Mitsubishi DLP RP WD-73727 - 1080p and blacks

[Shoktronic]

Hello everyone,

I can say that I have searched high and low and have seen the many complaints so I am glad to say I am not alone. It's sad that I should even have to make that statement.

OK so here is my situation and hopefully the forum can provide some answers as I have no idea what the heck to do. I have a WD-73727 73" DLP that I purchased 08/06/06 from Ken Cranes in Laguna Hills, CA. I paid way too much money for this TV to have issues. The problems I am having is heavy pixelating of black areas in any mode (480i/480p/720p/1080i and "1080p"). I also think that there is something else wrong because in order to see much of any movies/tv/etc I have to set the brightness to 54/55 and the contrast to 45/46. That to me seems a bit high, but I could be wrong. It was that way out of the box. The TV also chews up and spits out an ugly picture if anything that is true 1080p is connected to it (from what I understand that's due to it not being a true 1080p interface). I am mostly upset because until recently I haven't had anything that was 1080p so I "assumed" it was a 1080p TV because thats what I was told and sold and thats what the literature says. Aside from the above I have had only 2 instances where the TV "locked up" and had to be unplugged to get it to turn off. The fan is a little noisey but not too bad. I haven't had an overheating problem I don't think but maybe someone can point something out.

So here is what I have "attempted" so far. I tried calling Mitsubishi (mistake!) and spoke to their customer service people (in the Phillipines). After waiting almost 45 minutes to speak to someone the "kid" by the name of "Colby" tried to help me but soon tried taking control of the call and running me in circles. He said my problem is my HDMI cables/connection (wrong!). He then tried to say that the TV doesn't accept 1080p and that I can only use a max of 1080i, but I pointed out to him to refer to pg. 11 of the owners guide where it says, "Your TV is able to accept video signals from an antenna or direct cable in standard video scanning rates of 480i, 480p, 720p, 1080i and 1080p". After stuttering and fumbling a bit more he then said it's my settings on my DVD, cable, etc. devices. It's at that point I attempted to ask for a supervisor. But wouldn't you know it, none were available...ever! I also asked him about the software upgrade that some have talked about in other forums and he said "your not having a problem that warrants an upgrade because it will cause damage to your TV". I asked him the typical questions as to "what problems warrant it" and he still had no idea. I doubt he really understood anything I was saying as English was a poor 2nd language for him.

So after being brought to the boiling point and hanging up on him out of utter frustration I drove to the store I purchased the TV from and asked them about the 1080p issue, etc. They played dumb and said to call their service department. I can't blame them really, they are just sales people who push what they are told and pass the buck. So I fired a call off to service and they had no idea what I was talking about nor did they know of any warranty extensions. Now I did by the saving grace get a 5 year warranty on this P.O.S. that also covers 1 light replacment. The service guy said I shoudl call out the warranty folks and have them take a look at it and make the repairs. I however am hesitant about this because if it's all screwed up I want to make sure that Mitsubishi is aware of it and documents it. I also don't want to use my warranty unless absolutly necessary.

So in a rather large nutshell thats my problems to add to the list. I wish I had known this was an upscale and not a true 180p. I feel so cheated and robbed since the TV and all wasn't cheap!!

Does anyone have any suggestions or know who I can sell this thing to so I can buy a "REAL 1080p" TV?


*****UPDATE*****

So after calling a number I got from the service department of Ken Cranes I got through to a receptionist somewhere in Mitsubishi in Irvine, CA. I had asked her if there was someone there I could speak to in customer service that wasn't in the Phillipines. She said that the person was busy but that she would take my information and have them call me back. She asked for the model of the TV I was calling about and for my name and phone number. She was very nice and said that since it was close to 5pm I might not get a call today but if I don't hear anything by noon Monday to call her back directly. Well to my suprise I got a call at 5:11pm from a Vigil White. I told him I was suprised to get a call after 5pm from them and he said that they are working hard to take care of everyone (I tried not to laugh). Well I asked him if he knew why I was calling and he said, "Your calling because your TV is a 1080i and not a 1080p and your having problems with it be it either the light, the engine or the fan and your wanting a free upgraded TV to replace it right?". HUH??????? I didn't tell the lady I talked to anything and this guy already knew why I was calling. Now my first suspicion was how many people have called to complain? Probablly everyone! Well I politely said "if you want to give me a new one and make this easy then fine, but that's not my first need". He lughed and asked then what the problem was. I stated the stuff I talked about above and told him his "customer service" overseas is very poor. He of course appologized and said he would put in some kind of word to have it looked into (typical BS line). In any case he said that if I get the warranty guys out and they find the parts are defective that is covered by Mitsubishi under the extended warranty that they will reimburse all charges associated with it. He also went on to say that the TV can do 1080p native but only through the firewire ports. He also threw a curve and tried dancing around the "accepts 1080p input" as saying "we didn't specify which input would accept it, you just assumed it was the HDMI or component inputs". Needless to say he was of no help but asked me to call back after a technician visits me and determins the problem.

So thats where I am at now. I have to wait until Monday to try and schedule a tech to come out and look at this thing. I also have to take time off of work to make sure I am here for them as well.

What a hassle!

[Richard]

Nearly all 1st generation 1080p displays would not accept 1080p. The second generation seemed half and half. This is the first year where it is not questioned but the last two years have been difficult. Throughout all that the desire was not just 1080p60 support but 1080p24 support. You can't depend on stores or manufacturers to help you with such things unfortunately and it was something we were talking about at the time - lot's of wait until next year conclusions.

As for your blacks this is a digital display and you only get the best response when both the contrast and brightness are set properly or you get scaling errors to due a crushed dynamic range. Once set right you leave them.

You can hire someone...

ISF and HAA - The Expression of Art using Science
viewtopic.php?t=4450

...or try to do it yourself.

101: Brightness and Contrast
viewtopic.php?t=5025

Calibration DVDs
viewtopic.php?t=5143

The probability is high your service center won't be able to help you with this. They are repair people and rarely calibrators or videophiles with a deeper understanding of display performance.

[patty]

We had the same problem, everything was too dark. We did the same by changing the brightness and contrast from channel to channel. We were beginning to wonder if we'd bought in haste. It was by sheer luck that the supreme being stepped in and helped! Seriously, our house was hit by lightening and blew up our satellitle receiver. After a few months of back and forth with our service provider we opted for Direct TV instead. When ordering new service we ordered a high definition receiver and high definition service which was connected to the HDMI connection.

After about a couple of months our screen went completely black but would come on once and a while. We had Direct TV come out and after checking the obvious possiblities they concluded the HDMI input was not working correctly so they used the component inputs - using all of the Y, Pb, etc connections. Even though we thought it would affect the picture quality, about a month after that we cancelled the high definition service, but kept the high definition receiver. The picture was not affected, we have beautiful picture quality and no headaches.

Patty

[Shoktronic]

Well it's been a while since my last post regarding this. Since then I have had 3 repair technicians out to take my TV away to their shop and attempt to fix it. As of now I pretty much have a new TV from the inside out. They replaced the main board the first time, the optical engine the 2nd and the bulb this last time along with some diagnostic stuff. So with the exception of the case it's got new guts. Picture seems betternow, however I know have a loud "humming" coming from the unit that was never there that will once again require it to be wisked off for service again.

One final note was that when they found the optical engine to be a problem it took 3 weeks for Mitsubishi to get them the part because it was "back ordered". So for one month I was without a TV. Thank goodness for Costco and their return policies. <wink-wink>

Seems these issues are still a major problem amongst these TV's based on parts availability.