Replacing the parts
When you remove the back cover of the direct view sets, the D board, which has the two main regulator circuits that use these ICs will be the board on the left looking from behind. I recommend removing all of the connectors between the boards (they just snap up and hinge over) and all of the wires to the board except those going to the flyback transformer (the big black thing with the red wires coming out of it going to the CRT and CRT board). It is NOT necessary to remove the wires from the flyback and tube. These carry high voltages and the tube can remain charged. The connections are critical and if you damage them or do not replace them properly, you can end up with high oarcs and do a lot more damage. Leave them connected! Once you disconnect everything else and remove the screws, the board will stand up on edge and can be easily serviced with the flyback (aka FBT or IHVT or high voltage transformer) connected to the tube.
Some sites and individuals are recommending that the board not be removed and the plastic support under the chassis simply be cut to allow access to the ICs. This requires that the entire chassis be stood up or that you work upside down. I do not recommend this. First, it is sloppy work to hack up the bottom of the chassis. Second, you can damage connections or the front panel switches, or the CRT board if you are not very careful turning the chassis to the service position. Having the board out and being able to get to it easily on both sides is the better practice. If you don't want to remove the board, you can still get to the ICs from below without cutting the supports, but one of the chips has a couple of pins that are slightly behing the plastic and a little hard to get to. Just remove the board and do it right.
Desoldering the ICs can be done with solder wick or suction. Be careful of the nearby surface mount components. You will have a very bad day if you remove or lose any of these tiny capacitors or resistors that are near the pins that you are working on. Some like to cut the pins and remove them one at a time once the chip is cut free. I prefer to remove the chip intact, as you can damage nearby components or the traces on the board when cutting pins. Note that there is a DOT on one end of the outline of the chip on the board adjacent to pin 1. There is a circle, dimple, or depression on most ICs at pin 1 to identify how the chip goes in. These ICs use this convention. Be sure to put the chip in using the right direction. When soldering the new chip in, note that some of the connections may be on both or either side of the board. You can solder from the bottom for all of them, but make sure that your tip and the lands on the board are clean so that the solder flows through the hole to the other side if needed. Sometimes you have to touch the iron to the other side to get a good flow.
Some recommended tools and materials can be found at these:
http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2062731
http://www.chemtronics.com/products/product.asp?id=22
http://www.hakko.com/english/products/hakko_936.html
http://www.mcmelectronics.com/product/DISTRIBUTED-BY-MCM-SABU10191-/SABU10191
and at the vendors in the parts distributor thread:
http://www.hometheatershack.com/foru...tributors.html
Some sites and many individuals recommend using sockets to make future replacement of the chips easier. This does make it easier to change them, but I recommend against it. Sockets vary greatly in quality, and poor connections tend to plague socketed circuits unless very high quality parts are used. As a tech, I have seen many sets with socketed ICs have lots of intermittent problems over the years. In these circuits, there might be a good chance of damaging the FETs (the switching transistors that these ICs control and that carry the current to the transformers) with resistance in some of the connections. Just solder the chips in. If you must use sockets, gets some DeOxit (aka Cramolin) to treat the connections with to be sure that there is good contact.