Trouble with Toshiba 51H83 (1 Viewer)

[Curt_H]

So my 5 year old daughter was trying to be helpful and basically hosed down the front of the screen with water from her water bottle. Yea, I know I'm not the first to go through this.

As anyone who has gone through this with a projection TV before, you know that it looks horrible. Well, after it dried, all you can really see is the water mark formed from the residue.

Ok, so off comes the front panel, out comes that big magnifying sheet, out comes the polarized sheet and we begin gently cleaning them. It takes about 4 hours.

The FIRST time we get the screen back together, it looks normal with the exception of a largish spot we missed. The SECOND time, I must have lost my bearings a put one of the sheets in the wrong way. I could swear that I didn't, but the screen was now dark at all four corners with a big glowing disk in the center.

Finally, I get it back together and the light looks fine but now everything appears to look grainier than before off the same source. Absolutely everything looks 'like hell' in my opinion, but that could just be me making it worse than it is.

Basically, what I need help with is anyone with the knowledge of the correct way to put those thin sheets of plastic back in. If I've got it right and I'm just being too picky, then great, I'll deal with it.

A few notes: No, there was no option to take it in under any kind of warranty. Especially if I mention water. The sources that look bad are all S-Video and component. Colorstream on the other hand seems to be fine, from what I can tell, but then there's that picky factor coming back.

If anyone can help, I would appreciate any advice. Thanks in advance.

 

[Chad B]

I've taken my Mitsubishi screen apart a couple of times. One time I did exactly what you did the second time, and it had terrible hotspotting. I had put the fresnel in upside down. But we took it back apart and got it looking good again.
What did you use to clean the screen? Hopefully just water, because chemicals or cleaners could possibly strip the dark tint off the lenticular screen (the sheet with the vertical grooves). I wouldn't even trust Windex. That would definately degrade and/or change the image, but I doubt it would make it look grainier.
The fresnel, the sheet with the circular grooves, is somewhat difficult to clean without leaving lint, but I doubt that it would be bad enough to cause problems.
I try to wear cotton gloves when I handle the screen sheets because they are so prone to fingerprints.
The fact that the Colorstream input looks fine and all the others are bad is puzzling.

 

[Curt_H]

Hey Chad, thanks for the reply. It's funny, I live in Dayton as well. Stranger things have happened I guess.

I was looking at it last night and it could just be a heightened sense of paranoia. For instance, I was looking at the cable guide (TimeWarner Digital) and noticed that the graphic overlay of the guide looks perfect yet the signal is of the actualy channel is crap.

That says to me that my TV is producing a clean image and it's the source that is just junk. It could, I guess, have soemthing to do with a cable or something down the line and it's just a coincidence. Who knows.

There is one minor piece of lint on the screen somewhere which, as you know, becomes a monstrous piece of lint when backlit and magnified. I have yet to disassemble it again to remove it.

We cleaned it with alcohol. It was the only thing I could think of that wouldn't leave (as much of) a residue like water does. Great care went into the handling and cleaning of those screens.

If I knew anyone with a trained eye, I would get them over to confirm or deny my fears. Heh.