Oliver D

Hitachi UWX10B: Flicker and Misalignment

Putting on the (f)Ritz

Over the past week, my Hitachi RPTV has been giving me some problems which seem to be becoming more serious and frequent, and are causing me concern. I wanted to run this by you guys to see what your opinions were.

I've had the set for the past 3 years and have been extremely happy with it. This was some of the best value for the money I have ever gotten on anything.

The only problem I've had is that the set will sometimes turn off randomly. This happens at most once a month.

About a week ago, I turned on the TV to see that there was a very very bad alignment problem, with the blue gun seeming to almost shoot at a diagonal. The blues were diagonal across the screen and concave. Luckily, Hitachi has the 'Magic Focus' feature where the guns re-align. That fixed it.

The next day, when I turned the TV on, it had the same issue. This time I had to hit Magic Focus two or three times. The next time the TV was on, I had to do it four times, then the guns misaligned about 3 minutes into watching TV.

What is my next step? Is this something I should call a repairman about?

I've also thought about having the set isf calibrated because the alignment isn't perfect. Is this something that I could do at the same time or are these separate issues handled by two different people?

And last but not least, since I am out of the manufacturer's warranty and even the extended warranty from Circuit City, what costs could I be looking at? $200? $500? More?

Thanks for all your help!

Chad B

I've seen similar problems with a couple different sets. It was the convergence board, which needed re seated in it's socket. I noticed on both sets that walking near the sets caused the convergence to jump in and out. Then I hit the floor with my hand, and each time the convergence jumped. I opened up the front of the set and reseated the convergence board, and the problem was solved.
Try testing it and see if it is sensitive to impact. Hopefully, that's all that's wrong with it. If that isn't the problem, I'd have the problem fixed by a service tech first, then get the ISF calibration. If the convergence board is going bad and needs replaced, the cost would probably be very high unless you can find a good deal on one. I'd guess at least $500. I know some Toshiba projection TV circuit boards I priced a few years ago were about $800-1000 each new.

ISF Video Calibrator
Servicing OH, WV, and VA

Oliver D

I've lived with this problem for a couple of weeks now and have some additional information and questions.

The "Magic Focus" feature no longer fixes the convergence issue, but usually after 30-90 minutes the convergence will right itself automatically. I contacted Hitachi and the "authorized service centers" are all pretty far away (45+ minutes).

My question is: Should I try and look in the set to see if anything looks abnormal (not seated correctly, etc) and then call the service centers? I want to make sure I'm not getting ripped off but I can't imagine they will want to come over to give me a free estimate considering how far away I am.

What's the "useful" life of these sets? Should I expect it to die completely in the next year anyway? Do I replace + upgrade? Is it time to look at new TVs or projectors? (The set currently is 43" and fits my needs perfectly -- I'd imagine if I bought a new one I wouldn't want to spend more than $2000). I don't mind putting in a couple of hundred bucks if it's really worthwhile.

Excuse the trepidation -- all replies and help are extremely useful!

Oliver D

Just thought I would chime in one last time.

The problem was a transistor and two chips which needed to be replaced. Everything was done within the hour, and they even went into the service menu and did some spot alignment to make the picture the best it could be under the time and cost limitations. Total cost was about $200, which included them driving close to an hour here to fix it.

Don't know if you're allowed to promote specific stores or not, but this was an independent dealer and repair place in Pennsylvania.