just bought an RCA 38" 16:9 tube F38310 (1 Viewer)

[Sean Patrick]

well, after going back and forth ALOT, i finally bought an RAC F38310 today. I don't know if it's a JX4/5 or YX5, i'll know on tuesday.

anyway i got it at circuit city, probably the last place in the world i thought i would buy a TV like this at. I was going to go with sears, who was going to pricematch my $2150 online best price. Problem was, the earliest they could ship me one was May 8th....seems a little odd.

still, it was a great price for a B&M store to be selling this set at.. i went over to circuit city just to see what they had it selling for.

They had ot on sale for 2299. i told them Sears was going to sell it to me for 2150, and after about 20 min. of conversation they said they'd go 10% off their already sale price...which beat the Sears price, and any online price for a new F38310 shipped.

I will look for all the obvious picture defects, if i don't like it i can return it for 100% refund. If it works good for a week i'll probably buy the extended CC plan, but i refuse to buy those right off the bat.

I was trying to find out if i could ensure the arrival of a newer JX5, and they said i could go as far as refusing shipment of an older model for the delivery of another set if i wanted. the more i read around here, the more i think i'd be fine with a JX4, especially at this price!!!!!

anyway, just looking for other owners of this set for any future troubleshooting.

 

[Arthur S]

Sean
I've considered buying this set. I hope you get the JX5 chasis. One of the things that people have mentioned is that the internal fan runs 24 hours a day. I have always wondered why not unplug it at night. In this way the HD decoder box and Direct TV decoder can not get hot and need the fan.
When I have seen the set in various stores the picture quality looks excellent. And the $5,000 Loewe(sp) set uses the exact same picture tube.
One last thing. This may have no weight or may be a concern. Reportedly, RCA has discontinued this set.
You are getting the set for a great price .
My personal decision, if I was upgrading from my 35" line doubled ProScan, would be to go with a considerably bigger screen. Specifically, the Hitahci 53UXD10B. MSRP $2,500.
Please keep posting after you get the 38310.
Artie

 

[Sean Patrick]

quick question - what is the difference between the Yx5 and the Jx5? circuit city seems to think i'll be shipped a Yx5 because that was what they had on the floor of the store they'll be shipping from (they had a JX4 at the store i was at).

also, reading up on some other forums has led me to believe that the JX4 is 99.9% as good as the -X5 models. what specifically is the reason i should be hoping for a Jx5????.... they said they'd take it immediately back upon delivery if i really wanted a Jx5 and didn't get one. However, I don't want to be returning sets over and over again if the Jx4 will do me fine. I've been waiting for 16:9 for 4 years, and the Jx4 looked great in the showroom (albeit with the HDTV feed so the side squeeze wouldn'tbe seen anyway if it had it)

also, if the set arrives and i like it, i'll probably go back and buy the service plan. i hear RCA warranty service can be non-existent.

 

[Jack Briggs]

Please keep us posted on this set's behavior, Sean. I want to hear about any malfunctions. But I hope you don't experience any.

 

[Sean Patrick]

i'll keep you posted. if i have any problems with the set i'm delivered, it's going right back for a refund. if the first set malfunctions, my long-term faith in the product will be at zero. i had to hop on this deal, though, because for a brick-and-mortar store to offer me that price with a very good return policy (they'll come pick it up)...well, i'm crossing my fingers.

 

[Justin Bowser]

I have had my 38310 since last August with nary a glitch. I assume the codes you are referring to are revision codes of some sort, where are they located?

 

[Sean Patrick]

justin - the product code i was referring to will be the last 3 digits of the serial number sticker on the left side of the tv. I have been told by F38310 owners that the newer YX5 takes care of a lot of older nagging issues. and....

wooohoo!! they delievered me a YX5. the edge compression seems to be there but it is very minimal, and if i didn't know to look for it i would have thought it was because of the curved screen. I would really like to disable SVM, because i can notice it, but at the final viewing distance the tv will be at, i don't think it's a problem.

oh, and the fan doesn't bother me, it's pretty quiet and i'm wondering if this is another issue RCA has fixed.

satellite looked surprisingly good, i went through the different sceen size ratios and think i will use different ones for different kinds of shows. the grey bars didn't bother me, and the clarity was much better than i was expecting. it was still less vibrant and clear than on my old Wega, but the line doubling and blowing up of the compressed satellite signal looks MUCH better than i was expecting after reading some other reviews. Plus, i used to have a Toshiba theatrewide that made satellite unwatchable, this is not the case here (although, again, disabling SVM will make it look even better). i haven't even started to mess around with color settings yet.

I read a post that said if you turn sharpness to ZERO, then back up one notch, you have disabled SVM. Picture seemed WAY too soft at this point, but i'll play around with it later. I definitely need progressive scan, i plan on getting a jvc progressive scan dvd player later this afternoon. will i see a lot less jaggies and artifacts with progressive scan?

i'll post my findings when i get the Radio Shack UHF double bow tie for HDTV and the progressive scan player.