To all those considering buying a RCA television I highly recommend that you DO NOT! My 50" Dlp scenium tv has been in the shop for 6 months now and I have been fighting with rca ( thomson ) about getting a part shipped and have been getting the run around, even being told that a new tv will be shipped shortly, only to call back the next week to be told that no request has gone through for that. I am disgusted by their level of customer service and would not wish what I am going thru on anyone.

I bought a 50” RCA DLP four years ago last fall. I did so only because it was the best a local TV and appliance dealer with whom I had done a lot business had to offer. The PQ has been stunning but the cost of replacing a bulb, which I did about a year and a half ago, was outrageous, more than $500 . If it quits again I’m just going to hold my nose and replace it with an HDTV that I hope will be more reliable.

Thompson did replace a noisy light engine during warranty but I suspect that was only because my local TV and appliance guy, who was a long-time RCA dealer, insisted.

Does anybody know if replacement bulbs for RCA DLPs are any cheaper now than they were in the summer of 2006?

Try a Google search, I'm not sure what your model is but on some sites I have seen replacement bulbs for the older RCA DLP sets for half (or less) of what you originally paid.

Help my diagnose my problem. Go to turn tv on, fan starts running, I hear a loud buzzing sound, and it never turns on. It tries to turn on over and over, but nothing.

Could be the ballast or a defective bulb.

Could be the ballast or a defective bulb.

Thanks, the bulb is about 1 year old so its probably the latter. Well I refuse to spend any more money on this set so I'm off to find a 42-47" 1080P LCD to replace it with.

Okay. Anyone know how to break the RCA 62 DLP unit while under warranty to get a new one?

Hi Folks,

I have an older RCA HD DLP. I have a DVD player connected to it via DVI.

Yesterday I tried connecting my laptop PC (HDMI) to the TV using an HDMI to DVI converter plug. That worked fine, too. (Netflix instant-viewing on the big TV...)

However, now that I've plugged the DVD player back into the TV, some discs play, while others do not. The ones that don't just produce an odd flickering blue screen. Audio is fine. Also, component video is fine. But DVI video doesn't work for certain DVDs.

Is this an HDCP issue caused by my connecting to the laptop? Can I reset it? I'm stumped. Got any clues?

Thanks

Following up to my own post, I found a "hack" for the DVD player that disables HDCP. Lo & behold, my problem went away, and all DVDs play just fine over DVI now.

But it still begs the question: What happened to the TV's HDCP and how do I reset it?

Hi,
Anyone ever thought of modding their DLP scenium to handle 720p over dvi?

I've had my 61 inch for 4 years now... I want 720p via DVI!!! I thought we would get lucky with a firmware update that would fix this problem but I can't see it happening.

Does anyone have a color wheel and a ballast board for sale for a 50W151?

Or does anyone want to buy my styling Scenium that needs a repair :mad:

I finally replaced my 5 year old 50 inch Scenium DLP with s 60 inch Pioneer Kuro last summer. Do you want to talk about an improvement? The Scenium had PQ that was peerless by the standards of its day but that day was a long time ago; its bulbs were short lived and its light engine sounded like a jet engine. I have put it in a bedroom and don't watch it much any more. I haven't missed it.

"Help my diagnose my problem. Go to turn tv on, fan starts running, I hear a loud buzzing sound, and it never turns on. It tries to turn on over and over, but nothing."


My 4 1/2 year old HD50WLP42 was doing this! I bought a Bulb on ebay for $99. That didn't fix it so I put the original back in and took it in for a free estimate locally at a repair shop. They said the Color Wheel was bad and wanted $406 to replace it. I said no thanks. Bought a color wheel on ebay for $116 (after 10% off paypal coupon, and $44.95 Microsoft cashback.)
Put the color wheel in tonight. It took about 10 minutes! Tv is working again!

Recently I read on one of the Forums that both LCD and modern plasma HDTVs have turned out to be FAR more reliable that DLP sets. God knows, I am living proof of that. I bought a 50 inch RCA Scenium DLP in 2003. RCA had to replace the light engine under warranty and I later had to replace the bulb for, wait for it, $505! Worse, even the replacement light engine made more noise that a jet airplane. Never again! I bought a Sony XBR LCD set about two and a half years ago and a Pioneer Kuro not quite 6 months ago. Neither has given me a minute's trouble. Better yet, both are quieter than a stone.

I have had my RCA DLP since the day it was released and have had very few problems. I may upgrade someday, but for now this thing still works and work well.

Spacehulk -- You have been lucky if what I have read about the bulb life of Scenium DLPs is accurate. My original bulb failed after a little more that two and a half years and the set has been intermittently noisy since it was new. That said, my Scenium's PQ is excellent, especially by 2003 standards and I have never regretted buying it.

My 50 incher has not had a problem since I got it in Feb 2005. I do have a bulb ready though.....

After buying this TV (HDLP61W151) in the spring of 2004 and using it daily, the original bulb has finally died. I had often considered buying a spare bulb to have for this day but I'm glad I didn't since the price has come way down. 80 dollars on ebay and I'll be back in business tomorrow.

Would love to have a brand new 1080p set, of course, but I am pretty happy with the Scenium for all the years of reliable service it's given me.

Would love to have a brand new 1080p set, of course, but I am pretty happy with the Scenium for all the years of reliable service it's given me.
I bought my old 50 inch RCA Scenium DLP in 2003 but replaced it with a 60 inch Pioneer Kuro last August. Wow! I had no idea what I had been missing. A lot had happened in 5 years. I still have the Scenium in my bedroom but don't watch it much anymore. Nevertheless, it gave good service for 5 years and I have never regretted buying it.

I bought my old 50 inch RCA Scenium DLP in 2003 but replaced it with a 60 inch Pioneer Kuro last August. Wow! I had no idea what I had been missing. A lot had happened in 5 years. I still have the Scenium in my bedroom but don't watch it much anymore. Nevertheless, it gave good service for 5 years and I have never regretted buying it.

I noticed today that TigerDirect is now selling these as refurbs for <$500. I was surprised to see that there were any left after all of the problems people have had......mine still going strong with original bulb since 2/2005.

I am browsing for a spare replacement bulb for my RCA 61 in DLP. Sellers on eBay and the bulb website highly recommend against any bulb other than the Philips branded one.

Anyone had an experience with an OSRAM Bulb? They about 40 dollars cheaper than the Philips.

I have a 60" RCA DLP TV and it is developing a purple tinted strip on the right side of the screen. At first I thought that the bulb was going bad but the bulb did blow and was replaced but there is still a purple strip on the right side. Has anyone see this before?

I have a 60" RCA DLP TV and it is developing a purple tinted strip on the right side of the screen. At first I thought that the bulb was going bad but the bulb did blow and was replaced but there is still a purple strip on the right side. Has anyone see this before?

It sounds like a color wheel issue.

I am browsing for a spare replacement bulb for my RCA 61 in DLP. Sellers on eBay and the bulb website highly recommend against any bulb other than the Philips branded one.

Anyone had an experience with an OSRAM Bulb? They about 40 dollars cheaper than the Philips.

I have tried both the Philips bulbs and the Osram bulbs. The original bulb in my HD61LPW42 was an Osram and those are the only ones I have had success with. My last one went for approximately 8500 hours on bright mode. It popped two weeks ago and I replaced it with my spare.

The color wheel has been noisy for the past month or so... and I'll be replacing that after new years. If anyone has a good source for those, I would appreciate the info.

As for those who have had short-lived lamps... the one thing that I have found is that this TV is EXTREMELY sensitive to power fluctuations. My first bulb lasted only 6 months. The next one only 3 months. The third bulb lasted 8500 hours because I connected the TV to a 1500VA UPS with under/over-voltage protection. In addition to the under/over-voltage protection, the UPS also allows me to shutdown the TV gracefully when the power goes out (which happens frequently in Florida)... this allows the light engine to cool down before the fan shuts off.

I am browsing for a spare replacement bulb for my RCA 61 in DLP. Sellers on eBay and the bulb website highly recommend against any bulb other than the Philips branded one.

Anyone had an experience with an OSRAM Bulb? They about 40 dollars cheaper than the Philips.

Oh... and one more thing... I read some good information recently regarding spare lamps. The article I read suggested that you should buy a spare and USE IT for 30 days. This way, if it dies in the 30-day warrantee period that most sellers offer, you can get it replaced. Then, after it has worked for 30 days, put your original lamp back in and put the spare on the shelf.

This makes good sense.

Has anyone had success getting a Scientific Atlanta HD cable box from Brighthouse Networks (Time Warner) to work with a HDMI-DVI cable on the RCA HD61LPW42 and similar sets?

When I connect mine this way, the cable box displays a message that says my display does not support HDCP. However, I can press "power" again on the cable box and it turns on and seems to work fine. The picture didn't look any better than when using Component, so I switched back to component.

I've been using component inputs for years, but I recently bought a Sony PS3 and watched a Blu-Ray movie using the HDMI-DVI cable. There was no issue with HDCP and it looked FANTASTIC! Now I'm wondering if perhaps the cable box scaled down to 480p when I tried using the DVI input (because it didn't think my set had HDCP). This might explain why the PQ looked the same on component vs. DVI?

Any info would be appreciated.

I have tried both the Philips bulbs and the Osram bulbs. The original bulb in my HD61LPW42 was an Osram and those are the only ones I have had success with. My last one went for approximately 8500 hours on bright mode. It popped two weeks ago and I replaced it with my spare.

The color wheel has been noisy for the past month or so... and I'll be replacing that after new years. If anyone has a good source for those, I would appreciate the info.

As for those who have had short-lived lamps... the one thing that I have found is that this TV is EXTREMELY sensitive to power fluctuations. My first bulb lasted only 6 months. The next one only 3 months. The third bulb lasted 8500 hours because I connected the TV to a 1500VA UPS with under/over-voltage protection. In addition to the under/over-voltage protection, the UPS also allows me to shutdown the TV gracefully when the power goes out (which happens frequently in Florida)... this allows the light engine to cool down before the fan shuts off.


Thanks you for the quick response. I will go with the OSRAM bulbs and get a UPS.

Hey guys, I've got a 1st-gen 61" RCA DLP that I've always had hooked up to a cable box... til now. I removed the cable box and plugged the cable straight into "Antenna A", then ran a Full Search. It found plenty of channels, but NONE of the digital channels (i.e. no .1 channels). Not only were they not found, but I can't even manually enter a .1 channel -- it just reverts to the basic channel.

I've got a similar cable setup for my bedroom TV and it found the digital channels just fine. Is there a trick to getting the RCA to find or allow digital channels?

Hey guys, I've got a 1st-gen 61" RCA DLP that I've always had hooked up to a cable box... til now. I removed the cable box and plugged the cable straight into "Antenna A", then ran a Full Search. It found plenty of channels, but NONE of the digital channels (i.e. no .1 channels). Not only were they not found, but I can't even manually enter a .1 channel -- it just reverts to the basic channel.

I've got a similar cable setup for my bedroom TV and it found the digital channels just fine. Is there a trick to getting the RCA to find or allow digital channels?

I believe these sets do not have a digital tuner, so all you are getting is the analog channels from your cable company.

Thanks for the input PaulGo. The manual actually states on page 3 "Your HDTV’s tuner is ready for digital cable (no need for a cable box to view unscrambled, digital cable, programming). The tuner is able to decode all 16 formats of digital television broadcasts and it can interpret digital cable signals because it includes the ability to decode QAM (Quadrature Amplitude Modulation) encoded programming."

Also, when I first got the set, I plugged in an antenna just to see what I could get and I was able to find lots of digital HD channels.

Seems like the problem is the Search function isn't finding any digital channels for some reason -- I've tried setting the Antenna A input to both "Air" and "Cable" but no luck. As a result of not finding any digital channels with the Search, I think the TV then ignores my attempts to manually enter a digital channel number like 5-1.

I must be missing a setting somewhere -- hoping someone can help!

Sorry I didn't think that the first generation set had a QAM tuner. But you are correct - if the set does not detect the stations with a scan it will not allow you to input a channel it believes that is does not exist. The only thing I could suggest is hook up an antenna to the set and see if the set picks up the digital over the air signals. If that works uses the same methodology for hopefully picking up the clear QAM signals. The only other thing I can think of is that cable companies are packing many more stations into a QAM frequency than it did when the set was designed and that the set is not capable of picking the up.

Does anyone know how to clear the memory module on this model? The tv is frozen and will do nothing when plugged in. Well i shouldnt say that because it does click and then the buttons light up on the front but will not respond. I was told to clear the memory module. Thanks in advance.:D

I recently received this TV for free from a friend stating the only problem was the bulb needed replaced. I purchased a bulb for just under $100 and replaced it and the TV was working fine (except it took me a while to figure out how to get it working with my ATT Uverse cable box without the manual)
I purchased a new entertainment center (just a stand with shelves), built it unplugged everything and moved the TV from 1 to the other, plugged everything back in and now it isn't working anymore.
While playing with the antenna settings in the Connections menu, I can get sound to play for about 1 second before stopping again, never getting any picture (the words "Unusable Signal" pop up). I can get it to work on another TV, so it's nothing with the Cable box itself. I attempted to run the cable over RCA/Composite cables, and this doesn't work on any of the inputs either (does work on other TV). I CAN, however, get my XBOX to work over Component cables, picture and sound.

I am completely stumped. It doesn't make sense to me, what am I missing?
Overview: Coaxial and RCA is not working, Component is working. I can get a flicker of sound on RCA and Coaxial before it stops working again.

UPDATE: I have taken it apart and played checked all the connections internally, everything seemed fine, but now my RCA connections are working again. Antenna A and B are still not working. I'm guessing that means the Tuner is out. I will just hook the cable box up via Component so everything is working.

Does anyone know how to change the color wheel on a RCA DLP? Instructions anywhere?

Did you ever get the color wheel changed?

It is amazing to see that there are still other RCA DLP owners still going strong. I had my color wheel replaced with a new OEM one just before my extended warranty ran out. Since then I have only replaced the bulp (sub $100). I plan on moving it to my home gym once I move on to the MIT 92840...fingers crossed.

Did you ever get the color wheel changed?

Nope.. decided it was not worth the effort.... got a Mitsubishi 65.

Funny that this thread just resurfaced, as I recently had some "fun" with my 61" DLP from 2004 (model HD61LPW42). About two years ago I got the dreaded "dark corner" or "shadow corner" in my TV. It sat unused since then, until I finally decided to try and fix it (since I was going to throw the TV out anyway -- nothing to lose).

There are lots of Google hits regarding bad light tunnels, which our TVs seem to be notorious for. So, I started ripping into the guts until I found the light tunnel. Sure enough, the glue had all broken down and the tunnel had collapsed. I super-glued it back into a rectangular box, put the TV back together, and it worked! No more shadow across half the TV!

Here's a pic of the TV guts exposed. It's actually not hard to pull everything apart. Full disclosure though -- when I got it all back together, the picture was slightly out of alignment, and seems a bit dimmer than when new. I'm guessing the light tunnel isn't perfectly aligned, but for a second-room TV I couldn't be happier. Much better than paying ~$1000 for a new light engine repair, or throwing a $3400 TV in the trash!

http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n110/pg_rider/389833_10150562065011660_503931659_10839513_1043268042_n.jpg

Great to read that you were able to fix it!

Wow! I just removed the light engine from my HDLP50w151 a couple of days ago. I have the dreded light tunnel collapse issue. I ordered a new light engine but will try to repair the light tunnel in my existing engine before I unbox the new one. Any tips you can pass along? Thanks

Wow! I just removed the light engine from my HDLP50w151 a couple of days ago. I have the dreded light tunnel collapse issue. I ordered a new light engine but will try to repair the light tunnel in my existing engine before I unbox the new one. Any tips you can pass along? Thanks

Have you actually removed the light tunnel assembly itself? It's about two inches long by half an inch wide and surrounded by a plastic support with a metal clip on top. If you can get to it (held on by a couple of torx bolts), then it's very straightforward to rebuild it using SuperGlue. Just try to be steady and very sure when you set each mirror in place. Mine came out slighltly cockeyed which may be why the picture was a bit dimmer.

I have the light engine out of the tv but have not removed the light tunnel. If I remove the lamp cage does this expose the light tunnel (behind the color wheel) and the screws that hold it in?

I posted pics of my light engine here
http://www.fixyourdlp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=2072&sid=979950fdf8321e99d6b34dbf49c4c18d

I have the light engine out of the tv but have not removed the light tunnel. If I remove the lamp cage does this expose the light tunnel (behind the color wheel) and the screws that hold it in?

Yeah, as I recall it's right before the color wheel.

So it sounds like if I remove the cage and color wheel I can remove the light tunnel. I going to try this first before I open the new light engine. Maybe save me some coin! Is you tv still working?

So it sounds like if I remove the cage and color wheel I can remove the light tunnel. I going to try this first before I open the new light engine. Maybe save me some coin! Is you tv still working?

Still working!

Does anyone have a color wheel and a ballast board for sale for a 50W151?

Or does anyone want to buy my styling Scenium that needs a repair :mad:


Figured I'd do an update. Knowing the bulb wasn't the problem I brought my set into a local shop for a diag. They said the ballast and color wheel needed replacing. I wasn't so convinced about the wheel but the ballast made sense. They quoted me something like $180 for a RCA replacement. I was checking Ebay and such for a used one thinking that would be my play, but had no luck. So eventually pulled out the ballast to check it out, and what did I find... a Samsung ballast, which sells for about half the RCA one new. I've got a friend with a retired 60" Scenium so I asked what kind of ballast is in his. Turns out, the same Samsung. Long story short, he got a new tv, sent me his ballast, I put it in and my Scenium lives!

I had to replace the bulb not too long ago and after about two months it stopped powering up. It didn't break, just isn't turning on. So I'm gonna have to fork out for another one. I bought a different one last time, I think it was from Electrified and it came with the housing. Well the housing didn't fit so I had to put it in the original. And obviously the bulb is a POS. Back to the Osram...

A question... Has anyone replaced their color wheel and gotten rid of that high pitched whine? How much did it cost you and how difficult was it?

much thanks - Boyd