My panny 53WX52 just blew up!! Need Help. (1 Viewer)

[Scott.Lacy]

I'm brand new to HT, and you guys have taught me a lot since I found this forum, so I'm hoping you'll have some ideas on what just happened to my RPTV.

I bought the Panasonic 53WX52 December 27th, so it's not even a month old. I turned the sharpness down right away, and was going to wait until sometime in Feb. to calibrate it with Avia. I has worked perfectly since I bought it but went haywire the other night. I was watching a show and fell asleep on the couch, so the TV was on from roughly 8pm to 5am when I woke up. When I fell asleep (around 10pm) it was fine. When I woke up at 5am, the convergence was shot. Every image had the 'blue shadow', but it wasn't stationary, it jumped from one side of the person to the other randomly, then top or bottom. I went to set the convergence manually, and the same thing happened. Not only was the blue cross-hair jumping all over the screen making it virtually impossible to set it, but some of them we warped. All 8 of the cross-hairs had fuzzy edges that would not fit nicely into the grid, and the top-left and bottom-right crosses were bent into half circles. Not only that, but the screen itself had a lot of noise when anything on screen moves. I called the dealer, and he told me to unplug it for 20 minutes to reset the micro-processor, but that didn't work, so a Panny rep is supposed to call today to set up a time to come look at it.

Other than being dissapointed that this TV is not even a month old, and that I'm probably going to miss the Superbowl on it I'm wondering if there was something I did to cause this. I know it's probably not the best thing in the world, but leaving it on all night shouldn't make this happen, should it? I had the picture in Justified mode, so the screen was completely covered. This is happening for all video sources (DVD, Directivo and VCR). I've got my DVD video going to directly to the Component in on the Tv, DirecTivo video, VCR video and all audio is switched through my Yamaha RX-V1200. Physically, I've got an Infinity IL-4 Floorstanding speaker directly to the left of the TV, my stereo case about 6 inches to the right, and my other IL-4 on the other side of the stereo. Could the speakers be causing interference?

I know this is long, but any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Craig]

If you have a 30 day return option on it I'd go ahead and tell the dealer you want to return it. Having the set on for 9 hours shouldn't have hurt it.

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

Yeah, just get the dealer to replace it w/ a new one if there's a 30-day return policy. If they're unwilling, just return it period. If no 30-day return policy, then you might be stuck w/ service repair.

BTW, did you mean you turned down the contrast or really the sharpness? You should've turned down the contrast although this probably had nothing to do w/ the problem.

_Man_

 

[Scott.Lacy]

Thanks guys,

The dealer was trying to get a panny rep out to fix it, but that was going to take over 2 weeks, so I told him I was going to return it. They called me back an hour later and told me they'll have a new one out on Saturday. He also told me that if I'm leary about the Panny then I could go with either the Mitsu or Sony 51"'s for no extra charge. I've always liked Panasonic, but I guess I've got a couple questions, Was this just a fluke accident, or is this common with Panasonic RPTV's? And if I go with the others, what are the Pros and Cons of the Mitsu/Sony/Panny TVs?

Man - My TV didn't have a Contrast setting, just "Tint, Brightness, Picture and Sharpness" Was I wrong in assuming that Sharpness was supposed to be Contrast?

Thanks for your help,


Scott

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

The Panny's label contrast as "picture" setting. I guess since people usually like their white level (the more accurate term) pumped way up, they decided to call it "picture" to equate w/ picture quality. Little does the avg consumer know that this can also cause damage or premature phosphor wear, if nothing else, ie. the burn-in problems you hear about.

The sharpness setting deals more w/ artificial edge enhancement and does not cause damage.

Anyway, RPTVs do seem to be less reliable in general than direct-views even beyond the burn-in issue. Not sure if the Panny's in particular are any less reliable than the other brands. If you're worried about reliability, then maybe switch to the Mits since I seem to see less reports of problems w/ them. But then again, maybe you'll see more problem reports for the Mits on a Mits-dedicated forum.

_Man_

 

[DougR]

Deleted......

was already answered above ! :b

 

[Mike Hamilton]

You did nothing wrong to cause this. It is a problem that manifested after a prolonged period that stressed an already weakened component on the deflection board.
As stated above, reduce "Picture" to the requisite level that assures the set is not pushed into blooming.