so i tinkered with the service menu to fix the geometry, turned off the tv, when i turned it back on the screen was black. complete, utter blackness. no volume icons or anything. turn it off and on again, nada, nothing.

what did i just do?

Get back into the service menu and undo what you did?

i can't. the service menu doesn't show up. the screen doesn't show anything. it looks like it's turned off, but it's really turn; you an hear the tube power on, and when you turn it off you can see that small fllash of light.

Unplug it for a while to see if that changes anything.

by pure random button press luck, i got the picture back. but it's shot to high hell, and the HDMI port is no longer being detected.

Can't really say for sure if the picture didn't suck before, because i didn't really sit down and try to fix it via the menu options (fixing geometry was my first priority), but it was looking pretty bad to begin with. WAAAAAAAY over saturated, red hues coming off skin tones kind of stuff.

Sanyo sucks. This thing is going back.

by pure random button press luck, i got the picture back. but it's shot to high hell, and the HDMI port is no longer being detected.

Can't really say for sure if the picture didn't suck before, because i didn't really sit down and try to fix it via the menu options (fixing geometry was my first priority), but it was looking pretty bad to begin with. WAAAAAAAY over saturated, red hues coming off skin tones kind of stuff.

Sanyo sucks. This thing is going back.

I already warned you that TV was crap before you bought it but you chose to ignore me. I had the thing for 2 weeks and the PQ was absolutely abysmal. The picture is grainy, it shimmers, and the color is lifeless. I don't know if you ever gave it a HD feed or not but HD doesn't even look like HD on it. Believe it or not SD on my Sony XBR970 looks better than HD did on the Sanyo. One of the weird things the Sanyo did with a HD feed is that sometimes the outlines of things would seem to glow and/or sparkle in red. It's hard to explain but it was a strange effect. The only time I was able to get a remotely watchable picture out of the Sanyo was when playing Xbox 360. For whatever reason 360 in HD seemed to look better than TV in HD did. But the way 360 looks on my current TV blows away what it looked like on the Sanyo as well. If you want a HDTV that is decent you're going to have to spend a few hundred dollars more.

You should always write down all the settings in the service menu before changing anything in case something like this happens.

But anyway, if you return it make sure you don't tell them you were messing with the service menu because that voids your warranty and for all I know it could even void your right to return it for a refund.

But anyway, if you return it make sure you don't tell them you were messing with the service menu because that voids your warranty and for all I know it could even void your right to return it for a refund.

i can walk away with a refund for a 6 month old purchase (not originally by me)?

i knew you were going to boast. the day the tv came in my wife and i were getting ready to watch blow.... i had to turn it off not even 10 minutes into the movie; the color was just so damn horrible. i never saw the movie before, and i don't intend on ruining the effect. i was too tired to try adjusting the picture so i just called it a night.

I really gotta say though, from a resolution perspective, i don't think i can honestly say the TV looked ANY better than my old 20" Apex. I mean, the computer desktop on the Sanyo at 854x480 looked just as clear as the 640x480 did on the Apex. Anything higher and the depreciation in image quality was unacceptable. When I saw rainbows on the text to boot, that's when i really started to question the set PQ. AND, this was over HDMI! Seriously, and don't even CONSIDER doing a slideshow.. ugh... :(

Don't think you'd really want to return a set that's non-working due to your amateurish adjusting in the service menu. Pay a Sanyo service tech to undo your mistake, and then return it. The merchant isn't a position to absorb losses caused by buyers. You'll be happy if you do the right thing. :)

Don't think you'd really want to return a set that's non-working due to your amateurish adjusting in the service menu. Pay a Sanyo service tech to undo your mistake, and then return it. The merchant isn't a position to absorb losses caused by buyers. You'll be happy if you do the right thing. :)
If he had concern for merchants' welfare, he wouldn't have purchased the TV from WalMart in the first place.

The tv is back the way it was; service menu issues abated. but the real issue is just that the picture was inherently bad to begin (which is why I thought service menu options could help). it just doesn't even look like HD, and SD material is WORSE than the 8 year old Apex I replaced. Again, a real let down.

I'm actually a bit upset with the forum actually. Wickerman was the only guy speaking up about just how horrible the picture on this thing is. i assumed he had a bad set or something. Really, what the heck was everyone talking saying how good the picture is??? this is garbage!

I hope you can excuse my previous post - that was supposed to be a rip on the business practices of that company, and not against you specifically. But I don't think my point comes across like I intended.

Bummer about the TV though. I suppose the manufacturing costs of larger CRTs are so high that they had to cut too many corners to get the price down to what you paid for it. I guess it's more or less a "budget" HDTV -- but if it's as bad as you say it is, you'd almost be better off with a good quality CRT SDTV for around the same price. Or a cheap LCD.

The problem with a cheap LCD is you'll run into the same color reproduction and overall picture quality problems. But at least you'll get the high-definition detail of a higher resolution display -- and it sounds like that's important to you from reading some of your previous posts.

For high detail AND high picture quality, you're going to have to spend significantly more dough. That's just a fact of today's HDTV marketplace...

I'm actually a bit upset with the forum actually. Wickerman was the only guy speaking up about just how horrible the picture on this thing is. i assumed he had a bad set or something. Really, what the heck was everyone talking saying how good the picture is??? this is garbage!
What are you talking about? I just (quickly) read through the last couple pages of the "Official Sanyo HT32744/HT30744 thread" and it looks like at least three-quarters of the posts talk about how bad the picture is and problems with the colors and tint and everything. Who told you the Sanyo would be a good set?

I'm actually a bit upset with the forum actually. Wickerman was the only guy speaking up about just how horrible the picture on this thing is. i assumed he had a bad set or something. Really, what the heck was everyone talking saying how good the picture is??? this is garbage!
Well, at least YOU aren't to blame for any of this. You couldn't have looked at the TV before you bought it? They don't have Wal-Marts where you live?

Well, at least YOU aren't to blame for any of this. You couldn't have looked at the TV before you bought it? They don't have Wal-Marts where you live?

No, in fact. City zoning and planning prohibits it.

What are you talking about? I just (quickly) read through the last couple pages of the "Official Sanyo HT32744/HT30744 thread" and it looks like at least three-quarters of the posts talk about how bad the picture is and problems with the colors and tint and everything. Who told you the Sanyo would be a good set?

And the few pages I read through at the time said the picture was great (or at least a great value). The thread is what, 2000 posts long? I glanced through a couple pages and started a few threads of my own. Clearly in retrospect they weren't the best picks to base a decision off of.

I found a Samsung 30" 82 for $500. As soon as the Sanyo's gone, that thing's coming in. The samsung was easily the the pick of the litter at best buy. Should've just bought it to begin with.

For the record, the Toshiba's i saw at best buy are about on par with the sanyo pq wise. and i read a lot about the toshiba's being "nice" too. perhaps i am too demanding? Nah, the toshibas are also garbage.

My wife wants to just say the hell with it put back the 20" apex at this point. At least on that red hair and light browns (including anyone with black skin) didn't light up like the surface of the freaking sun on SD.

I wonder if it was the gamers that skewed my decision.... i distinctly recall quite a few saying how great Xbox looked at 720p.

I just don't get gamers. Staring at a tv screen pushing buttons and lights flashing all over the place....

No, in fact. City zoning and planning prohibits it.
Ohhhhhh. So the nearest Wal-Mart is close enough that you could return this TV, but it is too far away for you to have driven to look at this TV before buying one? Now I understand.

TV was delivered. I have to rent a freaking UHaul just to get it the hell out. It's become an object of resentment.

All right, I did some reading of some older threads, and you're right - Wickerman1972 did seem to be the only person who told you not to buy that Sanyo. He said it more than once, actually. Other people said that it would be an okay TV for the price. You're right that more people could probably have told you not to get the TV. But many of your posts seemed to indicate that price was more important to you than quality.

I think you had unreasonable expectations about getting a good TV for such a cheap price. I mean, you bought the absolute cheapest TV you could find. What did you really expect?

You bought the Yugo of TVs, and now you're complaining that it's nothing like a Cadillac.

I think my expectations were grounded in what a TV is worth to me. Between myself and my wife, we watch TV maybe 3 hours a week, tops. and that includes movies. seriously, when i went into bestbuy and saw that 20" LCDs were over $1000, my jaw dropped. I hadn't purchased a TV for almost 10 years, and i expected moore's law would take. But it hasn't. If anything, I feel TVs are extortionately overpriced today. I mean, THIS is what a $500 tv can do? My Apex has better picture, and it was $89.99 8 years ago!

I just spent $600 on yet another lens for my nikon 200. I have no problem with that - it's worth it, and will last me over a decade. I have an $800 Gibson guitar. I have a $2400 MacBook Pro. I feel the value in these items. The lens will give the fstop i need to deliver incredible, 10 megapixel night shoots that i could never even come close to before. And my mac has the processing power to handle the thousands of RAW files and make beautiful, commercial quality prints on my $800 epson printer.

I feel results with these. I made an investment in them, and I get a return on that. TVs.... god what a damn train wreck the industry has become. For a flatscreen you're looking at $1000, absolute minimum for something that produces only slightly above crap quality. Every item out there has serious drawbacks at any price, and the technology is clearly still wearing diapers. Yet the market eats it up. I just don't get.

As with everything... you get what you pay for and the satifaction derived is what it's worth to "you".

If you spend $600 on a lens, $800 on a guitar and $2400 on a PC... why scrimp on an HDTV?

I don't really like TV. I just want something to watch movies on. maybe i should get a projector.

http://www.projectorcentral.com/big_screen_tvs.htm

I think I remember making a positive comment about Sanyo's CRT's though it was really towards the HT-27745, I had sort of assumed that it had about the same PQ as the Sanyo HT30746, though having recently seen a few HT30746's at Wal-Mart I might have to agree with all of these negative comments. However, I will say this, running anything higher than 640x480 (like through a PC) will almost ALWAYS look poor on most HD CRT's as the video amplifier bandwidth is typically not high enough to accurately represent anything higher than standard VGA resolution, that and the dot pitch (or stipe pitch in the case of an aperture grille CRT) is usually only around 800-900 lines anyway (the Sony SFP CRT's are an exception in this case).

Overall, I find it pretty amazing that the HT-27745 looked SO good (better than the brand new KV-34HS420 that I bought shortly after; I just had to have a 34" widescreen CRT) and the 30746 looks so bad. Sorry to hear that you are so displeased, thankfully, since it is Wal-Mart, it will be easy to get your money back (even if it is a a pain to physically get it back to the store).

What are you talking about? I just (quickly) read through the last couple pages of the "Official Sanyo HT32744/HT30744 thread" and it looks like at least three-quarters of the posts talk about how bad the picture is and problems with the colors and tint and everything. Who told you the Sanyo would be a good set?

Well, the thing about that thread is it is talking about a different model. The 30744 was few hundred dollars more than the 30746 and was quite a bit better. I also got fooled by that thread, it was why I bought the 30746 to begin with. I assumed there couldn't be that much of a difference between the 30744 and the 30746 but boy was I ever wrong. For anyone else considering it STAY AWAY! It is a TERRIBLE TV. My 15 year old 19" RCA SDTV actually looks better and that freaking blew my mind considering that this Sanyo is suppose to be a HDTV. The way its been going with CRTs lately is that instead of them getting better when a new model is released they keep getting worse.

Overall, I find it pretty amazing that the HT-27745 looked SO good.

I will second that the HT-27745 looks great to me as well. If it dies I don't know what I am going to replace it with. It is in use about 10 hours a day. The SD picture is good, the HD picture is fantastic.

And the few pages I read through at the time said the picture was great (or at least a great value). The thread is what, 2000 posts long? I glanced through a couple pages and started a few threads of my own. Clearly in retrospect they weren't the best picks to base a decision off of.

I found a Samsung 30" 82 for $500. As soon as the Sanyo's gone, that thing's coming in. The samsung was easily the the pick of the litter at best buy. Should've just bought it to begin with.

For the record, the Toshiba's i saw at best buy are about on par with the sanyo pq wise. and i read a lot about the toshiba's being "nice" too. perhaps i am too demanding? Nah, the toshibas are also garbage.

My wife wants to just say the hell with it put back the 20" apex at this point. At least on that red hair and light browns (including anyone with black skin) didn't light up like the surface of the freaking sun on SD.

The Samsung SlimFit does have a nice picture but most of them have pretty bad geometry problems. Considering how much the geometry on the Sanyo bothered you I wonder if you might not be setting yourself up for another return. I personally liked the Sammy quite a bit with the exception of the terrible geometry. I coped with it for a month until I finally returned it for the Sony. But from what I hear some people get lucky and get one where the geometry isn't too bad. But I think this is the exception rather than the rule. I've seen three of them: The one I bought, one I was going to exchange mine for, and the display model at Circuit City, and they all had nasty bowing. When I took mine back I was going to simply exchange it for another one but I had them hook the replacement up in the store before I'd take it and the geometry was just as bad as the one I had so I got the Sony instead. Strangely enough of the three HDTVs I've had the Sanyo actually had the best geometry of the bunch, lol. The Sanyo I got had damned near perfect geometry. It's pretty good on my Sony with the only really noticeable bow being on the bottom middle of the screen ( Sure, there are some others but those ones are so slight that I only notice them if I'm really looking hard to try and find a bow. ). I've been told that the only way to fix bowing in that area of the screen is with magnets so it looks like I'm stuck with it. I don't know how to do something like that myself and since the TV was only $800 I can't justify to myself spending several hundred dollars on a professional calibration. But it doesn't bother me that much because it really isn't very bad. The Sammy, however, was very bad in the bowing department, too much so for me to accept.

My Philips 30PW8420, like most tube TVs, has a bowing problem on the sides. I found though that calibrating at home with Avia reduced the picture settings so much compared to what they were when the set arrived that bowing is almost a non-issue now. Only on extremely bright scenes is it noticeable, and then generally at the top where the sky is. PQ is outstanding as are color and lifelikeness. Get Avia or another calibration disc if you don't have one.

What is the the way to confirm if the Digital Tuner in a Sanyo HT30746 it's enable.

I wonder if it was the gamers that skewed my decision.... i distinctly recall quite a few saying how great Xbox looked at 720p.

I just don't get gamers. Staring at a tv screen pushing buttons and lights flashing all over the place....

I don't get me either. :D

I will second that the HT-27745 looks great to me as well. If it dies I don't know what I am going to replace it with. It is in use about 10 hours a day. The SD picture is good, the HD picture is fantastic.Agreed. It's (now discontinued) a great little set....for me anyway.

Hey, I just watched Wickerman, the new one, and it was really an awesome movie, is the original one better than the remake?

I already warned you that TV was crap before you bought it but you chose to ignore me. I had the thing for 2 weeks and the PQ was absolutely abysmal. The picture is grainy, it shimmers, and the color is lifeless. I don't know if you ever gave it a HD feed or not but HD doesn't even look like HD on it. Believe it or not SD on my Sony XBR970 looks better than HD did on the Sanyo. One of the weird things the Sanyo did with a HD feed is that sometimes the outlines of things would seem to glow and/or sparkle in red. It's hard to explain but it was a strange effect. The only time I was able to get a remotely watchable picture out of the Sanyo was when playing Xbox 360. For whatever reason 360 in HD seemed to look better than TV in HD did. But the way 360 looks on my current TV blows away what it looked like on the Sanyo as well. If you want a HDTV that is decent you're going to have to spend a few hundred dollars more.

You should always write down all the settings in the service menu before changing anything in case something like this happens.

But anyway, if you return it make sure you don't tell them you were messing with the service menu because that voids your warranty and for all I know it could even void your right to return it for a refund.

Agreed. It's (now discontinued) a great little set....for me anyway.

I recently took preemptive action and bought one of those (now discontinued) Sony 970 34" crt televisions. Widescreen HD is much better on the Sony than the Sanyo. I'll move the Sanyo into the bedroom as soon as I get the wife approval. I'm definitely not moving the Sony anytime soon as it weights a ton! Okay, 1/10th of a ton.

Hey, I just watched Wickerman, the new one, and it was really an awesome movie, is the original one better than the remake?
Well, you might be the only person in the world who likes the Wicker Man remake, if that answers your question. FWIW:

1973: 7.7 IMDB, 7.6 RT
2006: 3.5 IMDB, 3.4 RT