New Magnavox DLP set loaded with problems (1 Viewer)

[Clinton McClure]

I had indicated somewhere in another post that my parents went to Best Buy and bought a 50" Magnavox DLP set (50ML8105D) Saturday with a LG upconverting DVD player (LDA-511).

After hooking it up for them, along with their satellite box, VCR, Gamecube and Belkin power conditioner, I was getting no audio from the DVD player via HDMI cable. Everything else had audio and video. I figured it may be the DVD player needing a firmware upgrade so I hooked it up with a set of component cables and stereo cables for audio and all was fine. Then the cooling fan started making a grinding noise like it was rubbing something. I checked the level of the TV and it was off just a bit.

After leveling the TV, the noise stopped. I've never worked with a DLP and it seemed a bit strange but my folks were willing to accept that if the noise stopped.

The next evening, they tried to watch a movie in their VCR and the audio on the Composite 2 input was not working. They had video but no audio. Also, the fan noise started again. The following morning, my mom called me and I went over and checked to see if everything was still connectly properly. It was and the Composite 2 input had audio again.

My mom remembered the salesman telling her that if she had any trouble with the TV, Best Buy would send someone to the house to repair it. She had made it clear that she lived over 50 miles away and my dad had heart surgery a couple years ago and was not supposed to be doing heavy lifting. The salesman said it did not matter where she lived, they would send someone out.

So she called Best Buy and talked to someone in the service dept who told her that regardless of what the salesman told her, they did not do that and she would have to bring the TV back to Best Buy to have it checked out. At this point I had to leave for work and I told her I would load it up in their truck Saturday and we could take it back and swap it for a new set.

It sounds to me like the set was damaged somehow, dropped in the warehouse or banged up in shipping. I was willing to chalk the HDMI problem up to a firmware upgrade but with the other issues surfacing, it appears to be hardware related.

 

[Frank@N]

Seems like there's been alot of threads on this board about HDTV failures.

Makes me wonder if in the rush to lower prices companies are putting out less than robust products.

Another possibility is that new technologies (like DLP) are more prone to failure than CRT were.

While shopping in B&M stores, it's not unusual to see LCD/DLP/Plasma sets that are clearly malfunctioning.

Don't recall seeing as many malfunctioning CRTs on display.

Maybe this thread should be called "Are TVs getting Worse?"

 

[Clinton McClure]

I have not seen any data on fallout from new HDTVs. I figured it was because it's a Magnavox. I tried to get my parents to go with a Sony or Toshiba but they insisted on a Magnavox. Why? Because they have a Magnavox console tv which has lasted for over 16 years.

After I left their house Monday, my mom called back to Best Buy and still could get nowhere with them. My dad meanwhile, was reading through the service plan they bought with the TV and found a phone number to call for TVs larger than 27". My mom called the number and, lo and behold, it was the number to a Best Buy service center. She told them the problem and they faxed a local repair shop who called her within minutes and set up an appointment to come out and pick up the TV to check it out.

It would seem Best Buy does not know how to handle their own products.

 

[Tim Jin]

If the TV is failing now right from the start, it will fail again. Instead of calling a service tech and trying to fix the problem, try to convince your parents to return the TV for an exchange or an upgrade. If Best Buy delivered the TV, they sure can come back, pick it up ans deliver another one on their choice.

The TV is defective. Get a new one while they still can!!!

 

[Steve Schaffer]

I echo the previous poster's thoughts--this thing is a lemon.

Magnavox isn't the Magnavox of old, it's a low-end division of Philips, a Dutch company, not the high-end quality US mfg of 20 or more years ago.

Likewise, RCA is a low end division of Thomson, a French outfit, and Zenith is the low end division of LG, a Korean company.

None of the brands that were highly regarded in your folk's early days are anything but low-end brands for sometimes iffy mfgs.

Decent brands these days are Sony, Panasonic, Toshiba, Hitachi, Mitsubishi, JVC.

 

[Clinton McClure]

Best Buy didn't deliver the set initially, it was loaded onto my parent's truck at the store and I got to unload it and set it up.

I tried to convince them to return it, but they would rather get it repaired first then return it if it happens again.

If it were me, I'd have taken it back the the store the next day and demanded an exchange, but then I wouldn't have bought a Magnavox to begin with.