Hey guys,

I'm sorry for the question, I DID search and couldn't find anything directly related to the issue I'm having.

I just purchased a 50'' Pioneer 5080 and I got it home, set it up, and immediately noticed that the upper inch of the screen undergoes a violent flicker from time to time. Ironically enough, it's only intermitten, and it immediately corrects if I go into the menu and hit "Picture". The second I hit picture option, the screen appears to be re-alligning itself or something. If I leave it on the channel for a bit, it takes about a minute or so and it's back to flickering. I proceed to attempt to reset the picture and as I access the menu and hit enter, it resets and is fine. Also, if the TV changes programs, from the TV show to a commercial it will sometimes stop flickering only to start again on another scene. It also appears to display the flicker much more clearly in lighter scenes but is still present in darker scenes.

I first thought that maybe the television was defective. But, if that was the case, why would it not display the flicker all the time?

Any Ideas?

EDIT: I'm just running regular crappy cable right now. No High Def Box, Blu-Ray or DVD's at the moment.

Is it like a white electrical arc that jumps across the entire length of the screen horizontally?

I saw this a couple of times on mine. But its been a very long time since I have seen it again.

I wrote about it a while back here: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=14132107#post14132107

i would suggest a couple of problems to isolate the source vs, panel.

a. looks like you are running the cable to ant a directly right? (no cable card). are you getting the flicker on all cahnnels?

b. borrow a dvd and see i you get this on other inputs (hdmi, compo)

you get the flicker in all situations, there is something wrong with the panel. if it is exchangeable, do that. if not, call pio and get service.

Hey guys,

I'm sorry for the question, I DID search and couldn't find anything directly related to the issue I'm having.

I just purchased a 50'' Pioneer 5080 and I got it home, set it up, and immediately noticed that the upper inch of the screen undergoes a violent flicker from time to time. Ironically enough, it's only intermitten, and it immediately corrects if I go into the menu and hit "Picture". The second I hit picture option, the screen appears to be re-alligning itself or something. If I leave it on the channel for a bit, it takes about a minute or so and it's back to flickering. I proceed to attempt to reset the picture and as I access the menu and hit enter, it resets and is fine. Also, if the TV changes programs, from the TV show to a commercial it will sometimes stop flickering only to start again on another scene. It also appears to display the flicker much more clearly in lighter scenes but is still present in darker scenes.

I first thought that maybe the television was defective. But, if that was the case, why would it not display the flicker all the time?

Any Ideas?

EDIT: I'm just running regular crappy cable right now. No High Def Box, Blu-Ray or DVD's at the moment.

Hey,

Thanks for the advice so far. I tried hooking it up to a dvd and it was flawless. No jutter or flicker at all. Also, I ran the TV's "Video Pattern" option and also, no problems. The TV also appears to be OK while just having it on info type channels such as channel "2" which is our revolving TV guide in my area, or other realitively static image channels. The problem also appears to occure more frequently under situations where the screen is brighter than in the ones where it darker, although i have seen it flicker under a darker picture as well.

I'm almost convinced it isn't the TV because I exchanged it today for a new one and I've got the exact same problem as I had on the old one.
It's really weird, because the problem will start up on a channel and the second I go into the menu and press "Enter" on the picture settings it's as if the whole screen is refocusing or something and it fixes the problem for a couple of minutes before it starts the issue all over again.

I've tried the cable on the "cable A" and "Cable B" option and neither seems to affect it. I took a video of the issue, I'll post it up as soon as I can.

*Chadmak* It doesn't appear to be the same as the problem you were citing earlier*

here's a video of the problem. Notice at the top inch of the screen how much it's flickering. After playing around with it for a bit I've noticed that you can fix the problem by changing the view modes. It's usually most likely to flicker if it's in 4:3 or in "full" mode. Changing it to wide or zoom seems to get rid of it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ffzdUzlTgs

here's a video of the problem. Notice at the top inch of the screen how much it's flickering. After playing around with it for a bit I've noticed that you can fix the problem by changing the view modes. It's usually most likely to flicker if it's in 4:3 or in "full" mode. Changing it to wide or zoom seems to get rid of it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ffzdUzlTgs


Well sure it would because your pushing it right off the screen (the part of picture involved). If it not too late I would replace/exchange the set.

Hmmm. Seems very unusual, I already exchanged this TV once already and this one has the exact same issue that the last one had. It doesn't seem likely that it would be the TV in both cases does it? Also, one would think that if it was the pannel that was the problem, wouldn't it flicker and jutter the way it does in all circumstances?

Hmmmm. I thought it was a defective TV as well at first, but then I exchanged it and I've got the exact same problem on this one. What are the chances of that happening.... Also, why would the screen not flicker in all circumstances if this was a bad pannel. As I mentioned earlier, the screen performed fine when I put a DVD in, and it also looks good on about half of the cable channels I watch.

This is an issue with overscan. On analog channels there was quite a bit of overscan on th older tubes, so you couldn't see this video noise. That is why when you zoom it is no longer visible. This is also the reason why it is not visible on channels/programs. If you leave your set on auto, it will auto detect and engage the sidemasking. I bet you have it on dot by dot.

Called Pioneer today. Man, what a bunch of unfriendly jerks on the phone... Anyways, they confirmed the diagnosis, it is overscan due to my cable. As soon as I upgrade to the HD Box I should be ok.

I appreciate the help.

On a funny note, I got the Plasma from Futureshop, they were clearing it out brand new in a box for 1299.97 Canadian. The first kuro that I ended up returning to them was about to be shipped out as a defective unit because we all thought that the overscan was actually a bad pannel, but as soon as I found out it wasn't defective I called a friend who went down to the shop and is negotiating a deal to get it "Defective" for 1000.00 dollars CDN.

A grand for a Kuro... Unreal.

Anyways,

I really appreciate all the help guys!

Called Pioneer today. Man, what a bunch of unfriendly jerks on the phone... Anyways, they confirmed the diagnosis, it is overscan due to my cable. As soon as I upgrade to the HD Box I should be ok.

I appreciate the help.

On a funny note, I got the Plasma from Futureshop, they were clearing it out brand new in a box for 1299.97 Canadian. The first kuro that I ended up returning to them was about to be shipped out as a defective unit because we all thought that the overscan was actually a bad pannel, but as soon as I found out it wasn't defective I called a friend who went down to the shop and is negotiating a deal to get it "Defective" for 1000.00 dollars CDN.

A grand for a Kuro... Unreal.

Anyways,

I really appreciate all the help guys!

Exactly what I said :)

Can you adjust the screen position? I can on my Elite but I don't know if that's available for the 5080.

Called Pioneer today. Man, what a bunch of unfriendly jerks on the phone... Anyways, they confirmed the diagnosis, it is overscan due to my cable.I have seen this problem many times from Time Warner Cable using their SA8300HDC with a PRO-150FD.

If your TV supports H/V position adjustments this can compensate for, but does not always eliminate, over-under scan video frame problems.

This issue seems to be most evident when 480i content is being up converted to 720p or 1080i.

Yup its overscan on some channels! i get it on my Panasonic sometimes