HELP! w/ Hitachi 57TWX20B (1 Viewer)

[Matt AR]

Hello,
I just took delivery of the 57TWX20B yesterday and I am having a few problems. First of all I have 3 "dim" spots on the bottom of the screen. The first is centered directly on the bottom edge, about 2 inches long and half an inch tall. The other two are about 6 inches to the right and left of the first spot, about 1/2 inch tall and 1/2 inch wide. You can only see these spots when directly centered in front of the screen. You cannot see them when at an angle to the tv.
The second problem is with calibrating the television. I used the Sound and Vision disc to calibrate after letting the television warm up for a few hours. I then proceded to watch LOTR. I began to notice that all deep blacks had a red tint to them. The only way I would get rid of this was to change the color setting to "High" from "Standard". Is this normal? I was under the impression that I should avoid the "High" color setting.
Any and all help would be appreciated...
Oh, I am using a Sony DVP-S530D DVD player connected by component video cable.

 

[Matt AR]

Anyone?

 

[MatthewH]

Matt, I have had my 57TWX20B for about less than a week now and I am extremely happy with it. No problems to speak of. As for the problems you are having, it sounds like they should be able to be corrected after proper calibration. I have only used the "magic focus" feature since everything looks pretty dead on. I also use the "standard" color setting as the "High" setting is too bright. Hopefully you will get the problem taken care of. It is a wonderful television. No regrets!!

 

[Matt AR]

Thanks for the input MatthewH.

This is the confusing part to me. The Standard setting gives me the brightest picture. Medium is dimmer, and High even more so. I was under the impression that this should be the other way around.

As far as the "dim" spots go, they show up no matter what I do. They are especially noticeable on movies like Toy Story which has a lot of vibrant color. I am wondering if the screen has a flaw.

Just out of curiosity, what do you have your contrast, brightness, color, tint and sharpness set to?
Thanks again for the help.

 

[MatthewH]

i have been on vacation all week but have just begun to tinker with this television. I have my color temperature set to medium. As far as my other settings, they are just set to what is pleasing to my eye. I have not used my AVIA disk yet, going to wait a week or two. Anyway, I have contrast set at 31%, brightness at 40%, color at 45% and sharpness at 25%. DVD's look spectacular, and digital satellite is not bad. However, I cannot get my XBOX to look right. Even with the above settings, using the four different modes and the contrast turned down, the picture looks horrible. Everything is washed out, there is no detail. I just cant figure it out. I am using only composite cables, however, the picture on my 27 inch analog TV is 10 times better than on my new digital TV. Anyone have any suggestions, I am getting ready to hook the XBOX back to the old tv soon.

 

[John Royster]

Matthew,

buy the xbox HD pack and use component cables, set your xbox to output 480p and 1080i. On nice displays your video source and cables make a big difference. avoid comosite connections like the plague.

 

[Matt AR]

No one else has any thoughts on this? These are not problems that are necessarily Hitachi specific. I figured that I would not be the only one to experience anything like this and that I might be able to get some help from the forum.

 

[MatthewH]

Matt, you might try the Hitachi forum at the hometheaterspot.com Someone there might be able to shed some light on your problem.

 

[Miles M]

Matt,

Let me try this again, I tried to reply earlier but when I hit submit my computer crashed.

Dark spot in center bottom of screen:
-- This sounds like one of the sensors used for Magic Focus is creating this shadow. But I am not sure why you would see shadows on the left and right, but I know the sensors are at the center of each side(bottom,left,right,top) You could take off the screen and see for yourself, but may be better off calling service.

Red in dark scenes:
-- This sounds like low light white balance adjustment was maybe incorrect. I have heard Hitachi have some problems with blue in low light situations in the past.
-- If you change from low to high(color temperature) then you should also notice the bright scenes are affected.
-- It may be you need to adjust tint/turn auto color-ON/ or try setting the Theater Mode to MOVIE to get a good pix with different DVD players, I would try that too.

And many people think High is brighter than Low(color temp.) I think this is because blue looks brighter. But if you actually measure the light output you will find exactly the opposite.

I think if you get the set professionally calibrated, you will be extremely happy with it.