Problems with new Hitachi 46510 (1 Viewer)

[Dan DRC]

i purchased a 46510 from Sears in May. The first one was dead out of the box. They delivered a new one and everything was fine. In early Aug I heard a loud snap sound and the black level changed. It had "green look" to it. This lasted for only a few min. Then everything went back to normal. A few weeks after that the problem would come back on an intermentent basis about once every 5 min or so.

I called for a service app and the guy told me there was a service notice out on this set about a problem with dust on a circiut board that was causing a short that was interment and he cleaned the area and said it was sealed now and that should take care of it. It was supposed to be a problem that occurred during assembly.

Now about three weeks later the problem is back only it seems to be worse. In fact the set seems to flicker with the "green look" to the black levels.
I have called for another service ap on Tues. I turned the set on this morning and the problem is not there. I am going to see if the problem comes back after a little warm up time. So basically in 4 months I have had 1 DOA and 2 services apps. Has anyone else heard of this problem with the 510 series?
do have the ext warranty. What do you think the odds are of a replacement since I have had these problems in the first 4 months?

 

[Dan DRC]

Unit ran most of the day on Sunday with no problem. Turned it on this morning and it is still ok. Wonder if I should cancel my service app?

 

[Gregg Loewen]

Hi!

Keep the service appt, if for no other reason as to have it documented that you have an ongoing problem.

Best wishes

Gregg

 

[Dan DRC]

Thanks Gregg

That is a good point.

 

[Dan DRC]

Ok

Service guy came out today. I was at work and my wife was at home to deal with the service guy. He checked everything out and could fine nothing wrong. He was very nice and suggested that we keep an eye on it. He suggested that it could be a problem with the directv reciever and said if it does it again check the DVD input to see if the probelm was still there.

Actually what my wife did not know was the first time the set was having the problem it was the same on all of the inputs because that was the first thing I thought of.
I did not even check the 2nd time around. It doesnt really make a difference anyway because the bottom line is that when the service guy was here there wasnt a problem. Pretty sure it is not the Directv reciever but I guess we will just keep an eye on the problem and keep the service record going.

 

[Dan DRC]

The day after the service guy left the problem came back. Time to call for another service app. The set was really bad for about five days then got better. Of course it got better the day before the next service app. The guy showed back up today and agreed something was not quite right. He ordered a new "focus pack". Apparently this unit also has control over the color level of the CRT's. The focus pack was a black part about 4 x 4 in size with 6 trim pots on it. He thought this was a place to start. The part will not be in til next week. He said if this does not work then the green CRT will need to be replaced next.

Funny thing was the guy did not really like how I had the video levels set up. I used DVE and set the cont at 43 and bright at 66. When he was done he had cont at 73 and bright at 50. When he was gone I changed the settings back to the way I had them using DVE.

 

[Tim Jin]

Many service people don't know how to calibrate a set. They just do whatever that looks good to them and go.

So, its common to have your set out of whack after you get it serviced.

 

[Dan DRC]

After replacing the focus pack the "green" problem still did go away. They later replaced a green crt. Problem came back three days later. Instead of service call # 8 they opted for a replacment. But of course the 46510 is not avaiable anymore. I did not have room for a 51" set and the only other small set they had was a Samsung 46" for 1199. My trade in value was $1350, so I wound up paying $150 more and got a Sony 42A10 LCD. Which I think $1500 is a good price on this set. So far I am really happy with the Sony eventhough it is a smaller set. SDTV is very good on this set, better than the Hitichi and HDTV and DVD are awesom. So far so good.