

Robert, this could be caused by a failing inverter, bad ccfl as well as bad capacitors on the main board. I would suggest to take a look at the mainboard and check the capacitors for any bulging, leaking etc. Remember that there was a big issues with Samsung having used sub par capacitors. Your TV is part of the group that was affected by this. Check this site.. Of course it is also possible that this is a bad white balance. Go into service mode and see what checksum you get on White balance. It should be 0x000. to access the service mode Turn the power off and set to stand-by mode

Press the remote buttons in this order; POWER OFF-MUTE-1-8-2-POWER ON to turn the set on.

The set turns on and enters service mode. This may take approximately 20 seconds.

Press the Power button to exit and store data in memory.

- If you fail to enter service mode, repeat steps 1 and 2 above.

There is also a way of resetting your set to factory default, I'll keep you posted. Hope this helps, good luck.

Update

To access it would be the following :"Access Service Mode

Using the remote

1 Turn the power off and set to stand-by mode

2 Press the remote buttons in this order; POWER OFF-MUTE-1-8-2-POWER ON to turn the set on.

3 The set turns on and enters service mode. This may take approximately 20 seconds.

4 Press the Power button to exit and store data in memory.

- If you fail to enter service mode, repeat steps 1 and 2 above.

5 Initial SERVICE MODE DISPLAY State

'''* How to enter the hidden factory mode.

a. into the factory mode

b. key input : 0 + 2 + 1 + 4 + exit

c. select option byte menu -> in menu -> out menu

(... hidden menu appear...)

hidden menu : Video/Scaler, Enhancement, SOUND, Dynamic Contrast, LNA+

- FBE3(image enhance IC) generate internal pattern'''

Under the option byte tab, you should find a factory reset, may be that will help. Just in case it is a firmware/software issue.