Help please, tearing my hair out.

[admin_exported]

Hello, as a long time lurker I finally decided to register to seek assistance/advice. I have a 40" Samsung LE40A552 (much like the A556). About three months ago I noticed a shadowy line on the right edge of the screen, it was only visble on dimly lit programmes or on the Sky bluescreen it showed as a darker shade of blue. Then about six weeks ago two similar lines were noticeable across the top of the screen. I took the TV to the local Samsung service centre in Lurgan (about a four hour round trip!) After three hours they called me in and said they could find nothing wrong with the TV, they showed me the tests they were running, primary colour screens and grey scale bars and yes there were no lines on the TV on any input (HDMI, Coax or SCART) they suggested that one of the inputs into the TV must be dodgy. So off I went bemused, got home,hooked everyting back up and there were no lines on the TV, great I thought , no idea what had happened but it seemed to be cured. However within the two hours the lines gradually came back. Since then I have been experimenting, different HDMI cables, hooking up one input at a time directly to the TV to try and single out the problem, different mains lead, different socket etc but to no avail. The only conclusion I have reached is that if the TV has no power going to it for about 12-15 hours the lines disappear. (There is no off switch on this TV it goes to standby when turned off so I unpluuged it from the mains) It takes them about three hours to gradually reappear and the lines are more visible on Sky than on Blu Ray but are still there. Samsung insist there is nothing wrong with the TV so I am on the verge of dumping it into a skip as all i can look at now on the bands on the screen. Any ideas? Cheers.

 

[aliEnRIK]

Run it for several days just watching terrestrial tv (nothing external plugged in except the aerial cable)

If it works then the chances are its one of your sources creating the problem

 

[Lee H]

Is this just with Sky? I had blue lines down the side of my screen when I used Sky HD. The solution for me was to change the Scart setting on the Sky box to 4:3L, even though I don't use Scart leads. I've no idea how or why this works, but it did

 

[Anonymous]

Unfortunately I don't have a terrestrial signal to try it with, I thought yesterday that I had gotten the fault down to the Sky HD box as I cleared the lines and ran a blu ray on it for 3-4 hours but gradually the bars came back. I'll try the 4.3L trick, open to anything at this stage.

 

[strapped for cash]

Did the line appear while watching a Blu-ray? If not, this suggests your Sky box is the source of the problem (which in my view is preferable to there being a serious fault with the TV).

 

[Anonymous]

It does appear on Blu ray , not as visible but still there. Looking back it started with a very subtle 'yellowing' at the right edge of the screen. Tried all the suggestions (4.3 etc) but unfortunately nothing worked. The lines appear as a distinct pattern on a blue screen now, two lines at the sides and double lines at the top, more or less like tram lines on a tennis court. Looks like I will have to grin and bear it until I get the cash together for a new purchase. TV is about 30 months old.

 

[Anonymous]

Have you had a Sky engineer out to check the box and dish?

 

[Anonymous]

Thats my next step, althought they want €115 for a call out, it will have to wait! The samsung engineers are bewildered, they did not see the fault when they had the TV for a few hours, but I have sent them pics of the lines and they have never seem anything like it before. Funnily enough a full white screen is perfect as is a black screen and the primary colours. It only shows on dimly lit indoor scenes/movie type lighting.

 

[Anonymous]

could you post a photo of it? sound like a heat or lamp issue as it you said it fades/reappears after time.

 

[Anonymous]

How do I insert a pic?

 

[aliEnRIK]

How do I insert a pic?

Take a digital pic and upload to your pc. Then upload to an image site such as 'imageshack'

Then click the green tree in the comment box and use the URL of the newly uploaded image

 

[Anonymous]

http://img801.imageshack.us/img801/5085/samsungtv.jpg
http://img851.imageshack.us/img851/4128/samsungtv2.jpg
http://img841.imageshack.us/img841/618/samsungtv1.jpg

 

[bigboss]

Let me do it for you:

 

[Anonymous]

Big boss, thanks for that. Anyone seen anything like this ?

 

[strapped for cash]

Looking at the pics you've posted, I wonder if this is a backlight issue?

The picture looks noticeably brighter toward the edges; and since your TV is an edge lit LED design, you may solve the problem by toning down the backlight level.

Perhaps I'm stating the obvious and you've already tried this, but I thought it worth suggesting, just in case.

 

[Anonymous]

Those pictures were taken with a backlight of 4 (max is 10). Btw its not LED edge lit, thanks for the suggestion though.