42GT30 picure issue - advice please

Oldboy

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Hello all,

As i have mentioned previously in another thread i've come across a potential picure issue with my new 42GT30 plasma tv that i purchased last week. The issue is most noticable on the left hand side of the screen and when the camera pans from left to right or vice versa and comes in the form of a line running vertically across the entire height of the screen which looks 'dirty' for use of a better word. The colour, brightness and contrast are different to the rest of the screen resulting in a slightly darker line that runs up the screen which is very worrying and unsightly on such a new tv, it's not a budget tv so i expect better at this price level.

/sites/whathifi.com/files/images/blogs/oldboy%20pic.jpg

It's also very noticable when the screen is a uniform colour that isn't too bright and is then viewable no matter what is going on with motion, as i bought the tv from Richer Sounds i'm just wondering if i should return it?? I would like some advice first if possible as it's quite a trip to the store and would mean me taking a day off, i just can't get it out of my mind now and i'm distracted by it today so any advice would be very much appreciated, thank you :cry:

Apart from this one issue i'm extremely satisfied with the tv so i'm wondering if Richers may just exchange it for another so any help you can give me before i contact them would be great.

Many thanks,

Nick.
 

Oldboy

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Just a quick addition to my initial post, sorry for the poor quality photo but it's the best i could manage to get as it was taken on my HTC phone but you can see the line on the left hand side although you have to look for it lol. Still not sure what i should do with the tv or if indeed this sort of thing is considered normal so any thoughts would be much appreciated.

Many thanks to Andrew for sorting out the photo as i had some trouble getting it uploaded, much appreciated :cheers:
 
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Anonymous

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Hey Oldboy

I can't really see what you mean from the pic I can see a darkish vertical line on the left but also several horizontal lines like colour banding or maybe that is the fault of the pic mate?

Regarding Richer sounds I can speak from experience that I had no issues in swapping sets with them. I gave up after 4 or was it 5 40w5500's and to my surprise they gave me a full refund and this was over a 3 month period. I would like to think I was not a lucky customer!!! But even with me I went back a few weeks after to chat about other tv's the guy I was dealing with was on holiday so I spoke with someone else and he said the classic that I was the only customer to have the backlight issue! But in the same store I was warned not to buy the set due to these issues! (the guy that did all the exchanges told me that mate)... So deal with one person only is the best thing mate.

I really hope this works out well mate. For a selfish reason as I have my heart set on the 46 or 50 inch version.

Jamie.
 

Oldboy

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Snakey said:
Hey Oldboy

I can't really see what you mean from the pic I can see a darkish vertical line on the left but also several horizontal lines like colour banding or maybe that is the fault of the pic mate?

Regarding Richer sounds I can speak from experience that I had no issues in swapping sets with them. I gave up after 4 or was it 5 40w5500's and to my surprise they gave me a full refund and this was over a 3 month period. I would like to think I was not a lucky customer!!! But even with me I went back a few weeks after to chat about other tv's the guy I was dealing with was on holiday so I spoke with someone else and he said the classic that I was the only customer to have the backlight issue! But in the same store I was warned not to buy the set due to these issues! (the guy that did all the exchanges told me that mate)... So deal with one person only is the best thing mate.

I really hope this works out well mate. For a selfish reason as I have my heart set on the 46 or 50 inch version.

Jamie.

Jamie,

Yes it is that dark line on the left hand side, it's just a bad quality photo i'm afraid and ignore the horizontal lines as they are just a consequence of a poor camera lol. It took many, many attempts just to get a shot that showed the line atall as the camera on my phone isn't the greatest.

I had a few friends over last night to get some other opinions just in case it was my eyesight but both of them could see the lines so i'm contacting Richer Sounds today to see what my options are, ideally i would just like a straight swap for another GT30 as in every other regard i'm very happy with the tv.

I did get some mild IR last night however but it soon cleared up after switching sources and strangely it was the tv's own menus that caused it! Hmmm...i think if i get another the PS3 may live in the bedroom from now on so i can use it on my Samsung LED as i don't want the IR issues of the last tv and lose the surround sound, but then again i shouldn't have to do that eh? I had the pixel orbiter switched to 'on' so that obviously didn't help and it's not a good sign if the tv's own menus cause IR but then it may be associated with the screen issues i have but in truth that's just speculation.

I just don't want the IR issues i suffered from last year and if the tvs own menus can cause IR then what will the static huds on PS3 games do to the tv i wonder?? I'm a little worried mate but i will get another if i can and see how that fares.

Best regards,

Nick.
 

Oldboy

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UPDATE:

I have spoken to Richer Sounds this morning and the tv is going back to be replaced for another 42GT30 tomorrow. They were very apologetic and i had no quibbles just an assurance that they would swap it for another that has been put by for me, kudos to Richer Sounds as i feared the worse with having to argue my case but they couldn't have been any better about it if they tried...if only all retailers were this good, eh.

Fingers crossed that the replacement has no issues :pray:
 
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Anonymous

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Hey Oldboy

I am glad they will do a straight swap over with a new set I thought they would thumbs up once again to righer sounds
cheers.gif
...

IR from pannys menus is just not on. I am sure it is connected to your other issue with the panel as I am sure review sites and mags including WHF would have picked this up during calibration!!!

If I were you mate I would give it a spin on ps3 it seems such a waste not to plus you will have decent 3D games out soon and the input lag is probably higher on your sammy!

Jamie.
 
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Anonymous

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Oldboy

Just saw the new mag with you question on what plasma to buy in it:)

you are famous matey.
 

Oldboy

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Snakey,

Yep full marks to Richer Sounds as they have been brilliant with the issue...if anyone from Richer Sounds is reading this then can i say a very big thank you to all the staff at your Romford store as they have been excellent throughout and are a credit to the company!

The IR from the menus was unexpected to say the least and i hope it doesn't cause me any problems in the future but it was only visible on the bluray players home screen (i presume because of the uniform pale blue background) and wasn't an issue when watching a movie or tv...still a little concerning though :?

I'm going to run the new tv in for a little while before i hook up the ps3 but it is definately going back into the living room as i miss the surround sound badly when gaming but surprisingly my Samsung LED doesn't have as much lag as expected and is perfectly playable, COD sessions have been quite smooth but don't match up to plasma of course.

Blimey...i got a 2nd subject into 'Your Questions' then :bounce: i had one make it in last year so to get two is fantastic! I created that thread a while back i think but it's still great to get in the mag and get an answer....it just so happens that i bought exactly the tv they suggest, happy days my friend :grin:

Many thanks to the WHF team for publishing my question and for your invaluable advice, as ever it's much appreciated, thank you :clap:
 

Oldboy

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BenLaw said:
Sounds like a nightmare after your other TV woes, fingers crossed this next one works out for you :pray:

:pray: we will find out this evening when i mount it on the wall...as you can imagine, i have everything crossed and am touching wood that it's ok. Of course i will post the outcome from the replacement tomorrow.
 

The_Lhc

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Oldboy said:
I did get some mild IR last night however but it soon cleared up after switching sources and strangely it was the tv's own menus that caused it!

Nothing strange about that, it's creating areas of large contrast.

You are running the screen in according to the manufacturers instructions aren't you? ie avoiding excessively bright picture settings for the first few hundred hours?
 

beater

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I would just like to say that i bought a 50st30 from richer sounds in romford, and after having a problem with it i swaped it for the 50gt30, its a shame all shops are not as good as richer sounds they were very helpfull.
 

Oldboy

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The_Lhc said:
Oldboy said:
I did get some mild IR last night however but it soon cleared up after switching sources and strangely it was the tv's own menus that caused it!

Nothing strange about that, it's creating areas of large contrast.

You are running the screen in according to the manufacturers instructions aren't you? ie avoiding excessively bright picture settings for the first few hundred hours?

Yes of course i am. I have toned back the contrast and brightness back from the settings when calibrating from the THX optimiser and i'm not using dynamic mode (i never use it anyway as it's horrible and will shorten the likfe of the tv) so i beleive i'm doing all that i should in order to run the tv in correctly but if you have any suggestions i would really appreciate your feedback.

Thanks very much.
 

Oldboy

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beater said:
I would just like to say that i bought a 50st30 from richer sounds in romford, and after having a problem with it i swaped it for the 50gt30, its a shame all shops are not as good as richer sounds they were very helpfull.

Agreed! If all reailers were this good then they would surely get more customers, no? To know you have a retailer with such good customer service to fall back on is just as important as the price you pay at the till as far as i'm concerned, it's a false economy to pay a little less at the till only to have problems getting any issues resolved to your satisfaction later on.
 

Oldboy

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Update on the replacement tv for anyone that is interested:

Got the replacement mounted onto the wall last night and all seems fine with this one :bounce: so i presume i just got unlucky with the first one? The line is no longer present on this one and i had no issues when watching The Big Lebowski on bluray last night (what a great movie, easily in my top ten) so i hope i've seen and end to any issues with this tv.

Got to say i'm still very impressed with this tv and i'm glad i bought it despite the initial problems i encountered.
 

BenLaw

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Oldboy said:
Update on the replacement tv for anyone that is interested:

Got the replacement mounted onto the wall last night and all seems fine with this one :bounce: so i presume i just got unlucky with the first one? The line is no longer present on this one and i had no issues when watching The Big Lebowski on bluray last night (what a great movie, easily in my top ten) so i hope i've seen and end to any issues with this tv.

Got to say i'm still very impressed with this tv and i'm glad i bought it despite the initial problems i encountered.

Nice one Oldboy :) Glad it seems to be working out for you, hope you get through the next few hundred hours unscathed ;)
 
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Anonymous

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Hey Oldboy.

Great news that the second set is great. I bet the Dude helped you out there mate. That film is amazing I actually just bought it on blu ray too I had a long hard day working on a chiller in the bloody rain so I thought i would reward myself:) I love everything about The Big Lebowski just one of those films that gats better each time I watch it and I have watched it a LOT:) Can't wait to see what the transfer to blu ray is like.

Oh BTW when I was talking about not getting cable I meant their fibre optic broadband mate I have never lived anywhere that has it even here in Southampton. Or London or Reading for that matter but that were a few yars back.

Jamie.
 

Oldboy

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Jamie,

The new tv does still have a few lines BUT they are only visible on the static blue BD player menu when you press 'stop' and don't seem to show up when playing content like the other tv did so i'm happy i exchanged the tv...i wouldn't have been able to live with the last one that's for sure so the dude is happy.

So glad you are a Lebowski fan too, boy have i watched that too much aswell! It's a bonafide cult classic for me and you are right it just improves with every viewing and has such a great cast, you have to love Goodman and his building psychotic rage...makes me laugh every time. Jeff Bridges rebuilt his career on the back of the movie but still hasn't had a role as good as that and he deserved an oscar for that performance above any other imo. I could ramble on forever about the film but will leave it there as it's obvious we both adore it :D

As for fibre optic broadband it's commonplace in my area so i find it strange that you have never lived anywhere that has it, i would have thought Southampton would have it for sure...well surprised by that. I wouldn't go back to anything else now as i've been spoilt by the lovely speed of my connection, brilliant for C.O.D as 8/10 times i get the host connection although there are no excuses then for messing up :rofl:

Best wishes,

Nick.
 

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