I'm curious what resolution you're TV is in when seeing this? I set my STB to only output 720p or 1080i. I usually run at 1080i for all SD or HD stations and have never seen something like this.

Currently my STB is outputting 1080i, though I might try 720p also. I think the key is that it's only affecting some stations, and perhaps some cable/satellite systems. Maybe they're older, or using different technology, or something?

Insight needed:
I recently purchased a Toshiba D-R5 DVD recorder. It's hooked up to my 42" HP PL4260n through HDMI, optical sound goes directly from the recorder to my receiver. After about 30-60 minutes, all DVDs (doesn't matter recorded or not) begin to skip. If I power down the recorder and start it up again, the problem goes away. Do you think it has to do with my HDMI connection at all? I'm guessing it's the recorder but maybe someone else has a similar problem? Thanks
I have a Sony NS75H DVD player (not recorder) hooked up as you describe and haven't seen this; I didn't see it on my older Sony via component cables either. The 30-60 minute part smells to me like heat buildup eventually causing problems, either through the DVD itself heating up or some other means.

I can't see how HDMI (versus some other connection) should cause skipping, but I'm most definitely not a DVD recorder/player engineer nor guru! :)

Can you try the Toshiba on some other TV (or via a non-HDMI connection), or some other DVD recorder/player on your HP TV, as a "control", using of course the same DVDs?

EDIT: This may well be unrelated, but there are lots of posts here about skipping on the Toshiba A1 **HD DVD** player.

Doug

I figured it out, thanks for the response. I was wrong about the 30-60 minutes, I can make it happen all the time. It seems as though if I switch the resolution (upconvert) while watching TV (tuner input), then switch inputs back to the DVD player the skipping occurs. It looks like it has something to do with 480i used by the tuner. If I don't upconvert (or switch back and forth between inputs) I don't have the problem. Obviously its the recorder's problem and not the TV.

The setup for the recorder
- Cable in (from wall)
- S-video & R&L Audio in (from cable box)
- HDMI out (to HP plasma)
- optical out (to the receiver)

The cable box or it's inputs into the recorder aren't involved when the problem occurs.

Sorry about digressing from the topic. But at least now I know it's not the TV. :)

I have the 42" HP Plasma and had to use a Y-adapter cable (red/white into one pin like RCA plug into the TV) to get audio from my Motorola cable box using an HDMI cable to connect cable box to TV.

An HP service representative came to may house last weekend and applied the latest firmware upgrade to my TV. Version 1.3.1. It works perfectly. I was able to remove the Y- cable and get audio through the HDMI cable. It removed all the error messages that I was getting the "HDMI audio is unavailable" and things work perfectly.

If you have this TV and have firmware 1.2.1 you must call HP support at 1-800-474-6836 and get this updated firmware applied. The service call to your house is FREE! This will resolve all your concerns if you are having the same symptoms.

Good Luck,
-Frank

I've had my PL5060N for about a month now and it's great. I wall mounted it. I do have one question though .. sometimes I see the top row of pixels dancing around... but not on proper wide-screen HD channels - those are perfect.. but HD channels with other aspect ratios .. and on some recorded channels on my Direct TV HDDVR ..

Has anyone else seen any weirdness in the top rows of pixels on the screen?

TIA

I have seen it on several Westinghouse's and an Olevia. It is the signal and not your TV.

I have this tv now, the 50 inch plasma, i am just wondering how good the tuner is on this thing, there seems to be alot of glitchiness, not a whole lot i guess but every few minutes the screen turns blocky or skips kind of, like a satelite dish in the rain or something

i have a jvc hdla tv and it doesnt do it this much, not on the stronger channels, could it be the cable or that its a little farther from the amplifier? i dont want to keep something that will constantly irritate me but other than that problem i like the tv

any thoughts? how does the tuner compare to others? if it is as good as others i will just keep it, if it is known for a bad tuner i will return it for a different tv

I noticed people mentioning about firmware upgrade.

Did the visit from the HP tech guy to upgrade your firmware cost money or was it for free ?


Also i am noticing a problem that the TV wont switch on sometimes if its in the "quick startup" mode. I have to either disconnect the power cord and reconnect it .... or press and hold down the power button on the TV set for a few seconds to restart it. I cant figure out what causes this problem ...since it is an intermittent thing.

I have the 42" HP Plasma and had to use a Y-adapter cable (red/white into one pin like RCA plug into the TV) to get audio from my Motorola cable box using an HDMI cable to connect cable box to TV.

An HP service representative came to may house last weekend and applied the latest firmware upgrade to my TV. Version 1.3.1. It works perfectly. I was able to remove the Y- cable and get audio through the HDMI cable. It removed all the error messages that I was getting the "HDMI audio is unavailable" and things work perfectly.

If you have this TV and have firmware 1.2.1 you must call HP support at 1-800-474-6836 and get this updated firmware applied. The service call to your house is FREE! This will resolve all your concerns if you are having the same symptoms.

Good Luck,
-Frank

i just bought my tv a couple days ago, my software version says 1.1.8, is this what you are talking about? this has to be upgraded?
would that make it any better at tuning in? getting less digital blockiness ?

i just bought my tv a couple days ago, my software version says 1.1.8, is this what you are talking about? this has to be upgraded?
would that make it any better at tuning in? getting less digital blockiness ?
I am recommending you call HP support and getting the new firmware upgrade. The new version fixes many or all of the audio through HDMi cable problems I was having. I am not sure what else was contained in that upgrade too?
Sorry..Call HP?
-Frank

i called and they said all the upgrades do was fix the audio through hdmi with some set top boxes, motorola i think he said, so i guess i just deal with the picture problems

Just wanted to throw a post out to see if anyone can provide any insight into some sporadic video anomalies that I have been experiencing since purchasing my 50".

On certain HD programs I have noticed a jittery picture that jumps around especially if the program is panning across a landscape or if there is a lot of action.(especially on Discovery HD and the HD music channel) With football games some camera angles will be fine, but when they change to an on-field camera it will become jittery.

Any insights or recommendations on causes and/or possible fixes?

If you press the "Info" button on the remote, does it say "720p", "1080i", or something else near the top?

What is the signal flow from your cable/satellite/antenna to the TV - what boxes are in the chain? What cables, "brand name" or cheapest you could find, etc.

In modern TV setups every component and cable can influence overall picture quality, so details matter! :)

Doug

i called and they said all the upgrades do was fix the audio through hdmi with some set top boxes, motorola i think he said, so i guess i just deal with the picture problems

Yep.

Step 1) Call HP Total Care and tell them you have a Motorola 64xx STB and you want to use HDMI but can't get audio. Explain how yet, your audio does work fine with component input and yes, your DVD player's HDMI connection works just fine.

Step 2) Sit on hold for 20 min.

Step 3) Get transfered to Retail Solutions

Step 4) Get a case number for the firmware upgrade

Step 5) Wait 3-5 days for HP to send the "part" (flash drive?) to the tech in your area.

Step 6) Set up an appointment for the HP tech to install the firmware upgrade.

I'm currently on Step 5) and holding...

Just wanted to throw a post out to see if anyone can provide any insight into some sporadic video anomalies that I have been experiencing since purchasing my 50".

On certain HD programs I have noticed a jittery picture that jumps around especially if the program is panning across a landscape or if there is a lot of action.(especially on Discovery HD and the HD music channel) With football games some camera angles will be fine, but when they change to an on-field camera it will become jittery.

Any insights or recommendations on causes and/or possible fixes?

If the signal is 1080i, then you may see this pixellation; if 720p then you probably won't. This is the reason some of the networks selected 720p so their sports events wouldn't pixellate (Fox, ESPN for example). I don't think it is the TV; I surmise it is the limited bandwidth of the cable/satellite signal. It is most obvious on 1080i football when the camera is panning close to the action.

Has anyone tried using the optical out from the tv straight into a receiver yet? I thought that once I had a HD digital Box connected to the tv that I would be able to go to the tv's OSD and change the audio to Dolby Digital and in turn get DD from some of the channels, But for some reason or another it won't change to DD?. I would appreciate if someone explain to me what I'm doing wrong? Right now the way I'm getting Dolby Digital is by using the optical out from my Dish Network HD box to my receiver. That seems to work good. Also, another problem I'm seeing is that when I turn on my Tv, I get a hdmi audio unavailable message? Right now I have a hdmi switcher (Monoprice) with my hd dvd player and my HD Satellite box both plugged into the hdmi switcher which is connected to the tv by hdmi and for some reason I still get the hdmi audio unavailable message? I was wondering if the new firmware would fix that?
Thanks.

Yep.

Step 1) Call HP Total Care and tell them you have a Motorola 64xx STB and you want to use HDMI but can't get audio. Explain how yet, your audio does work fine with component input and yes, your DVD player's HDMI connection works just fine.

Step 2) Sit on hold for 20 min.

Step 3) Get transfered to Retail Solutions

Step 4) Get a case number for the firmware upgrade

Step 5) Wait 3-5 days for HP to send the "part" (flash drive?) to the tech in your area.

Step 6) Set up an appointment for the HP tech to install the firmware upgrade.

I'm currently on Step 5) and holding...

I just received my PL4260N this morning. I called HP this evening with the above information to get the firmware update (mine is 1.1.8).

After a transfer and 25 minutes, I got a TV support guy. I told him my issue using the script above, and he said that its a cable box setting issue needing to be at 94Khz (or somethiing like that).

I told him I tried it, didn't work. He said he'll have to forward the email to his supervisor and get back to me.

I'm waiting...

Has anyone tried using the optical out from the tv straight into a receiver yet? I thought that once I had a HD digital Box connected to the tv that I would be able to go to the tv's OSD and change the audio to Dolby Digital and in turn get DD from some of the channels, But for some reason or another it won't change to DD?. I would appreciate if someone explain to me what I'm doing wrong? Right now the way I'm getting Dolby Digital is by using the optical out from my Dish Network HD box to my receiver. That seems to work good. Also, another problem I'm seeing is that when I turn on my Tv, I get a hdmi audio unavailable message? Right now I have a hdmi switcher (Monoprice) with my hd dvd player and my HD Satellite box both plugged into the hdmi switcher which is connected to the tv by hdmi and for some reason I still get the hdmi audio unavailable message? I was wondering if the new firmware would fix that?
Thanks.
According to the user manual, you have to be watching a digital channel to change the digital output setting; makes sense, I guess. In the couple of days between the arrival of my PL4260N and the arrival of the HD STB I think I successfully did what you want to do, since I'm not using the TV speakers but rather my 5.1 speakers. Digital audio from TV to receiver worked for me, but as soon as I got the STB I used that instead. (I originally had analog cable with no STB at all.)

From what others have posted, the "no audio via HDMI" problem from Motorola STBs should be fixed by the firmware update - IF you really want audio to go from the STB into your TV. But if you want to use your A/V receiver then the audio would want to go from the STB to the receiver, no? In that case I don't think the firmware fix matters - the "HDMI audio unavailable" message is brief and once-only, and will be "correct" if audio is going to the receiver and NOT to the TV.

Doug

Clarification - when I did what you're trying to do, I had the cable connected directly into the TV (i.e. I had no STB at that point), so the TV's tuner was in use, and digital audio output from the TV to the receiver made sense. As soon as I got the STB, its tuner did the work, so its digital audio output was what mattered.

I don't think the TV does "audio pass-through", if that's what you're trying to achieve; whichever box is doing the video tuner work is where the audio output should be connected to your receiver. Similarly, audio output from your DVD player should go to the receiver, not the TV.

Doug

Just wanted to get some input from you guys that have purchased the HP5060. There is a really great deal on the HP's now till the 12th and I was wondering if any of you had chance to compare with the Vizio. As far as I can tell, both have good tuners and both do SD well. I believe the Vizio has PIP and a 3D filter but they are prone to blowing up power boards. Any major complaints from the HP camp other than HDMI sound issues? I haven't been able to compare them side by side but I think the PQ is about the same. Thanks in advance

I appreciate your response. Those pictures I posted are so much smaller than the originals as I had to scale them down from a rather large resolution to post them, so the detail had been greatly dimished.

By the way, I checked it out, turned on an HD hockey game and have noticed it still.

However, I turned this game on a while ago, and over time, the effects seem to have gone away on its own. I am getting to the point where I think it has a bit to do with image retention and it seems the pixels have to be stimulated or something for a while.

:confused: Man, this is so hard to explain in words, that I almost think I should just call HP support and see what they say. I appreciate everyone's input. It will take me a while, I am sure, to get up to calling them, and then to see what they have to say.

Once I do, I'll post a follow-up.

En

POSTSCRIPT: I just want to add, that when I noticed this tonight, I activated the OSD to check the settings, and the anomoly disappeared, then came back when the menu was closed. And after a few hours of watching, everything is hunky dory...

Well, I finally called HP support on my odd issue. What sent me over the edge was this morning I plopped in the break-in DVD and on the red screen I noticed hundreds of blinking pixels randomly blinking all over the screen. The color of these was pink (from red to pink to red). I figured that was what I was seeing in the areas of the screen. Nonetheless, I explained to the HP Rep and he was going to send someone out to my house (the manufacture warranty does include on site repairs contradicting the guy who wanted to sell me the extended warranty)

Anyway, I was escalated up the food chain and I spoke with a wonderful technician who ascertained that I had a bad plasma and promptly set me up with a replacement. I was grateful and hope that these issues will be a thing of the past.

I also mentioned to him, as I was watching 24 last night and at the commercial break where the screen dims I noticed I saw a shadowy image of the last scene shown. He said that is not suppose to happen. I agreed as it doesn’t happen on my Panny.

Anyway, I'll report on my new panel when it comes in... Thanks again to all that tried to help.

En

So in a nutshell, I am receving two new plasmas. 1 42" panny for dead pixels and a new 50" HP for the reasons above. How's that for bum luck.... :rolleyes:

Anyone notice any lip synch problems? I am having on delivered thursday. Just curious if anyone is seeing anything.

Works fine for me, but of course a lot depends on what your audio/video paths are. Some equipment allows for timing adjustments, too. YMMV.

Just started using my new 42" HP Pl4260N and it is spectacular!

Chris

Anyone having trouble with this set breaking up in HD 1080/720p mode ?

Oops, sorry..

My new 4260N's image is breaking up / heavy pixelization every so often. Maybe every 30 secs. to 2 minutes some area of the screen will go pixellated. It is very irritating. Anyone ?

Chris

More info on problem:

I am using the internal HDTV tuner connected to Time Warner cable as a source. DVD source to component inputs don't exhibit this problem.

Thanks,
Chris

One more piece of info:

My signal strength on the HD channels ranges from having 2 to 3 red bars on the right hand side of the scale. Is my signal too weak ?

Chris

I just posted a new type of plasma break in DVD.

Refer to the post below:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=9123776#post9123776

Good luck,
Chris

Oops, sorry..

My new 4260N's image is breaking up / heavy pixelization every so often. Maybe every 30 secs. to 2 minutes some area of the screen will go pixellated. It is very irritating. Anyone ?

Chris


alot of break ups for me, i was trying to decide to return it or not, but i guess i just keep it
i was hoping it was just a bad cable or something,but if someone else is getting it too then i doubt it, my wife is ready to go back to the old standard def tv :eek:

What kind of signal strength do you have ?

it is usually pretty strong, only a couple of bars missing at the end, i'll pay attention tonight

but it does it even on shows like CSI where my jvc wont have any jitters,
i guess it isnt constant,but its annoying, i am having the tv put on the wall next saturday, so i will put in new cabling, i am tempted to get a new amp but i dont think that would help

I will probably be calling Hp on mine. I can't live with the problem. Hopefully they will handle it properly. Let me know if you find out anything.
Thanks,
Chris

well, i think i will end up just keeping mine, i caught a good sale,plus they were 10% off, plus they gave me another 10% off for my reward zone thing, so it was only 1799 for it, if i take it back for a comparable one i will end up spending more than that,
it is just irritating that stuff doesnt work right,
this is the first plasma i have had, and i didnt realize that every single station puts their stupid little logo in the corner and it doesnt move, i know it may not affect my tv,but it still makes me a little nervous about burn in

NOT having a problem doesn't prove much except that it's not universal, but I don't have the periodic poor quality being described. I have Comcast cable, and seem to have good signal strength, though I don't have whatever "bars" indicator others are describing to give any details.

A poor or intermittent signal sounds capable of the effects described, though, especially where DVDs don't have a problem. Can you try OTA, or temporarily plug the cable directly into the TV and search for local channels there?

Doug

Is it normal that non HD channels might actually look worse on the HDTVs? I get pretty fuzzy pictures on ABC shows and a few other channels are bad as well. Is there anything in the settings that might help that. It's just as bad with any of the aspect ratios.

I use a motorola DVR for my cable, I didn't know if I might get a better reception through DirectTv or Dish? How do all of yours look on the abc channel? Even my HD ABC channel isn't great and only shows in the smaller size with black bars on the sides.

More info on problem:

I am using the internal HDTV tuner connected to Time Warner cable as a source. DVD source to component inputs don't exhibit this problem.

Thanks,
Chris

One more piece of info:

My signal strength on the HD channels ranges from having 2 to 3 red bars on the right hand side of the scale. Is my signal too weak ?

Chris

Ok you lost me here. You say you are using the TV's tuner connected to Time Warner cable. Does this mean you have the cable directly connected to the TV's coax cable input or are you using the cable set top box?

Also what do you mean by 2 to 3 red bars on a scale? Are you using an antenna?

Is it normal that non HD channels might actually look worse on the HDTVs? I get pretty fuzzy pictures on ABC shows and a few other channels are bad as well. Is there anything in the settings that might help that. It's just as bad with any of the aspect ratios.

I use a motorola DVR for my cable, I didn't know if I might get a better reception through DirectTv or Dish? How do all of yours look on the abc channel? Even my HD ABC channel isn't great and only shows in the smaller size with black bars on the sides.

I have Time Warner cable through a scientific Atlantic STB. All channels are clear. SD channels look fine. I usually play all of them at 1080i from the STB through HDMI cable to the TV. My neighborhood is all fiber optic up to the pedestles, then regular coax to the houses. I use digital cable, digital phone, and road runner cable internet. My signal is really strong and amplified again at my house through an amplifier they installed since I have so many connections.

No idea if satellite would make it look better. My parents have Directv on a Samsung 56" DLP and it looks good on all channels like mine. I'm thinking it's most likely your quality of signal, not the tv. Also I'd suggest changing your settings to those listed previously in this thread. I did.

Is it normal that non HD channels might actually look worse on the HDTVs? I get pretty fuzzy pictures on ABC shows and a few other channels are bad as well. Is there anything in the settings that might help that. It's just as bad with any of the aspect ratios.

I use a motorola DVR for my cable, I didn't know if I might get a better reception through DirectTv or Dish? How do all of yours look on the abc channel? Even my HD ABC channel isn't great and only shows in the smaller size with black bars on the sides.

I am by far no expert. But the short answer is yes, they do. No matter what service or STB, SD pictures look worse on HDTVs. You may get better quality SD pictures with different services. All digital vs. analog, etc. but HD broadcasts will always look better on Big screen HDTVs. Mainly with viewing a 480i signal on a 720p screen. But there are other factors. I found this out coming from a 32" Sony Trinitron to a 50" Sony Wega LCD Rear Projector.

Usually, on My Comcast service, the pay channels (HBO, STARZ, etc.) look better than the most free one’s (TBS, AMC). My service isn’t all digital yet, so all channels below 100 are analog cable which looks worse. Some TVs I read look better than others, but I believe it is because of the level of sharpness. The PL5060n's picture seems really sharp, even with the sharpness turned all the way down compared to my buddy's commercial panny. His picture looks softer then mine which makes his SD broadcasts look different.

He said my SD picture looks better than his, but I thought his looked better. :confused:

Good point about all digital or not. With my Time Warner service you have to be digital to get HD, so my STB is a digital box for my digital service. You don't have to get digital from them of course, but you do if you sign up for HD channels.

I think I'll hook up the cable coax from the wall to the tv coax in and see how it looks in comparison of analog and digital on the non-hd channels.

Some hi-def TV sets do better with SD (non-HD signals) than others, too.

Good point about all digital or not. With my Time Warner service you have to be digital to get HD, so my STB is a digital box for my digital service. You don't have to get digital from them of course, but you do if you sign up for HD channels.

I think I'll hook up the cable coax from the wall to the tv coax in and see how it looks in comparison of analog and digital on the non-hd channels.

Oh, that reminds me... I also have my S-Video connections hooked to my STB. It makes SD channels look significantly better for me as well as activates the "just" mode for stretching 4:3 signals... IT's just a matter of remembering to switch to this input when I am watching "regular TV."

What I'd like to know is if anyone has sprung for an upconverting DVD player and if so, have you compared it to a standard progressive scan player to see if it's an improvement. I plan to upconvert over component. There are a few players out there that will do at least 720P. I don't want to jump into the format war at this point. Plus, I still have a large DVD collection that would benefit more from a better SD player than an HD player could do for me on SD or HD media.
Ditto for me... does anyone have recommendations fora top-notch progressive scan, and/or upconverting, DVD player? Something that won't break the bank? I've got a PL5060N on the way but my DVD player is ancient. Does anyone know of links to good reviews on DVD players?

:o

Ditto for me... does anyone have recommendations fora top-notch progressive scan, and/or upconverting, DVD player? Something that won't break the bank? I've got a PL5060N on the way but my DVD player is ancient. Does anyone know of links to good reviews on DVD players?

:o

Well, here goes my story. I bought the Sony upscaling DVD player w/ hdmi cable from Costco, mostly for the need of an extra input source more so than the upscaling feature. I have my STB on Com1, my Xbox360 on Com2. that left my DVD player in the lurch. I got the Sony as 2 toshibas I bought froze up during playback. All was well on earth. Sony worked fine, no problems. I noticed decent improvement in DVDs for sure, but for some reason 24 Season 5 discs looked worse! But other than that, I have nothing but good things to say about the Sony.

Anyway, to make a long story short, I read some positive reviews on the HD-DVD add on for Xbox360, which is $50 more than the Sony HDMI DVD player, and thought I'd give it a try. It too upscales regular DVDs. I'll report my findings for that.

I only have experience with the Philips progressive dvd players. They work good. No problems. No complaints.

I'm happy with the Sony NS75H that I bought a few weeks back. Just over US$100 on Amazon.

Doug

Ditto for me... does anyone have recommendations fora top-notch progressive scan, and/or upconverting, DVD player? Something that won't break the bank? I've got a PL5060N on the way but my DVD player is ancient. Does anyone know of links to good reviews on DVD players?

:o

I have the top-rated Oppo DV971H ($199) which you can find here (http://www.oppodigital.com/) . The review can be found at this link (http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/cgi-bin/shootout.cgi?function=search&articles=all&type=&manufacturer=0&maxprice=0&deInt=0&mpeg=0) . I'm very happy with it.

I just got my firmware upgrade this morning. I had no difficulties at all. Called Friday was on the phone maybe 15 min mainly because I didn't have my serial # with me. I got a call at 8:30 this morning that the guy from Comp USA (little strange since I bought at BB) would be over in 30min. The firmware update took 15min and now no more STB problems. I can finally switch inputs without having to power on/off my comcast DVR. This is a big deal for me since we have a 4 month old baby we rarely have the luxury of watching a full DVD. I don't know if anybody else has tried to power off their DVR while it was recording with no OSD, it's not that easy, if I couldn't remember the whole crazy sequence on the remote I would have to power off the box which then takes for ever to reset and then I screwed up what I was recording. So all in all I LOVE MY TV. This was an excellent buy, I've done alot of comparing and I own 2 LCDS that I rarely watch anymore basically because the HP looks awesome even in SD the colors are always better and brighter and I have 2 Sharp Aquos panels which up to the time I got this plasma were beautiful TV's, kind of sucks since I could of bought 6 HP's for what the Sharps's cost.


Happy Viewing
Shawn

Which Aquos models, out of curiosity? Don't answer if you don't want to.

I have the top-rated Oppo DV971H ($199) which you can find here (http://www.oppodigital.com/) . The review can be found at this link (http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/cgi-bin/shootout.cgi?function=search&articles=all&type=&manufacturer=0&maxprice=0&deInt=0&mpeg=0) . I'm very happy with it.
I did a lot of research and reading, and decided to go with the Oppo. I couldn't use the 971H, because the PL5060N has no DVI input. The 970 was tempting, since it has component output, and flash card slots... but the new DV-981HD has better video upconversion/processing, and the black color blends better with my equipment. So, tomorrow Fed Ex Ground should be delivering my new DV-981HD! Can't wait to try it out.... thanks for the links!

:D

I have a LC30 HV2U and a LC37HB? The 30" has a seperate box for connections, doesn't even have a DVI connection, it's almost 5 years old. The 37" is a better tv HDMI and DVI. I can't remember the exact model but it's going on it's 3rd year. I also have a 15" aquos I use in the nursery. All 3 are actually good displays and I've never had problems with any of them plus they're all beautiful TVS and it's pretty cool with matching flat screens throughout the house. But even if I had an unlimited budget and could buy any 42" screen I would go HP every time.

I did a lot of research and reading, and decided to go with the Oppo. I couldn't use the 971H, because the PL5060N has no DVI input. The 970 was tempting, since it has component output, and flash card slots... but the new DV-981HD has better video upconversion/processing, and the black color blends better with my equipment. So, tomorrow Fed Ex Ground should be delivering my new DV-981HD! Can't wait to try it out.... thanks for the links!

:D

Wouldn't a DVI to HDMI cable work?

Is there a way to turn off the auto brightness on the hp pl4260N. I am using HDMI and everytime there is a dark seen on the movie, the brightness goes higher, you can tell the switch in brightness, it makes the dark seens whiter.

thanks

I haven't heard of an auto-brightness feature. I know that when I first got my TV, I had to individually configure each picture setting for each input and turn down the contrast and brightness. When the screen went very dark it seemed it went brighter, but really it was just those settings up too high for a dark room.

FAR superior to the Sanyo I had picked up a few weeks ago. One question. What do you recomend the output from my HD box should be set to?

Try whatever options are available, given ports and cables, since "best" varies from setup to setup depending on lots of variables. I tried both HDMI and component from my Comcast box, and decided that for me component was better. Plus, that freed the HDMI port for my up-converting DVD player. Others swear that HDMI is better for them. It varies.

Doug

Try whatever options are available, given ports and cables, since "best" varies from setup to setup depending on lots of variables. I tried both HDMI and component from my Comcast box, and decided that for me component was better. Plus, that freed the HDMI port for my up-converting DVD player. Others swear that HDMI is better for them. It varies.

Doug

Sorry meant to say what resolution... 720p, 1080i, or pass through whatever is broadcast. I have a SA3250 HD box if that matters.

I haven't heard of an auto-brightness feature. I know that when I first got my TV, I had to individually configure each picture setting for each input and turn down the contrast and brightness. When the screen went very dark it seemed it went brighter, but really it was just those settings up too high for a dark room.
You may also want to try various lighting options. Some folks claim you really want backlighting (i.e. some light behind the TV), others favor more some low room lighting. Watching dark scenes in a very dark room tends to make our eyes change from when it's a brighter scene or a less dark room, and that causes eyestrain as well as perceptions of black variations.

There's a lot of stuff written on this in other forums, but generally adjusting room lighting and/or backlighting can help, as well as TV adjustments per se. And of course it'll be no blacker than the original film/video, and that quality can vary too.

Doug

Sorry meant to say what resolution... 720p, 1080i, or pass through whatever is broadcast. I have a SA3250 HD box if that matters.
Oh. Well, again, try all three and see what you like. In theory 720p is better for fast motion, and that's why the sport-oriented networks use it (ABC, FOX, ESPN, mostly), while 1080i is better for details in movies (which is why most other networks use it.)

My cable box doesn't do pass-through, so I have to choose 720p or 1080i. Personally, I'm using 1080i, though I occasionally try 720p to see if I can tell the difference.

A slightly more theoretical issue is that 720p will cause the STB to upconvert once (for SD), and the TV to upconvert to get to 768 lines, while 1080i will cause one upconversion and one downconversion. For HD, depending on the input versus the setting, you may have one or two up/down conversions. Inventing new pixels is often tougher than averaging them down.

Bottom line - try them all and choose for yourself. You COULD even use both - 720p for sports, 1080i for other stuff - if you think both work better in some situations.

Doug

I agree. Try them all. My box outputs 480i, 480p, 480p widescreen, 720p, and 1080i. I set it up to output the native format that the station was broadcasting and played with that for a bit. Then to always be either 720p or 1080i. Eventually I just left it at 1080i because on mine it seemed to be a smidge better than 720p. I use HDMI to the TV and coax digital to the stereo receiver. Experimentation is the key. :)

The day my Comcast 6412 was installed, after the installer left and I finished working from home for the day, I turned on the TV and even on INHD and DHD I was getting a seriously letterboxed picture. That didn't seem right. Called Comcast Support and it turned out that the installer had left the STB on 480i!

I've tried both 720p and 1080i. I'm not a videophile, I haven't done a lot of "stress" comparisons, and I really can't tell much difference. I think I have it on 1080i now. If the Comcast box did pass-through, I'd be tempted to do that, probably, mostly on general principles.

Doug

One really great reason for "try all the options yourself" is that in any given setup any one of the components in the chain may be "best" at scaling. For some, the STB does a better job than the TV. For some, the TV is better than the DVD player. For some, hopefully many, their A/V receiver is best.

But there are so many variables, down to and including the quality of the feeds themselves and whether what you're viewing has lots of action or fine detail, that you almost have to try the various combinations to see what's best in a particular setup.

Same thing for DVD players and other video sources - some do a great job, some less so, compared to whatever the rest of the component mix is.

In general, though, only ONE component should probably be doing scaling! I don't think in general you should have the STB, the A/V receiver, and the TV all doing scaling. Ditto for DVD - receiver - TV. ONE upscale (or downscale) is probably better than several.

Well.

Had the T.V since 11/08/06.

Was working great.

T.V just popped, and picture went bye bye.

It looked great while it was on.

I live in Los Angeles, not too much of a hectic climate / sea level.

Yikes! :eek:

Ok, Well, I got my replacement TV from HP. It was pretty straightforward process. I am going to run the Break-in dvd when I am not watching it to try and get the breakin period done fast.

Question, do replacement TVs through warranty mean getting a "refurbished" set?

I ask because it has the same March 2006 build date as my old one. and none of the stickers were on the casing.

It looks fantastic. I am happy they replaced it too! Just curious how these warranty replacements work.

THanks,
En

I did a lot of research and reading, and decided to go with the Oppo. I couldn't use the 971H, because the PL5060N has no DVI input. The 970 was tempting, since it has component output, and flash card slots... but the new DV-981HD has better video upconversion/processing, and the black color blends better with my equipment. So, tomorrow Fed Ex Ground should be delivering my new DV-981HD! Can't wait to try it out.... thanks for the links!

:D

I use an HDMI to DVI cable and run audio to my reciever via optical cable.

Just got the pl4260n. Love it! Picture is great.

Never having owned a plasma, wondering whether the TV ever fully powers down or stays in standby all the time. Reason I ask is cause even when the TV is off, it is still emitting blue light at the back of the set.

Not a problem in anyway. Just wondering, as a newb, whether anybody can tell what this is...

Without unplugging it, it's never 100% off. You can choose between a "fast wake" mode or one that saves more energy by shutting down more completely, but awakens more slowly.

HP tech installed firmware version 1.3.1 today. Fixed the HDMI audio bug with the Motorola 6416 STB. I'm a happy camper now!

Without unplugging it, it's never 100% off. You can choose between a "fast wake" mode or one that saves more energy by shutting down more completely, but awakens more slowly.

What is the rationale behind this? Is this the case with all plasmas?

Almost any device with a remote control that can "power on" isn't 100% off unless it's unplugged. I can't speak for other plasmas, or TVs in general, but unless you have a no-remote TV it's going to draw SOME power even when "off", just like a VCR, DVD player, etc. You DO have a choice of "faster on" versus "less idle wattage".

Just got the 4260N as a xmas gift to myself. I want to wall mount it. I ordered the mount from monoprice (figure if it doesn't work I'm only out 28 bucks plus shipping). Has anyone used that mount with their HP plasma and if so, did you have any problems with it?

I have actually become upset at a product. My 4260 has spoiled me. I've had this TV for awhile now and it's overpowering my life. I no longer watch any of my other screens which means I've been spending alot of time on the couch in the living room and not in the bedroom. Now I have a beautiful Sharp Aquos in the bedroom and my wife isn't half bad eiher. But they're not my HP. I've decided the only way to save myself and my marriage is to buy the 50" HP and put the 42" in my bedroom. Anybody else ever feel this way?


Shawn

I have actually become upset at a product. My 4260 has spoiled me. I've had this TV for awhile now and it's overpowering my life. I no longer watch any of my other screens which means I've been spending alot of time on the couch in the living room and not in the bedroom. Now I have a beautiful Sharp Aquos in the bedroom and my wife isn't half bad eiher. But they're not my HP. I've decided the only way to save myself and my marriage is to buy the 50" HP and put the 42" in my bedroom. Anybody else ever feel this way?


Shawn

ROFFLES...I don't have a hot wife but yes, the HP has the power of taking over your life :D

Just checking into this thread, having purchased a PL4260N on 9/3/06. I am quite happy to report that I am now just as satisfied now as I was then. The picture remains stunning, no hardware or PQ issues whatsoever. Everything works beautifully three months in.

My only regret now is the 1080p envy, but HD-DVD and Bluray still both look amazing on my HP.

I went to BB today to get my son a gift certificate, and ended up with a PL5060N for me. I thought the PQ was better than the sets around it including the 47" Westinghouse LCD I had my eyes on.

It was open box so I got my Son's GC as part of the deal. :)

Here is a quick question.

I noticed on my replacement PL5060n that when I press the power button, sometimes I don't here the "click" from the TV. When it first arrived, I didn't hear it, then it started to click. Now it's silent again. The tv powers up, but I am not sure if this is something I should be concerned about... Anybody have any insight into this? It happend in both low power mode and fast power mode. I hear a click when I unplug the tv, though.

If anything, it's annoying because I don't know if I hit the button, so I have to wait for the "initalizing" screen before I know that the TV is "on," or look at the power button light.

Thanks,
En :confused:

FW 1.3.4 (50") and 1.3.5 (42") are now available that fix the Motorola STB HDMI audio problems. Call HP support and ask for the FW fix for the Motorola STB. I have it installed and it works fine. Tech came to my house and flashed the new update in less than 2 minutes.

What is the best video image setting. I keep playing around with it but never satisfy with the result. I am reading on this last post and everybody keep saying outstanding picture quality and hook up to the amazing video quality. Wha setting are you using. I am using hdmi for my explorer 8300HD on my PL4260N. I have firmware 1.3.1, by upgrading to latest firmware does it help on video quality.

Thanks

What is the best video image setting. I keep playing around with it but never satisfy with the result. I am reading on this last post and everybody keep saying outstanding picture quality and hook up to the amazing video quality. Wha setting are you using. I am using hdmi for my explorer 8300HD on my PL4260N. I have firmware 1.3.1, by upgrading to latest firmware does it help on video quality.

Thanks

The firmware update didn't make any difference to me. I think the HDTV channels are amazing quality, but the regular channels aren't always so great. I guess that's normal though. It does look good on dvds too.

what are you video settings, can you let me know. Thanks

Silly question: when I flip around channels with up/down (TiVo comes next week!), I often find channels with a decently strong signal strength and a 1920x1080i (usually) resolution. But nothing is on them, just a black screen. Is this the TV's way of telling me it's an encrypted channel? Or is there nothing there and can I somehow block them? There seems to be an awful lot of them, I can't imagine they're all real channels. But it's slightly confusing. And even slightly annoying! :)

Cheers!
Justin

Ok, Well, I got my replacement TV from HP. It was pretty straightforward process. I am going to run the Break-in dvd when I am not watching it to try and get the breakin period done fast.

Question, do replacement TVs through warranty mean getting a "refurbished" set?

I ask because it has the same March 2006 build date as my old one. and none of the stickers were on the casing.

It looks fantastic. I am happy they replaced it too! Just curious how these warranty replacements work.

THanks,
En


I would say more than likely it's a refurb. Typically limited warranties allow the manufacture to choose to fix the tv, replace it with a new one or replace it with a refurb at their own discretion not yours so...

Anyone gotten into the service menu yet? I'm interested in tweaking the settings if needed, for white balance and color cut/drv.

(Of course usual disclaimers apply).

My user settings are almost the same as standard, 50,50,50, 0 and 31. And set on cold, though I have NO clue what that means. If you put it on an HD channel and set the numbers that should show you what it's got.

Anyone gotten into the service menu yet? I'm interested in tweaking the settings if needed, for white balance and color cut/drv.

(Of course usual disclaimers apply).

There is a service manual floating around somewhere. I haven't got into mine yet because it looks good now.

Silly question: when I flip around channels with up/down (TiVo comes next week!), I often find channels with a decently strong signal strength and a 1920x1080i (usually) resolution. But nothing is on them, just a black screen. Is this the TV's way of telling me it's an encrypted channel? Or is there nothing there and can I somehow block them? There seems to be an awful lot of them, I can't imagine they're all real channels. But it's slightly confusing. And even slightly annoying! :)

Cheers!
Justin

It's really difficult for me to answer this unless I know more details about your setup. You might want to include:

Your TV model
Where the input is coming from (cable, satellite, antenna, other)
If using a set top box, what manufacturer and model
How it is cabled to the tv (HDMI, component, composite, coax, super video)
What input it is connected to

So any more details would be helpful. It almost sounds like you are using an antenna but I don't understand where the 1920 x 1080i would be coming from. Does it just say 1080i 60hz or something?

What is the best video image setting. I keep playing around with it but never satisfy with the result. I am reading on this last post and everybody keep saying outstanding picture quality and hook up to the amazing video quality. Wha setting are you using. I am using hdmi for my explorer 8300HD on my PL4260N. I have firmware 1.3.1, by upgrading to latest firmware does it help on video quality.

Thanks

I'm at work now so don't know mine. I am still in the pre 100 hour burn-in though, so mine are a little lower than normal. I'd start reading from the beginning of this thread. There are lots of settings posted for pre 100 hour and post 100 hour.

Here is a quick question.

I noticed on my replacement PL5060n that when I press the power button, sometimes I don't here the "click" from the TV. When it first arrived, I didn't hear it, then it started to click. Now it's silent again. The tv powers up, but I am not sure if this is something I should be concerned about... Anybody have any insight into this? It happend in both low power mode and fast power mode. I hear a click when I unplug the tv, though.

If anything, it's annoying because I don't know if I hit the button, so I have to wait for the "initalizing" screen before I know that the TV is "on," or look at the power button light.

Thanks,
En :confused:

If it's not broke then don't fix it comes to mind. I would not give it a seconds thought. Mine doesn't make any noise when turning off or on. I run in regular mode/fast startup.

I went to BB today to get my son a gift certificate, and ended up with a PL5060N for me. I thought the PQ was better than the sets around it including the 47" Westinghouse LCD I had my eyes on.

It was open box so I got my Son's GC as part of the deal. :)

Excellent. :)

Apologies and thanks - here is some more info:

The TV is an HP PL4260N
The source is cable via RF (i.e, using the TV's built-in tuner)

The 1920x1080i is what I see in the blue dialog box at the bottom of the screen when
changing channels - I'm at work now, so I can't see, but I beileve it's to the right of the channel number in red. (It's the same dialog one gets when you hit the 'Info' button' on the remote).

I have been reading this thread today with interest. I have a problem with our 2 HP PL5060N we have in our church. These tv's are used to display song lyrics and power point slides for worship. The images are stellar and we have NO complaints there. However, if an image is left on for more than say 5 minutes, the screens begins to dim. They continue to dim until they are almost gone. If you change or refresh the image, everything come back bright and beautiful only to start the process all over again. I came here today only AFTER calling HP to be told this was a "normal" plasma condition to eliminate burn in. The longest any image would be displayed would be no more than 20 minutes. I noticed that there is a firmware upgrade. Could this help with my problem? Is there a back door I might be able to use to turn OFF this feature? Any help would sure be wonderful. Just a note. We are using an analogway scaler with the computer as input 1 and a dvd player at input 2. A paused dvd results in the same behavior. There is also a ZENITH 50in plasma in the rear for the choir to see and it DOES NOT have the same problem.

Hi folks,

Sorry if this has been covered. But the thread was just too long to search through.

Bought the HP 50" , they were out of stock and it will be on the 30th of December.

Only problem is DirecTV couldn't show up till Jan 16th :0( .

No biggie, but I was wondering what kind of picture can I expect in the interim with my DirectTV SD (assuming this means Standard Defintion) TIVO box ?

Is it worth setting the TV up and using the SD box for 2 weeks plus before my new HD DVR and 5LNB satellite get's installed?

Right now I have an 8 year old JVC CRT , which was quite a set when I bought it (monitor quality over 400 lines of rez), Would I be dissapointed using the new HP?

Should I just wait till the day before the installers come and set the two TVs in their new locations?

BTW great forum, was worried about the single HDMI input till I saw here in this thread that there is HDMI hubs. Like USB has for comps that run out of inputs.

That was very nice finding out that is an option.

I know PQ can be very subjective , but I was just curious if taking the thing out of the box and going to the trouble of setting it up would be worth it.

Thanks for any replies, even if they are conflicting, this seems like a damn good forum to get a general consensus about this particular question.

Hi folks,

Sorry if this has been covered. But the thread was just too long to search through.

Bought the HP 50" , they were out of stock and it will be on the 30th of December.

Only problem is DirecTV couldn't show up till Jan 16th :0( .

No biggie, but I was wondering what kind of picture can I expect in the interim with my DirectTV SD (assuming this means Standard Defintion) TIVO box ?

Is it worth setting the TV up and using the SD box for 2 weeks plus before my new HD DVR and 5LNB satellite get's installed?

Right now I have an 8 year old JVC CRT , which was quite a set when I bought it (monitor quality over 400 lines of rez), Would I be dissapointed using the new HP?

Should I just wait till the day before the installers come and set the two TVs in their new locations?

BTW great forum, was worried about the single HDMI input till I saw here in this thread that there is HDMI hubs. Like USB has for comps that run out of inputs.

That was very nice finding out that is an option.

I know PQ can be very subjective , but I was just curious if taking the thing out of the box and going to the trouble of setting it up would be worth it.

Thanks for any replies, even if they are conflicting, this seems like a damn good forum to get a general consensus about this particular question.

i have one hp 5060 and my neighbor also has one , he is using the directv standard and an off-air for locals and the pq in my opinon is good for dtv, very good for off- air
i know that this is my first post but this product was one helluva buy

barry

Yeah that's the reaction I'm getting from friends and other research. Fire it up with the Standard Definition receiver.

I'm not seeing any downside to doing it. Not so far anyway.

Apologies and thanks - here is some more info:

The TV is an HP PL4260N
The source is cable via RF (i.e, using the TV's built-in tuner)

The 1920x1080i is what I see in the blue dialog box at the bottom of the screen when
changing channels - I'm at work now, so I can't see, but I beileve it's to the right of the channel number in red. (It's the same dialog one gets when you hit the 'Info' button' on the remote).

Hmm.... no idea. Do you have any other non-HD TV's that use the same cable signal? Do they get the channels that your HDTV is not getting?

I have had the TV (PL4260N) for 3 weeks and hooked up to DirecTv HD for 1 week. PQ is great. I do notice some "flicker" as per some other posts. It happens on mostly darker movies and such through HD Sat Rec. I did notice this also watching DaVinci Code on DVD. It happens when scenes change quickly from dark to light, vice-versa. I noticed the BB website states the following feature of the TV "Dynamic contrast adaptation adjusts picture quality on a scene-by-scene basis". Is that the culprit?

I see other posts that suggest different settings (movie, etc). I guess there is no way to shut this feature off. It is not that bad. But now that I noticed it, I guess I am going to be over-critical.

Again overall PQ is great, except for the DirecTv signal cutting in and out too much. But, I need to address that with them.

Any other info other than already posted on the auto-contrast "flicker" issue.

Hello all. I've had the PL4260N for about 2 1/2 months and didn't have it working, to my specifications, until today when I did a search and found this forum. THANK YOU!

I was using the composites that were supplied with my Motorola DCT6416 III by SuddenLink(formerly Cox). I purchased an HDMI cable off of eBay about two months ago to get the most out of the set-up. I was having problems with picture and sound like so many others have that I've read off of this thread. So after reading some of your posts, I changed the setting to 1080iWide, Preserve 4:3 480P and everything works great. I have sound on channels that I didn't before and I have full screen picture on all channels, which I also didn't have before.

Curious about something though, could this change have come through SuddenLink via a software/firmware upgrade. I noticed that my menus are better than they were from a month ago, from the HDCable box. They look much more modern.

Regardless, I am rid of that big bulky compenent cable. When changing my settings I noticed that with the HDMI cable 480i had this squiggly line on the top of the pic but was resolved when changing to 480p. I've also heard that 480p is "better" than 480i, is that correct?

Is it worth it to have someone come out and professional adjust the TV? Thanks again for all of the info and I look forward to learning more.

btw, any tips you guys can give an AV newb would be greatly appreciated.

Also, went to BB yesterday, also where I bought the TV, and purchased a wall mount. Pretty excited about that.

Has anyone ever bolted down the stand (base) on the PL5060N?

I have a cat that is very curious, and I know at some point he may try and jump to the top of my soon to arrive PL6050N.

I have my present TV stand/cabinet (not a hutch) which is large enough to accommodate the TVs base. I'm going to use it for now till I look at other options. I sort of want to see what the TV looks like and it's scale in the living room before I decide on a permanent mounting/cabinet/stand arrangement.

I was thinking of drilling holes in the TV base and using 4 bolts towards it's corners to secure it to the TV stands/cabinet top. I can thread nuts and washers on the inside of the cabinet.

If eventually I don't need the bolts, I can get a new base if the holes are ugly. The stand/cabinet itself even though it will have holes in it, is eventually going to be used for the TV that is on it now (32" JVC CRT). The holes won't show, and even if they did I could plug and paint them.

Couple of questions:

1. Is the HP Plasma base solid (PL6050N)? If it's hollow in some way, drilling and torquing threaded bolts might be a little tricky.

2. Is this a stupid idea?

3. Are there after market products that address this problems? I saw "straps" of some type (velcro I believe) when doing some research when my whole purchase process started, but can't seem to find them anywhere now. Or do they have replacement stands meant for this very purpose?

4. Has some one actually done this yet?

Sorry I don't have any answers for other posters yet, sort of hard since I don't actually have the TV yet. But when I do I promise to help out as much as I can, that's how a good forum works.....

Any way thanks and happy viewing.

|]i$

I need an expert opinion, between the PL4260N or the PL4200N which is better? How bad is to purchase a refurb HP?

Thank you

Has anyone ever bolted down the stand (base) on the PL5060N?

I have a cat that is very curious, and I know at some point he may try and jump to the top of my soon to arrive PL6050N.

I have my present TV stand/cabinet (not a hutch) which is large enough to accommodate the TVs base. I'm going to use it for now till I look at other options. I sort of want to see what the TV looks like and it's scale in the living room before I decide on a permanent mounting/cabinet/stand arrangement.

|]i$

This was a pretty significant worry for me also after I purchased my PL6050N as my wife and I have 5 cats who love to get into, well, everything. I have my set sitting on a corner unit in my living room until I get it mounted on the wall sometime this next spring.

For the first day or so the cats wanted to check the set out including two of them (fairly large cats 11-12 lbs) jumping on top of the set. To my surprise the set hardly moved. After a week or so the cats ceased to care about the set and they pretty much steer clear of it.

I think the base stand is rather sturdy and should will hold up with a cat jumping on it. Of course, this is just my experience with the set. I think a lot of it depends on the set being close to something that the cat will want to use it as a spring board to get up to something higher, which would mean there is a greater chance of the set falling. But if it's out of the way I personally wouldn't worry about bolting it down. Just my two cents.

This was a pretty significant worry for me also after I purchased my PL6050N as my wife and I have 5 cats who love to get into, well, everything. I have my set sitting on a corner unit in my living room until I get it mounted on the wall sometime this next spring.

For the first day or so the cats wanted to check the set out including two of them (fairly large cats 11-12 lbs) jumping on top of the set. To my surprise the set hardly moved. After a week or so the cats ceased to care about the set and they pretty much steer clear of it.

I think the base stand is rather sturdy and should will hold up with a cat jumping on it. Of course, this is just my experience with the set. I think a lot of it depends on the set being close to something that the cat will want to use it as a spring board to get up to something higher, which would mean there is a greater chance of the set falling. But if it's out of the way I personally wouldn't worry about bolting it down. Just my two cents.

Well I got the TV today......

Yeah the base is quite wide and sturdy. I have mine on a standard corner unit. It's near a bow window he likes to sit in but he uses the top of the cabinet not the top of the TV to get to the window. And the TV could be placed far enough back on the cabinet to accommodate him and a center speaker . He's been around it and behind it, but even if he attempted to jump to the top of it I doubt it would bring it down. He'd have to be hanging on for dear life and scrambling. He's very reluctant to try anyway because it's so narrow. Plus , as you said there's not a desired destination higher then the TV's top, that he's trying to get to.

I'm not going to bolt it down. It's hollow anyway and I think it might even cause it to have weak points if "torqued".

Only one problem.......... I have a thin green vertical line on the set...... :(

It's defective......

But BestBuy was great. Even though I cut the box up, and tore the other languages out of the back of the manual (to make it thinner for filing). They said bring it back anyway you can, as long as you keep it dry.

It's going back to HP for tear down and refurbishment, they'll have a replacement set on JAN 4th. GeekSquad will plug the replacement TV in and make sure the line isn't in that one either. It's on the HP splash screen on start up so they don't even need to hook a source into it.

I have no problem with defective merchandise , as long as they don't make me jump through hoops. The world isn't a perfect place, and "stuff" happens.

Sort of anti-climatic, but even with the thin green line (lime green), the set is quite impressive even with a standard definition feed. DirecTV is showing up on the 16th with my HD DVR, and a new Sat. dish.

I'm not even going to bother moving my old set back into place, the picture is that good and line is very narrow. I can live with the greenline for a few days.

Thanks for the reply Chris and Happy Viewing :)

As I mentioned in the reply above (just got the PL5060N today) ......

I have a vertical thin green line in my set. About 1/3 of the way from the left.

It's defective, and needs to be exchanged for a new set.

BestBuy wasn't very surprised. It felt as if they had seen this before.

"Green line, oh yeah it's defective, bring it back"

No questions about adjustments, sources, cables, or description of the problem. Immediate recognition of a problem that would not go away.

The exchange is straight forward.

Bring the old set back any way you can, just don't get it wet, and we'll give you a new one. They want GeekSquad to check the replacement for the same problem so it doesn't happen to me again.

Any one else get a defective HP yet, and how was your return experience?

Even with the green line, and standard definition Sat/Box, I'm not going to move my old TV back, the picture is that good, and the line that small....

As I mentioned in the reply above (just got the PL5060N today) ......

I have a vertical thin green line in my set. About 1/3 of the way from the left.

It's defective, and needs to be exchanged for a new set.

BestBuy wasn't very surprised. It felt as if they had seen this before.

"Green line, oh yeah it's defective, bring it back"

No questions about adjustments, sources, cables, or description of the problem. Immediate recognition of a problem that would not go away.

The exchange is straight forward.

Bring the old set back any way you can, just don't get it wet, and we'll give you a new one. They want GeekSquad to check the replacement for the same problem so it doesn't happen to me again.

Any one else get a defective HP yet, and how was your return experience?

Even with the green line, and standard definition Sat/Box, I'm not going to move my old TV back, the picture is that good, and the line that small....

I had mine for about two weeks and when I would turn on the TV, lets say in the morning, it looked like a crappy antenna was connected to it. I could switch it to a different component and then switch it back and it would be fine. Had SuddenLink come out two separate times and they changed the lines from the tap to the house and still the same. I took the TV back and exchange for a new thinking that might have been the problem, still happened on the new set. I dunno, but I've never seen the green line.

I used to work for BB. Overall they're pretty nonchalant about returns so I wouldn't consider their response a suprise for any item, so I wouldn't think that yourself.

Apologies and thanks - here is some more info:

The TV is an HP PL4260N
The source is cable via RF (i.e, using the TV's built-in tuner)

The 1920x1080i is what I see in the blue dialog box at the bottom of the screen when
changing channels - I'm at work now, so I can't see, but I beileve it's to the right of the channel number in red. (It's the same dialog one gets when you hit the 'Info' button' on the remote).

Ok I split my cable before it went to the STB and ran a cable directly to the TV. Set it to cable and let it find all the channels. I now see what you mean.

The info box at the bottom shows the channel and sub channel on the left. In a little box next to it shows A or D. A for analog and D for digital. The TV found tons of digital channels that did not display because they are scrambled. So that is what is happening to you I think. My box shows just what you described on most of the digital channels. It did find the local HD channels and I was glad to find those are not scrambled by Time Warner here.

Even with the green line, and standard definition Sat/Box, I'm not going to move my old TV back, the picture is that good, and the line that small....

I wasn't surprised they had a very good return policy and attitude. That's why I bought it there. Its was more that they had seen it before and they were not surprised, they eventually did say that it's a problem that does happen with plasmas, of any make.

I hadn't even gotten to tell them the make or model, when they just said: "bring it in, it's a bad set".


So this isn't necessarily a pan on HPs.

Other then the green line, it's flawless, and that's with a standard definition box.

When I get my HD DVR from Direct, I suppose that's when the "tweaking" can begin.

Hello AVS,
Great forum. Bought 50" on Saturday, it's great PQ on HD (wife likes that).
SD is kinda crummy (wife hates that).
HDMI on HD channels = No Audio. I had to bring in a receiver and big home speakers into bedroom (wife hates that).
DVR is awesome (wife likes that).
VCR blanks screen during a rewind (when I should be seeing picture) FastForward is fine, VCR rewinds very fast and I guess TV can't keep up. Weird huh? (wife hates that)

So there are a few cons to all of this but man watching movies and HD content is a treat and a pretty good price at BB on Boxing Day.

Based on other semi-recent posts, you may want to pursue the recent firmware fix for the "HDMI no audio" problem.

Doug

Hello all. I've had the PL4260N for about 2 1/2 months and didn't have it working, to my specifications, until today when I did a search and found this forum. THANK YOU!

I was using the composites that were supplied with my Motorola DCT6416 III by SuddenLink(formerly Cox). I purchased an HDMI cable off of eBay about two months ago to get the most out of the set-up. I was having problems with picture and sound like so many others have that I've read off of this thread. So after reading some of your posts, I changed the setting to 1080iWide, Preserve 4:3 480P and everything works great. I have sound on channels that I didn't before and I have full screen picture on all channels, which I also didn't have before.

Curious about something though, could this change have come through SuddenLink via a software/firmware upgrade. I noticed that my menus are better than they were from a month ago, from the HDCable box. They look much more modern.

Regardless, I am rid of that big bulky compenent cable. When changing my settings I noticed that with the HDMI cable 480i had this squiggly line on the top of the pic but was resolved when changing to 480p. I've also heard that 480p is "better" than 480i, is that correct?

Is it worth it to have someone come out and professional adjust the TV? Thanks again for all of the info and I look forward to learning more.

btw, any tips you guys can give an AV newb would be greatly appreciated.

Also, went to BB yesterday, also where I bought the TV, and purchased a wall mount. Pretty excited about that.

If any of the senior members or those who know some of the answers to my questions could respond to some of them that would be great. I know with the holidays and all it's hard to catch up but heres a little reminder. ;) Thanks

Sometimes no response just means that nobody has a clue either!

I don't have Cox/SuddenLink, but my guess would be that it might be something procedural, though if you know what was fixed in the firmware update you installed it might be that. It COULD also be something from the cable provider itself. Beats me!

480p will probably be smoother than 480i, if the input is progressive, and it's also better for sports. Since I guess you're now on 1080i that probably is moot.

My PERSONAL opinion is that spending a significant percentage of the PL4260N's cost to get it professionally set up might be a waste, better to wait till you get a higher-end TV and then get that professionally set up. It may depend on how good or bad you think you have now. An alternative would be one of the so-called "calibration" DVDs; cheap, possibly helpful.

Doug

I won a 5060 which was installed today. I love it.

I also have a sony hd recorder. I programed my sony remote with code for phillips since the book had none for hp and apparantly they are the same.

the strange thing is the remote will turn the tv off and on and adjust volume, but it will not change the channels.

any ideas on this?

also my tech guy told me not to watch too much tv with the black bars as that may burn in, do you guys think that is real or imagined?

Non hd will not stretch for me..

Does anyone have any recommendations for the best protection for the TV from power surges? I have regular surge protectors but I learned after one of my computers was fried from a surge that the warranty that they claim is useless. I now have a UPS for my computer. Basically a battery back up so if the power goes out the computer won't shut down for like 20 minutes. And it also has software that I can set to shut the computer down in case of a blackout.

I didn't know if these things were good for plasma TVs or not.

I won a 5060 which was installed today. I love it.

I also have a sony hd recorder. I programed my sony remote with code for phillips since the book had none for hp and apparantly they are the same.

the strange thing is the remote will turn the tv off and on and adjust volume, but it will not change the channels.

any ideas on this?

also my tech guy told me not to watch too much tv with the black bars as that may burn in, do you guys think that is real or imagined?

Non hd will not stretch for me..

Not sure about the code thing. My TV remote won't change channels either. That works from my cable box remote.

ya the black bars can cause burn in, especially in the first 200 hours. You'll have t read through this thread about burn in. But you have to be careful at first with it especially. Make sure you keep the brightness down and those settings lower at first.

Not sure why non hd won't stretch. You set it to 16:9 and it won't stretch? Weird.

SOME "SD" channels are really converted to HD by the station or cable/satellite operator, so they don't get stretched. In my case, one goes so far as to have gray sidebars instead of black - a dead giveaway, since my TV has no option for gray! A truly analog channel, not digital or HD, should stretch okay.

If any of the senior members or those who know some of the answers to my questions could respond to some of them that would be great. I know with the holidays and all it's hard to catch up but heres a little reminder. ;) Thanks
Incidentally, "Senior Member" (as displayed) just means they've posted more than X hundred times. That may or may not correlate with "superior knowledge!"

Doug

Ok, let me first state that I am completely new to the HD world.

I have owned a 36 inch sony tv for about 10 years. To this I had connected my DirecTV dual tuner tv box connected with a S video cable. I did this because I thought S video was better than just the component cables.

I purchased the PL5060N a few nights ago and hooked it up with the same tuner and connection cable. I have a HD box to be installed soon and will be upgrading to an HDMI connection.

My picture is terrible. My Sony had a substantially better picture compared to this.

What am I doing wrong? Anyone know? Any suggestions?

Am I sitting too close to the TV? What is the recommended viewing distance?

HELP!!

Thanks!

Ok, let me first state that I am completely new to the HD world.

I have owned a 36 inch sony tv for about 10 years. To this I had connected my DirecTV dual tuner tv box connected with a S video cable. I did this because I thought S video was better than just the component cables.

I purchased the PL5060N a few nights ago and hooked it up with the same tuner and connection cable. I have a HD box to be installed soon and will be upgrading to an HDMI connection.

My picture is terrible. My Sony had a substantially better picture compared to this.

What am I doing wrong? Anyone know? Any suggestions?

Am I sitting too close to the TV? What is the recommended viewing distance?

HELP!!

Thanks!
You are comparing a TV that was scanning a native SD signal at a native SD rate. What this means is it was optimized for the SD signal you were feeding it. Now you are feeding the same SD signal (svideo is only SD) into a HD capable device that has to upscale that image to fill its screen. It is going to look terrible unless the company spends a lot of money on the circuits that do this upscaling. In your case, just get your HDMI connection and watch some HD material, keeping in mind that only some stuff is HD (DVD is not, for example) and then see what you think. Many people have high expectations of HD TV's and then they don't even hook them up with a HD signal and then wonder what all the fuss is about. It is a little complicated, but you need either component (3 little Y, Pb, Pr or red, green, blue colored cables), HDMI or VGA inputs to this display to get any HD-like picture. The composite (single yellow) and s-video cables can't carry HD signals. Now you also need HD material on the HDMI or component cables. This means the HD channels on satellite or cable, or you caould save the monthly subscription and use the built in ATSC tuner in this set and try to get your local HD channels with an antenna. In my area we get ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox, CW, and PBS all in digital and much of the primetime lineup is now in HD. You could also try tuning in the QAM channels over a direct cable feed to see if you get your local HD channels on cable for free with your basic cable. Many do. Good luck!

Thanks for the quick response!

I am trying to be patient until I upgrade my wires also. I knew that I would not be getting a HD quality picture without a HD feed but I was at least hoping to get a tiny improvement on the old picture with a newer tv but ended up getting a far inferior picture than what the old tv was producing.

Once I get the HDMI cable set should that at least return the quality to what I was used to? I did read someone say that there tv was set up a low 480p and he had to change it to a higher quality. Could this be the problem and how do you manually change that?

Thanks!

My old setup was a 27" Mitsu CRT, with an older LD/DVD player conencted via S-Video.

Now I have the PL5060N, fed by a new Oppo 918, connected via HDMI, set to 720p upconversion. Standard-def DVD's look absolutely incredible compared to the old CRT setup. To me it looks almost high-def. That might be due to the Oppo upconversion, which is allegedly about the best on the market. Either way, you should be seeing a big improvement...

:o

And, since I don't think I saw a response, component cables should be better than S-Video, in general.

I also bought the directv dual tuner HD dvr to go with the new tv.

Will this change the compression or am I missing something else?

Can I change the compression on the tv itself? and if so..HOW? lol I looked at the manual today and jumped in the menu but didnt see how.

Thanks for taking the time to help a noob.

Thanks!

Compression?

Does anyone have any recommendations for the best protection for the TV from power surges? I have regular surge protectors but I learned after one of my computers was fried from a surge that the warranty that they claim is useless. I now have a UPS for my computer. Basically a battery back up so if the power goes out the computer won't shut down for like 20 minutes. And it also has software that I can set to shut the computer down in case of a blackout.

I didn't know if these things were good for plasma TVs or not.

A UPS is going to be the best. The only thing is a plasma uses a lot of power, so not sure what is the best. Next best would be a whole house surge protector connected to your main power box. More practical though would be a good local outlet attached surge protector IMO.

Ok, let me first state that I am completely new to the HD world.

I have owned a 36 inch sony tv for about 10 years. To this I had connected my DirecTV dual tuner tv box connected with a S video cable. I did this because I thought S video was better than just the component cables.

I purchased the PL5060N a few nights ago and hooked it up with the same tuner and connection cable. I have a HD box to be installed soon and will be upgrading to an HDMI connection.

My picture is terrible. My Sony had a substantially better picture compared to this.

What am I doing wrong? Anyone know? Any suggestions?

Am I sitting too close to the TV? What is the recommended viewing distance?

HELP!!

Thanks!

Before I got my HD STB, I hooked up my same svideo cable I used with my 36" Zenith and it did not look too great either. When I got my SA 8300HD DVR box and hooked it up with HDMI everything changed. SD looks as good as it did on my old tv and is being converted to 1080i. HD looks incredible. In playing around with the settings I tried 480i and it looked pretty bad from the box. 720p looked basically identical to 1080i.

So I'd love to hear about your picture quality with your new HD box connected with either component or HDMI cables. My parents have Directv HD and it looks good on SD and awesome on HD using component cables. It is outputting 1080i to the tv.

Sorry, I probably use the wrong terms.

I said compression but was referring to 480, 720, 1080. I dont know what the term is for those numbers.

The resolution settings available are 480, 720 and 1080. This refers to the number of horizontal lines in the image. Your display has 768 horizontal lines, so it has to scale everything to that resolution somehow. Obviously it doesn't seem to do a good job of that from the Svideo input. That signal is 480 lines (actually 480 interlaced lines, but 480 is simple enough). Now I am guessing HP saved a little on the circuits to take in this 480 interlaced signal via Svideo and upconvert it to the native 768 of the plasma. The concensus on here is that if you send it either a 720 or a 1080 signal via component or HDMI it will do much better. There is nothing to change as far as resolution goes on the plasma itself. It will always scale to 768p (p is for progressive, think of it as better than interlaced, please no arguments here this is just for an example;)). Now I think you should expect SD material to look okay on this display, but it depends what is being done with that SD signal. If you had a fancy DVD player like the earlier post mentioned (an Oppo, I think it was) it would be taking the 480 singnal from the DVD and doing a good job of converting it to 720 or 1080. If your new HD satellite box has an option to convert all the output to 720 or 1080 you could try that and see how the picture looks then. You should also see how the picture looks if you just feed the native resolution from the programs on the satellite into the plasma and let it do the conversion to 768. Since the plasma has to convert everything anyway, it will always be converting so it may give you the best picture. I think you just need to get a better connection such as component or HDMI. I believe the plasma can do a good job with SD material as long as you get a good connection to it.

Does any one have any information on the LG Plasma HDTV (42PC3D) or the Philips Plasma HDTV (42PF7321D)?

Thanks

Does any one have any information on the LG Plasma HDTV (42PC3D) or the Philips Plasma HDTV (42PF7321D)?

Thanks

Have you tried looking in the main Plasma forum as this thread is just for the HP Plasmas? http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/forumdisplay.php?f=167

I have had the TV (PL4260N) for 3 weeks and hooked up to DirecTv HD for 1 week. PQ is great. I do notice some "flicker" as per some other posts. It happens on mostly darker movies and such through HD Sat Rec. I did notice this also watching DaVinci Code on DVD. It happens when scenes change quickly from dark to light, vice-versa. I noticed the BB website states the following feature of the TV "Dynamic contrast adaptation adjusts picture quality on a scene-by-scene basis". Is that the culprit?

I see other posts that suggest different settings (movie, etc). I guess there is no way to shut this feature off. It is not that bad. But now that I noticed it, I guess I am going to be over-critical.

Again overall PQ is great, except for the DirecTv signal cutting in and out too much. But, I need to address that with them.

Any other info other than already posted on the auto-contrast "flicker" issue.

Has anyone else experienced this "flicker" issue per my earlier post? I am just wondering if it is the TV, the seetings, connections or inputs. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Sometimes no response just means that nobody has a clue either!

I don't have Cox/SuddenLink, but my guess would be that it might be something procedural, though if you know what was fixed in the firmware update you installed it might be that. It COULD also be something from the cable provider itself. Beats me!

480p will probably be smoother than 480i, if the input is progressive, and it's also better for sports. Since I guess you're now on 1080i that probably is moot.

My PERSONAL opinion is that spending a significant percentage of the PL4260N's cost to get it professionally set up might be a waste, better to wait till you get a higher-end TV and then get that professionally set up. It may depend on how good or bad you think you have now. An alternative would be one of the so-called "calibration" DVDs; cheap, possibly helpful.

Doug


Thanks for your help Doug. :)

@Ebaytradinglord
You can't compare a 36" CRT screen and 50" plasma its like the apples and oranges thing. If you are only putting standard air/cable signal in via a RCA or S-Video cable, your old TV is going to give you a better picture period.

If you get digital cable with HD channels and use the HDMI or Component cables you are going to see drastic improvment on the new HD channels. Still many of the channels on cable are still going to be broadcast in SD and your TV is basically streching it to fit therefore loss in quality.

I have all the right cables and a digital cable box and we are still dissatified with normal cable channels, they are either really bad or at least have a slight bleed of pixels at the edges of objects. Dora and Little Bear look great at 50" to my 2 year old she says but we see the bleed. However we still ooh and ahh over the HD content. SNL had one of the best pictures I have seen on a TV ever.

RE: HDMI no audio
I have placed the service call to HP for the firmware fix but they are having trouble finding authorized service in my area. A temp fix is to change the output resolution of your cable box to 480P and sound starts working. I can't remember if 720P will fix it or not (I think it does on SD but HD channels don't come in).

Regardless of above issue any thoughts if I should have cable box set to output 720P or 1080i?

I would guess its a matter of which you think looks better. In a sense, it doesn't matter because the 5060 always scales an image to 1366 by 768. 720P is sent to it as 1280 by 720, so it is closer, and progressive scan, but if the scaler in your cable box does a bad job of the scaling it would look better to let the 5060 do the scaling. Have you tried (is it even possible) to let you cable box send everything out in its native resolution and see if/how the plasma handles that? Otherwise I would maybe set the cable box to whatever is the native resolution of the main HD cahnnels you watch so the main ones are sent out (hopefully) without any damage from the cable box itself. If you really wanted to try to improve the picture you could look into the DVDO products. I know they made one scaler that had many inputs resolutions and could be set to a specific output resolution such as 1366 by 768P. It may be too pricey to justify for this plasma, and maybe the plasma has just as good of circuits built in. I think it is a good idea to try the internal scaler and take your cable box out of the scaling scenario just to see.

using the search term calibrate under this thread I didnt find a clear answer for the following..

I have the hp 50 and want to calibrate it.

The only settings I see on the menu are for brightnes and conrast ect.

I noticed a thread in my search talking about calibrating color with a finding nemo dvd under extras. If you dont mind how is this done?

Late last year, every page here had a link to a Monster/ISF DVD for calibration, around $30 I think. The link seems to be gone, but see http://local.monstercable.com/productdisplay.asp?pin=3971. The calibration forum also discusses at least one or two other DVDs that are aimed specifically at calibration.

In addition, what you're probably referring to is that nearly any DVD with the THX logo (mostly from LucasFilm, I think) have a "THX Optimizer" which will walk you through both audio and video setup.

A third alternative, mentioned in a few recent posts, is to have a professional calibrate your TV; ISF is one such organization (or certification, maybe).

are these dvd's for the purpose of color calibration? Because I dont see a setup menu on my tv for color.

You might do better on the Calibration forum, both asking and reading up, as to what the DVDs do and in general what controls you need to calibrate. I can't see it right now, but I'm sure my PL4260N has at least a hue control, in addition to contrast and brightness, and I think there's at least one more that's color-related. Professional calibrators may have more controls available than are presented to mere consumers, too.

i don't know, but there may be a menu in the service menu for this. i haven'tlooked and any tweaking in the SM is at your own risk
http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c00636992.pdf

Has anyone had a problem with standby mode being set to Fast Power and using a universal remote? I have the Sony RM-VL900 and when the TV (4260N) is set to Fast Power I cannot for the life of me turn the TV on (have tried standing anywhere from 0 - 10' away). I can turn it off but not on. If I switch the TV back to low power standby mode I'm able to turn the TV on. All the commands issued by the remote were taught to it as opposed to using the preprogrammed codes (of which I couldn't find one that worked).

Has anyone had a problem with standby mode being set to Fast Power and using a universal remote? I have the Sony RM-VL900 and when the TV (4260N) is set to Fast Power I cannot for the life of me turn the TV on (have tried standing anywhere from 0 - 10' away). I can turn it off but not on. If I switch the TV back to low power standby mode I'm able to turn the TV on. All the commands issued by the remote were taught to it as opposed to using the preprogrammed codes (of which I couldn't find one that worked).

Nope. I have mine on fast power. I use a Logitech Harmony 550 remote. Works fine. TV remote works fine. The harmony has commands for the TV for power on, power off, and power toggle. They all work, but it uses the specific power off and power on commands instead of power toggle. Not sure what the regular remote uses.

using the search term calibrate under this thread I didnt find a clear answer for the following..

I have the hp 50 and want to calibrate it.

The only settings I see on the menu are for brightnes and conrast ect.

I noticed a thread in my search talking about calibrating color with a finding nemo dvd under extras. If you dont mind how is this done?

THX dvd's usually come with a THX optimizer utility. It takes you through several screens and different tests. Brightness, contrast, gray scale etc. Is decently useful. I used the one on my Incredibles dvd.

Has anyone else experienced this "flicker" issue per my earlier post? I am just wondering if it is the TV, the seetings, connections or inputs. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

I've never seen it.

Has anyone else experienced this "flicker" issue per my earlier post? I am just wondering if it is the TV, the seetings, connections or inputs. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

I've seen the "flicker" issue with my 5060, however I only see it during HD football games. It could happen with other sports but I only happen to watch football. I'll also note that it only happens during daylight games, or on close ups of the field when watching a team wearing white uniforms. Even then it may happen once or twice during a game, it's not an on-going issue.

It never happens during any other HD programming or while watching DVD's. I'll also note that my DVD player is a just a standard DVD player connected via component cables. I haven't yet decided on a upconverting DVD player.

I've kind of just learned to live with the problem for right now seeing how the the football season is almost over; I will be pissed though if it does it during the Super Bowl because I'm hosting a party for the game.

Just through the browsing of the forums I understand it's some sort of built-in "feature" to prevent any bright images from being burnt on the screen. From my understanding it can not be turned off. I purchased a 5 year warranty with my set so my plan is to just deal with it until the new model comes out and replace it then, I've heard the new 50 inch models will be 1080p and fix a lot of the other issues with the older HP models.

Sorry I can't offer any advice or propose a resolution, I can just let you know that you're not the only one seeing the issue.

edit...

Oh, it didn't flicker during the Boise State Bronco's take down of the Sooners!

Go Broncos!!

I just got my 50" HP and it is hooked up to HD Direct TV. The problem is when I press #1 on the Sat remote it turns of the TV. Has this happened with avyone else. This sucks.

Mike :mad:

If this is old news, my apologies, but I don't remember seeing it mentioned...

For those who are getting flashing dots (or marching ants) on the top line of (some) SD channels, try using a different resolution from your STB. On my setup, at least, with the Comcast/Motorola 6412 STB outputting 1080i I get this on at least some SD stations. The same stations don't have it with 720p output, and I can't see a major change in PQ between the two.

Anyone out there with the 42" HP playing with a PS3? Any comments or experience with different resolutions and different connection methods to the PS3? Running at 1080i or 720p? HDMI or component?

I know some TV's and the PS3 don't play well when it comes to negotiating resolution, so I wanted to know others experience specifically with this display.

Hello everyone.
I found this forum a couple of weeks ago, and have been reading ever since.
I just purchased a PL 4260n on 1-7-07, then I found this topic about the HP Plasmas.
I was very happy to see that everyone seems to love their Plasmas.
I finally got mine hooked up on the 10th.
I have a samsung upconverting dvd player hooked up with hdmi, my dish sat box hooked up with s-video, as it does not have componet connections. I have a Yamaha A/V reciever, not sure which model at this moment.
I have the dvd player connected to the reciever with the optical audio cable so I can get my full surround sound.

I have a couple of questions...
1. Can I hook up the optical audio cable from the tv to the reciever and still get full 6 channel surround sound?

2. If I hook up my dvd player and my Sat box through my reciever, then connect my reciever to the tv with componet cables, will I have to control the input to the tv with the reciever?
I figure I would have to.

Thanks for the great posts, as I have just finished reading all 39 pages, WHEW!

I absolutely love this TV!
Of course I replaced a 25" mono sound crt, which only had RF input. What a difference!

Thanks again!
Allen

Ratdz,

1. Are you askiing if you'll get the sound from your DVD player passed via HDMI to the TV, pass back out through the optical out of the TV? - don't know, but....
You can still use the HDMI connection to send video and sound to the tv, and also run the omptical out from your DVD player directly to your stereo. That way if you just want basic sound on DVD's, you can still use your TV's speakers, but you could also mute those, and use your stereo for full 6 channel surround. Many people remove the HP's speakers and run all sound through their receivers this way anyway.

2. Yes, if you run all the video to your receiver, then have a single video out to the TV, the receiver will control the switching. If you run the sound to your receiver as well, this makes life easier with a single place to switch sound/video. The TV becomes just a "dumb" monitor, and you can manage everything through the receiver.

A lot of folks are investing in the newer HDMI switching receivers to take better advantage of this kind of setup. It really does make life easier when it works...

- Greg

grjohnso,
Thanks for the quick reply!
I think I will keep it the way I have it set up.
My dvd player has a setting for pcm or bitstream audio.
If I set it to pcm the tv speakers work and I have basic left and right audio from my stereo.
If I set it to bitstream, I have no sound from the tv, but full 6 channel audio from my stereo.
Not too bad of a problem though.
Thanks again.
Allen

I have another question about outputting my PC to my HP Plasma. I know that the TV has a resolution of 1024x768. Does that mean that I need to set the computer's output resolution to this aspect ration as well? If so, won't it look squished on the TV? Is there another resolution that I should try... a widescreen resolution?

Also, would you recommend I use my nVidia shoftware properties to set up the TV's resolution, or should I use something like Powerstrip?

FYI, I am planning on using a 30 foot DVI (male) to DVI (male) cable to hook the PC up to the TV. Also, my computer monitor is widescreen, so outputting to widescreen resolution will not negatively affect my computer's display.

I have a Mac, so I can't give PC-specific advice, but I think you should try to achieve 1366x768 (or 1368x768, if your card wants a multiple of 8.) As you say, 1024x768 will look distorted because the pixels aren't square.

Hello everyone. I'm a newbie on this site and a recent purchaser of an HP PL5060N. Thank goodness that an owner's forum exists on this product because it has been a nightmare experience for me from day one. Forgive me if my post is a little 'long-in-the-tooth'.


Making the Purchase

After losing two and a half hours of my Christmas eve on BestBuy.ca (which crashed constantly) in an effort to purchase this item during their Boxing Day sale ($1999.99 CDN, limited to 1500 units across Canada), I had to call them immediately afterwards in attempt to rectify a double purchase (I was afraid that the site would crash again and that I would miss out on the limited quantity and thought that I could just cancel one after).

But a Best Buy operator explained to me that the entire invoice would have to be canceled because they weren't capable of removing individual items from an order. He suggested I pay for both, have them delivered, then return a 145 lb package to a Best Buy store for a refund. Upset, I quickly explained to him how this was not an option due to the fact that I lived alone, without a car.

I called again and got a very helpful operator who made sure another was available and instructed me to make new purchase, then proceeded to cancel my last invoice.


Charged Twice

Before I had even received my unit, I noticed that I was charged twice after checking my VISA bill online. Best Buy operators told me that they would send the issue to their billing department. I received a call a couple of days later and I was told that it would be rectified. I called VISA about the issue and they had told me that they were aware of it assured me that I should see a reversal on the next billing statement (I looked today and I still feel uneasy seeing two charges of $2,336.98 with no reversals as of yet).

Eagerly anticipating the arrival of my purchase, I had expected to receive an email notice of delivery after three days. Almost a week and a half after my purchase, a BB operator told me that he had a delivery date showing on his computer, and wondered why I hadn't been notified. Once I had received the delivery email, it stated that it would be delivered on a weekday the following week, a day which I would be at work. I replied with three preferred dates, all Saturdays and again, was upset that I wouldn't be getting my much anticipated unit for another while. But I resolved to be patient from that point on.


Delivery

I received a call from the delivery company last Sunday telling me that I had a delivery 'tomorrow', Monday, also an inconvenient work day with a nine hour time window. I had asked what had happened to the three date options I had sent BB and they seemed to have no idea.

My plasma finally arrived on Monday, four days ago, shortly before the end of the workday. The delivery company had two PL5060Ns on the truck, both with my name on them. I picked one, the one with the least beat-up box. I was happy to finally receive my plasma after my ordeal and hooked up my HD signal immediately. The picture looked great and I was looking forward to many hours of viewing pleasure.


The Problems Begin

I came home for lunch the next day and turned on my unit when I noticed that something was awry. A noticeable black dotted line was apparent, left of the center screen, with other, less-noticeable dotted lines throughout. Immediately, I called HP's support number, which was printed on the packaging, 1-800-HP-INVENT, which I soon discovered spelled-out one too many letters to be dialed.


HP's Solution

The operator was very helpful and suggested several things to try in attempt to alleviate the problem. I was told to expect a confirmation call from a local technician who will makes house-calls once a part is delivered (who knows when that will happen).


Best Buy's Solution

That same evening, I called BB yet again to see what my options were with them. The operator offered to have the unit picked-up and removed but I had asked if they would exchange it for the same unit. Her stock quantity read zero, but I explained to her how two were shipped out under my name, therefore, one should still be available somewhere. She told me that they would try to track down the unit, but dashed my hopes by saying that it may be sold already.


My Concerns

That was three days ago and I haven't heard from anyone yet — from Best Buy nor Hewlett Packard. I'm getting antsy that I may have made a mistake buying this unit... purchasing from Best Buy who's incompetence may be showing through.

I would prefer to have the unit exchanged for the same brand new unit rather than have a technician potentially void my 30 day BB return policy, or screw things up even further. I don't know if the HP rep got enough information from me just from my description so I don't know if the technician will bring the right part to fix my dilemma. I'm worried now that I have a lemon on my hands and that once this problem is fixed that another won't arise soon after my Best Buy return policy, or warranty expires.


Conclusion

As it stands, I have an almost unwatchable 50" plasma with a defined pattern of black dotted lines and green flickering pixels, a new problem which appeared yesterday. Is anyone else experiencing similar problems?

Keep in mind, this unit was turned on for the first time little more than 72 hours ago!

I'm sorry to have written such a long and detailed reply as my first posting and I thank those who have read this far, but I'm even more sorry that I had to write about a beef. I needed to vent out my frustrations and this seems the perfect place to do so.

Is there anyone out there who can give me a glimmer of hope about this product? Has anyone owned a PL5060N for an extended period of time problem-free?

Hello everyone. I'm a newbie on this site and a recent purchaser of an HP PL5060N. Thank goodness that an owner's forum exists on this product because it has been a nightmare experience for me from day one. Forgive me if my post is a little 'long-in-the-tooth'.


I'm sorry you've had such a bad experience, I guess the only thing I can offer is that these things happen every now and then.

My purchase went rather smoothly, I bought the set about noon on a Saturday 5 months ago and it was delivered to my my house about 3 hours later. I set up the set, connected to my dvd and HD cable box and have had no real problems. The only slight problem I've had is the "flicker" that occurs during football games that I've noted elsewhere in the thread.

All in all I love this TV, for me it was a great deal for the money and a purchase that my wife and I enjoy nearly every night.

Again, sorry that your experience thus far has been as bad as you noted, I hope that you are able to resolve the issues so you can begin to enjoy your HD programing.

grjohnso,
Thanks for the quick reply!
I think I will keep it the way I have it set up.
My dvd player has a setting for pcm or bitstream audio.
If I set it to pcm the tv speakers work and I have basic left and right audio from my stereo.
If I set it to bitstream, I have no sound from the tv, but full 6 channel audio from my stereo.
Not too bad of a problem though.
Thanks again.
Allen

Does your receiver use dolby digital? Or at least Dolby Pro-logic? If so then I'd completely forgo hooking any sound to the TV. Just use it as a monitor. Hook all sound to the receiver and use it. I never hooked up my speakers since I use a dolby digital receiver. I use a harmony remote to control all my equipment.

I'd get another SAT tuner box if at all possible too. Something that has component, DVI, or HDMI output and best of course to get an HD SAT box. Svideo to my TV is not good.

I just got my 50" HP and it is hooked up to HD Direct TV. The problem is when I press #1 on the Sat remote it turns of the TV. Has this happened with avyone else. This sucks.

Mike :mad:

If it happens with the SAT remote and not the TV remote, then it has to be an issue with the SAT remote. What kind do you have? You may have to reprogram it for a Philips type TV.

Jorakal,
Yes, my reciever does dolby digital. However there are times in which I want sound from the tv. I usually watch regular tv with just the tv speakers. and usually only use the surround sound for movies. then again some dvd's I use the tv speakers as well.
I really think the Tv speakers sound pretty darn good.
Remember I upgraded from a 25inch tv with only coax input, so even the sd content from my sat box looks wonderful to me.

Allen

Is there anyone out there who can give me a glimmer of hope about this product? Has anyone owned a PL5060N for an extended period of time problem-free?

I've had mine 9 months; it's on 10-12 hours a day and no problems so far.

I've had mine 9 months; it's on 10-12 hours a day and no problems so far.
And I've had my similar PL4260N since September with absolutely zero problems.

If you bought this on a credit card, in addition to working with Best Buy where you bought it, and with HP for the product itself, your credit card company should be able to help resolve your issues if all else fails. At least that's the way it's supposed to work in the US, I've never actually had to go that route myself.

Doug

I'm sorry you've had such a bad experience, I guess the only thing I can offer is that these things happen every now and then.

My purchase went rather smoothly, I bought the set about noon on a Saturday 5 months ago and it was delivered to my my house about 3 hours later. I set up the set, connected to my dvd and HD cable box and have had no real problems. The only slight problem I've had is the "flicker" that occurs during football games that I've noted elsewhere in the thread.

All in all I love this TV, for me it was a great deal for the money and a purchase that my wife and I enjoy nearly every night.

Again, sorry that your experience thus far has been as bad as you noted, I hope that you are able to resolve the issues so you can begin to enjoy your HD programing.

I'm glad to hear that there are units out there that work properly and that there are stores out there with good customer service (3 hours delivery is amazing!). I guess things move a little slower up here in Canada. I just finished canceling my repair service request with HP because it would void out my 30 day return policy with Best Buy. I might opt to exchange my unit for something else, perhaps even a projection screen, as much as I'd rather have a flat screen.

I'm very disappointed because deal like that for a 50" plasma doesn't come around very often. But I guess it's no bargain when I have to go through so much headaches.

Does anyone have a recommendation for a good, reasonably priced TV in the $2000 - $2500 CDN range, 42" or bigger, plasma, lcd, or dlp?

You could look at the liquid crystal on silicon rear projectors such as the JVC HD-ILA or Sony SXRD sets. They have pretty decent picture quality on some of them. You will have an expensive light bulb to deal with, unless you wait until LED light source sets become more reasonable on price. I liked the looks of the Samsung DLP too.

Does anyone have a recommendation for a good, reasonably priced TV in the $2000 - $2500 CDN range, 42" or bigger, plasma, lcd, or dlp?

Yes. An HP Plasma. You had issues with one, but I'd exchange for another. I got my HP 42" for US $1299 from Best Buy. 50" can be bought for less than $2000.

You might also want to try a different retailer, given your experiences so far with Best Buy. Some retailers have reputations for excellent customer service. Or, buy directly from the HP Store if you get another HP and avoid a third party altogether.

HP is offering really good price on this TV. I'm thinking of upgrading my 42" Panny ED plasma. Don't know much about this TV though. A couple questions for owners:

Is this TV quiet? I don't want to hear fans blowing and such.

How wide is the base stand? I really don't want to have to buy any new furniture if I don't have to.

What is the connector type for the PC input?

Does HP make this panel or is it supplied by others (Phillips, LG etc)?

What is the major owner's bitch about this unit (nevermind dumbo...I won't be using the speakers)?

Sorry if I have asked questions covered elsewhere in this thread. Many AV forum threads are just too big to go back and read the entire history.

I finally got this thing up and running somewhat decently on my Linux mediabox with the following modeline:

Modeline "1360x765@60" 84.11 1360 1392 1704 1736 765 780 788 804

Except that the image is transposed up and to the left about 50 pixels. Can anyone suggest anything better?

(I don't have a windows box around to play with powerstrip, sorry!)

HP is offering really good price on this TV. I'm thinking of upgrading my 42" Panny ED plasma. Don't know much about this TV though. A couple questions for owners:

Is this TV quiet? I don't want to hear fans blowing and such.

Yes

How wide is the base stand? I really don't want to have to buy any new furniture if I don't have to.

30 9/16"

What is the connector type for the PC input?

VGA

Does HP make this panel or is it supplied by others (Phillips, LG etc)?

LG, I believe

What is the major owner's bitch about this unit (nevermind dumbo...I won't be using the speakers)?

Non-learning, non-backlit remote control? No PIP?

Sorry if I have asked questions covered elsewhere in this thread. Many AV forum threads are just too big to go back and read the entire history.

Hope this helps

I've been very happy with my new PL4260N.

But just in case anyone from HP/LG is reading, here are a few suggestions for enhancements to the firmware for future versions:

1. There should be a way to associate a default aspect ratio with each input source. For example, when watching cable it's best to leave the aspect ratio in Auto. But when watching DVDs, I need to put it into 16:9 Mode to match the output of my DVD player (which is set for 16:9 TVs). This is one extra step that is hard for me to explain to my parents when they come over to babysit. It would be great if you could set a default aspect ratio for each input source so that when you switch to that input source it automatically sets the aspect ratio to the default for that source.

2. The aspect ratio menu should let you make selections by pushing a digit rather than having to scroll up and down and press OK. The video source menu lets you do this, so why doesn't the aspect ratio menu? This would save several clicks on the remote for a common operation.

4. When entering a channel number without a subchannel number, the TV should tune to the lowest subchannel that has not been marked to be skipped (rather than always going to subchannel 0). For example, I have marked analog channel 4-0 to be skipped since digital channel 4-1 carries the same programming and has much better quality. So if I am on channel 3 and press the channel up button the TV goes straight to 4-1, which is great. But if I change channels by entering digits, I can't just enter 4 or it will take me to 4-0. I have to remember to enter 4-1. This is hard to remember, since some analog channels have corresponding digital channels and some do not. There is no way my parents will understand this when they come to babysit, since they don't know anything about subchannels. They'll probably just end up watching the lower quality analog channel 4-0.

Hope this helpsHelps a lot. Thanks. I have PIP and never use it. I also use a Harmony learning, backlit remote.

1. There should be a way to associate a default aspect ratio with each input source. For example, when watching cable it's best to leave the aspect ratio in Auto. But when watching DVDs, I need to put it into 16:9 Mode to match the output of my DVD player (which is set for 16:9 TVs). This is one extra step that is hard for me to explain to my parents when they come over to babysit. It would be great if you could set a default aspect ratio for each input source so that when you switch to that input source it automatically sets the aspect ratio to the default for that source.

Mine works fine with auto with my DVD at 16:9. What does yours do?

This is probably a stupid question since HP usually makes quality products but....can one adjust the picture on the PL5060N for each of the individual inputs or is there only one global picture adjustment? Just don't want any surprises after I buy one.

This is probably a stupid question since HP usually makes quality products but....can one adjust the picture on the PL5060N for each of the individual inputs or is there only one global picture adjustment? Just don't want any surprises after I buy one.
Only the "User" settings can be adjusted, the others are set to what HP thinks are best , and they seem good. After I set my User settings using THX I found that they are very close to HP's "Movie" settings, but for some reason I usually leave my HP set to Movie.

Is anyone with this TV using a Harmony remote? Any issues? Is selecting an input source any problem with Harmony "activities" macros?

I'm using a Harmony 550 (with my PL4260N, basically equivalent to the 50" except for screen size and pixel count) to control watching DVDs from a Sony NS75H, playing VHS tapes from a Sony DVD/VCR combo, and watching TV via a Comcast HD STB with DVR. That all works fine, with minimal fuss and bother. The only frustration is that it's unwilling or unable to control the Mac Mini that I have attached. There's a detailed "learn mode" posting on 123macmini.com that I haven't tried yet.

OK, another question here. I have the 50 inch tv and the latest directv dual channel dvr. WHen I watch certain shows and it crops then..the very top of the picture looks scrambled or messed up. Anyone else have this?

I keep seeing samsung hp4240 or 4250n does samsun make Hewlitt packard ..

Do you know if parts of any plasma will work in any plasma or is it model specific..

Do you know people who have access to broken plasma's for parts.. My model number is hp4240N I could really use help

Same here. I use a harmony 550. Works great. Very easy to configure.

I keep seeing samsung hp4240 or 4250n does samsun make Hewlitt packard ..

Do you know if parts of any plasma will work in any plasma or is it model specific..

Do you know people who have access to broken plasma's for parts.. My model number is hp4240N I could really use help

Samsung does not make HP.

It is part specific as far as I know.

OK, another question here. I have the 50 inch tv and the latest directv dual channel dvr. WHen I watch certain shows and it crops then..the very top of the picture looks scrambled or messed up. Anyone else have this?
"Messed up" covers a lot of ground. Specifics might help.

One GUESS is that you're seeing flashing dots or "crawling ants" on the top line; that happens on some but not all SD channels, and I believe on many brands of TVs. If you can, try changing the output resolution of the STB and/or your AVR or video processor; on my PL4260N with Comcast cable 720p doesn't seem to have the dots, while 1080i does. (This is STB output, NOT the actual network resolution! For SD, that would be 480i in all likelihood.)

Is anyone with this TV using a Harmony remote? Any issues? Is selecting an input source any problem with Harmony "activities" macros?
I'm using a Harmony 800 with my pl4260n, it works just fine.

Is anyone with this TV using a Harmony remote? Any issues? Is selecting an input source any problem with Harmony "activities" macros?
I'm using the 720 with my 4260 all is great !!!!!

As it stands, I have an almost unwatchable 50" plasma with a defined pattern of black dotted lines and green flickering pixels, a new problem which appeared yesterday. Is anyone else experiencing similar problems?

My first 50" HP from BestBuy was bad.

It had a vertical line of green pixels about 1/3 of the way from the left end of the screen. Top to bottom. Very annoying.

I called BestBuy and they immediately told me to return it, as best I could.

They're not very good at handling merchandise. The first TV I had (the bad one), when I went to buy it, it was out of stock. Coming back a few days later on their arranged time and date, I got the same answer "It's out of stock". I asked "how can a TV that's been reserved for me be out of stock". Oh wait we found it, was the answer.


Same thing happened with the replacement. When I went to pick it up they said they didn't have any. Till I reminded the young man at Magnolia that it was a replacement and "viola" he found it.

Both TV's had a sticker with my name on it, since both were "set aside". They did set them both aside, they just couldn't find either one in the inventory right away.

Demand a new TV, and you'll probably get one. Just beware that you have to keep reminding them it's been set aside for you.

Oh.....and......

While helping me load the second one onto my truck the two boys wheeling it out almost let it slide off the hand truck.

I personally will never buy anything from BestBuy ever again that I can't pick up off the shelf and walk out with.

My second PL5060N is great (first one was defective, but that's resolved).

I have a question:

I like to pass my audio out (from TV, ), into my Home theater reciever and leave the receiver on. My old TV (the one the HP is replacing) had an option for "fixed" or "variable" volume.

On fixed it would simply pass through the audio signal. On variable the TV's volume control would "throttle" (for lack of a better word) the audio output. I could set the volume on my Sony home theater receiver fairly loud then control the input from the TV.

Essentially once I programmed the Sat.Box remote from DirecTV for the TV, it would control power, volume, and mute.

This doesn't seem to be the case with the HP Plasmas. I'm using the RCA audio out right now. I think there's an optical in , in the back of my receiver, if I use the optical audio instead of the RCA will the TV's volume option control this output?

The guys from DirecTV are coming tomorrow with my new dish and SAT.box, so I decided to wait till then to see if there are other options with this new Sat.Box.

It's really a pain using the Reciever's remote to control volume. And yes I've tried to program the DirecTV Sat. Box remote controller to control my receiver for the volume only. No codes I've used work on it. It's only about 5 years old too, but it has defied every effort to be controlled by anything other then it's remote.

Will the HP Plasma ever control the audio output via the optical or RCA jacks, or does the volume control only apply to the "elephant ear" speakers?

Thanks for any replies......... and good watching everyone. Sorry to hear about your bad experience Etron.

PATRIOTS IN HD NEXT WEEKEND WOO HOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Will the HP Plasma ever control the audio output via the optical or RCA jacks, or does the volume control only apply to the "elephant ear" speakers?

I don't know. It would be helpful to know the specifics of your set up. What receiver do you have? How are you hooking up the sound?

And IMO you would save yourself a LOT of grief by getting a good programable/learning remote control. I programmed my Parents DirecTV remote for their Pioneer receiver, but the remote is extremely limited and is a general pain IMO. If you got a good remote, you could hook up all sound to the receiver directly and control everything from one place.

I went through many many remotes over the years, learning and not, and finally spent the bucks for a Harmony. It changed everything. Now in your case you could probably spend $20 or $30 and get a learning remote that would handle your receiver and learn all of it's buttons if necessary. In my case I decided I wanted one that would do more than what a learning remote with 2 or 3 macro buttons could do. That is why I got the harmony remote. It changed everything.

Thanks Doug, I appreciate the answer and will keep an eye open on the problem.

Has anyone checked HP's web site lately? They are showing a price after rebate of $1699.00 with free freight. That's pretty decent for a 50" Plasma. I saw this display last week and was impressed with just an upconvert DVD. A dealer told me that these HP's are re-branded Fujitsu's. If that's true, this might be one of the best deals out there.

Cable Dude

Has anyone checked HP's web site lately? They are showing a price after rebate of $1699.00 with free freight. That's pretty decent for a 50" Plasma. I saw this display last week and was impressed with just an upconvert DVD. A dealer told me that these HP's are re-branded Fujitsu's. If that's true, this might be one of the best deals out there.

Cable Dude Yeah I'm looking at the PL5060N too. Thats a great price. Free shipping and no interest for 12 months. Pretty hard to beat. I think the consensus here is that it is an LG panel. It is a little worrisome though that reading this thread that there were more than a few bad panels right out of the box. I'm sure HP stands behind them okay but... I've had a Panasonic PDP for over three years now trouble free. I'd get another Panny but I refuse to put a big silver box in my black and pine living room.

My first 50" HP from BestBuy was bad.

It had a vertical line of green pixels about 1/3 of the way from the left end of the screen. Top to bottom. Very annoying.

They're not very good at handling merchandise. The first TV I had (the bad one), when I went to buy it, it was out of stock. Coming back a few days later on their arranged time and date, I got the same answer "It's out of stock". I asked "how can a TV that's been reserved for me be out of stock". Oh wait we found it, was the answer.

Same thing happened with the replacement. When I went to pick it up they said they didn't have any. Till I reminded the young man at Magnolia that it was a replacement and "viola" he found it.

I personally will never buy anything from BestBuy ever again that I can't pick up off the shelf and walk out with.

I'm having deja vous when I read about your experience. I had the same green on my tv but it was happening to about 4/5 of the entire area, along with the black dotted striping. After awhile, the green would start filckering and became very annoying. I contacted Best Buy immediately to see if they could track down the second tv under my name and they promised to get back to me either by phone or email, but nobody ever did. I noticed that the PL5060N disappeared shortly from their website.

I visited a local Best Buy last Saturday to look at their choices for an exchange when lo-and-behold, there was a PL5060N on display! They told me it was the last one. I asked to speak to a manager and explained my plight, then asked if they would do a price match for a Samsung HPS5033 that was on sale at competing store, a supposedly common practice at Best Buy. The manager was hesitant to do so, but went away for a few minutes and returned saying that he would honor the price in light of my situation, but couldn't include the advertised free DVD recorder (a Samsung promotion at Best Buy and elsewhere). He told me that they could match prices but couldn't match promotions. I guess he wasn't aware of the promotion at his own store. He knocked off $50 on top of the price match and I told him to proceed. But after thinking awhile, I felt like I wasn't getting a fair shake. When he returned, I told him 'nevermind' and that I would rather have the free the DVD recorder than the measly $50 offer and that I would try to rectify the situation over the phone and buy from their competition. I got no contention from him and let me walk away a disgruntled customer. Not exactly fighting for my sale. Maybe he would have tried harder if I visited a commission-based store like their sister store, Futureshop.

Anyway, I called Best Buy over the phone once more and they not only did they request for a "Price Protection" inquiry, but the operator also said that I was entitled to the DVD recorder promotion, plus 10% off the difference ($40). The only catch was that I had to purchase the tv at full price until they could investigate and confirm the price match. I'll have to watch my VISA statements closely and ensure that the math is done right.

A friend told me yesterday how Best Buy should have offered a replacement equivalent (he used to work at an electronics store). So I called Best Buy once again. The operator moaned and explained how people who were offered replacements complained and belly-ached how unhappy they were with their replacements. When I asked what they had to offer as a replacement, she couldn't tell me, and explained how they weren't "sales people". Instead, she offered me a further reduction of 5% off my overall price match for 'grievance', as minute as it might sound, it's something nobody had offered until now.

But I concur with Disfigured. I'm done with big-ticket items at Best Buy. I'm uncovering too much incompetence in many levels.

Yes, it is a LG panel. I posted a link to the service manual a while back and if you look at it you will understand why it is known to be an LG panel. I have seen it at BB for the same price just mentioned above, but I couldn't quite pull the trigger due to picture wuality issues I think this panel has (although it is better than most in its price range).

What picture quality issues? There are a few owners here that had bad sets initially, but after a replacement have had no problems. I have not heard of any picture quality issues in this thread, in fact quite the opposite. My HP has had no quality issues at all.

I went ahead and ordered a PL5060N from the HP web site. Why deal with Best Buy if I don't need to? HP will deliver, unpack and assemble (stand, speakers etc) right to my living room...all for free. The 12 month, no interest plan was approved almost immediately and the rep couldn't have been more knowledgable or courteous. Told me I'd have it before Superbowl. The 12 month in-home warranty is pretty decent too. I did get suckered into a $79 HDMI cable though. Probably should have looked around for that but WTF, if it is HP its gotta be a solid product? These TVs are going fast though. The CSR told me he typically sold one or two a week but now he is getting orders for three or four a day at $1699 (he is only one of many order takers).

Awesome. Please let us know how it goes.

As we all know in electronics, once you purchase, never look back at pricing.... But man, it's killing me seeing these great prices on the 50" now. I picked up the 42" a few months ago and love it, but to know that for just a couple hundred more the 50" can be had... Oh well..

Glad to hear people are snatching them up though. I really think most buyers out there don't realize how solid of a product these TV's are. Consumer reports at least gave them their due in their 2006 writeup...

Anyway, just hooked up my PS3 to my 42" via HDMI... Auto-detected 1080i and looks good. No gaming yet, but fired up "Tears of the Sun" blu-ray and it's all good...

As we all know in electronics, once you purchase, never look back at pricing.... But man, it's killing me seeing these great prices on the 50" now. I picked up the 42" a few months ago and love it, but to know that for just a couple hundred more the 50" can be had... Oh well...Dude....you are right. You can't look back. I paid $3500 three years ago for a 42" ED Plasma monitor with no tuner. Am I kicking myself?? Nah! I've enjoyed every minute of it and expect to continue to do so after moving it into the bedroom. My brother wants to buy it but the residual value of a three year old EDTV is virtually nothing. For the price I paid I want to amortize its use for ten years. 350 bucks a year tastes a lot sweeter. :D

Is anyone here using their PC input as a spare component input? Such as for a DVD player or recorder?

Well, I have my Mac Mini attached via the VGA port, and it can play DVDs, downloaded movies and podcasts, and the like. Normally I watch DVDs on a Sony NS75H, but I have done so successfully from the Mini as well.

Well, I have my Mac Mini attached via the VGA port, and it can play DVDs, downloaded movies and podcasts, and the like. Normally I watch DVDs on a Sony NS75H, but I have done so successfully from the Mini as well.I have a VGA connector on my Panny PDP that I have used for my DVD player for years. The first three pins in the D sub 15P VGA connector are Pb, Y and Pr. I couldn't find a pinout for the PL5060N in the manual but I'm assuming VGAs are all the same. Maybe not. Just wondering if anyone else is using that input for other than an actual PC.

Actually there is a slight difference in the signal between RGB and Y-Pb-Pr. If the device has an inherent ability to use component signals on the RGB inputs (Panasonic does this, but I am not sure about others) you would be fine. I believe in the case of Panasonic Pro plasmas you have to go into the menu and set it to either RGB-HV mode or Y-Pb-Pr mode if you want to use this feature of the VGA input. Then you also need an adapter cable, but those are relatively cheap and easy enough to make if your handy.

IIRC the variants of VGA-like connectors are discussed in one of the Blue Jeans Cable "white papers"... Heck, my first 5.1 speaker system had a VGA-like connector to the sub, but it was all audio!

First post on this site, found it by searching for the HP PL4260N. I just won this TV and it is being delivered next Monday. It was originally going to be the Panasonic 42" plasma but they called today to say it's now this HP because Best Buy did not have the other Panasonic anymore. Looks like everyone is happy with their set, not sure what to do with it when I get it since we already have a 42" Sony XBR and a 46" Toshiba DLP. Who wins a plasma TV and doesn't know what to do with it? lol

Actually there is a slight difference in the signal between RGB and Y-Pb-Pr. If the device has an inherent ability to use component signals on the RGB inputs (Panasonic does this, but I am not sure about others) you would be fine. I believe in the case of Panasonic Pro plasmas you have to go into the menu and set it to either RGB-HV mode or Y-Pb-Pr mode if you want to use this feature of the VGA input. Then you also need an adapter cable, but those are relatively cheap and easy enough to make if your handy.Thanks. And you are right...I do recall having to select that setup in the input config menu on my Panny. Just wondering is anyone had tried it with the HP display? I have the cable so I guess I'll just plug it up and see what happens when I get my new TV.

I don't know. It would be helpful to know the specifics of your set up. What receiver do you have? How are you hooking up the sound?



Sorry for the long response time, DirectV came yesterday with the new STB, so I waited till then.

DVR/Sat Reciever= DirecTV Hr20-700
Home Theater Receiver= Sony STR-K740P
TV= HP PL5060N

From the SatBox I have Component in for the A/V. Coming out of the TV I use the RCA Audio Out to an input in the back of the Surround Receiver. I also have a second set of RCA outs from the SatBox (Second Audio) going to the Surround Receiver (this is to play the XM station and still be able to turn the TV off to save wear and tear).

My question is, since I can't seem to find a code to control the Sony Surround Receiver:

If I switch to HDMI in (from SatBox) and use the Audio OpticalOut (of the TV) to the AudioOptical in (of the Surround Receiver) will the volume control with in the TV control that Optical Out ?Thus eliminating the Sorround Receiver Remote.

With my good old JVC CRT I was able to do this because there was a setting called "variable" and "fixed". Same DirecTV set up (minus HD STB), and it worked.

Also another question:

Will Component in (from satbox to TV) produce sound in the Optical Audio output?
And again will the TV's volume control "throttle" that output volume? I'm under the impression that the Optical Audio output of the TV only works in concert with HDMI.

My problem is the damn Sony Surround Receiver. There's no code I can find to incorporate the volume control into the DirecTV remote. I can get it to power up and down, but not volume. Was the same with every remote I've ever had Universal or OEM from DirecTV.

I know the Harmony is awesome, but since HDMI and optical might give me a better picture and sound (I know the difference is debatable still), it's a slightly cheaper route then the Harmony 880 (which is the one I'd get).

I'm getting the feeling since there's no variable/fixed option in the TV's menu that the volume control for the HP TV might just be only for the detachable speakers.

Thanks for any help Jorakal and others:

Oh by the way:

If you having problems with finding codes for the HP PL5060N for other remotes I found this (probably old news but......).

If HP is not listed in the supported brand codes when you want to program a universal remote control to operate your HP TV, use a Philips TV code. The HP remote control transmits Philips-licensed remote control codes. After programming your universal remote control with a Philips TV code, it can operate your HP TV functions for volume, mute, power, and input source.

Source: HP Support FAQ (http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c00742788&cc=us&lc=en&dlc=en&product=1832458&dlc=en&lang=en)

Sorry for the long response time, DirectV came yesterday with the new STB, so I waited till then.

DVR/Sat Reciever= DirecTV Hr20-700
Home Theater Receiver= Sony STR-K740P
TV= HP PL5060N

From the SatBox I have Component in for the A/V. Coming out of the TV I use the RCA Audio Out to an input in the back of the Surround Receiver. I also have a second set of RCA outs from the SatBox (Second Audio) going to the Surround Receiver (this is to play the XM station and still be able to turn the TV off to save wear and tear).


Thanks for the info. I'm confused though. I see the video going from the SAT box to the TV through component cables, but how is sound from the SAT box going to the TV? You say you have RCA (Composite) going from TV to receiver, but again how is sound getting to the TV from the SAT box?

Now if you use HDMI going to the TV, you'll have sound but I don't know if it will put digital 5.1 out the optical port or if the sound is variable from that. Sounds like I need to experiment, or if you do please let us know. :)


Also another question:

Will Component in (from satbox to TV) produce sound in the Optical Audio output?
And again will the TV's volume control "throttle" that output volume? I'm under the impression that the Optical Audio output of the TV only works in concert with HDMI.

Component cables are for video only. Perhaps you are referring to the Composite cables (RCA red and white)? Now if you are referring to the TV passing through the sound again I don't know. I know that when I have cable coming directly in to the TV that sound is output to the digital out port, but I don't know if it passes through sound from other sources. Another experiment in the making unless of course another reader has already done this.

Again I think the simple solution is to get a learning remote. You can get some for $25 or $30 that will do everything you need and save some money. Then you can hook up all video to the Tv directly, and all sound directly to the receiver. If you need cables then please use monoprice or blue jeans and save a ton of money.

As to the harmony remote, I got the 550 because I like that style vs the bigger button ones and because it has an A and B button on it which works directly with my Scientific Atlantic STB. I saw no reason to pay double for the higher end since it already does everything I want. Call me.... thrifty :)

P.S. Oh another option is to use the variable volume from the SAT box itself (if it has that feature). This is what I do from my cable box in my bedroom to my receiver. It's an older Sony pro-logic receiver and the volume goes up too much from one button press, so I use the cable box volume control which is much finer adjustment, and it works great.

disfigured -

I am almost certain that these HP units don't have variable volume through any of the audio outputs. The TV's volume control only controls the volume on the TV's speakers.

Also, even if you use the optical digital output from the TV, I am pretty sure that you won't get Dolby Digital sound when passing the audio through from a source other than the TV's tuner (i.e. audio from a DVD player or Cable box). For example, if I run digital audio directly from my DVD player to the receiver, I get Dolby Digital, but if I run the audio (through HDMI) to the TV and then back to the receiver through the TV's digital optical output, I only get PCM. I do get Dolby Digital through the HP's optical output, but only when the source is OTA digital TV channels.

Another audio issue that may be relevant to you: analog audio inputs (RCA) to the TV aren't passed through to the digital outputs. In fact, analog channels from the TV's tuner don't produce digital audio output either. To get around this without switching inputs on the receiver while channel surfing, I connected both the digital and RCA audio outputs from the HP to the "Video 1" inputs on my Sony AV receiver. The receiver automatically uses the optical input when it detects a digital signal, and uses the analog input when it doesn't.

BTW, I have not been able to use Phillips codes to fully work for my 42" HP on any of the programable (non-learning) remotes I have. I can get it to control the power on/off and the volume (which is useless), but not the channels. However, I am getting Verizon FIOS TV soon, so I won't be using the TV's tuner much, so I am not concerned.

Looks like we will both be needing a learning universal remote.

Good luck

Thanks folks, this is really helping me narrow my options down. I appreciate the time your taking to reply.

Thanks for the info. I'm confused though. I see the video going from the SAT box to the TV through component cables, but how is sound from the SAT box going to the TV? You say you have RCA (Composite) going from TV to receiver, but again how is sound getting to the TV from the SAT box?


Opps didn't notice the RCA (composite?) next to the component inputs (DirecTV tech did this configuration). Yes the audio is coming from the SatBox via these connections.

Again I think the simple solution is to get a learning remote.

Seems to be a reoccurring theme that just won't go away no matter how hard I try and ignore it ;-).

I am almost certain that these HP units don't have variable volume through any of the audio outputs. The TV's volume control only controls the volume on the TV's speakers.

Yeah I think that's the dealio as they say. I've seen other threads about other Plasmas that don't have this feature either.

Also, even if you use the optical digital output from the TV, I am pretty sure that you won't get Dolby Digital sound when passing the audio through from a source other than the TV's tuner (i.e. audio from a DVD player or Cable box). For example, if I run digital audio directly from my DVD player to the receiver, I get Dolby Digital, but if I run the audio (through HDMI) to the TV and then back to the receiver through the TV's digital optical output, I only get PCM. I do get Dolby Digital through the HP's optical output, but only when the source is OTA digital TV channels.

If that's the case then I like your solution:


I connected both the digital and RCA audio outputs from the HP to the "Video 1" inputs on my Sony AV receiver. The receiver automatically uses the optical input when it detects a digital signal, and uses the analog input when it doesn't.

Which would give me the best sound quality in any given situation. When reading the manual for my receiver (Via PDF at Sony, couldn't find the damn thing), I noticed a "warning" that alluded to this very configuration, so it appears I will be able to do this also.

P.S. Oh another option is to use the variable volume from the SAT box itself (if it has that feature).

Strike Three (for me). Good thought though, if only my brand new SatBox had the option. Seems like the newer things get the less options they have.

Looks like we will both be needing a learning universal remote.

Yup it looks like that's the case.......so..

Some more questions:

Is the HDMI (for picture) and the optical (from Satbox to receiver not to receiver via TV), worth the extra money?

I've noticed that there's been some argument about the advantages of HDMI over ComponentIn , although visually I personally might not be able to tell the difference I've heard it can help in some situations (on screen graphics and switching channels).

As for the OpticalAudio, is the Digital vs. PCM really that much different on a semi inexpensive Theater in a Box (which my sony was 5 years ago)? It's a great little system and was surprised at the sound, but it's nothing to write home about compared to systems out there. It does the job, but I wonder if it's not "high end" enough to take advantage of PCM vs. Digital?

This is of course in addition to the cost of a decent universal remote (which is now a must ). I like to have full control of the HD SatBox since it does have a dual DVR in it. I'm wary of some of the less expensive Universal (also learning) remotes being unable to duplicate all of those functions.. Essentially that's why I have been struggling to get the job done with the remote that comes with the SatBox. Other then volume I (we) were almost there..........

Thanks again for your responses and any to these follow up questions.

What picture quality issues? There are a few owners here that had bad sets initially, but after a replacement have had no problems. I have not heard of any picture quality issues in this thread, in fact quite the opposite. My HP has had no quality issues at all.

When I was doing my research the major difference in PQ was that the HP had a 2D comb filter vs. the 3D and other more sophisticated filters that other sets use. This made for a more "grainy" picture. It's noticeable when the viewing the HP side by side with the LGs or other sets.

I used a friend's Consumer Reports paid subscription, and found that info (paraphrasing it). I'd link you the review but it won't get you there unless you have a paid subscription.

But at $1600.00 for 50" , I couldn't pass it up. I began looking at sets when the difference between the HP and LG was only $300.00. At that point I was sold on the LG because of the slightly better less grainy picture. But when the HP dropped to $1600.00, it just won me over.

In 3 years if 1080p becomes a standard ,and prices drop (as they always do) I will hurt less when this TV ends up my computer room.

It all depends on what your coming from too. I was coming from a 32" JVC (not even flat, but considered monitor quality at the time) that was nearly 8 years old. Any thing in 720p/1080i would Wow me. It was a good CRT , and I held off till Plasmas were lower in pricing and there was more HD content. I considered my JVC crt picture better then any projection and HD projection. Not until LCD projection and DLP projection hit the market would I consider projection. By then the Plasmas were also low enough to consider.

I went ahead and ordered a PL5060N from the HP web site. Why deal with Best Buy if I don't need to? HP will deliver, unpack and assemble (stand, speakers etc) right to my living room...all for free. The 12 month, no interest plan was approved almost immediately and the rep couldn't have been more knowledgable or courteous. Told me I'd have it before Superbowl. The 12 month in-home warranty is pretty decent too. I did get suckered into a $79 HDMI cable though. Probably should have looked around for that but WTF, if it is HP its gotta be a solid product? These TVs are going fast though. The CSR told me he typically sold one or two a week but now he is getting orders for three or four a day at $1699 (he is only one of many order takers).

I think you went the right route going through HP. That's a great delivery price. I paid $100.00 less going to BestBuy ($1599.00 w/ me picking up), and ended up carting a bad one back, and picking up another one. Of which they temporarily lost both in their stock lists :rolleyes: Knowing what I know now, I would gladly pay that $100.00. Also had a friend who paid for a projection to be delivered from BB, and he ended up picking up himself (he warned me but I didn't listen).

It's too late for you to consider but when doing my research CompUSA also carried the HP. So for any readers it's another source for this set. Right now they are listing the HP PL4260 for $1500.00, but I could swear the had the 50" for that price, at Xmas time. It's worth a shot to check if you want another source for this brand.

Happy Viewing people and........

GO PATRIOTS ............ (they had to win two Playoff games for me to see them in HD this year). :)

As for the OpticalAudio, is the Digital vs. PCM really that much different on a semi inexpensive Theater in a Box (which my sony was 5 years ago)? It's a great little system and was surprised at the sound, but it's nothing to write home about compared to systems out there. It does the job, but I wonder if it's not "high end" enough to take advantage of PCM vs. Digital?

With PCM you still have quality digital sound, but it is only two channel. That means you won't have 5.1 (Dolby Digital) surround, only stereo (and maybe Dolby Prologic surround). So IMO, yes, it is worth it even with an inexpensive HTIB, as long as that HTIB is DD 5.1 capable.

Some more questions:

Is the HDMI (for picture) and the optical (from Satbox to receiver not to receiver via TV), worth the extra money?

As for the OpticalAudio, is the Digital vs. PCM really that much different on a semi inexpensive Theater in a Box (which my sony was 5 years ago)?

This is of course in addition to the cost of a decent universal remote (which is now a must ). I like to have full control of the HD SatBox since it does have a dual DVR in it. I'm wary of some of the less expensive Universal (also learning) remotes being unable to duplicate all of those functions..

For HDMI vs Component picture quality... it depends. The only way to tell for sure is to hook them both up and compare. Monoprice and bluejeans (forum sponsors) sell inexpensive HDMI cables. I'd definitely check it out. If you don't use the HDMI cable for the SAT, you could always use it for something else like a DVD player down the road.

As to audio.. yes definitely hook up the digital audio. Your DirecTV Hr20-700 shows to be an HD DVR box. So on most HD channels you'll be getting Dolby digital 5.1 which will sound much better from your receiver and speakers than from the TV's speakers. On non-HD channels you'll get anything from stereo to Dolby Pro-logic which again will sound much better on your home theatre. That is assuming you do have the full set of speakers with a subwoofer. :) An optical cable shouldn't cost more than $10.

And to a remote... I have used many different ones over the years. My issue with the learning remotes without a display was there were never enough buttons on it to reprogram everything and it was always too confusing for my family. Also the macro buttons were never good enough for what I wanted to do. I wanted a remote that would let me have every single function from all other other remotes, and make it easy to do the functions I wanted. That is why I paid $100 for the Harmony 550 remote. The clincher for me was the A and B buttons. The Scientific Atlantic boxes use A, B, and C buttons for almost every function, so having at least and and B on it was awesome. I reprogrammed a C button right above the B button to make them grouped together. The remote let's me reprogram almost all the buttons in addition to having anything I want in the display, as well as do any multi function I want. I have seen these remotes as low as $80. Well worth it IMO.

I haven't received my PL5060N yet but I don't intend to use the detachable speakers. I have a Panny plasma monitor that I'm moving to the master bedroom though and will need some speakers. Can someone tell me how the HP speakers are connected (electrically) to the TV? RCA plugs...mini stereo jacks??

Can someone tell me how the HP speakers are connected (electrically) to the TV? RCA plugs...mini stereo jacks??

They are connected with RCA plugs (at least on the 4260).

Anyone gotten into the service menu yet? I'm interested in tweaking the settings if needed, for white balance and color cut/drv.

(Of course usual disclaimers apply).


Google: BruZZi's Forum , be careful with what you change, record all previous settings first. :eek:

I haven't received my PL5060N yet but I don't intend to use the detachable speakers. I have a Panny plasma monitor that I'm moving to the master bedroom though and will need some speakers. Can someone tell me how the HP speakers are connected (electrically) to the TV? RCA plugs...mini stereo jacks??


rca plugs for sure.

The 50 inch HP was delivered on Saturday from Best Buy.
I got it based on good reviews here ( was not the best looking screen at the store btw - had to hear that from my wife ) and the excelent price.
We've had a Panasonic EDTV for over 2 years and it has been an outstandning
TV. So, we put it on the stand, connected to the cable (no box yet since the panny has a cable card ). I let the TV scan the chanels.
The regulars are really looking bad ( no surprice) , worst than the panny.
The TV found 4 unscrambled hdtv chanels (abc,nbc,cbs,pbs).
The picture is really really good on these. I lowered down all the setting
based on recomendations here and still the picture quality is high.
The dvds are ok ( tried the fifth element and terminators2,3).
Need to get a set box from Comcast in order to get the rest of hdtvs.
Regards,
Sergey

I lowered down all the setting
based on recomendations here and still the picture quality is high.
Where in this thread is this discussion? My PL5060N is being delivered today.

Where in this thread is this discussion? My PL5060N is being delivered today.
I don't exaclty remember what pages, I searched for "settings".
Good luck!

tankerdba I might be stating the obvious but, I recommend you set your cable box to output 720 or 1080i or a combo of the 2. Don't output 480i or 480p from it. You will get a much better picture this way. 480i on most HDTV sets that have native resolutions above 720p don't display the 480i picture that well. If it is upconverted by your cable box though it looks really good. At least mine does.

Also probably stating the obvious, get an HD digital cable box if at all possible. I assume you are, but many people not only don't get HD for their new HDTV, but they don't even get a digital cable box. They hook up an analog cable box to their set. Generally the best picture you are going to get is from a digital cable box from a digital signal. At least with Time Warner in San Antonio, the digital output of analog stations is MUCH better than the raw analog signal from coax, or from an analog cable box. And of course the digital HD stuff, especially Discovery channel, INHD, HDNET, HDMOV, and Universal HD is amazing and the reason for the HDTV in the first place. :)

Hi all,

Just finished reading all 40+ pages in this thread over the last week or so! Lots of good information here--thank you all for sharing your experiences so far.

Here's my story:

I'm kind of an A/V junkie, sort of a casual audiophile I guess, so I've been waiting to upgrade my 27" JVC CRT for some time now. My sound system, though aging, is still some fabulous hardware but I haven't kept up with an equivalent display. Just had to hold out for the prices to come down on the HD sets and more HD content to become available. Also, I've been a TiVo subscriber since the Series1 so I was reluctant to trade that convenience for the HD picture. When I moved to a new apartment recently, the only good place to put the TV was over the fireplace, so making the jump to a flat panel became a requirement. :)

After researching various options and looking out for sales, I picked up the 42" HP Plasma last week during a MLK Day sale at 6th Ave Electronics. I was deciding between the Panasonic TH-42PX60U and the HP 4260N (both priced just under $1200 for the sale), and in the end I decided to go with the HP mainly because of the nicer cabinet design and the detachable speakers. With the money I saved I decided to get the store's 4-year warranty for an extra $299--I figured it's worth it to me just for the peace of mind.


For the first week I left the screen running EA's break-in DVD connected via 480p component connections with the brightness and contrast dialed down to about 20. I got my 100 hours in just in time to turn things back to normal for a full day of football in HD yesterday--wow! Looked awesome and my friends who came over to watch the game were blown away by the picture.

I have Comcast cable but use a Tivo Series2 (SD) as the tuner (no cable box.) With the new plasma set, I split the cable signal and used the built-in QAM tuner on the plasma to see the digital channels and all the HD content. Everything looks awesome in HD and even SD digital, but the channel changing is a little cumbersome (remembering 113-1 is NBC-HD, 111-1 is PBS-HD, etc) so I decided to get the HD STB from Comcast. They've got a number of free movies in HD available via on-demand, so I felt like it would be worth the extra $10 a month for the working guide and the additional content. Just picked up the STB today (Motorola DCT6200) so I'll be hooking that up tonight.

Also, I've been experiencing some glitches with the digital audio output from the TV to my A/V receiver--the 5.1 dolby digital output doesn't work consistently so I ended up having to set it to PCM output only. I don't get surround sound for HD broadcasts, but with PCM at least it always works (I believe the problem is with Comcast, so we'll see how having the STB changes things.)


Overall, I'm thrilled with the set so far. I have a Peerless tilting wall-mount arriving in a few days ($99 shipped, vs $249 for the Omni mount at 6th Ave) so I'm excited to get the TV up over the fireplace this weekend.

In the meantime, I'm weighing all the different options for the connections to balance what looks the best vs. what's easiest to use (since my SO watches as well). I prefer to switch between the various sources on my receiver only, but since it only has 2 component inputs, I'll probably end up running the XBox and PS2 to the TV's Component2 input since the video games aren't used as often as the DVD or STB.

Looking forward to getting everything in place a little more "permanently" so I can stop fussing around and start enjoying my new plasma display! :)


Thanks for reading-

leigh


My Home Theater:

Display: HP PL4260N 42" Plasma display
A/V Receiver: Integra DTR-7.1
Speakers (Fr/Ctr/Surr): NHT SuperTwo / NHT SuperCenter / NHT SuperZero
Subwoofer: Paradigm PS-10
DVD-Recorder: Panasonic DMR-ES10 (480p via component)
PVR: Humax Tivo Series2 80-hr (S-video)
Games: PS2/XBox (via "universal" component video cable)

Good story. :) I hope the new HD cable box works good for you. I'm guessing since your component inputs are full you are going to use HDMI with the cable box and send digital out to the receiver?

To the extent that you can, you should try both component and HDMI wherever you can. In my case, it appeared that the Comcast HD STB looked better with component; others report the opposite. YMMV.

Doug

Good story. :) I hope the new HD cable box works good for you. I'm guessing since your component inputs are full you are going to use HDMI with the cable box and send digital out to the receiver?

Actually, I'm probably going to use the component video out with digital audio out from the STB to my receiver. The Motorola DCT6200 only has a DVI out, not HDMI, so I'd need to get a HDMI->DVI adapter or another cable to hook it up directly to the TV.

That means I'll have my DVD player and cable STB each going to component inputs on my receiver. The receiver's component output goes to component1 on the TV. I'll most likely end up using the TV's component2 input for the XBox/PS2.

I'm going this way since I prefer to do as much of the switching as possible on the receiver, and leave the TV on the same source input whenever possible. Otherwise, if I use the HDMI on the TV, I have to switch the TV input, and then switch the receiver as well to handle the audio. Since most of the watching will be DVD or Cable, it makes sense to have those switched through the receiver and I'll only have to change the TV input when I play games.

I've been doing this stuff for years, so I have a pretty good handle on what I want and how to get there. I just can't imagine how the average user could ever be expected to set up something like this!

-leigh

leigh13 -

As was discussed a few posts back in this thread, I don't believe you will ever get Dolby Digital from the TV's digital out when you are using a source other than a digital channel on the TV's tuner. I am almost certain that any digital source (i.e. DVD or Digital Cable) routed through the TV back to the AV receiver will only be output from the TV in PCM.

Good luck,

The Motorola 64xx STB comes in three flavors, two models have DVI/component and one has HDMI/component. Not sure about the 6200 series. And, a Harmony or other universal remote can ease some of the reconfiguration pain.

Doug

leigh13 -

As was discussed a few posts back in this thread, I don't believe you will ever get Dolby Digital from the TV's digital out when you are using a source other than a digital channel on the TV's tuner. I am almost certain that any digital source (i.e. DVD or Digital Cable) routed through the TV back to the AV receiver will only be output from the TV in PCM.


I'm with you on that one--I don't expect other sources to route back out via the optical output. But the problem I experienced was while watching NFL games in HD, with the Comcast cable plugged directly to the TV and tuned using the internal QAM tuner.

I had the Dolby Digital signal output from the TV to my receiver, and it was working fine and then it would mysteriously disappear. Sometimes it would happen during a commercial change, leading me to believe it the source signal had an effect. For example, sometimes I would have no audio output from the receiver, but then a commercial would come on and suddenly the 5.1 signal would come back alive.

So it seems to me that the problem is with Comcast's feed via QAM... if they were able to "force" everything to output in a 5.1DD signal (even if it only carried 2.0 channels), that would work fine. But since the 5.1 output seems to come and go, I've had to leave the TV set for PCM digital audio. I'm interested to see how things work with the STB!

The Motorola 64xx STB comes in three flavors, two models have DVI/component and one has HDMI/component. Not sure about the 6200 series. And, a Harmony or other universal remote can ease some of the reconfiguration pain.

Hi Doug-

Thanks for the info! I'll have to check with Comcast to see if I can trade for a STB with the HDMI output. I was actually hoping to get the Moto HD box with DVR, but they didn't have any more in stock when I went to their office this morning. Although, after reading some of the horrible reviews of the Motorola 6412 HD-DVR (sorry, can't link until I get a few more posts under my belt!), I wonder if I might be better off sticking with the plain STB or QAM tuner and just having to watch the HD shows "live". Guess I'll have to try them all out and see what works best!


Regarding the Harmony remote: I have been using the learning universal remote that came with my Integra DTR-7.1 receiver for many years now, and I really like it. I'll have to see if I can program some macros to make the input switching on the TV a little more straightforward. If that works, I might end up saving a lot of time and make some easier cable runs. If it turns out the macros get a little too cumbersome, should I look into getting one of the Harmony remotes? Are they really THAT good in comparison to other universal learning remotes?

Basically the only universal remote I've tried is the Harmony, so I can't compare. Everything works fine that I've tried so far, EXCEPT for my Mac Mini, so I have to use its original control. I guess several of my boxes have some flavor of low-end macro-less universal remote, but I've never actually tried to pick one and figure it out. If you have a remote you like and use, I'm sure you can use the (Philips) codes for the TV also.

I haven't found the 6412 all that bad, though it's far from perfect. Without SOME kind of HD STB you'll probably only get local HD stations, meaning you'll miss things like Discovery HD Theater, INHD, "superstations", premium HD stations (HBO et al), etc., plus of course there'll be no program guide, unless you get those in some other way.

Doug

If it turns out the macros get a little too cumbersome, should I look into getting one of the Harmony remotes? Are they really THAT good in comparison to other universal learning remotes?

Yes. :)

Just curious: how many hdtv chanels did you HP find w/o the Comcast box?
Thanks,
Sergey

Just curious: how many hdtv chanels did you HP find w/o the Comcast box?
Thanks,
Sergey
I had only analog cable, with no STB, for a couple of days between the arrival of the TV and the arrival of the HD STB. Basically I got the "local" channels via QAM digital/HD on the "analog" cable. In one case I either got both the Denver and Cheyenne (WY) CBS affiliates or only the Cheyenne one, I forget which; the STB only provides the Denver one. So, approximately 6 or 8 stations, but obviously no HD-only ones like Discovery HD Theatre or INHD. I could also get a few OTA even though the TV is in the basement (not completely below ground, but mostly) and even though I was using some ancient rabbit ears! :)

A good way to approximate what you'd get is to look for the HD forums relating to your area; many have both OTA and cable-provider forums, often containing channel number mappings to save time.

Doug

Same here. Time Warner is sending the broadcast HD channels without scrambling. All the others are scrambled. So without the cable box I get local ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS in HD.

Just curious: how many hdtv chanels did you HP find w/o the Comcast box?
Thanks,
Sergey
I have Comcast in NJ with the Digital Basic package (or maybe it's called Digital Preferred... it's all the regular cable channels (including Discovery, Cartoon Network, Comedy Central, etc., with none of the premium movie channels.)

Plugging the cable straight from the wall to the HP Plasma, I got these channels in HD:

CBS-HD
NBC-HD
FOX-HD
ABC-HD
CW-HD (aka The WB)
WNET-HD (PBS "Thirteen")

The auto-discovery probably took 20 or 30 minutes in all. There were a ton of other 480i digital versions of the regular analog channels, plus a bunch of the Music Choice (some with the slideshow video, others audio-only), and some digital subchannels from the main networks with dedicated weather info. I found a PDF of a channel guide that someone posted in the Comcast forum for Northern NJ, and most of the channels matched up with what the TV's QAM tuner found. Unfortunately, the Comcast feed doesn't show the correct channel names in the on-screen guide, just "Ch. 113-1, Ch. 113-2, etc.) There is no description of the program either, which is annoying because the OTA broadcast of the same HD channel has all the info included.


I actually first tried to see what I could get OTA with an old set of rabbit ears, and about the only HD channel I could pull in without fuss was NBC. I live right next to NYC, but there are a number of tall buildings around to interfere with the signal. It was a pleasant surprise to find out that Comcast provided the unencrypted HD channels over the wire!


-leigh

Sounds like it is working good for you Leigh13. When I first hooked up my STB, I only got half of my HD channels. Just like you they said subscription only. I called Time Warner and 10 minutes later it was fixed. No details on what they did.

I have the HD DVR and there is no way I could go back lol. To be able to record 2 shows while I watch a pre-recorded shows is awesome. And of course the ability to pause, rewind, etc live tv, and pic-in-pic.

Last night I hooked up my new Moto 6200 HD STB.

I only have an HDMI cable and the box is DVI, but the Component outputs looked fabulous in both 720p and 1080i. The text on the cable box's setup screen looks much more crisp in 1080i (the default sharpness settings shows up some nasty halos!) but the regular picture looked about the same in 1080i and 720p. I tried out some of the various settings for the SD content (force 480p, upconvert, stretch, etc) but so far I can't get the guide to display across the full screen width even though the box is set for 16:9. The digital audio output via coax to my receiver delivers all audio properly for both DD5.1 and regular 2-channel stereo. I also ran the S-Video out from the STB for a little more flexibility in displaying SD 480i content (better zoom and panorama.)


I was really surprised to find out that I got all the HBO, Showtime, and Cinemax channels even though I don't subscribe to them--wonder if Comcast is doing a free preview? Strangely, ESPN-HD, Discovery HD, and TNT-HD are all showing up as "subscription only" even though I get the analog versions of those channels. Maybe it will take the box some time to authorize everything properly.


Overall, I think it's going to be worth paying the extra $10 a month for the STB rather than using the TV's built-in digital tuner. The guide data is really nice to have and there is a lot more HD content available from on-demand! And not just the pay-per-view... Comcast has a number of free movies available in HD, as well as rebroadcasts of some network shows (so far just CSI and the late night talk shows, wish it had The Office!), lots of Discovery HD and National Geographic shows, and something called the "Gallery Player (http://www.galleryplayer.com/comcast.html) ." It's just a hi-def photo slideshow, but it's probably the best HD demo material I've seen yet. When you have guests over and want to show off your new TV, it's nice to have some quality HD content ready to go--it's hard to explain why the 720p 4:3 feed of Oprah on ABC-HD is the best demo available when none of the prime time shows are on! :)

Even the PPV on-demand HD (excuse me, IN-DEMAND) is a nice option. Most of the movies available were about $4-$5, which is a little pricy IMO, but compared to the price of buying a Blu-Ray or HD-DVD box and renting or buying movies it's not so bad!


I'll probably exchange the plain HD STB for the DVR version in the coming weeks to give that a try. I'd like to see how the HDMI compares and it will be nice to be able to record the HD versions of the shows I Tivo in standard def, like Prison Break, The Office, and SNL.


I'll keep you guys posted with my experiences!

-leigh

Just a FYI here.

I was looking at the Yahoo homepage yesterday and they had a big discussion about TV's as they prep up for the Superbowl. At the bottom of the page they listed the top 5 in consumer reports for plasmas 50 inches and above and there we were! #5 out of the 12 TV's that they had reviewed! Very good things to say about the TV and a lot of positive feedback from consumers who had purchased it.

Question Now:

Anyone know who actually makes the TV for HP?


Thanks!

Question Now:

Anyone know who actually makes the TV for HP?


Thanks!

Someone posted earlier in the thread that it's LG parts.

The plasma panel itself seems to be made by LG, since the service manual has LG in it. No idea about the electronics though. Is interesting to note that the remote codes are compatible with Philips tv's.

Also I can't seem to find that Yahoo article. If anyone finds it could you link it?

My new TV was delivered yesterday. I connected it directly to a UHF digital antenna (not all local HD channels available on cable) and also to a Cox Motorola DCT-6416 HD DVR and an LG 3410A HD DVR. I was upgrading from a 42" Panasonic ED plasma. My initial impression is that the HD channels were slightly better than the ED display and the SD channels are profoundly worse. The standard (factory) picture settings seemed a little harsh, peoples eyes reflected too much light and their hair sparkled. Also, I could not detect a lot of detail in dark objects. I went ahead and made some adjustments to the user setting, bumped brightness up to 55, contrast down to 45 and that helped. I think I still need to play with sharpness though as stripes on people's shirts still seem to dance. Most of the picture adjusments I have made are on the component 2 and HDMI inputs. I really haven't played much with the internal ATSC tuner yet. I watch very little live TV. I set up the outputs to both DVRs initially at 1080i and watched a couple sitcoms but the motion appeared jerky. At first I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me....it was an odd kind of surreal effect. I switched outputs to 720p and the jerkyness seemed to go away. Not sure what's up with that. Anyway...just a few idle thoughts. Overall I'm pleased. Delivery went well, nothing broken, no stuck pixals or anything.

My new TV was delivered yesterday. I connected it directly to a UHF digital antenna (not all local HD channels available on cable) and also to a Cox Motorola DCT-6416 HD DVR and an LG 3410A HD DVR. I was upgrading from a 42" Panasonic ED plasma.

You have me curious about your equipment setup. Could you give more details like:

What cable company and why don't they have all local stations in HD?
I'm guessing you have a digital signal going to your cable boxes?
Do you have HD from your cable company?
Why 2 HD DVR's?
How do you have them all connected?

When you say the picture looks much worse on SD, I am wondering how you have the SD feed going to the TV? My SD looks as good as it did on my 36" Zenith tube. I have an HD DVR digital cable box that upconverts my SD channels to 1080i to my TV. 720p and 1080i both look about the same, so left it at 1080i since all but 2 of my HD stations are 1080i.

At least for Comcast's 6412 box there's a service setting for how to handle SD - convert to 480i, convert to 480p, stretch, etc. There's also a service setting for how to upconvert HD, usually 720p or 1080i. It'd be nice if there were a pass-through option.

I scanned the whole thing and tv found abc,cbs, nbc and that's all.
I currently have a Basic + LImited pacjage for 52 $ and was paying 8.99 for a cable card for my Panny plasma. I went to comcast web site and it says
that the cheapest package is 85 (digital silver) and it will include 1 premium chanel(which I don even need). That means I have to pay and extra 33 $ per month just to get our new HP going with HD the way we view it on Panny.
Not fair ;-(
Sergey

Obviously Comcast may have different deals in different places, but I didn't have to go to a "metal" package or pay for any premium channels. I did find their web site somewhat incomprehensible, and was unable to order from it, so I suggest you call them on the phone.

You have me curious about your equipment setup. Could you give more details like:

What cable company and why don't they have all local stations in HD?
I'm guessing you have a digital signal going to your cable boxes?
Do you have HD from your cable company?
Why 2 HD DVR's?
How do you have them all connected?

When you say the picture looks much worse on SD, I am wondering how you have the SD feed going to the TV? My SD looks as good as it did on my 36" Zenith tube. I have an HD DVR digital cable box that upconverts my SD channels to 1080i to my TV. 720p and 1080i both look about the same, so left it at 1080i since all but 2 of my HD stations are 1080i.
I have Cox cable but only CBS and PBS are available in HD due to a stand off between Cox and the other locals. The locals want money for their HD feed.

Cox claims their network is "all digital" but I'm not convinced. If I watch an SD program on local channel over-the-air I am receiving it pure, unadulterated digital UHF and it is crystal clear for a 480p signal. When I watch the same SD channel via digital cable it is really crap! Probably too many A to D conversions and too much signal compression.

I have the Cox Motorola DCT-3416 HD DVR and also an LG 3410A HD DVR for over-the-air HD recording. (All locals here are broadcast digital UHF, all with HD programming). I never watch live TV. (except sporting events). Each hour long program contains 19 minutes of advertising! My attention span is not that long. :p

My LG HD DVR is connected to Component 2. My Cox HD DVR is connected to HDMI. My DVD player is connected to Component 1. All my devices feed my Yamaha HT receiver via optical audio for Dolby 5.1/DTS.

Right now the only problem I'm having is getting my Harmony 676 to change inputs on the TV when I switch activities. Anybody got any clues to this?

I just received this TV yesterday, I went through the pages of this thread to find the best settings for picture "user settings" and tried them all. Unfortunately I found them all to still be dull, and have not been able to get a great picture on my own. Does anyone think they have the perfect "user settings" that I could try out?

This might sound a little odd, but I recently noticed what looks like a couple of "stains" on the front glass of my new PL5060N TV.

I've been gently breaking in my Plasma over the past 100 hours or so using mostly the Break In DVD, and I recently noticed that when I look at the TV from any angle (left, right, above, etc) there are several areas that look darker than the rest of the screen. There are 2 or 3 oval like areas (sort of pear-like in shape and size). They are NOT noticable when looking directly into the centre of the screen, only from the sides.

It looks like the screen might be dirty, in fact I thought maybe my dog licked the screen or something, but when I tried to wipe it off it clearly wasn't anything that was on the front of the screen.

Has anyone else experienced this? Could the back of the glass be dirty? Or could this be a problem with the pixels?

John

I set up my new PL5060N this week, got everything working and then went to the Harmony web site to reconfigure my 676 remote control. I also changed to a different DVD player and Cox DVR. I downloaded my new configuration and everything works except my new TV. I know it is not a download issue because the other two devices have no problems at all. The descriptions of the keys seems to be accurate (such as the names of all the PL5060N inputs). Whatever commands were downloaded from Harmony database just don't work. Has anyone else run into this? Maybe I'll download the PL4260 instead. I doubt there is any difference between the two TVs as far as the remote control.

I downloaded my new configuration and everything works except my new TV. I know it is not a download issue because the other two devices have no problems at all. The descriptions of the keys seems to be accurate (such as the names of all the PL5060N inputs).

I had a similar problem on mine. What I did was go into device mode on the remote for the TV. I then went through all the inputs one by one until I found the Input mode button that changed the set to the one I wanted. Then I went into configuration for "watch TV". I found that the input mode was wrong for the Tv and changed it to the correct one.

I just received this TV yesterday, I went through the pages of this thread to find the best settings for picture "user settings" and tried them all. Unfortunately I found them all to still be dull, and have not been able to get a great picture on my own. Does anyone think they have the perfect "user settings" that I could try out?

It might help if you gave more detail about your equipment and settings. And does the picture look dull on all channels and inputs, resolutions, etc?

I had a similar problem on mine. What I did was go into device mode on the remote for the TV. I then went through all the inputs one by one until I found the Input mode button that changed the set to the one I wanted. Then I went into configuration for "watch TV". I found that the input mode was wrong for the Tv and changed it to the correct one.Yeah, thats not my problem. The commands don't function in either the "device" mode nor the "activities" mode. Whatever commands Harmony have in their database for this TV are just bogus. I'll contact their help desk but if all else fails....I'll use the learn feature and input them one at a time. What a pain! :(

In case you guys missed this:

If HP is not listed in the supported brand codes when you want to program a universal remote control to operate your HP TV, use a Philips TV code. The HP remote control transmits Philips-licensed remote control codes. After programming your universal remote control with a Philips TV code, it can operate your HP TV functions for volume, mute, power, and input source.

Source: HP FAQ (http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c00742788&cc=us&lc=en&dlc=en&product=1832458&dlc=en&lang=en)

Hope this helps, I don't know if the same applies to the Harmonies since I don't have one , and was actually able to resolve my DirecTV remote problems.

I didn't end up getting one, although I was looking forward to something new to noodle around with.

FWIW, my Harmony 550 handles my PL4260N just fine. Plus a Sony NS75H DVD player, a Sony DVD/VCR combo, a Pioneer A/V receiver (and earlier a Logitech Z-5450), and my Comcast/Motorola STB/DVR. It doesn't seem to work with my Mac Mini, though others claim success and I haven't tried a bunch of stuff yet.

Doug

In case you guys missed this:

If HP is not listed in the supported brand codes when you want to program a universal remote control to operate your HP TV, use a Philips TV code. The HP remote control transmits Philips-licensed remote control codes. After programming your universal remote control with a Philips TV code, it can operate your HP TV functions for volume, mute, power, and input source.

Source: HP FAQ (http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c00742788&cc=us&lc=en&dlc=en&product=1832458&dlc=en&lang=en)

Hope this helps, I don't know if the same applies to the Harmonies since I don't have one , and was actually able to resolve my DirecTV remote problems.

I didn't end up getting one, although I was looking forward to something new to noodle around with.Thats good to know but won't help with a Harmony remote. You can't input a "code" to their web site. I would need a compatible TV model number. Any just because they use the same commands doesn't ensure all the same functions would appear for the HP panel.

FWIW, my Harmony 550 handles my PL4260N just fine. Plus a Sony NS75H DVD player, a Sony DVD/VCR combo, a Pioneer A/V receiver (and earlier a Logitech Z-5450), and my Comcast/Motorola STB/DVR. It doesn't seem to work with my Mac Mini, though others claim success and I haven't tried a bunch of stuff yet.

DougMy next step will be to try the 42" model number at the Harmony web site.

Yeah, thats not my problem. The commands don't function in either the "device" mode nor the "activities" mode. Whatever commands Harmony have in their database for this TV are just bogus. I'll contact their help desk but if all else fails....I'll use the learn feature and input them one at a time. What a pain! :(

Interesting. My Harmony remote worked for all my devices, even with my new cheapie SV2000 (made by Funai) WV10D6 dvd recorder. The only 2 buttons that did not work were for my Philips DVD player for skip chapter forward and back. Those I had to memorize. All the TV functions are there and work from my Harmony 550.

I know this is the wrong forum for this question, but I feel like I know you guys already so I wanted to ask here. :)

I'm going to trust the overwhelming positive reviews on the Harmony remotes and get one to help control my HT setup. Now I just have to decide which one. I've read through many of the threads on AVS as well as on Remote Central (http://www.remotecentral.com/cgi-bin/mboard/rc-harmony/thread.cgi?4251), but I'm still torn between the 550, 670, and 880. Here are the pro's and con's I see for each:

550:
+ lowest price
+ better display (?) than 670
- small number buttons
- less ergonomic design than others

670:
+ "better for DVR" (though I can't seem to see exactly why. Seems to have identical hard buttons as the 550!)
+ more ergonomic shape and button layout than the 550
+ dedicated activity buttons
- more expensive than the 550

880:
+ color screen and rechargeable
+ envy from friends and co-workers
- highest price
- worse button layout than 670 (?)

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b251/leigh13/temp/th_harmonyremotes.jpg (http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b251/leigh13/temp/harmonyremotes.jpg)

Based on what I've said, does anyone have any thoughts to help me choose? I think I might have to just go to the store and check them out in person to see which one feels best, since a remote control is certainly a tactile device.

Since I use a Tivo Series2 DVR and will probably be getting a HD-DVR from Comcast, I was leaning toward the 670 as it's advertised as being better for DVR functions. Some on these forums have even mentioned that it has additional hard buttons for those functions compared to the 550. But for the life of me, I can't see the difference other than the layout!

Help this indecisive shopper make a choice already, won't you? :)

thanks!

-leigh

The primary reason I chose the 550 is because it has A and B buttons on the bottom right. The Scientific Atlantic cables boxes use the A, B, and C buttons for almost everything. This made it very convenient. The other reason was price and buttons.

Now I like the button style on the 550. My family thinks the numeric buttons are too small though and they really are. I can use them fine though and I have big fingers. The buttons on the 600 series are spread farther apart and stick up farther. Some people like that better. The 600 series is bigger overall than the 550 which I didn't like, but some people do. 550 is much flatter/thinner and sleeker. 600 series is rounder and curved in the middle. The 670 has extra dedicated activity buttons on the top. The 550 has them on the display. 550 has sleeker designed channel and volume buttons. 600 series are regular toggles that stand out more like other remotes.

You really have to hold both of them and see what you like better. They'll both function about the same. Display about the same. The 880 is awesome of course, but not for the money for me. 550 does more than everything that I need.