I'm very desapointed with the Akai PT4299HD... (1 Viewer)

[Stefan_Stoev]

I just bought this TV and I get that horrible red tint in areas that are supposed to be black. When the whole screen is black, I get those inch wide red tint vertical lines all over the screen. The whole picture is reddish in general. Another thing is I cant get it to display widescreen movies properly. Both DVD and TV are set to 16:9 and I still get the bars on top and bottom. Sometimes I think I see a thin black line across the screen but I'm not sure. I see it mainly when the sreen is white for a moment. I've messed witht the settings for hours and I can make it watchable but its still crappy. I have Magnavox MRD500VR DVD/VCR Home Theater System wich I got for Christmas and kept, because I dont care that my 3 years old is slowly destroing it. I also bought Component Cable from Radio Shack for $30 and used it to connect the DVD to the TV.

I'm a newb and I really need some help as I have 30 days to return the TV. Please give some advise on how to fix this.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Allan Jayne]

Only movies whose aspect ratio is exactly 16:9 (or close to 16:9 if there is a lot of overscan) will fill the screen with no bars on top and bottom. Most movies are "wider" than 16:9. A wide screen TV will give you a better fit, although not a perfect fit, for wide screen movies.

The thin black line (all Sony direct view CRT's have it) could be part of the internal picture tube structure to keep the shadow mask (thin metal strips for the Sony) parts aligned.

RE: the red patches. There is a good chance your TV is severely misadjusted or defective and you should return it if you cannot get a free service call within a week or so. You should not go into service mode yourself as this could void the warranty and also bar you from returning the set.

Video hints:
http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/video.htm

 

[Jerome Grate]

If you have the opportunity, return this terrible t.v. right away. My brother in law has this t.v. and even though it doesn't bother him, it drives me absolutely crazy with that I think it's called Red push. The picture quality is simply subpar compared to other t.v.s and with the price of just a little dollars, you can get a better model t.v.

 

[Chuck_D]

I have had this TV for about 2 weeks now and have been very pleased with it. Out of the box the Contrast and Brightness were way off and there was too much red push. I used the Sound and Vision Home Theater Tuneup DVD to setup and the picture looks great. If you don't have a setup disc try the THX setup that is included on many DVD's. It's a quick and dirty way to do a quick setup. I use component cables for the DVD and HDTV and they look amazing for a $750 TV. The Masters yesterday in HD was fantastic. Some of the standard cable channels look bad but that is the fault of the source, not the TV. I think you have a bad TV with the red vertical lines. I have not seen that with my TV and if you got 30 days to exchange I would go ahead and trade out for another set.

 

[Stefan_Stoev]

Ok guys, please don't laugh at me...

I was hooking up my speakers yesterday and I noticed there was a little switch on the back of the DVD player. I switched to the other position and the red line and puch are gone. The picture looks very good now! Well not as good as some other TV's but I dint pay that much money either.

Could anyone tell me where do I buy a calibration DVD from?

I went to RS and they didnt have it.

Also is having that thin almost invisible line across the screen normal?

Thanks.

 

[Jerome Grate]

Best Buy, Circuit City, Amazon.com will have a variety of set up DVDs like Digital Video Essentials, Avia, Sound & Vision etc..,