For those with a Wii who have not checked it lately, Nintendo came out with a system update which, from what I can see, supports 480p!! YAY! Now it's THAT much closer to the 360 sitting next to it..... :p

I have 3rd party Wii component cables, which are run through the A/V receiver and then right into the Westy.

Anyway, the TX-42 seems to not want me to view this new Wii resolution in a widescreen format, so it leaves it for me to choose "Fill" mode if I want to see it on the whole screen. I think it doesn't really make that much of a difference, but not because of the Westy. I think it's because the Wii is just a suped-up Gamecube with cooler controls...:)

Resident Evil 4 still looked about the same, so it does not appear to be a noticeably big jump from the standard 480i resolution.

I only have to turn on the 360 (hooked via VGA) to see the HUGE difference.

Regardless, the Westy seems to take very well to any of these two consoles, provided you got the right cables that is, yeah?

wii always supported 480p as did the gc/xbox and some ps2 games...

what i wanna know is if the tv upscales the 480p component sources to 720p/1080p

motherf@*$r i just finished exchanging my set for another one this one has the 1.1 firmware.pq is alot better then the 1.3 one.But i just started watching FF spirits within and F@* :mad: it started flickering already.What the f@* :mad: this s#@* is getting old damm it i'm on hdmi1 but i'll give it the benefit of the dought and waited out since i have another 30days on the return policy :D


tried a couple different HDMI cables from different vendors?

wii always supported 480p as did the gc/xbox and some ps2 games...

what i wanna know is if the tv upscales the 480p component sources to 720p/1080p


UGH! My mistake....serves me right for not playing with the settings.

It's not upconverting the signal from the Wii. I think it does upconvert regular digital cable channels, but you have to also set the cable box to accept the different higher resolutions...I think.... :confused:

We are considering buying this TV. I already own a LVM-37w3 so I know about some of Westinghouse's quirks. That being said, minus the occassional bad set that doesn't work at all as well as HDCP handshaking issues the only known bug I've picked up from following this thread is that HDMI 2 only accepts 480p without audio. Are there any others that I'm missing?
My set (Software version 5110_1.1.0, Build-on date 2007 April 13) doesn't have any limitations for HDMI 2 or any of the other ports that I've tried. I have a 1080p upscaling DVD player (Philips DVP5982/37) hooked up to HDMI 2 and I get a 1080p picture with audio just fine.

I think the HDMI 2 issues were isolated to one particular user's set.

Just picked this up myself over the last weekend. Super happy with it so far. Got a HD Tivo running 720p over HDMI and a Xbox 360 with a HD-DVD player running 1080p over VGA.

I love it but my main gripe is that it doesn't automatically switch to the Tivo since it's on all the time, the TV can't tell when it's active and when it's not :(

I stumbled upon this site as I have been considering buying the TX 42. I am wondering if I can get some feedback on the following issue. I currently have basic Comcast cable (not digital) that feeds directly by coaxial (RF) (no cable box)into my TV. When I purchase a HDTV, at this point, I am only interested in getting the available local HDTV signals over the air with the appropriate antenna while keeping my basic cable feed. The TX, as well as many other hdtvs, only has one coaxial RF input.

I was told by ABT salesman that I would need a HDTV set with two coaxial feeds (one for cable and one for OTA.) Is this accurate? Is an option one of the Radio Shack A/B splitters? Any other options that would reasonably work without targeting just HDTV sets with 2 RFs? Apparently some of the Samsung sets have 2 coaxials. I tried checking the specs but it appears that this feature is not highlighted in the advertising.

Any insights or comments would be greatly appreciated.

Check out this Thread Alphabetical Listing by City Below (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=453241) Delve into your City Market, or scroll down the page to see the "State listings, once you find your Thread, by State and provider, Perhaps you can find a Post within your market with a direct answer to your OTA, vrs., Basic cable reception.
Regards
Keep up your research and let me know if I can help

I love it but my main gripe is that it doesn't automatically switch to the Tivo since it's on all the time, the TV can't tell when it's active and when it's not :(

Actually the system is working well not to be jumping over to the Tivo. Autosource has to detect a signal change, which is "User Initiated". IE, like as one user put it, my cat steped on the keyboard (would make the TV jump to VGA), or I sat down in the Lazyboy and the mouse moved and the TV jumped to HDMI-1 (for my PC). Or I turned on the DVD player (the TV sources to YPbPr1), or I pushed Fav A to tune into PBS, or ..... Thus if you used a remote (duhh) to initiate a benign function related to your Tivo, you'll be standing in tall cotton!

The trick is to teach Autosource to read your everchanging-macro-mind.

My set (Software version 5110_1.1.0, Build-on date 2007 April 13) doesn't have any limitations for HDMI 2 or any of the other ports that I've tried. I have a 1080p upscaling DVD player (Philips DVP5982/37) hooked up to HDMI 2 and I get a 1080p picture with audio just fine.

I think the HDMI 2 issues were isolated to one particular user's set.

At least 2.

For what it's worth, when I had Comcast analog cable (i.e. no cable box) I was getting the HD network channels (the same ones you would expect to get OTA) over the Comcast signal on my TX42 and did not require a separate antenna input. This was in Northern Virginia and may not be the case everywhere. Perhaps you can find a friend who has an HDTV with built-in tuner, wire up some coax without a set-top box and scan channels to see if that's the case where you are. Even when you get a digital set-top box, you can still receive analog channels (and apparently sometimes HD channels) on the coax line.

Or you could ask Comcast if they send the local HD channels over their analog cable, but they may not give you a straight answer since I'm sure they'd like to sell you a digital box.

for the local channels did you have to input manually 4.1 to get the hd version of say NBC(its 24 for analog cable here in moco)

Regarding HD with basic cable, if I understand the regulations the cable companies are REQUIRED to supply those channels (ABC, CBS, NBC, WHYY, WP). I've been getting these channels as well as Universal HD, which really is a great channel! BTW I live in the Philly area and of course have Comcast, at least until they turn on my Verizon FIOS.

For what it's worth, when I had Comcast analog cable (i.e. no cable box) I was getting the HD network channels (the same ones you would expect to get OTA) over the Comcast signal on my TX42 and did not require a separate antenna input. This was in Northern Virginia and may not be the case everywhere. Perhaps you can find a friend who has an HDTV with built-in tuner, wire up some coax without a set-top box and scan channels to see if that's the case where you are. Even when you get a digital set-top box, you can still receive analog channels (and apparently sometimes HD channels) on the coax line.

Or you could ask Comcast if they send the local HD channels over their analog cable, but they may not give you a straight answer since I'm sure they'd like to sell you a digital box.
for the local channels did you have to input manually 4.1 to get the hd version of say NBC(its 24 for analog cable here in moco)
Yes, the digital channels coming through the TV's tuner have decimal numbers like 4.1. The TV displays the analog channel number equivalent (like 24) but you can only get there by entering the decimal station number. The TV's autoscan picked up the HD channels so they come up when you flip through the stations. You can also add them to your favorite channels to make it easier to get there without remembering the numbers.

hmm I'll have to try that when I go back home today then

Just a heads up for those unaware:

If you purchased your set with a Visa credit card you automagically get an extra year of warranty on top of the Westinghouse warranty. To check if your card qualifies, go to http://usa.visa.com/personal/cards/benefits/bft_warranty_mgr_eclaims.html.

In addition, Visa gives you the option to purchase up to 3 years of additional warranty. Be advised that the extended warranty must be purchased before the manufacturer warranty expires. For more information see the following links:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=64951
http://forums.slickdeals.net/showthread.php?sduid=121972&t=419857
http://forums.slickdeals.net/showthread.php?t=419857

I opted to not purchase the Best Buy 4 year extended warranty and this looks like a good alternative. Plus there is the option of purchasing later on down the road.

We are considering buying this TV. I already own a LVM-37w3 so I know about some of Westinghouse's quirks. That being said, minus the occassional bad set that doesn't work at all as well as HDCP handshaking issues the only known bug I've picked up from following this thread is that HDMI 2 only accepts 480p without audio. Are there any others that I'm missing?


ARGH!!! NO, NO, and NO! One person reported that. These sets can do 1080P with audio on all 4 HDMI ports. I have had an S3 Tivo on both HDMI 1 and 2 working fine, as well as I have had 1080p from my PC (DVI to HDMI, so no sound) working on both.

Ed

Just a heads up for those unaware:

If you purchased your set with a Visa credit card you automagically get an extra year of warranty on top of the Westinghouse warranty. To check if your card qualifies, go to http://usa.visa.com/personal/cards/benefits/bft_warranty_mgr_eclaims.html.

In addition, Visa gives you the option to purchase up to 3 years of additional warranty. Be advised that the extended warranty must be purchased before the manufacturer warranty expires. For more information see the following links:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=64951
http://forums.slickdeals.net/showthread.php?sduid=121972&t=419857
http://forums.slickdeals.net/showthread.php?t=419857

I opted to not purchase the Best Buy 4 year extended warranty and this looks like a good alternative. Plus there is the option of purchasing later on down the road.

The big question to me on this is do I get in home service this way. This is why I did buy with my visa card for the extra year but I want in home for that full period as I do not want to ship out a 47" TV anywhere. This is what makes me want to go buy the Best Buy plan. I take it no one has info on this subject? I don't see anything on the Westinghouse site about more specifics about in home service.

Just a heads up for those unaware:

If you purchased your set with a Visa credit card you automagically get an extra year of warranty on top of the Westinghouse warranty. To check if your card qualifies, go to http://usa.visa.com/personal/cards/benefits/bft_warranty_mgr_eclaims.html.

In addition, Visa gives you the option to purchase up to 3 years of additional warranty. Be advised that the extended warranty must be purchased before the manufacturer warranty expires. For more information see the following links:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=64951
http://forums.slickdeals.net/showthread.php?sduid=121972&t=419857
http://forums.slickdeals.net/showthread.php?t=419857

I opted to not purchase the Best Buy 4 year extended warranty and this looks like a good alternative. Plus there is the option of purchasing later on down the road.

My question with these warranties is who handles service calls, who pays for shipping if it needs to be returned?

Need some expert advice here. I'm going to get me an upconverting DVD player, and needless to say I'm considering OPPO. (Some say get the Toshiba HD-A2 that does HD-DVD & upconversion for $20 more, but my HTPC is going to be my eventual HD-DVD player, so I don't see the point, and I'm thinking the OPPO will upconvert better. Also the Oppo does DivX, Xvid, PAL, SACD, HDCD (I'm a big Neil Young fan, all his stuff is HDCD which I've never been able to take advantage of, of course I usually don't play physical discs but I could make exceptions if worthwhile) - and in general, the Oppo is supposed to have fantastic audio quality.

In any case, my dilemma (sp?) is this: the Oppo 981 has Faroudja DCDi. The Westy has a Genesis chip which also has Faroudja processing (I assume DCDi).

Now, I've heard on the one hand that having two devices apply Faroudja processing causes major macro-blocking, but then I've read elsewhere that it's a DLP vs. plasma vs. LCD thing, and LCDs are not susceptible.

Anyone know? If that's the case I can get the Oppo 980 cheaper, and it has a couple desirable features like 7.1 audio as opposed to 5.1, and a USB port. Plus I kind of like the looks better, at least in pictures.

Or alternately, can anyone give me a reason why I'm an idiot for not going with the HD-A2?

Ed

Hello everyone i just got the TX-42F430S from BB and getting the warranty Fri and wanted to know . what are the best settings to tweak the tv for the best picture. i used the avia cd but it just didnt come out that great. can someone post the perfect setting so i can set this tv to its fullest. thanks

This flashing purple line is driving me crazy as well. I'm only using one device @ 1080i over component, my Xbox 360 HD DVD player. It is really annoying to watch a movie with that line flickering. I really don't want to spend $50 on a VGA cable when the problem obviously lies in the TV. I've tried turning deinterlacing off during HD DVD movies and I think it made the image less sharp. I just rented another movie so maybe I'll give it another shot. Less sharp is less annoying than flashing purple line but defeats the purpose of high def...
Use fill mode instead of normal. Normal should only be used with digital sources (DVI/HDMI).

xnappo

I was under the impression that normal gave you 1:1 pixel mapping regardless of if the source was digital or analog. Fill mode seems to slightly zoom a 1080i signal. It moves the purple line off the screen but also moves some of the picture off the screen and reduces picture quality.

Try to find a sale on the cable or see if you can find a third party 360 VGA cable. The VGA cable enables DVD upconverting and 1080p output on the HD-DVD player. I have it and its awesome. 360 also looks quite a bit better in VGA 1080p.

Are you using a 3rd party VGA cable? I thought I read that people were having ghosting problems with some 3rd party cables and were having best luck with the 1st party cable. Please let me know what brand you're using if it's a 3rd party and I'll keep an eye out for one. Thanks!

UP FOR DEBATE - OPINIONS REQUESTED


1) PS3 Flickering/Dropouts

I personally don't think this is a problem with the set. I believe Westinghouse has already stated this when people have inquired about it. I don't think we should even bother putting this on the list as it is very doubtful they will (or even can) do anything about it. I don't want to detract from the confirmed issues. What does everyone else think? Keep in mind that there have been HDCP problems with numerous sets and the PS3 ever since it came out.

NOTE: Many people have reported that the problem goes away when HDMI input #1 is used. Other people report the problem starting/stoping when different HDMI cables are used. Please provide your PS3 via HDMI experiences in the forum.

Edit: I think this issue can be mentioned in the letter as it is certainly possible that something could be updated in the firmware to help alleviate the problem.

I've experienced flicker/dropout a couple times with my SA 8300 HD cable box and Sony upscaling DVD player. The PS3 has definitely had many more flickers than either of these two devices but it seems that the problem is not limited to just the PS3. I've seen the cable box flicker twice and the DVD player flicker once. The DVD player was definitely in 1080i at the time and I believe the cable box was as well. Not that resolution seems to matter, I've had PS3 games flicker in 720p and 1080p... I've tried the 24 AWG and 28 AWG Monoprice HDMI cables on the PS3 and had flicker with both.

I was under the impression that normal gave you 1:1 pixel mapping regardless of if the source was digital or analog. Fill mode seems to slightly zoom a 1080i signal. It moves the purple line off the screen but also moves some of the picture off the screen and reduces picture quality.

For me this is my only complaint about the TV and the CC data displaying on some SD source material when broadcast in HD. In this case I do use Fill sometimes, but I wish there was a mode that had just slight overscan... less than what the current fill mode does to an HD signal.

Need some expert advice here. I'm going to get me an upconverting DVD player, and needless to say I'm considering OPPO. (Some say get the Toshiba HD-A2 that does HD-DVD & upconversion for $20 more, but my HTPC is going to be my eventual HD-DVD player, so I don't see the point, and I'm thinking the OPPO will upconvert better. Also the Oppo does DivX, Xvid, PAL, SACD, HDCD (I'm a big Neil Young fan, all his stuff is HDCD which I've never been able to take advantage of, of course I usually don't play physical discs but I could make exceptions if worthwhile) - and in general, the Oppo is supposed to have fantastic audio quality.

In any case, my dilemma (sp?) is this: the Oppo 981 has Faroudja DCDi. The Westy has a Genesis chip which also has Faroudja processing (I assume DCDi).

Now, I've heard on the one hand that having two devices apply Faroudja processing causes major macro-blocking, but then I've read elsewhere that it's a DLP vs. plasma vs. LCD thing, and LCDs are not susceptible.

Anyone know? If that's the case I can get the Oppo 980 cheaper, and it has a couple desirable features like 7.1 audio as opposed to 5.1, and a USB port. Plus I kind of like the looks better, at least in pictures.

Or alternately, can anyone give me a reason why I'm an idiot for not going with the HD-A2?

Ed

The TX lines uses Trident chips, not genesis. Your HTPC can handle xvid, and for the price, the HD-A2 is a better value considering it is equal to or better than the Oppo in upconverting dvds. The HD-A3 is coming soon, so the A2 may drop in price more. HD-A2 all the way.

The TX lines uses Trident chips, not genesis. Your HTPC can handle xvid, and for the price, the HD-A2 is a better value considering it is equal to or better than the Oppo in upconverting dvds. The HD-A3 is coming soon, so the A2 may drop in price more. HD-A2 all the way.

Do you think it's worth waiting for the HD-A20 to come down in price to get the 1080p? I have been looking at the HD-A2 and the A20.

what i wanna know is if the tv upscales the 480p component sources to 720p/1080p

The TV upscales everything to 1080p. Any signal on any source gets upscaled to 1080p by the TV before it is displayed. It's just that sometimes a certain device does a better job upscaling than the TV. An example would the the SA 8300 cable box. If you tell the box your TV only supports 1080i, it will output all channels at 1080i and the TV will just deinterlace them to 1080p. If you tell the cable box your TV supports 480i, it will output the standard definition channels at 480i and your TV will upscale them to 1080p. I used to have the cable box output everything at 1080i when I had the LVM-42w2 but with the TX I have the cable box output standard def channels at 480i. I think the TV does a better job than the cable box does with the scalling.

That said, upscaling does not make something better than its original resolution. You cant make something from nothing. If all you want is a TV to watch DVDs and play Wii, look for something that is 480p. If you want to watch HD DVD or Bluray, then go with 1080p. A Wii will almost certainly look better on a native 480p set than a 1080p set.

Are you using a 3rd party VGA cable? I thought I read that people were having ghosting problems with some 3rd party cables and were having best luck with the 1st party cable. Please let me know what brand you're using if it's a 3rd party and I'll keep an eye out for one. Thanks!


I use the ASID-Tech VGA cable. I have had ZERO problems with games, HD-DVDs and upconverted DVDs. Looks great on the Westy.

Do you think it's worth waiting for the HD-A20 to come down in price to get the 1080p? I have been looking at the HD-A2 and the A20.

Oh, oops. I thought the A2 was 1080p. The TV should be able to take the 1080i image and bring it back to what it was supposed to look like with 1080p, but I would go for the 1080P player instead.

The cheapest 1080P HD-DVD player is the xbox one, and you can use that on a HTPC w powerdvd.

For me this is my only complaint about the TV and the CC data displaying on some SD source material when broadcast in HD. In this case I do use Fill sometimes, but I wish there was a mode that had just slight overscan... less than what the current fill mode does to an HD signal.

A slight overscan would be better than using fill mode to move the CC data off the screen. However, the CC data is not the TVs fault while the purple flashing line is. The CC data is part of the video stream while this purple line is being introduced by the TV into 1080i singnals. If Westinghouse put it there, I don't see why they don't fix it and take it away. I can't believe they didn't notice it before releasing the TV to market. Makes watching HD DVDs at 1080i on Xbox 360 very distracting.

x84HurstOlds, you can get the Xbox360 HD-DVD player for $179 (w 5 free movies) and hook it up to your HTPC. If you dont have a HDCP enabled graphics card, you can use anydvdHD to break the HDCP protection. You'll need powerdvd to view the movie as well.

Cheapest way to get 1080P HD-DVD as of right now.

x84HurstOlds, you can get the Xbox360 HD-DVD player for $179 (w 5 free movies) and hook it up to your HTPC. If you dont have a HDCP enabled graphics card, you can use anydvdHD to break the HDCP protection. You'll need powerdvd to view the movie as well.

Cheapest way to get 1080P HD-DVD as of right now.

Yes, that was my plan to handle HD-DVD, and eventually I figure I will have them ripped to the hard drive, as I do my DVDs. Of course, I'm running XP with an 8500GT, so nVidia is seriously pissing me off right now with the lack of HW acceleration. The new drivers supposedly go part way, which would be nice if they didn't cause major hangs and errors for me. The Oppo I was considering partly so I could have something to compare to as I experiment with ffdshow. I can't seem to get the results I want thus far, and I really don't have a lot of time to play with it at this point. For casual watching it doesn't matter a whole lot, but if I want to sit down and seriously watch a DVD that's in SD...

I have to get the chipset thing straight in my head. It's the older Westy's that used Genesis chips, I guess, the TX uses Trident.

Thanks!

Ed

Alright now i'm getting soung pass thru from my tv to the receiver.I think is just in 1.3 firmware that you cant get sound to pass thru.

I have to get the chipset thing straight in my head. It's the older Westy's that used Genesis chips, I guess, the TX uses Trident.

Thanks!

Ed
well i thought the older westy used the ati zillion chips.Or am i wrong on that

xnappo, imit8, bhazard, meltdown100, nibbs159 - thank you very much for your responses... I've updated the problem list.


NOTE: We are currently compiling a list of known bugs/problems with the TX line to send off to Westinghouse. Below you will find what we have so far. Please feel free to provide your feedback by posting to the thread.

CONFIRMED ISSUES WITH THE TX SERIES

1) 5.1 DD Via Internal Tuner (Both QAM and OTA)

This must be fixed!! The hardware is clearly capable of passing through 5.1 via the SPDIF out. As I posted earlier, Westinghouse told me to try cycling through the digital audio options (English, Spanish, French) to see if any of those would bring up the 5.1 audio stream. They simply need to add something to the firmware to allow 5.1 to be selected from the digital audio menu if it is present in the broadcast.

2) Lockup Problems

The problem occurs after a boot sequence (such as after a power outage or if you are using energy saver mode). The set simply won't come out of standby (amber light does not go blue). Some have been able to recover by doing the 10 second reboot and ensuring that the input which was last used has a source signal. This happened to my first set and I was not able to recover from it - I had to get a replacement.

3) Frame/Scrawl Judder

From xnappo:

if you tune to a channel with a scrawl running you will see that once every two seconds it appears to drop a frame. Once you see it on the scrawl, you will probably notice the missing frame watching normal TV - especially when the camera pans across the screen... For me, my set always did this with component hooked up from my SA8300HD. With HDMI, it would be fine for a while and then start to drop frames. When I would power off/on the set, it would go away for a while.

From bhazard:

I have seen this through VGA and HDMI. It is easily noticeable in Guitar Hero with the scrolling bar. The bar would skip frames every 2 seconds....It is fixable with the 10 sec power reboot. I have no idea how to re-create it, but when it does happen I just do the reboot and it goes away. It is not very often though.

4) HDMI Flickering/Dropouts

There are numerous reports of flickering and dropouts when using an HDMI source, particularly the PS3 but problems with the SA 8300 HD cable box and Sony upscaling DVD player have also been reported. The assumption is that there is a problem with the HDCP authentication.


5) HDMI Hub (all HDMI inputs sharing the same setting)

All 4 HDMI inputs share the same user settings. Westinghouse has indicated that this is due to the 4 HDMI inputs being on a hub, hence it is really only 1 input. There is a possibility that each HDMI input can still have its own settings if the firmware is updated.

6) EPG

The EPG could use some work. First, it doesn't appear to have a cache so it does not hold very much data. I personally don't receive any data except from NBC while using QAM - not sure if this is an issue with the set or if all the other stations simply aren't transmitting guide data. Here are some more problems as reported by meltdown100:

To add what I have seen with the EPG issue, for me it is working for all of my OTA channels, but in a somewhat crippled fashion. I can only see the program schedule for any given channel when I am tuned in to that particular channel, everything else comes up blank. Another minor annoyance with this is that the EPG does not come up for the channel you are currently viewing, which would make sense, rather it comes up for whatever the last channel was that you looked up on the EPG.


7) Dynamic Contrast Cannot Be Disabled

Even though you can turn off the Dynamic Contrast Feature via the menu, it appears that it is never truly disabled. I have the setting off myself and I do still notice automatic contrast shifts when going from bright to dark scenes.

Question about upscaling DVD players.

On the TX when you have a HD source, you're not allowed to zoom/overscan, right? How does this affect widescreen DVDs played on an upscaling player? If I buy an upscaling player will I no longer be able to overscan to remove the pillar/letterboxes?

A slight overscan would be better than using fill mode to move the CC data off the screen. However, the CC data is not the TVs fault while the purple flashing line is. The CC data is part of the video stream while this purple line is being introduced by the TV into 1080i singnals. If Westinghouse put it there, I don't see why they don't fix it and take it away. I can't believe they didn't notice it before releasing the TV to market. Makes watching HD DVDs at 1080i on Xbox 360 very distracting.


This leads me to ask a question - does everyone think we should add more zoom options to the list going to Westinghouse? I also think they should add a "slight overscan" choice that will just crop out the top of the screen to hide the CC data, purple line, etc.

Also, may I be so bold as to suggest a zoom mode which would crop out the bars on a 2.35:1 movie :)

huggybear

Question about upscaling DVD players.

On the TX when you have a HD source, you're not allowed to zoom/overscan, right? How does this affect widescreen DVDs played on an upscaling player? If I buy an upscaling player will I no longer be able to overscan to remove the pillar/letterboxes?

Typically the zoom is set to NORMAL, so that when the TV is sent a HD signal it shows it as 1:1, now you can force it to do the other zoom functions but why? If you are watching an anamorphic movie that has the bars at the top and bottom, but fits width wise, you'll loose the video on the right and left of the screen. If that's what you want to do fine, but I just don't understand why some people are so put off by the bars, the TV is still 3X larger than a typical tube TV showing that type of content.

how about a true 16x9 stretch mode...jeez even my mom's older 32 samsung has this

xnappo, imit8, bhazard, meltdown100, nibbs159 - thank you very much for your responses... I've updated the problem list.

1) 5.1 DD Via Internal Tuner (Both QAM and OTA)

This must be fixed!! The hardware is clearly capable of passing through 5.1 via the SPDIF out. As I posted earlier, Westinghouse told me to try cycling through the digital audio options (English, Spanish, French) to see if any of those would bring up the 5.1 audio stream. They simply need to add something to the firmware to allow 5.1 to be selected from the digital audio menu if it is present in the broadcast.



So everyone else can pass DD5.1 via HDMI to toslink?

when i was playing with my harmony 880 and the westy, my status light turned to purple too.

i think the remote sent a funny signal to the westy or it wasn't complete, so both lights stayed on. After i re-did the settings on my harmony the "problem" went away. I kind of liked the purple like though.

Does this mean that Harmony has codes for the Westy now? sweeeet.

I tried to set up my Harmony 880 when I got the Westy, but the harmony app said it didn't have codes for the lcd, and I started capturing the missing codes, but got to one where the Westy didn't have an equivalent.

p.

there are harmony codes for the westy now, but there are issues with switching to the right HDMI input.

I have pretty large issues with this because my center channel speaker sits right in front of my westy and blocks incoming IR transmissions. Anyone have any idea on how to make the TV pick up remote IR signals better? or should i just stick my tv in one of those circus mirror houses?

I use the ASID-Tech VGA cable. I have had ZERO problems with games, HD-DVDs and upconverted DVDs. Looks great on the Westy.

Interesting, I have that cable too, but definitely see a bit of ghosting, good example is the movie classification at the beginning of a HD DVD disk (green/white text, blue/white text), I can see a slight ghost of the white box on its right edge against the background colour.

Looks fine during movies though, not at all noticable, although I switched over to HD DVD playback via my PC + HD 2400pro, HDMI goodness.

p.

So everyone else can pass DD5.1 via HDMI to toslink?

So far, its seems only some TX42 owners with the June build date have had probs passing sound. The older TX42's and the TX47s pass through 5.1 just fine via HDMI to toslink.

So everyone else can pass DD5.1 via HDMI to toslink?

The only flaw with the set in regards to 5.1 via toslink is that you cannot receive 5.1 audio from the internal tuner (in this case you are relying on the TV itself being able to select this audio source from the stream - this is why it can probably be remedied with a firmware update).

5.1 can be passed via toslink when the source is coming from HDMI - here the TV isn't selecting anything... it is simply passing through the raw bitstream that is being sent over HDMI.

Any problems that anyone has with 5.1 passthrough from HDMI has nothing to do with the TX - in this case the source device is the culprit. Not all devices have an extensive audio menu like the PS3... the default is always 2 channel (even on the PS3) - you need to look for an audio setting that lets you manually specify that 5.1 be sent over HDMI.

huggybear

how about a true 16x9 stretch mode...jeez even my mom's older 32 samsung has this

Or even better, a 'panoramic' zoom mode, you know, the non-linear zoom, where the picture is zoomed in maybe 10%, and the sides gets stretched out a little.

On my old JVC RPTV it was called 'panorama' and was a good compromise for displaying 4:3 stuff, no 'short and wide' people like traditional stretch/zoom.

p.

well i thought the older westy used the ati zillion chips.Or am i wrong on that

Some of them may have, but if you Google

westinghouse faroudja

you'll find lots of product pages, press releases, etc., about Westy striking a deal with Genesis and including Faroudja, DCDi, etc.

Of course, given that Westy's own site doesn't often get the details right, I wouldn't be surprised at anything =)

Ed

The only flaw with the set in regards to 5.1 via toslink is that you cannot receive 5.1 audio from the internal tuner (in this case you are relying on the TV itself being able to select this audio source from the stream - this is why it can probably be remedied with a firmware update).

5.1 can be passed via toslink when the source is coming from HDMI - here the TV isn't selecting anything... it is simply passing through the raw bitstream that is being sent over HDMI.

Any problems that anyone has with 5.1 passthrough from HDMI has nothing to do with the TX - in this case the source device is the culprit. Not all devices have an extensive audio menu like the PS3... the default is always 2 channel (even on the PS3) - you need to look for an audio setting that lets you manually specify that 5.1 be sent over HDMI.

huggybear

Not sure that it's always not the Westy. If a device is 5.1 capable but doesn't give the options in the menu (like my S3 Tivo) then it doesn't happen, although the Tivo passes 5.1 out the optical just fine. Now, the question is, is the TV messing it up, or is the Tivo not outputting 5.1 over HDMI?

Ed

Not sure that it's always not the Westy. If a device is 5.1 capable but doesn't give the options in the menu (like my S3 Tivo) then it doesn't happen, although the Tivo passes 5.1 out the optical just fine. Now, the question is, is the TV messing it up, or is the Tivo not outputting 5.1 over HDMI?

Ed

There isn't an audio pass-through setting in your tivo menu? There might be a hidden menu that has it like my cable box has.

picked up my TX-42F430S yesterday for under a grand, and couldnt be happier. It looked stunning when i hooked it up to my pc via VGA and played Planet earth at 1080p (xvid compressed). It also looks great on my 360 with vga cable. (could somebody post their settings for use with 360 vga at 1920x1080) The darks look great, 1080p is awesome, now i just need to save up for hd dvd/blu ray.

Just curious, why don't u pick up the HD-DVD addon to the 360?

I have playing some home video on Philips upscaling player. I will get a black screen flicker in a few minutes and then the message:

Connected Display non HDCP compliant

And then, the image went out. Retry a few times, same problem.

What could be the source of this problem? I've played several DVD on this player/tv and did not see this problem before.

Thanks!

It seems the audio pass-thru won't work with the Xbox 360 Elite for me. Pity.

It seems the audio pass-thru won't work with the Xbox 360 Elite for me. Pity.
i have an elite i'll give it try and let you know in a few minutes

ok i can report that i'm getting sound thru my tv to the receiver via optical and i get dd5.1 and dts.now i only tried my elite with riddick on hd dvd.both the dd5.1 and dts tracks worked fine for me.Next i will try my ps3 with AvP on blu ray wich has dts and report back with you guys.

Which firmware does your television have?

i have 1.1 again my second set was 1.3 with no sound pass thru

ps3 pass thru dd5.1 and dts alright i'm happy as hell now :D i tried 4brothers which has dd5.1 and dts on blu ray and they both worked.

I have playing some home video on Philips upscaling player. I will get a black screen flicker in a few minutes and then the message:

Connected Display non HDCP compliant

And then, the image went out. Retry a few times, same problem.

What could be the source of this problem? I've played several DVD on this player/tv and did not see this problem before.

Thanks!

It appears that problem only happens with miniDVD (burned on CD). Home video on DVD seems to be fine. Weird.

Typically the zoom is set to NORMAL, so that when the TV is sent a HD signal it shows it as 1:1, now you can force it to do the other zoom functions but why? If you are watching an anamorphic movie that has the bars at the top and bottom, but fits width wise, you'll loose the video on the right and left of the screen. If that's what you want to do fine, but I just don't understand why some people are so put off by the bars, the TV is still 3X larger than a typical tube TV showing that type of content.


I'm fine with pillarboxes on SD content on 16:9 TVs and i'm fine with letterboxes on widescreen content on 4:3 TVs, but having black all the way around is just silly to me

The only flaw with the set in regards to 5.1 via toslink is that you cannot receive 5.1 audio from the internal tuner (in this case you are relying on the TV itself being able to select this audio source from the stream - this is why it can probably be remedied with a firmware update).

5.1 can be passed via toslink when the source is coming from HDMI - here the TV isn't selecting anything... it is simply passing through the raw bitstream that is being sent over HDMI.

Any problems that anyone has with 5.1 passthrough from HDMI has nothing to do with the TX - in this case the source device is the culprit. Not all devices have an extensive audio menu like the PS3... the default is always 2 channel (even on the PS3) - you need to look for an audio setting that lets you manually specify that 5.1 be sent over HDMI.

huggybear

I agree that the problem is not with the TX, the problem is with HDMI and the way audio is handled with HDMI audio. Isn't the HDMI audio source suppose to negotiate with the next HDMI endpoint (the TV in this case) and select the type of audio that should be sent based on the response from the endpoint?

Scrawl jutter looks a lot different - it is much more subtle. It is hard to describe - but if you tune to a channel with a scrawl running you will see that once every two seconds it appears to drop a frame. Once you see it on the scrawl, you will probably notice the missing frame watching normal TV - especially when the camera pans across the screen.

For me, my set always did this with component hooked up from my SA8300HD. With HDMI, it would be fine for a while and then start to drop frames. When I would power off/on the set, it would go away for a while.

Others have seen this too - and I suspect more people have the issue and don't notice it. Once you notice it the first time - it is really easy to see the next time is starts happening.

xnappo

I've noticed this on my TX-42. I've seen it watching TV, but I always wondered if it was the source material. I played Guitar Hero II last night, and the skipped frame every second is very noticeable. Grr.

I'm fine with pillarboxes on SD content on 16:9 TVs and i'm fine with letterboxes on widescreen content on 4:3 TVs, but having black all the way around is just silly to me

An upscaling DVD player will make the movie fill the screen. If it doesn't I'm sure the player has a setting within it that will fill, which is preferred to letting the TV do the filling process. I do notice many times that a DVD will play "mini" 16:9 previews with the black all the way around it, and sometimes extras will be like this as well, but the movie is always filled to the screen by the DVD player, in my case the PS3.

There isn't an audio pass-through setting in your tivo menu? There might be a hidden menu that has it like my cable box has.

I've looked (and looked :rolleyes: ) and can't find anything of the sort. It's odd, like I said it passes DD by default over the optical connection, maybe they assumed no one would want that over HDMI when designing it. I should probably write to them, as it seems like something they *might* be able to do in a software update. OTOH, the HDMI audio stream might just be hardwired to go through a hardware decoder.

Not a huge deal for me, I run optical (from the Tivo) direct to my preamp anyway.

Ed

Damn, I forgot to post about this. I am way too busy lately, I think I'm getting buffer overflow :confused:

Okay, so there's this display corruption thing that happens once in a while - if you've seen it, you know what I mean, and it was discussed earlier in the thread. It's where things (people, objects, whatever) on the screen are all bright and sparkly, sometimes there's a line down the middle of the screen, sometimes it looks like when you play around with effects on your digital camera, or like looking at an image in infrared, and some have reported the dreaded "matrix effect".

I've had this following a power outage and the only solution was to keep rebooting the TV until it went away.

Came home the other day, turned on the set, and there it was. Many cold boots/unplug-replug cycles later, I was ready to throw the set out the window, when the wife mentions that the HTPC was giving her problems earlier running TheaterTek. Went to HTPC input, black display. Hmmm. "Did you reset/reboot it?" I ask. "Well, I tried to, but nothing really happened." Hmmm. Figured out that she hit the power button (which either was taking it in/out of S3 or doing nothing because the PC was hung) instead of reset button. So I reset. Better, but still a little sparkly. Did a complete shutdown. Bang, the TX is fine now.

I think the video card was putting out some funky signals to the TX, and that was messing with it. Odd that there was "corruption" on every input, including the tuner, but there it was. So if anybody gets these symptoms in the future, that may be a clue, probably one device that's putting out a funky video and/or HDCP signal and confusing the heck out of the poor innocent TX :rolleyes:

Ed

Good day all. Was researching this TV and found this site, and based on alot of the discussion I decided to give it a chance. Im still skeptical based on contrast ratio and such.

I do have a 360 with HDDVD, I have both component and VGA, and a PS3 via HDMI, so I am looking forward to checking out those systems and Planet Earth HDDVD.

It just shipped yesterday (47') so let's hope I get it early next week.

I need to buy a stand this wekend however as the stand with my LCD RP is going with the set.

Other than that, I will report how I like the set once I get it and get everything hooked up. I currently play my ps3 and 360 on my dell 2407 monitor so it will be very nice to get true 1080p on the bigger screen.

Good work to all, there is a boat load of information in these threads.

Anything I should look for when I get it?

Thanks guys.

RobEP

Hello everyone i just got the TX-42F430S from BB and getting the warranty Fri and wanted to know . what are the best settings to tweak the tv for the best picture. i used the avia cd but it just didnt come out that great. can someone post the perfect setting so i can set this tv to its fullest. thanks

I've noticed this on my TX-42. I've seen it watching TV, but I always wondered if it was the source material. I played Guitar Hero II last night, and the skipped frame every second is very noticeable. Grr.

Yeah - it is not the source material - I verified this.

To me, this was the straw that broke the camel's back.

xnappo

I've noticed this on my TX-42. I've seen it watching TV, but I always wondered if it was the source material. I played Guitar Hero II last night, and the skipped frame every second is very noticeable. Grr.

This is easily fixable. Once you do the 10 second power reboot (hold power button) it goes away and goes back to normal. It hasn't happened often for me either, last time it happened was about a month ago.

Not sure that it's always not the Westy. If a device is 5.1 capable but doesn't give the options in the menu (like my S3 Tivo) then it doesn't happen, although the Tivo passes 5.1 out the optical just fine. Now, the question is, is the TV messing it up, or is the Tivo not outputting 5.1 over HDMI?

Ed


My guess would be that the 5.1 is not being outputted over HDMI. When I first got my PS3 I hooked up an optical cable directly to my audio receiver, and then the HDMI to the Westy (which in turn has an optical cable going into the audio receiver as well). I was getting 5.1 via optical directly to the receiver right off the bat, but it wasn't until I manually chose DD and DTS 5.1 from the PS3's HDMI audio menu that I got 5.1 through the Westy. The default settings for optical usually do yield 5.1 while HDMI appears to be 2 channel.

So when dealing with a device that has both HDMI and optical producing audio output, turning on 5.1 will certainly enable it via the optical output, but it appears that isn't always the case for HDMI. My guess is that the manufacturers figured that HDMI is usually just feeding a TV that only has 2 channel stereo support, and if the user wants 5.1 they need to use an optical output.

Some of them may have, but if you Google

westinghouse faroudja

you'll find lots of product pages, press releases, etc., about Westy striking a deal with Genesis and including Faroudja, DCDi, etc.

Of course, given that Westy's own site doesn't often get the details right, I wouldn't be surprised at anything =)

Ed
The LVM 1080p series uses the Genesis FLI-2310, which is the same solution in the Oppo 981HD. Smaller 720p Westinghouse displays use ATI Xilleon chipsets like many other cheap tvs do, including the low line Sony sets. The Sony XBRs in fact simply use a hopped up verison of a Xilleon. The TX line uses the Trident HiDTV Pro-LX and out of a dozen solutions on the market I'd personally rank it third in performance underneath Silicon Optix (Realta/Reon VX) and the Gemnum VXP.

Your earlier comments about "doubling up" Genesis processing leading to macroblocking are a little misunderstood by the way. Only one processor in the signal chain is going to be performing operations. The signal merely needs to be progressive and at a resolution of 1920x1080 to be displayed. Whether the dvd player or the tv performs these operations only one of them can do the work, not both. The Genesis macroblock bug (technically MBE, or macroblock enhance bug) is pretty misunderstood in the first place. Under certain circumstances it can make macroblocking artifacts that are ALREADY PRESENT in the video more pronounced, but it cannot introduce them where they were not already present. It's a quantization error in the scaling algorithms that amplifies the contrast transitions present that makes a macroblock more obvious. The effect isn't as common as people would have you believe, and modern content that's authored correctly rarely suffers from it.

Just wanted to clear that up. The thread is descending into the usual barrage of misinformation so I'll probably be around much less now.

I agree that the problem is not with the TX, the problem is with HDMI and the way audio is handled with HDMI audio. Isn't the HDMI audio source suppose to negotiate with the next HDMI endpoint (the TV in this case) and select the type of audio that should be sent based on the response from the endpoint?

My guess would be that some (a lot?) of manufacturers simply didn't bother including choices for 5.1 audio via HDMI because they included optical outputs for those who want 5.1. Kind of defeats the whole "one cable for both audio and video" thing.

My guess would be that some (a lot?) of manufacturers simply didn't bother including choices for 5.1 audio via HDMI because they included optical outputs for those who want 5.1. Kind of defeats the whole "one cable for both audio and video" thing.

This is not my understanding from what I read about HDMI audio. This is also why HDMI A/V receivers are becoming more popular. The only way I can properly confirm that my two HDMI sources will output DD5.1 via HDMI is to get an HDMI receiver, which I plan to do in the future. As of right now, I suspect my HDMI sources are operating with the TV properly, negotiating that the TV can only accept 2 channel audio, and so that's all the TV can output via its optical connection. Why the PS3 is working, I'm not sure. Maybe it's some audio mismatch the TV can't understand so the handshake doesn't occur.

http://hdtvmagazine.com/articles/2006/08/hdmi_part_5_-_a.php

"HDMI is a two-way communication between the source device and the receiving device by which the receiving device tells the source about its multi-channel capabilities. The source device can then send a matching signal, such as two-channel stereo to a TV, or 5.1 DD channel to a 5.1 A/V receiver. In other words, the source device adapts to the receiving device when sending the signal."

Is the upgrade from Component to VGA worth the price of admission? My component looks great, but will there be that much of a diff?

Is the upgrade from Component to VGA worth the price of admission? My component looks great, but will there be that much of a diff?

Yep

Yep

One word replies speak volumes!!!

One word replies speak volumes!!!

lol. There is a difference though. The picture seems more crisp, the colors seem more accurate, and you get full 1080P with games and HD-DVD movies, including upconversion of DVD.

Since all premium xbox 360s manufactured from july 4th and on now are going to have HDMI included, it doesnt matter anymore. HDMI would be the best way to go.

lol. There is a difference though. The picture seems more crisp, the colors seem more accurate, and you get full 1080P with games and HD-DVD movies, including upconversion of DVD.

Since all premium xbox 360s manufactured from july 4th and on now are going to have HDMI included, it doesnt matter anymore. HDMI would be the best way to go.


Yeah, I heard about that....unfortunately, I have to live with my 360 Premium that I bought last December.... :mad: Had I known the Elite was coming and/or the non-Elites would have HDMI, I would've waited....or probably bought a PS3.... :)

As it stands, I concur w/ bhazard regarding the VGA cable. The 1080p ability alone is worth the price of admission.

After all, 1080p is why I chose the TX-42....

My guess would be that the 5.1 is not being outputted over HDMI. When I first got my PS3 I hooked up an optical cable directly to my audio receiver, and then the HDMI to the Westy (which in turn has an optical cable going into the audio receiver as well). I was getting 5.1 via optical directly to the receiver right off the bat, but it wasn't until I manually chose DD and DTS 5.1 from the PS3's HDMI audio menu that I got 5.1 through the Westy. The default settings for optical usually do yield 5.1 while HDMI appears to be 2 channel.

So when dealing with a device that has both HDMI and optical producing audio output, turning on 5.1 will certainly enable it via the optical output, but it appears that isn't always the case for HDMI. My guess is that the manufacturers figured that HDMI is usually just feeding a TV that only has 2 channel stereo support, and if the user wants 5.1 they need to use an optical output.


Well, that's exactly what I was thinking, but...

I looked again tonight. The menu choices are:

Dolby Digital
Dolby Digital -> PCM

And the description clearly states that this choice will affect *both* optical and HDMI!

But, I'm starting to think your statement above is correct, and the description is wrong. I put a DD program on via the Tivo. The Tivo is feeding, let's say, "Optical 3" on my preamp. Switch it to optical 3, the display on the preamp says "Dolby Digital 3/2.1". Now, the TV is feeding Optical 1. Switch to the input that has Optical 1 assigned to it, and the display on the preamp says "PCM 48K". So I think maybe the reality doesn't match the description on the Tivo screen, but I can't know for sure - *could* be the TX...I even tried turning the TX volume all the way up (remember that even with sound set to external, there's no sound if the TX's volume is at 0...so I thought maybe it was a situation where it was a digital volume control mangling the bitstream) - but no dice.

Ed

The LVM 1080p series uses the Genesis FLI-2310, which is the same solution in the Oppo 981HD. Smaller 720p Westinghouse displays use ATI Xilleon chipsets like many other cheap tvs do, including the low line Sony sets. The Sony XBRs in fact simply use a hopped up verison of a Xilleon. The TX line uses the Trident HiDTV Pro-LX and out of a dozen solutions on the market I'd personally rank it third in performance underneath Silicon Optix (Realta/Reon VX) and the Gemnum VXP.

Your earlier comments about "doubling up" Genesis processing leading to macroblocking are a little misunderstood by the way. Only one processor in the signal chain is going to be performing operations. The signal merely needs to be progressive and at a resolution of 1920x1080 to be displayed. Whether the dvd player or the tv performs these operations only one of them can do the work, not both. The Genesis macroblock bug (technically MBE, or macroblock enhance bug) is pretty misunderstood in the first place. Under certain circumstances it can make macroblocking artifacts that are ALREADY PRESENT in the video more pronounced, but it cannot introduce them where they were not already present. It's a quantization error in the scaling algorithms that amplifies the contrast transitions present that makes a macroblock more obvious. The effect isn't as common as people would have you believe, and modern content that's authored correctly rarely suffers from it.

Just wanted to clear that up. The thread is descending into the usual barrage of misinformation so I'll probably be around much less now.

That's the best explanation of the issue I've seen anywhere. As I said, half the sites I found were pointing to "double-processing" and the other half to display technologies; none explained the relation to the source or exactly what MBE was. Also thanks for clearing up the Westy chipset info.

It's unfortunate that you won't be here as much, but understandable. Your contributions have been much appreciated.

Ed

Did someone here say they have Comcast in the Philly area? I was playing around the other night and did an autoscan. Started playing again tonight and noticed, I don't have any digital channels on the tuner, which is fed by straight "from-the-wall" cable (okay, there's a splitter or two in the path, but you know...) A couple autoscans later, same result. I'm getting only analog "major" channels now, i.e., 2.0, 3.0, 4.0, etc. Exactly what I would get on an analog TV fed the same way; whereas a month or so ago I was getting a whole bunch of subchannels, digital channels, etc.

I'd like to make sure that this is Comcast once again offering less service for the same price, rather than something wrong with the TX tuner or settings. Unfortunately I do not have another digital tuner available to test with.

If it matters, I'm in South Jersey, on the "Audubon B" trunk. Oh, and I have "Channel Surf" set to "both", just as it's always been. I would call Comcast, but short of having them send out an "A" Tech, I have zero confidence in getting a reliable answer that way :rolleyes:

Ed

This is not my understanding from what I read about HDMI audio. This is also why HDMI A/V receivers are becoming more popular. The only way I can properly confirm that my two HDMI sources will output DD5.1 via HDMI is to get an HDMI receiver, which I plan to do in the future. As of right now, I suspect my HDMI sources are operating with the TV properly, negotiating that the TV can only accept 2 channel audio, and so that's all the TV can output via its optical connection. Why the PS3 is working, I'm not sure. Maybe it's some audio mismatch the TV can't understand so the handshake doesn't occur.

http://hdtvmagazine.com/articles/2006/08/hdmi_part_5_-_a.php

"HDMI is a two-way communication between the source device and the receiving device by which the receiving device tells the source about its multi-channel capabilities. The source device can then send a matching signal, such as two-channel stereo to a TV, or 5.1 DD channel to a 5.1 A/V receiver. In other words, the source device adapts to the receiving device when sending the signal."

Interesting...so you have *two* HDMI sources, and the TV is not passing DD from either? What are the sources?

Maybe I was too quick to blame my Tivo...

Ed

Did someone here say they have Comcast in the Philly area? I was playing around the other night and did an autoscan. Started playing again tonight and noticed, I don't have any digital channels on the tuner, which is fed by straight "from-the-wall" cable (okay, there's a splitter or two in the path, but you know...) A couple autoscans later, same result. I'm getting only analog "major" channels now, i.e., 2.0, 3.0, 4.0, etc. Exactly what I would get on an analog TV fed the same way; whereas a month or so ago I was getting a whole bunch of subchannels, digital channels, etc.

I'd like to make sure that this is Comcast once again offering less service for the same price, rather than something wrong with the TX tuner or settings. Unfortunately I do not have another digital tuner available to test with.

If it matters, I'm in South Jersey, on the "Audubon B" trunk. Oh, and I have "Channel Surf" set to "both", just as it's always been. I would call Comcast, but short of having them send out an "A" Tech, I have zero confidence in getting a reliable answer that way :rolleyes:

Ed

Comcast is blocking local HD channels from you is all that is happening. Mine also worked for a few months and then were gone many months ago. I still believe we should be getting the free over the air HD not blocked through cable but it appears Comcast has other ideas. :rolleyes:

Interesting...so you have *two* HDMI sources, and the TV is not passing DD from either? What are the sources?

Maybe I was too quick to blame my Tivo...

Ed

I've got a Time Warner SA8300HD DVR (passport OS) and a Sony upconvert DVD player. I did just get a new DVR last night, the TWC SA8300HDC running Navigator and the new OS. I am going to try it tonight and see if it makes a difference.

Comcast is blocking local HD channels from you is all that is happening. Mine also worked for a few months and then were gone many months ago. I still believe we should be getting the free over the air HD not blocked through cable but it appears Comcast has other ideas. :rolleyes:

I think the must carry rule won't apply to the digital channels until the analog broadcasts go dark. Then, they only must carry one channel, even if the local station has multicast channels. That one channel might be digital, but doesn't have to be HD.

Comcast is blocking local HD channels from you is all that is happening. Mine also worked for a few months and then were gone many months ago. I still believe we should be getting the free over the air HD not blocked through cable but it appears Comcast has other ideas. :rolleyes:

on the 32" samsung we have that uses dashes "-" instead of "." like the TX does, I noticed that when on analog comcast cable, it does not allow the use of the "-" for digital channels

Hi,

I just got the Westinghouse TX-42F430S and I plugged it into my Laptop using a HDMI>DVI cable (the most expensive cable available). I set it up as secondary monitor with the 1920x1080 resolution, and Windows found its name.

Anyways, when I hit info on the remote it shows me as HDMI1 1080i. How can I set it up to get 1080p?

My video card should output 1080p if I am not mistaking...

Please help since the 1080i flickers too much. maybe someone knows the optimal settings for this HDTV?

Thanks,


EDIT: Nvm, found the setting in the Video card properties. I now have 1080p. One small problem is that the text doesn't show smoothly enough. Does anyone have some correct settings to work on a PC?

Hi,

I just got the Westinghouse TX-42F430S and I plugged it into my Laptop using a HDMI>DVI cable (the most expensive cable available). I set it up as secondary monitor with the 1920x1080 resolution, and Windows found its name.

Anyways, when I hit info on the remote it shows me as HDMI1 1080i. How can I set it up to get 1080p?

My video card should output 1080p if I am not mistaking...

Please help since the 1080i flickers too much. maybe someone knows the optimal settings for this HDTV?

Thanks,


EDIT: Nvm, found the setting in the Video card properties. I now have 1080p. One small problem is that the text doesn't show smoothly enough. Does anyone have some correct settings to work on a PC?

The only issue I have with text on the TV is Red text which rather than showing as a single pixels like the black does, it comes across as red single pixels with what looks like a shadow, so it looks worse. But other than that it is beautiful, even on my CRAPPY P3 computer.

I noticed that too..most particularly on the front page of this website

Hey I got the 42", it is my first HDTV and I want to wall mount it! What are you guys using for *economical* tilt mounts? Is there any advantage in choosing a VESA100 over a VESA75?

I am running my 360 with the OEM VGA cable and am totally blown away by the PQ with the standard DVDs I have played - for sharpness and detail it looks to be almost on par with the 1080i OTA picture. I haven't seen what other upconverting players produce in terms of PQ, but to me the 360 with VGA looks stunning. I have owned a hi-def set before this, it was a 51' Sony 1080i CRT RP - so it isn't just first time HD shock.

I am tempted to shell out for the 360 HD DVD player but wanted to ask first if anybody can tell me how much better the HD looks compared to SD through the VGA connector? Is it really a huge difference?

Hey I got the 42", it is my first HDTV and I want to wall mount it! What are you guys using for *economical* tilt mounts? Is there any advantage in choosing a VESA100 over a VESA75?

I have mine wall mounted with this unit:
Wall Mount (http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.aspx?Prodid=11070650&whse=BC&Ne=4000000&eCat=BC|79|2341|22121&N=4008255&Mo=22&pos=8&No=9&Nr=P_CatalogName:BC&cat=22121&Ns=P_Price|1||P_SignDesc1&lang=en-US&Sp=C&ec=BC-EC10605-Cat2341&topnav=)

Yeah it says it's for up to 37" TV's BUT it has a weight limit of 80lbs, and the 42" TX is less than that.

I am running my 360 with the OEM VGA cable and am totally blown away by the PQ with the standard DVDs I have played - for sharpness and detail it looks to be almost on par with the 1080i OTA picture. I haven't seen what other upconverting players produce in terms of PQ, but to me the 360 with VGA looks stunning. I have owned a hi-def set before this, it was a 51' Sony 1080i CRT RP - so it isn't just first time HD shock.

I am tempted to shell out for the 360 HD DVD player but wanted to ask first if anybody can tell me how much better the HD looks compared to SD through the VGA connector? Is it really a huge difference?

The HD-DVD player w HD-DVDs look amazing on the set. The only thing that you may see wrong with the picture is missing some shadow detail in dark areas. Trying to compensate by upping the brightness washes out the picture.

Download an HD movie from the xbox live marketplace. If that blows you away, then expect 2x the quality w the HD-DVD player.

This is not my understanding from what I read about HDMI audio. This is also why HDMI A/V receivers are becoming more popular. The only way I can properly confirm that my two HDMI sources will output DD5.1 via HDMI is to get an HDMI receiver, which I plan to do in the future. As of right now, I suspect my HDMI sources are operating with the TV properly, negotiating that the TV can only accept 2 channel audio, and so that's all the TV can output via its optical connection. Why the PS3 is working, I'm not sure. Maybe it's some audio mismatch the TV can't understand so the handshake doesn't occur.

http://hdtvmagazine.com/articles/2006/08/hdmi_part_5_-_a.php

"HDMI is a two-way communication between the source device and the receiving device by which the receiving device tells the source about its multi-channel capabilities. The source device can then send a matching signal, such as two-channel stereo to a TV, or 5.1 DD channel to a 5.1 A/V receiver. In other words, the source device adapts to the receiving device when sending the signal."

I think the main difference here is that when you pass 5.1 audio via HDMI to an A/V receiver, the A/V receiver actually decodes the audio and then passes it on to the speakers... when you send 5.1 via HDMI to the TX, the set simply passes the raw 5.1 bitstream through the optical output.

My guess would be that anytime there is some sort of automatic audio negotiations with the TX and an audio source via HDMI, the default is 2 channel simply because that is what the TX can decode itself (and output via the internal speakers). With devices such as the PS3 that allow you to manually force 5.1, the TX is triggered to just pass it through spdif out as is.

The HD-DVD player w HD-DVDs look amazing on the set. The only thing that you may see wrong with the picture is missing some shadow detail in dark areas. Trying to compensate by upping the brightness washes out the picture.

Download an HD movie from the xbox live marketplace. If that blows you away, then expect 2x the quality w the HD-DVD player.

As you may know the HD-DVD player for the 360 will upconvert all your regular DVDs to 1080p. I changed from the component cables to the VGA cable and the picture looks sharper.

In fact last night I watched an DVD that I thought was HD-DVD. Turns out I watched the wrong side. It was a dual disk. What I thought was HD-DVD was regular DVD upconverted. Hah. One thing I did notice was that at the beginning the credits didn't look as sharp as the other HD-DVDs did. At the time I figured it was normal but in retrospect I did notice the difference.

Also what did you do about the sound through the VGA cable. I noticed the cable has 2 RCA jacks for audio. How did you go about hooking those up?

I have a quick question:

To anyone who recently purchased their Westinghouse in the past few days, does your televisions have a new firmware and build date?

Another cool feature I didnt think the TV could do, I plugged the Wii component cable and the red and white analog audio cables into component port 1 (do not use a multi port component video switcher, I noticed it degraded the vid quality pretty badly) and didn't expect it to pass the sound through the optical port to my receiver....... but it did.

Since this TV does not have a true 16:9 stretch mode, the best quality picture for Wii is using the 4:3 setting on the Wii and using standard mode on the TV. Fill mode cuts off a tiny bit of the screen, and just doesnt look as clear when you set the Wii to 16:9. The Wii relies on your TV to have 16:9 stretch, and that sucks for us TX owners right now.

As you may know the HD-DVD player for the 360 will upconvert all your regular DVDs to 1080p. I changed from the component cables to the VGA cable and the picture looks sharper.

In fact last night I watched an DVD that I thought was HD-DVD. Turns out I watched the wrong side. It was a dual disk. What I thought was HD-DVD was regular DVD upconverted. Hah. One thing I did notice was that at the beginning the credits didn't look as sharp as the other HD-DVDs did. At the time I figured it was normal but in retrospect I did notice the difference.

Also what did you do about the sound through the VGA cable. I noticed the cable has 2 RCA jacks for audio. How did you go about hooking those up?

The microsoft VGA cable has an optical port on it. I run the optical cable from the VGA cable directly to my receiver.

I have another question,

I just got my new comcast HD box (the non DVR w/o HDMI hook up) and I noticed it does have a DVI-D hookup in the back. Unfortantly though, I dont have a connection on the tv for it but I did find a gold plated DVI-D to HDMI converter/DVI-D DVID Dual Link Male to HDMI Video Gold Cable on ebay. I'm always a little hesitant on buying these things so I was wondering if anyone would know if it would help the picture look any better with DVI/and or with the converter.

The ebay link is:

Thanks!

I have another question,

I just got my new comcast HD box (the non DVR w/o HDMI hook up) and I noticed it does have a DVI-D hookup in the back. Unfortantly though, I dont have a connection on the tv for it but I did find a gold plated DVI-D to HDMI converter/DVI-D DVID Dual Link Male to HDMI Video Gold Cable on ebay. I'm always a little hesitant on buying these things so I was wondering if anyone would know if it would help the picture look any better with DVI/and or with the converter.

The ebay link is:

Thanks!

No need for ebay. Monoprice.com and amazon.com carry very affordable good quality cables.

Should have gotten the HDMI box though :)

The additional 40 dollars a month didn't seem worth it. Should the image quality go up any with the DVI though?

The additional 40 dollars a month didn't seem worth it. Should the image quality go up any with the DVI though?

DVI will look the same as HDMI. The only thing different is you wont get sound through the DVI cable.

As you may know the HD-DVD player for the 360 will upconvert all your regular DVDs to 1080p. I changed from the component cables to the VGA cable and the picture looks sharper.

In fact last night I watched an DVD that I thought was HD-DVD. Turns out I watched the wrong side. It was a dual disk. What I thought was HD-DVD was regular DVD upconverted. Hah. One thing I did notice was that at the beginning the credits didn't look as sharp as the other HD-DVDs did. At the time I figured it was normal but in retrospect I did notice the difference.

Also what did you do about the sound through the VGA cable. I noticed the cable has 2 RCA jacks for audio. How did you go about hooking those up?


I am using the optical output on the VGA cable connector into my surround reciever, like the other person mentioned. I did figure out that the 360 must be upconverting when I saw the picture natively filled the screen and was sharp as hell, what I am really trying to say here at risk of offending those who have invested in the HD DVD drive is, is the PQ improved enough to warrant the cost of the drive and higher cost / limited availability associated with HD DVD movies? Because I am having trouble justifying even the admittedly reasonable cost of the HD drive given how good the SD DVDs look upconverted to 1080p. The 360 is really impressing me with this TV, esp. with the media center capability - even my lower resolution compressed video files from the PC (divx) etc - look really good on this set piped thru tversity.

I am using the optical output on the VGA cable connector into my surround reciever, like the other person mentioned. I did figure out that the 360 must be upconverting when I saw the picture natively filled the screen and was sharp as hell, what I am really trying to say here at risk of offending those who have invested in the HD DVD drive is, is the PQ improved enough to warrant the cost of the drive and higher cost / limited availability associated with HD DVD movies? Because I am having trouble justifying even the admittedly reasonable cost of the HD drive given how good the SD DVDs look upconverted to 1080p. The 360 is really impressing me with this TV, esp. with the media center capability - even my lower resolution compressed video files from the PC (divx) etc - look really good on this set piped thru tversity.

For $179, you get an HD-DVD drive that you can use on the 360 AND a PC along with 5 free HD-DVDs. Its more than reasonable, and really brings out what this TV can do.

For $179, you get an HD-DVD drive that you can use on the 360 AND a PC along with 5 free HD-DVDs. Its more than reasonable, and really brings out what this TV can do.
Is the microsoft cable different from the cable I have? I have a VGA with RCA plugs for the audio. They are connected with a y-connecter that is one side RCA plugs and the other a mini plug that goes to audio in on the VGA connector area of the TV.

Well Tomorrow morning Finally I will be getting my TX47 after a long 10 day wait for an available Saturday from Best Buy. Was lurking in the the new scepter thread and I'm now glad I stuck with the Westinghouse. :) Heres hoping its a good Set.

Hey I got the 42", it is my first HDTV and I want to wall mount it! What are you guys using for *economical* tilt mounts? Is there any advantage in choosing a VESA100 over a VESA75?

Easily the most economical wall mount out there:

http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=108&cp_id=10828&cs_id=1082801&p_id=3004&seq=1&format=2&style=

It's what I use and swear by.

Wow, what a nightmare. But, here we go.

I purchaed this set through Dell. No problem all done, just waiting on delivery. Well, my fiance calls me crying. The purolator fellow buzzed and said hey I have your parcel, but its 80 pounds and I need a hand. Deb says I cant come down, I have a 4 year old special needs child, I really dont want to leave him alone while i go down 6 flights of stairs then carry it up. Bue he said well I cant bring it, so she said ok, and went down with my son in her arms and tried to help. Deb weighs 105 pounds. So that didnt happen. The fellow got mad at her and put it back in the truck and drove off.

So she calls me at work,very upset, and tells me this. So I call purolator and they tell me yes they need someone there to help when the package is over 70 pounds, to which I ask so you must have a hard time delivering a lot of packages to residential since 90% of the people in the world work. So they put me through to a manager who said he would look into and call me back. He calls me and tells me since it's in Debs name to get her to write a note that says she gives you permission to pick it up. Great, so I leave work 45 minutes early, get out there, and they wouldnt give it to me because Dell policy says that the name on the slip HAS to be there to sign for it. So I tell them about the manager and his telling me to bring a note, and they all but call him an idiot.

So they tell me they are going to get the driver the next day to call me 15 minutes before the delivery, so I can be there to help, which isnt bad because I am a 3 minute drive away. So I get the call, get out here and wait. He shows up, open the truck, and the box in lasying down. Odd I thought. So we carry it upstairs and I put it my office room until I get home from work.

Longest 3 hours of my life heh.

I get home and open er up, but notice on the box a cut that runs from the top of the box, about 10 inches down and as wide as a crow bar end. Great. So I get it out, all set up, and turn it on. Right where that mark is, my screen is black. Looks like someone poked it 4 times with the end of a roll dimes. Im not mad, I know it will be replaced, so I call westinghouse, and they were very very upset at this, I think he was taking it harder than me. But he says I have to call Dell since I bought it from them. No problem I call Dell, and there is no question, no problems at all, they are shipping me a new one.

So I have this fantastic new toy, with a mark on the screen. And I have to go through 2 more purolator trips to help them carry the new one up, and ship the old one out. AArrrrggggg. Ruff day.

So with all that said, the HD channels are amazing. I have rogers cable here in Canada with an HD PVR, just stunning, watching golf today was brilliant. I am going froma rear projection LCD to this, so right away I notice the brightness and crispness.

Xbox 360 - Component - 1080p Holy fack. I still cant get over the differnce, its just amazing. So Crisp, so clear. I then put in Planet Earth and put on the Oceans episode. O My ****. I will try to get some shots tomorrow.

PS3 - Hooked up via HDMI. Again, just stellar. I played Virtua Fighter and I just cant get over how much more detail it has over the LCD RP. Amazing. The only Blu Ray I have is the awful Ricky Bobby, I am going to pick up 300 tomorrow so I will see how it looks with a good video quality transfer.

Overall, very happy with the set, just a bit of bad luck.

If this is a budget set how much more better can a Sony or Sharp be?

Interesting, I have that cable too, but definitely see a bit of ghosting, good example is the movie classification at the beginning of a HD DVD disk (green/white text, blue/white text), I can see a slight ghost of the white box on its right edge against the background colour.

Looks fine during movies though, not at all noticable, although I switched over to HD DVD playback via my PC + HD 2400pro, HDMI goodness.

p.

I'll check it out on my setup and try to look for the ghosting you've mentioned.

thanks for the heads-up, although maybe it's just that my eyes aren't that discerning as yours.... :(

The additional 40 dollars a month didn't seem worth it. Should the image quality go up any with the DVI though?

Forty dollars a month!?!?!? For what???? Is that a typo? I mean, if they're giving you the box with DVI, I'm assuming you already have digital, what is the 40 dollars for?

Holy Comcastic ripoffs, Batman!

Ed

Easily the most economical wall mount out there:

http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=108&cp_id=10828&cs_id=1082801&p_id=3004&seq=1&format=2&style=

It's what I use and swear by.

Wow. That *is* economical. I'm feeling slightly ripped off, but I think I'm going to stick with mine anyway.

Was that one easy to install?

Ed

Well so far so good,As Ive said in the pass I'm coming from a Westinghouse LVM-37W1. Ive been messing around for about a half hour and all looks good. Do notice a bit of a screen door coming from the 37" but thats just the way it is spreading the rez further out. Only thing Im having a problem with at the moment is my 2900XT outputting sound through HDMI to the TV speakers. So far no handshaking issues. Also plugged in my Sony HDD500 HD recorder and haven't had any issues yet, Build date is April with Firmware 1.1 which I was surprised. This TV has been sitting in a warehouse for quite a while. :) TV design is night and day coming from the 37. Much nicer looking with a much better remote and menu system.

Wow, what a nightmare. But, here we go.


robep.. I cant answer your question on the Sony or Sharp. But I can commend you on your self control!
Regards

I don't know the specific maker of the stand. We bought it at Walmart of all places and it was made just for them it looks like. The manual says VAS is the maker, but I think they resell it to Walmart.
I'm getting my TX 47" delivered on Tuesday and was thinking of picking up this stand (AFPC 5058 VS) from Walmart to go with it. Question for bidzer (or anyone else who has this stand): are any extra brackets/parts needed to get the TX mounted on this, or is everything necessary included with the TX and stand?

Well nice to see that reading the warranty In home service for TV's 46" and up! That will probably do it for me in not getting the Best Buy plan as my Visa card puts another year on it so in home service for me for 2 years does it for me. :)

Does anyone with this set have an HD-DVD player?

I just picked up the HD-A20 and it will not show any video output via HDMI after I updated the firmware on it. Since I picked up this tv an dthe dvd player close to the same time I have no idea which component may be to blame. I think it is hte dvd though since my old upscaling dvd player was conected to the same hdmi input & cable running 720p with no problems at all.

This is a common theme. I have Toshiba HD-A20 with the latest firmware (v2.2). I can get video if I set the player to output 720p, but at 1080p I am not getting video or audio (but the TV is sensing a signal).

If you have this TV DO NOT BUY THE HD-A20 (and vice-versa).

Some people have gotten around this using their AV/Receiver in the middle. But I do not have a desire to purchase one. So I am retruning the A20 today.

I guess I am going Blu-ray.

Have any of you found a universal remote that works with this series? None of mine work and I want to be sure before I buy a new one.

Thanks

Have any of you found a universal remote that works with this series? None of mine work and I want to be sure before I buy a new one.

Thanks

Westinghouse uses sony codes, try some of them and see if it works.

Its funny, if i point the tx's remote at my old sony trinitron in my room I can turn the TV on and off and it controls it completely.

Have any of you found a universal remote that works with this series? None of mine work and I want to be sure before I buy a new one.

Thanks

Radio Shack 6-in-one 15-2146 (Features Voice Setup Instructions) TV code 0000
Setup Codes Start on Page 30 Check out to see if your device is listed (http://rsk.imageg.net/graphics/uc/rsk/Support/ProductManuals/1502146_PM_EN.pdf)
Regards

Have any of you found a universal remote that works with this series? None of mine work and I want to be sure before I buy a new one.

Thanks

I have the logitech harmony 360 remote, and it works incredibly well with everything, including this TV.

Wow. That *is* economical. I'm feeling slightly ripped off, but I think I'm going to stick with mine anyway.

Was that one easy to install?

Ed

My experience with it is earlier in the thread but generally it wasn't too bad to install. Having never mounted a TV before it was a little odd and the included hardware did not work for the TX (I had to pay an extra dollar for the right length screws from the hardware store). It is a very solid and well constructed wall mount.

In retrospect the only drawback to it is that you can't make it so the tv is perfectly parallel with the wall. There is about a 3-5 degree downward angle to the mount. I never notice it now but it use to really bug me at first.

Have any of you found a universal remote that works with this series? None of mine work and I want to be sure before I buy a new one.

Thanks

I read years ago that Logitec uni-remote was quite good.

I just brought home the 42" model - this is my first HDTV, so I'm predictably wowed by the image quality and contrast compared to my old CRT. However, I'm noticing that closed captioning seems to be "off" - I'm feeding the signal from a DirectTV receiver, and I'm noticing that captions are out of order, garbled, and with overlapping lines - making the function more or less useless. Is there a setting I'm not doing right? I have analog captioning set to CC1, which was what my old TV was set to. Help!

Westinghouse uses sony codes, try some of them and see if it works.

Its funny, if i point the tx's remote at my old sony trinitron in my room I can turn the TV on and off and it controls it completely.


Thanks all, and thanks bhazard, the Sony codes works :)

Well nice to see that reading the warranty In home service for TV's 46" and up! That will probably do it for me in not getting the Best Buy plan as my Visa card puts another year on it so in home service for me for 2 years does it for me. :)

I'm looking at my Best Buy Performance Service Plan right now and it covers in home service for TV's 25" and larger. I can say on the first service call I had they came to the house only to tell me it's dead, give me a receipt to take to the store and exchange or get a refund, of course I had to do the returning of the TV, they didn't take it with them.

Oh man oh man this TV is driving me NUTS :mad: :mad: :mad: . This, my second TX42, had died the same way as the first!!!!!!!! The first one lasted me from June 31 to July 20 (20 days), and this one lasted me from July 20 to August 11 (22 days), so that is almost EXACTLY the same amount of time!!!!!!

Once again I go to turn the TV on an up pops the W logo then it fades away, not like it normally does, then nothing, exactly the same as the last TV. I attempt to hold the Power button on the side for 10 sec. same deal, for 30 sec. same. I do notice that if I hold it for about 5 sec. an LED on the board that shows through the connectors flashes and if I let off the power button after it does that the TV boots, but no picture. If I hold it longer that about 5 seconds it flashes every 5 seconds, so I really think the boot is only a 5 second holding of the power button, for what it's worth.

So once again dead TV and again I was LOVING this TV :mad: . I will give it another shot, but I think if three is not the charm then I need to move on :( .

I've got the TX-42F430S and can't get the TV to show any images from both of my laptops throught the VGA port. Yes - I did switch the monitor setting from notebook to monitor and the Westy showed "detecting" on the screen, but then nothing. I would expect to see at least a low res image.

One laptop is a Dell Inspiron 1500 w/ built in Intel GMA950 and the other is an Acer Ferrari 3200 with a ATI Mobility Radeon 9700 card. I went into the Intel and ATI setup and selected dual monitor, etc but no luck.

Any ideas?


PS : Other than that the TV looks great with HDMI using Comcast Cable's DVR. The only thing I wish was that Comcast provides more HD channels and less artifacts in their HD MPEG compression. Verizon FIOS has less artifacts.

I've got the TX-42F430S and can't get the TV to show any images from both of my laptops throught the VGA port. Yes - I did switch the monitor setting from notebook to monitor and the Westy showed "detecting" on the screen, but then nothing. I would expect to see at least a low res image.

One laptop is a Dell Inspiron 1500 w/ built in Intel GMA950 and the other is an Acer Ferrari 3200 with a ATI Mobility Radeon 9700 card. I went into the Intel and ATI setup and selected dual monitor, etc but no luck.

Any ideas?


PS : Other than that the TV looks great with HDMI using Comcast Cable's DVR. The only thing I wish was that Comcast provides more HD channels and less artifacts in their HD MPEG compression. Verizon FIOS has less artifacts.

I doubt either video card can handle 1920x1080, especially the intel. 9700 specs say "165 MHz integrated TMDS transmitter, for support of DVI Digital Flat Panels at up to UXGA resolution (1600x1200)"

So once again dead TV and again I was LOVING this TV :mad: . I will give it another shot, but I think if three is not the charm then I need to move on

Well I dont like to hear this as I just purchased this set and am waiting for a new one already (Although the replacement reason is the first was damaged in shipping) I hope all works out.

I haven't seen a huge amount of DOA's in the thread so I wouldn't worry about it too much. Bad luck would best describe it. I have an older LVM-37W1 which is still going strong from Westinghouse for 2 years now.

I'm looking at my Best Buy Performance Service Plan right now and it covers in home service for TV's 25" and larger. I can say on the first service call I had they came to the house only to tell me it's dead, give me a receipt to take to the store and exchange or get a refund, of course I had to do the returning of the TV, they didn't take it with them.

Yea,
I was going to get the Best Buy plan for sure if there was no in home service for the 47" model which I bought but don't think I will at this point. It is a nice Warranty from Best Buy but do I really want to spend $200 for 2 years of service which is what it turns out to be since I also get an extra year from my Mastercard.

SO, just curious, what do folks have their backlight set at? I am currently sitting on 50. I find any lower is just too dark.

Yea,
I was going to get the Best Buy plan for sure if there was no in home service for the 47" model which I bought but don't think I will at this point. It is a nice Warranty from Best Buy but do I really want to spend $200 for 2 years of service which is what it turns out to be since I also get an extra year from my Mastercard.

Do these credit card extended warranties cover shipping for repairs, or in home service?

SO, just curious, what do folk shave their backlight set at? I am currently sitting on 50. I find any lower is just too dark.

I run (oh yeah RAN) mine at 40, but in reality the lower levels are very comparable to CRT levels. I think that since the brightness is available we like seeing things with so much PUNCH.

Do these credit card extended warranties cover shipping for repairs, or in home service?

They duplicate the Warranty up to an extra year so I would have to say yes myself.

SO, just curious, what do folk shave their backlight set at? I am currently sitting on 50. I find any lower is just too dark.

I know its not everyones cup of tea but I like it on torch mode myself! :D 100.

I know its not everyones cup of tea but I like it on torch mode myself! :D 100.

wow :eek:


I hope you wear an SPF 40 when watching the TV! :D

wow :eek:


I hope you wear an SPF 40 when watching the TV! :D

lol :cool: And maybe these shades. Still getting accustomed to the size difference over my LVM-37W1. :)

They duplicate the Warranty up to an extra year so I would have to say yes myself.

If they merely double the warranty, then I believe in home and shipping are NOT covered, never mind, I just reread the warranty, so TV's 46" and larger are covered by in home service. If I'm not mistaken BB is then only authorized service provider anyway. So yeah your train of thought being is 2 years worth the $200. Is there any option to buy extended warranty from you Credit Card?

I'm getting my TX 47" delivered on Tuesday and was thinking of picking up this stand (AFPC 5058 VS) from Walmart to go with it. Question for bidzer (or anyone else who has this stand): are any extra brackets/parts needed to get the TX mounted on this, or is everything necessary included with the TX and stand?

Ubik,

The only thing I had to go out and grab were some M5 bolts for the hangers to mount to the back of the tv. I'm still very pleased with the stand as I sit here playing some Guitar Hero II :-)

I got some velcro wrap from work that we run all our Fiber through and it has cleaned up my cable mess running along the spine of the stand. Let me know if you want any pics.

-Bidzer

If they merely double the warranty, then I believe in home and shipping are NOT covered, never mind, I just reread the warranty, so TV's 46" and larger are covered by in home service. If I'm not mistaken BB is then only authorized service provider anyway. So yeah your train of thought being is 2 years worth the $200. Is there any option to buy extended warranty from you Credit Card?

Yea that was the kicker for me it had to be in home or I would get the Best Buy warranty no questions asked, I cant imagine having to drag this big thing out and ship it. After reading your response on the warranty and I was not having as much success at finding mastercards warranty repair site like Visa has. They do offer the warranty and stated as much but no nice links to goto to learn about it. I sent an email to customer support for more info. I know Visa does offer more years if you want them. Cant tell you on Mastercard as of yet. :rolleyes:

You cannot turn off the audio dynamic range compression feature within the set.

While it's nice since it keeps audio at an equal level, it would be nice to be able to have some dynamic range sometimes.

I would like that in there, huggybear.

Welp, I've run into a problem. Dunno if it's a problem with the set, or a problem with the receiver, which I will explain in JAM.

I went out and purchased a Sony HT 7100DH 5.1 Home Theater system. It comes with the STR-K7100 receiver, which has 2 hdmi inputs and 1 hdmi outputs, as well as 2 optical inputs.

I have three hookup choices for the PS3 I'm using for my BluRay player.

1. PS3 Hdmi(Audio/Video) to the Westy, optical(Audio) to Receiver

2. PS3 Hdmi(Audio/Video) to the Receiver, Hdmi(Audio/Video) to the Westy (preferred)

3. PS3 Hdmi to the Westy(Video);PS3 optical(Audio) to the Receiver.


Here are the problems.

1. When I hook up the PS3 Hdmi to the Westy, it only outputs(optical) 2.1 channel audio to the Receiver. I want 5.1, since I paid a crapload of money for my speakers.

2. When I Hdmi the PS3 to the Receiver, said receiver does not receive the Hdmi signal. At all. No audio, no video. The Hdmi ports do work, since I tested it with a Hdmi DVD player after this happened. It does, however, register the optical from the PS3, so it isn't the PS3's problem.

3. Works fine. It's what I ended up doing, but I don't like it, since I paid for a receiver with HDMI, and I damn well want to use it.


So here's what I want to ask ya'll:

1. How do I get the Westy to output something other than 2.1? I've read that the Westy had this problem earlier in the thread, but I didn't see any solutions. But in case I missed something, I'm asking now.

2. Why does my receiver not register the PS3's Hdmi signals? It does the DVD player's just fine. BTW, the DVD player outputs in 1080i, while the PS3 does 1080p. Could that be a problem? How do I get the Receiver to register the PS3's Hdmi signals, or even just a Passthrough?


I want to get a Xbox Elite in the near future, but my receiver is won't have enough inputs if I can't either a) get the PS3 Hdmi to work, or b) get the Westy to output 5.1.


Thanks in advance.


Edit: I've just found out the Receiver only does up to 1080i. SOL on option 2.

Just wondering if anyone has run across any best buy coupons?

I've got the TX-42F430S and can't get the TV to show any images from both of my laptops throught the VGA port. Yes - I did switch the monitor setting from notebook to monitor and the Westy showed "detecting" on the screen, but then nothing. I would expect to see at least a low res image.

One laptop is a Dell Inspiron 1500 w/ built in Intel GMA950 and the other is an Acer Ferrari 3200 with a ATI Mobility Radeon 9700 card. I went into the Intel and ATI setup and selected dual monitor, etc but no luck.

Any ideas?


PS : Other than that the TV looks great with HDMI using Comcast Cable's DVR. The only thing I wish was that Comcast provides more HD channels and less artifacts in their HD MPEG compression. Verizon FIOS has less artifacts.
I've got a Dell with the ATI mobility 9700. I plugged in my laptop as soon as i got my tv home with the DVI out from the laptop with a DVI to HDMI adapter into the first port. The tv did that fancy auto detect and came right on. Full resolution. 1920 x 1080 x 60 mhz if i remember correctly. It even had the tv's model number as the name me the monitor it detected. I'm using the ATI catalyst program to set it up running on vista home premium. So i guess just make sure you have the latest software and drivers. Or somehow it could be that only vista will detect it correctly.

Welp, I've run into a problem. Dunno if it's a problem with the set, or a problem with the receiver, which I will explain in JAM.

I went out and purchased a Sony HT 7100DH 5.1 Home Theater system. It comes with the STR-K7100 receiver, which has 2 hdmi inputs and 1 hdmi outputs, as well as 2 optical inputs.

I have three hookup choices for the PS3 I'm using for my BluRay player.

1. PS3 Hdmi(Audio/Video) to the Westy, optical(Audio) to Receiver

2. PS3 Hdmi(Audio/Video) to the Receiver, Hdmi(Audio/Video) to the Westy (preferred)

3. PS3 Hdmi to the Westy(Video);PS3 optical(Audio) to the Receiver.


Here are the problems.

1. When I hook up the PS3 Hdmi to the Westy, it only outputs(optical) 2.1 channel audio to the Receiver. I want 5.1, since I paid a crapload of money for my speakers.

2. When I Hdmi the PS3 to the Receiver, said receiver does not receive the Hdmi signal. At all. No audio, no video. The Hdmi ports do work, since I tested it with a Hdmi DVD player after this happened. It does, however, register the optical from the PS3, so it isn't the PS3's problem.

3. Works fine. It's what I ended up doing, but I don't like it, since I paid for a receiver with HDMI, and I damn well want to use it.


So here's what I want to ask ya'll:

1. How do I get the Westy to output something other than 2.1? I've read that the Westy had this problem earlier in the thread, but I didn't see any solutions. But in case I missed something, I'm asking now.

2. Why does my receiver not register the PS3's Hdmi signals? It does the DVD player's just fine. BTW, the DVD player outputs in 1080i, while the PS3 does 1080p. Could that be a problem? How do I get the Receiver to register the PS3's Hdmi signals, or even just a Passthrough?


I want to get a Xbox Elite in the near future, but my receiver is won't have enough inputs if I can't either a) get the PS3 Hdmi to work, or b) get the Westy to output 5.1.


Thanks in advance.


Edit: I've just found out the Receiver only does up to 1080i. SOL on option 2.

Well I think your problem isn't the Westy, but the PS3.

You need to tell the PS3 to output audio over the HDMI or the Toslink. Then you need to tell it to use Manual selection of Audio formats. Then you need to check all formats that apply to you. I believe I took pictures earlier of the correct setup you would need to do to get 5.1 from the PS3. Keep in mind that you will have to redo these settings if you do a reset of the PS3, in that I mean holding the power buttong for 5 seconds to go to low def signal. You will also need to redo these settings everytime you do a system update.

If you are asking how to get the Westy to output 5.1 from a broadcast signal, you cannot, not that any of us know about.

EDIT: here is a shortcut to my settings and pics--->PS3 DD5.1 settings (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=11170669#post11170669)

Oh man oh man this TV is driving me NUTS :mad: :mad: :mad: . This, my second TX42, had died the same way as the first!!!!!!!! The first one lasted me from June 31 to July 20 (20 days), and this one lasted me from July 20 to August 11 (22 days), so that is almost EXACTLY the same amount of time!!!!!!



Damn, sorry to hear that Lutch. The exact same thing happened with my first TX-47... lasted a little under 3 weeks. My second is still going strong (knock on wood) for around 6 weeks now. Sounds to me like there are clearly some quality control issues and/or a problem with the boot up sequence in the firmware.

I've got the TX-42F430S and can't get the TV to show any images from both of my laptops throught the VGA port. Yes - I did switch the monitor setting from notebook to monitor and the Westy showed "detecting" on the screen, but then nothing. I would expect to see at least a low res image.

One laptop is a Dell Inspiron 1500 w/ built in Intel GMA950 and the other is an Acer Ferrari 3200 with a ATI Mobility Radeon 9700 card. I went into the Intel and ATI setup and selected dual monitor, etc but no luck.

Any ideas?


PS : Other than that the TV looks great with HDMI using Comcast Cable's DVR. The only thing I wish was that Comcast provides more HD channels and less artifacts in their HD MPEG compression. Verizon FIOS has less artifacts.

I would try updated drivers. Even the GMA950 is capable with a max res. of 2048x1536 at 75 Hz.

I would try updated drivers. Even the GMA950 is capable with a max res. of 2048x1536 at 75 Hz.

Interesting, it actually can display it. I wouldnt go trying to play any games at that res though.

lol as a integrated card I doubt he'd be doing that though...the mobility 9700 should be able to handle last generation games okay though

I finally got around to gaming (pc) on the westy...HL2/source at 1080p is quite a step up from doing it on a 14" at 1280x768...my mobility x1600 actually handled it okay, which surprised me a bit

Best Buy's sales for the TX-42F430S ended recently. Anyone have a good guess when or if it is likely to return? Also, has anyone connected a newer Xbox 360 with HDMI directly to the Westy? Please post your comments.

I was looking through most of the thread but i didnt catch if this tv supported 1080p over component or not for my 360. I may order a vga cable if not.

I was looking through most of the thread but i didnt catch if this tv supported 1080p over component or not for my 360. I may order a vga cable if not.

The TX's are one of the few tvs on the market that support 1080p over all connections (component, VGA, HDMI), which is nice.

Get the VGA cable anyway, it looks nicer

Well I think your problem isn't the Westy, but the PS3.

You need to tell the PS3 to output audio over the HDMI or the Toslink. Then you need to tell it to use Manual selection of Audio formats. Then you need to check all formats that apply to you. I believe I took pictures earlier of the correct setup you would need to do to get 5.1 from the PS3. Keep in mind that you will have to redo these settings if you do a reset of the PS3, in that I mean holding the power buttong for 5 seconds to go to low def signal. You will also need to redo these settings everytime you do a system update.

If you are asking how to get the Westy to output 5.1 from a broadcast signal, you cannot, not that any of us know about.




Ok, I've gotten it to go Dolby Digital, but its says DOLBY DIGITAL 3/2.1. What does that mean?

Heh some of my geek friends came over and saw this TV and loved it. But some of them want some reviews, do any of you know of any professional reviews out there?

Ok, I've gotten it to go Dolby Digital, but its says DOLBY DIGITAL 3/2.1. What does that mean?

Its probably the receivers way of saying 5.1. Is this the first time you are running 5.1 to this receiver? My old Sony used to say the same thing for 5.1.

Hey guys/gals. Picking up a 42" in a few weeks. Holding out to see if there are any good buys for Labor Day. Anyone else in the same boat?

I've read 90-95% of this thread when it first started. I have my ps3 hooked up hdmi and experience few flickers when switching from tv back to hdmi but it only flickers once or twice. Anyways I tried hooking up my old xbox with component cable on both tv imputs but it still only gives me 480i. I changed the settings in my xbox to make it output 480p, 720p, and 1080i but to no avail. Just wondering if im hooking it up right or what. And since I have the tv I wouldn't mind to do some tests on my tv for the avs community. Oh and my build date is the april 07 one.

Thanks, Kenny

Well Ive had my old Xbox hooked up for a long time and thats the first time Ive turned it on for a long time and my guess is that it only shows up in game if you have all your options checked in the control panel as mine stays at 480i over component as well. I forgot just how much more advanced the XBOX 360 is though. The XBOX is a jaggie mess. :)

I've just finished wrestling the Westy into submission with my Harmony 676 programmable remote and wanted to report my suggestions. The info should apply to other Harmony models as well and I hope it will save others some trouble... these things can be a beast.

The Harmony software has the TV in its database but, unfortunately, the TV's remote control does not have "discrete" buttons to directly call up specific HDMI inputs. This is problematic since it means cycling through several inputs to get to a particular HDMI input. It's further complicated by the fact that the TV remembers the state of the last HDMI input you were on, rather than always returning to HDMI1, when returning to HDMI inputs from another input type. The Harmony software isn't quite sophisticated enough to keep that state information in memory and it easily gets out of sync with the TV.

I spent some time on the phone with Logitech but their attempted workarounds didn't seem to help. I ended up solving this issue by figuring out a set of button presses that would consistently bring up each respective HDMI input regardless of which input the TV starts on. The best sequence I found is as follows:

1. Press PC Input (VGA) button
2. Press INPUT button to bring up inputs list
3. Press INPUT button another 1 to 4 times to highlight a specific HDMI port
4. Press ENTER to select the highlighted input

Setting this up for an HDMI device in the Logitech software took these steps:

1. Under Device Options, click Settings for the TV
2. Pick Adjust Inputs
3. Pick Method 2: "...each button displays a unique source input"
4. Make sure the Source Inputs list matches your TV
5. In the list where you match Source Inputs to Remote Buttons, pick -None- for each HDMI input. This list only lets you pick one remote button to send, and we need to send several; we have to set that up elsewhere.
6. Under Activities, pick an activity of your choice and click Settings
7. Pick Review the settings
8. Pick Yes, but I want to add more control...
9. Confirm the devices in use
10. When asked which input to use on the TV, pick the appropriate HDMI input. This probably has no effect now that we've turned off the buttons for the HDMI inputs, but it will be useful for your reference.
11. On the Custom Actions page, add the following Start Actions for the TV, one at a time, in the order below. For each one, pick "Send this infrared command" and choose the command shown:

a. InputVGA
b. InputNext
c. [Repeat InputNext 1-4 times for HDMI1-4, respectively]
d. Select [corresponds to ENTER on the remote]

12. Save changes

There's one last change. The Harmony software is configured to give each device a certain amount of time to switch inputs before sending more commands, and it turns out that this delay also kicks in after each Start Action. That means, with the default delay settings, the Harmony waits about 2 seconds between button presses, which is annoying. But the TV is still controlled properly if you shorten the delay. To do that, follow these steps:

1. Under Device Options, click Settings for the TV
2. Pick Adjust the Delays (speed settings)
3. If you use E-Saver mode, set Power On Delay to 22000 ms while you're here
4. Leave Inter-key Delay at default (0 ms for me)
5. Set the Input Delay to 100 ms
6. Set the Inter-Device Delay to 300 ms
7. Save changes and let Harmony apply them to all of your activities

Finally, update your remote and give it a try. Automated HDMI switching is now working reliably for me with the settings above. Now we just need manufacturers to start building discrete input commands into their sets (even if they don't put the actual buttons on the stock remote controls).

I just tried to use the TV in portrait mode (vertically) and the text and everything looks nice. (on the computer)
Does anyone know of a cheap wall mount that would enable me to rotate the TV and maybe do a bit of a vertical tilt? (or it isn't recommended to rotate the screen too often?)

I didn't see any wall mounts like that when I looked for some. Maybe it is possible to build one???

Does this display require a specific mount, or will a universal mount from monoprice (http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=108&cp_id=10828&cs_id=1082801&p_id=3610&seq=1&format=2) do the trick?

I'm putting together a new PC with an ATI Radeon 2900XT. I'm going to test the HDMI 5.1 audio that the card can output through the TV. If it works, that would be awesome.

I'm putting together a new PC with an ATI Radeon 2900XT. I'm going to test the HDMI 5.1 audio that the card can output through the TV. If it works, that would be awesome.

No luck here for me with the 2900XT and my TX47. Although Im using Vista. Maybe you will have better luck using XP if your still on that. Just dont forget if your using XP you need to download drivers from ATI. Mine shows as working in Vista but Im getting no sound through the TV speakers. Tried 2 different cables and different HDMI input. If you get it working let me know what you had to do. Ive tried everything. At this point I can only blame the TV as there are people that get sound out of the HD2XXX series of cards.

SO, just curious, what do folks have their backlight set at? I am currently sitting on 50. I find any lower is just too dark.
0. It's perfect at that setting. Games get a slight bump to 10.

Really 0? What is your brightness and contrast at?

I dont know how anyone stands having the back light set that low, Its like its nighttime in a show where the sun is out. (CSI Miami)

No luck here for me with the 2900XT and my TX47. Although Im using Vista. Maybe you will have better luck using XP if your still on that. Just dont forget if your using XP you need to download drivers from ATI. Mine shows as working in Vista but Im getting no sound through the TV speakers. Tried 2 different cables and different HDMI input. If you get it working let me know what you had to do. Ive tried everything. At this point I can only blame the TV as there are people that get sound out of the HD2XXX series of cards.

Vista handles audio differently than XP. I am dual booting both, so I will let you know. I plan on running the sound pass-through into my receiver.

You may need to manually choose the 2900XT as the audio output under sound properties, it may be still trying to use your PC's audio

Vista handles audio differently than XP. I am dual booting both, so I will let you know. I plan on running the sound pass-through into my receiver.

You may need to manually choose the 2900XT as the audio output under sound properties, it may be still trying to use your PC's audio

Well since your going to a receiver you might have different results, If you can try connecting it direct to the TV and see if it works as well if it works to your receiver.
Yea I tried disabling my XFi and also making the HDMI audio device the default device with no luck. Vista thinks everything is wonderful. The sound meter shows sound in the test just no sound through the speakers.

0. It's perfect at that setting. Games get a slight bump to 10.

A low backlight is great during movies, but I usually hover around 30-50, especially with games. It compensates for my brightness at 42 and contrast at 58. Those are my near perfect settings for this tv setting. Contrast any higher than 60 washes out the brilliance in color that this TV puts out. The Warm setting is damn near perfect.

A low backlight is great during movies, but I usually hover around 30-50, especially with games. It compensates for my brightness at 42 and contrast at 58. Those are my near perfect settings for this tv setting. Contrast any higher than 60 washes out the brilliance in color that this TV puts out. The Warm setting is damn near perfect.

Those are my settings as well... generally backlight at 40, brightness at 45, contrast at 55, color temp at Warm.

I just got my replacement for my 42". I am quite happy bec ause I had the old 42 1080p monitor and this one has a built in tuner and 4 hdmi inputs... No dvi though oh well... My only concern is that on HD channels (I use a comcast hddvdr to get all hd channels) I get a thin line of pink on the bottom and top of the screen when it is in standard mode. More so on the bottom of the screen. When I change it to "Fill" it goes away. So, I am guessing its a screen position issue. How do I adjust the screen position to get that away?? I am assuming this is a firmware issue, but with the USB support I should just be able to hook it up to my cpu and install it right? Does Westinghouse have a firmware reissue for this?

Those are my settings as well... generally backlight at 40, brightness at 45, contrast at 55, color temp at Warm.

Yeah I think those were my settings as well, the only thing I adjusted was the green down two notches since there was a green push on peoples faces.

I dont know how anyone stands having the back light set that low, Its like its nighttime in a show where the sun is out. (CSI Miami)

i notice on this show particularly the greens look a bit off especially with grass..i use default settings with backlight at 30

I've just finished wrestling the Westy into submission with my Harmony 676 programmable remote and wanted to report my suggestions. The info should apply to other Harmony models as well and I hope it will save others some trouble... these things can be a beast.

Hey imit8,

Thanks for that, what you suggested is EXACTLY what i tried to do, but i didn't kill all the HDMI Sources so it would flip through HDMI inputs incorrectly because the remote remembered what HDMI input it was on last. The speed delays were really useful because i was getting sick of waiting for it to flip flip flip. thanks again.

I dont know how anyone stands having the back light set that low, Its like its nighttime in a show where the sun is out. (CSI Miami)

CSI Miami is like the worst show for trying to get "proper" settings on the TV. I swear they are either in a dark house with one ultra-bight spot from a window, but everything else and everyone's faces in shadow, or they are outdoors and I think they film all the outdoor stuff (and all the "bright" indoor stuff) through a gold-colored lens. Maybe they are trying to hammer home the point that it's sunny, but that show looks *yellow* to me. Especially the interrogation room.

Ed

Ok, I've gotten it to go Dolby Digital, but its says DOLBY DIGITAL 3/2.1. What does that mean?

Yeah, that's 5.1, my Outlaw displays it the same way. 3 front, 2 surround and a sub I guess.

Ed

CSI Miami is like the worst show for trying to get "proper" settings on the TV. I swear they are either in a dark house with one ultra-bight spot from a window, but everything else and everyone's faces in shadow, or they are outdoors and I think they film all the outdoor stuff (and all the "bright" indoor stuff) through a gold-colored lens. Maybe they are trying to hammer home the point that it's sunny, but that show looks *yellow* to me. Especially the interrogation room.

Ed

I wouldn't argue with you on that one, It does seem that way. I was just watching it off my HD recorder yesterday and tried turning just the back light down to 0 and it just seemed like it was almost night when it was the middle of the day in the show.

Does this display require a specific mount, or will a universal mount from monoprice (http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=108&cp_id=10828&cs_id=1082801&p_id=3610&seq=1&format=2) do the trick?


I use the monoprice mount for my TX47 and it works great. You'll need a torque wrench if you don't want to take 2 hours to screw the lag bolts in by hand like me, oof.

The only thing I had to go out and grab were some M5 bolts for the hangers to mount to the back of the tv. I'm still very pleased with the stand as I sit here playing some Guitar Hero II :-)

I got some velcro wrap from work that we run all our Fiber through and it has cleaned up my cable mess running along the spine of the stand. Let me know if you want any pics.
Thanks bidzer - if it's not too much trouble do you mind posting a picture of the back of your TV showing how you have the hanging bracket runners attached to the back of the TV and mounting plate?

I put the runners into the 200 x 100 mm VESA mounting slots (wide ones) on the TV, but with this configuration there is not enough horizontal space between the hanging brackets to fit around the mounting plate.

Yeah I think those were my settings as well, the only thing I adjusted was the green down two notches since there was a green push on peoples faces.
Yeah I think I know what You're saying Lutch. Green or rather too much Green, It's that or the people on TV are all Martians. ;) :D LOL

I use the monoprice mount for my TX47 and it works great. You'll need a torque wrench if you don't want to take 2 hours to screw the lag bolts in by hand like me, oof.
Or a cordless drill with the right socket adapter. ;) Mono is good, I've bought cable from them before too. :D

Well the service guy from Best Buy came out this morning. Apparently he had 2 other TV's with the same issue as mine, it was the same guy that came out the last time for my other TV. So he has seen my first TV, two other TV's and my 2nd TV go down with the same issue. He said it is the power supply for the backlight of the display that goes out. But thinking about it, how can that be if the splash screen comes up, then nothing shows unless it's a board issue with the programming?

I don't know, but I'll be heading to BB this evening for an exchange. Hopefully I get a TV that will last longer than 3 weeks :rolleyes:

hmm..mine is exactly 1 month today

Really 0? What is your brightness and contrast at?
That varies by device. The lowest contrast value is 67 on the dvd player (which is an exact calibration value) and the highest 74. Brightness again varies by device, with a calibrated 56 on the dvd player, 48 on SD cable and 42 for HD OTA.

These vary from numbers I've posted in the past because my previous Oppo player died on me. :) I expected the new player to calibrate identically but it did not. Since it appears the contrast control on the tv adjusts 2 points for every numeral and the brightness 1:1 this means my black level went up 16 points and the white level down 16 points from the previous calibration (40 brightness/75contrast with an Oppo 971H). Very interesting values indeed. Obviously a colorspace issue at play, but both the previous unit and the current one (when using the enhanced RGB color mode) pass blacker than black so I chalk it up to "one of those things." Speaking of that, it appears the TX is setup to expect PC RGB colorspace on the digital inputs. It should not normally be necessary to use the enhanced RGB option on the Oppo; it's for use with PC displays. I thought for a moment that colorspace conversion issues could explain all the crushed blacks and whites everybody sees, but it doesn't explain why it's present on everything including cable. I played around with the dynamic contrast feature some more and I feel the Westinghouse people setup the set's gamma levels with the assumption that this feature would always be left on. Which sucks for those of us who don't want to use it.

It is perfect at zero backlight. Almost still too bright with no room lights on. The light level is comfortable to the eye and allows fine details to come out. Whites are still quite bright. It's all a psychovisual effect that leads you to think the screen is too dim after you've been running it so bright. Plus, how do you guys tolerate the awful blacks the panel produces at higher backlight values? 0 and 10 are okay, 20 is barely tolerable.... anything higher and the blacks on this set are literally grey. They glow so badly they can light the walls on their own. The blacks are actually tolerable at zero backlight, thought they're still pretty light with the APL is very low during movie viewing.

A low backlight is great during movies, but I usually hover around 30-50, especially with games. It compensates for my brightness at 42 and contrast at 58. Those are my near perfect settings for this tv setting. Contrast any higher than 60 washes out the brilliance in color that this TV puts out. The Warm setting is damn near perfect.
Raising the backlight has NO effect on video levels, and thus it cannot compensate for brightness/contrast values being incorrect. If you're crushing your dynamic range by lowballing the contrast using more backlight does not fix this problem.

It is perfect at zero backlight. Almost still too bright with no room lights on. The light level is comfortable to the eye and allows fine details to come out. Whites are still quite bright. It's all a psychovisual effect that leads you to think the screen is too dim after you've been running it so bright. Plus, how do you guys tolerate the awful blacks the panel produces at higher backlight values? 0 and 10 are okay, 20 is barely tolerable.... anything higher and the blacks on this set are literally grey. They glow so badly they can light the walls on their own. The blacks are actually tolerable at zero backlight, thought they're still pretty light with the APL is very low during movie viewing.

Ya, the black levels of this set are bad. I thought they were decent at first but I had the brightness set too low which caused crush blacks. For the $ I guess I can't complain, it's good overall and everything besides black levels (and non-individual memory inputs) are fine. I watch a movie with no lights on at a backlight of 0 or 10, like you said, at 20+ the black bars are glowing horribly and it's distracting (heck, I find 0/10 to be a little annoying as well). Turning the brightness down helps lower the black floor alot but then I get crushed blacks. I think I'm right around the middle w/ a brightness ~55.

Hi guys, I have been reading a lot about this tv and have recently bought the TX -42 version.

I am not sure if this was asked before, but I am having trouble with the tv detecting signal from my computer via hdmi-dvi. I have no problems with the ps3. Some problems with wii. As for the hdmi-dvi, I would have to unplug the cable from the tv and plug it back in for it to detect.

Anyone know if there is a fix for this? I really like this tv but this a major problem if I have to keep doing this.

Thanks

If your still looking for the TX47 you might want to check out the price at Best Buy. Going to already have to stop and get some money back. Now if only it will go onsale and I can save some more. :D

Hi guys, I have been reading a lot about this tv and have recently bought the TX -42 version.

I am not sure if this was asked before, but I am having trouble with the tv detecting signal from my computer via hdmi-dvi. I have no problems with the ps3. Some problems with wii. As for the hdmi-dvi, I would have to unplug the cable from the tv and plug it back in for it to detect.

Anyone know if there is a fix for this? I really like this tv but this a major problem if I have to keep doing this.

Thanks

No need to unplug, just cycle through the HDMI inputs on your remote. Is there a sleep mode being used on your PC?

OK, yesterday I sent my TX-47 to westinghouse. THEY PAID FOR THE SHIPPING :) . RMA is a bitch however. Now I will be without a large TV in my livingroom for like a month. They supposedly are going to send me one with no problems :rolleyes: but I have my doubts. lol. I will update when the new one is delivered. Let the Coundown Begin!!!

I am not sure if this was asked before, but I am having trouble with the tv detecting signal from my computer via hdmi-dvi. I have no problems with the ps3. Some problems with wii. As for the hdmi-dvi, I would have to unplug the cable from the tv and plug it back in for it to detect.

Anyone know if there is a fix for this? I really like this tv but this a major problem if I have to keep doing this.
See this previous post if you have an ATI video card. If you're having the same problem, the TV is apparently not to blame.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=10978193#post10978193

My Backlight is at 20, Bright at 45 Contrast at 55 most of the time, certain shows need tweaking.

Lutch - my 1st 47inch had the same bootup isse... my 2nd has been good for a few weeks now.

Huggy - hows the letter to Westy going?

[QUOTE=imit8]See this previous post if you have an ATI video card. If you're having the same problem, the TV is apparently not to blame.

Thank you so much. It was impossible for me to look through 200 pages here.
Yes I also have a ATI card. So did you end up using the omega drivers or the flipping the screen around with CCC.

I also have that harmony remote controller. Too bad you can not select specific hdmi slots.

No need to unplug, just cycle through the HDMI inputs on your remote. Is there a sleep mode being used on your PC?

Cycling the hdmi inputs did not work with me.
As for the sleep, I need to keep the pc running.

I just looked online, this TV is down to $1499 now. Time for another ( my third ) price adjustment....

I also wanted to report my experience with a problem others seem to have encountered. My set became temporarily hosed when I followed these steps:

1. Connect a TV signal to the coaxial input
2. Turn on the TV and switch to TV tuner
3. Turn off the TV while input is set to TV tuner
4. Disconnect coaxial cable (or in my case, have a cable service outage)

When I turned the set back on I got the "W" logo, but when the TV discovered it no longer had a coaxial signal the screen went black and the power LED was orange but the TV would not respond to the remote control or side buttons. Even unplugging the TV and plugging it back in was of no use. I was worried the set had died on me (and on only the second day of ownership) but once Comcast got around to restoring my cable service the TV came back alive. This is a pretty horrendous bug and I'm certain Westinghouse will get returns on a lot of perfectly good sets when people encounter this one.


Overall I'm happy with the set, despite its quirks. Thanks to everyone else who has posted their tips.

This is a nice find, I wonder if some of the supposed dead TV's here were because of this.

I just looked online, this TV is down to $1499 now. Time for another ( my third ) price adjustment....


I just got off the phone with them on the adjustment. I expect at least one more as this thing will probably go on sale for another 10 percent in the next month and a half I suspect. As long as this is the new base price.

OK, yesterday I sent my TX-47 to westinghouse. THEY PAID FOR THE SHIPPING :) . RMA is a bitch however. Now I will be without a large TV in my livingroom for like a month. They supposedly are going to send me one with no problems :rolleyes: but I have my doubts. lol. I will update when the new one is delivered. Let the Coundown Begin!!!

So why were you forced to send it in? Maybe thats the way they are going to handle it as far as them paying for shipping. Would be a real pain for me to send this big thing in. Warranty states in home service for anything over 46".

I wonder if anyone else is experiencing audio clicks and pops when using the HDMI digital audio. I am using an LG V194H DVD as the source. This seems to occur in 1080i using the HDMI input. When first powered up and playing a DVD, everything is normal but eventually spurious clicks and pops show up in the audio stream. They seem to occur at random intervals. Powering the 42F down and up cures it for a while but the problem returns sooner or later. I am using PCM from the V194H as the TV does not appear to support bitstream audio. I am also experiencing some occasional blocking and rarely brief lockups. A friend has suggested that it could be a bad HDMI cable. The random audio clicks and pops continue even when the DVD playback is paused or stopped but the V194H is, I assume, still sending HDMI frames to the TV???

I have experienced most of the issues posted on with this set. They are an annoyance but this audio click/pop is a show stopper for me. Any ideas on how to isolate the problem to the culprit would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Zeph

I may get a once in a while pop out of my Sony HD DVR but its nothing that I cant live with. It happens to infrequent for me to even worry about it. I could see it being a problem though if it was something that happened all the time. Thats on the TX47 BTW.

I may get a once in a while pop out of my Sony HD DVR but its nothing that I cant live with. It happens to infrequent for me to even worry about it. I could see it being a problem though if it was something that happened all the time. Thats on the TX47 BTW.
Thanks nascar24. In my case it is somewhat more than an occasional annoyance. Some of the pops are quite loud and they can occur every 10-30 seconds worst case. I am wondering if an inexpensive $20 six foot HDMI cable from may be part of the problem. It is touted to be "full spec" HDCP capable but it came in a plain wrapper labeled "made in China." I am a bit concerned that it becomes worse the longer the set is on. I don't see how a cable could be causing that...

Thanks nascar24. In my case it is somewhat more than an occasional annoyance. Some of the pops are quite loud and they can occur every 10-30 seconds worst case. I am wondering if an inexpensive $20 six foot HDMI cable from may be part of the problem. It is touted to be "full spec" HDCP capable but it came in a plain wrapper labeled "made in China." I am a bit concerned that it becomes worse the longer the set is on. I don't see how a cable could be causing that...

I would have to say if it does it that much I wouldn't be happy about it either. When it does happen for me it really isn't that loud to be honest. Thats an expensive cable :D . I just bought 4, 6ft HDMI cables for $18 shipped free. I don't know how good they are for sound as the only one I'm using right now is connected through my Video card. I'm using the HDMI cable that came with my DVR which honestly seems cheaper then the ones I just bought.

I've just finished wrestling the Westy into submission with my Harmony 676 programmable remote and wanted to report my suggestions. The info should apply to other Harmony models as well and I hope it will save others some trouble... these things can be a beast.

...

.


Thank you. Useful info.

PS If you have more Harmony and TX related info, it is certainly welcomed. Thanks again.

so whats the success rate on the new tx47's or should i save some dough and continue to get the lvm47 as originally planned ?

so whats the success rate on the new tx47's or should i save some dough and continue to get the lvm47 as originally planned ?

I was in the same boat and choose the TX47 for these reasons....

Banding isn't a huge problem from reading through the thread, LVM series has suffered from banding for some since I could remember. I had banding on my LVM-37W1.

Remote is just plain terrible on the LVM series, All around is what I mean very unresponsive. The TX is much better here as well.

TX has overall newer Tech, All HDMI, Built in tuners, Much nicer on screen menu system.

On a side note, Both these TV's have their share of issues. But if you read through most of the threads almost all of them have some issue or another. Other thing that I liked is being able to take it back to Best Buy if I have a problem in the first 30 days and also 60 day price protection which has already come in handy and I'm betting it will drop again once a sale hits on it soon I'm sure. :D

1) The box/packaging. I thought it would be bigger. It almost completely fit in the trunk of my Honda Civic with the rear seat down (would have gone in all the way if it wasn't for about 2" of plastic mouldings on each side). I guess this is due to the way it was packaged. When I opened her up I was shocked - I was expecting the unit to be enclosed in a styrafoam coffin... instead, all that was protecting this gem was 4 pieces of plastic moulding, one for each corner. There is absolutely nothing in between the screen and the box, except space. Now granted, the mouldings did a fine job of protecting it, but anything could pierce the box and directly hit the screen. I would be scared silly if UPS were delivering this package.
Funny you should mention that. Mine just arrived courtesy of UPS. Want to guess what happened? I posted this elsewhere (I'm a noob - sorry!), but here's a link for anyone else:

home [dot] comcast [dot] net /~trogdorjw/TX-42F430S.jpg

Looks like something punctured the box during shipping and shattered the display. About 75% of the display is spiderweb. :mad:

Funny you should mention that. Mine just arrived courtesy of UPS. Want to guess what happened? I posted this elsewhere (I'm a noob - sorry!), but here's a link for anyone else:

home [dot] comcast [dot] net /~trogdorjw/TX-42F430S.jpg

Looks like something punctured the box during shipping and shattered the display. About 75% of the display is spiderweb. :mad:


Holy crap, that is enough to bring a tear to a man's eye...

here's the clickable URL:
http://home.comcast.net/~trogdorjw/TX-42F430S.jpg

Funny you should mention that. Mine just arrived courtesy of UPS. Want to guess what happened? I posted this elsewhere (I'm a noob - sorry!), but here's a link for anyone else:

home [dot] comcast [dot] net /~trogdorjw/TX-42F430S.jpg

Looks like something punctured the box during shipping and shattered the display. About 75% of the display is spiderweb. :mad:

Holy crap...you'd better get on the phone with UPS and tell 'em ASAP. Technically if the box was punctured, you should have refused shipment...they might try to stick you with the set.

The first post mentions that there's a USB port for firmware updates. Have there been any firmware updates up to this point?

Holy crap...you'd better get on the phone with UPS and tell 'em ASAP. Technically if the box was punctured, you should have refused shipment...they might try to stick you with the set.
I was out of town when it arrived (long story), so my in-laws received it. I think the UPS guy intentionally placed the box with the hole against a wall. I didn't open it until a couple weeks later. UPS sucks. Now I need to worry about whether some arbitrary time passed. Curse me for not having my in-laws check out the TV while I was gone. (Curse them for not looking at the box and saying, "Hey, you f***ers dropped this HDTV!")

I was out of town when it arrived (long story), so my in-laws received it. I think the UPS guy intentionally placed the box with the hole against a wall. I didn't open it until a couple weeks later. UPS sucks. Now I need to worry about whether some arbitrary time passed. Curse me for not having my in-laws check out the TV while I was gone. (Curse them for not looking at the box and saying, "Hey, you f***ers dropped this HDTV!")

Well that plain out sucks, Now you have to go through the process of getting credit for it from probably UPS. Another good reason to buy it from a local store.

Since there is no VGA/DVI connection on this TV, how are you guys hooking up your PC's? VGA to Component adapters? or something else?

Quote:
Originally Posted by imit8

I also wanted to report my experience with a problem others seem to have encountered. My set became temporarily hosed when I followed these steps:

1. Connect a TV signal to the coaxial input
2. Turn on the TV and switch to TV tuner
3. Turn off the TV while input is set to TV tuner
4. Disconnect coaxial cable (or in my case, have a cable service outage)

When I turned the set back on I got the "W" logo, but when the TV discovered it no longer had a coaxial signal the screen went black and the power LED was orange but the TV would not respond to the remote control or side buttons. Even unplugging the TV and plugging it back in was of no use. I was worried the set had died on me (and on only the second day of ownership) but once Comcast got around to restoring my cable service the TV came back alive. This is a pretty horrendous bug and I'm certain Westinghouse will get returns on a lot of perfectly good sets when people encounter this one.


Overall I'm happy with the set, despite its quirks. Thanks to everyone else who has posted their tips.



This is a nice find, I wonder if some of the supposed dead TV's here were because of this.This is a nice find, I wonder if some of the supposed dead TV's here were because of this.

This wasn't the case with my other two TV's that died with the startup issue. Cable was never dropped, and when I attempted to turn the TV on there was cable connected and available.

Since there is no VGA/DVI connection on this TV, how are you guys hooking up your PC's? VGA to Component adapters? or something else?

Are you sure you are thinking of the correct TV?

The TX series has a VGA connection, that accepts 1080P.

Are you sure you are thinking of the correct TV?

The TX series has a VGA connection, that accepts 1080P.
hmm, the BB website has nothing listed for PC connections, I guess it was just an error

Huggy - hows the letter to Westy going?


Hi Bob, it looks like the problem list is pretty complete... I will repost the latest later today and leave it open over the weekend... next week I will draft up the letter and post it here to solicit feedback.

I'm thinking we can have the letter ready to send off by the end of next week.

huggybear

Last night I got TV #3, hopefully three's the charm. The new set is the newer build date. They did change some things on the TV, like make PIP not even show up on the menu anymore.

It seems the TV is brighter, I used to run the other TV's on a backlight of 40, but I'm sure now I can go lower.

It also seems that the contrast is better, but it seems to "crush" blacks. I watched "The Hills Have Eyes II" on PS3 and when they are in mines and it's dark the blacks create a strange delineation, kind of like a real black black "floats" next to a lighter black area. It's strange, but with some tweaking it was much less apparent. I played it on my regular DVD player that goes throught component and it was darker, but lost detail and didn't have the black issue if I adjusted. Of course it wasn't as crisp as the up converted version via the PS3.

Also the new build date and firmware version may very well be unable to pass ANY sound via the HDMI to the Toslink. It plays sound through the TV speakers, but won't pass it on to the receiver. This caught my attention. I will play around with it a bit to see if I can get it to work, this for me isn't a deal breaker, I can move my Toslink from PS3 to XBOX 360 very easily.

Also the SD tuner now SUCKS!!!!!!!!!! Channels that looked good before now look very grainy, and some channels look like they have quite a bit of noise where as the other two TV's tuned in all the channels VERY clearly.

This newer set does have the scrolling ticker JUDDER, but I only saw it once and that was watching ESPN through my VCR, If I watch the same channel directly via the TV it has NO JUDDER. I found this Odd also.

There seems to not be a green push with this set, I'll mess around a bit more later and do some checking with my setting to verify.

I didn't watch a lot of TV last night with the Dynamic Contrast on, but what I did watch didn't seem to have such a pronounced jump in contrast when it was correcting, I don't think I even noticed it. If they "softened" the DC then I may use it, again this is something I need to play around with.

LIKES WITH SET #3:
1. Blacks are blacker
2. Backlight seems brighter, I can run the TV on a lower Backlight setting
3. No dead Pixels
4. No clouding, just a minor bright area on the right side of the screen.

DISLIKES
1. No sound passthrough HDMI
2. Black crush
3. Poor SD reception

I'll play around with the beast some more and keep the board appraised.

So whats everyone calibrating settings for ps3 game/movie? thanks.

i have the first build and have a bright spot on the upper right corner of the screen, is that where yours is?

also, there was one show where I particularly noticed the DC...i think it was CBS without a trace or law and order..if you get a chance let us know how that looks

i have the first build and have a bright spot on the upper right corner of the screen, is that where yours is?

also, there was one show where I particularly noticed the DC...i think it was CBS without a trace or law and order..if you get a chance let us know how that looks

it's not really the corner, but the right side, it is very minor. It's probably only noticeable since the whole screen is so even in blackness that it becomes a bit apparent. Like I said it is minor, and much less noticeable than the mura I had on the other two sets.

I'll check that out when I get a chance. I don't think I saw it too much since I didn't watch anything that had a scene where the brightness on the screen was at that "magic" value that the TV decided to implement the DC. Then we have the back and forth conversations that go from a person in the light and a person in a darker area and the DC jumps all over the place, unfortunately delayed making it that much more noticeable.

Again I check it out.

how does the westy tx42F430S 1000:1 contrast ratio compare to the sammy lnt4065 15000:1 dynamic contrast ratio?

I know they're two different measurements essentially, but I have the option of buying either one, i just want to figure out if spending the extra 500 for the sammy is worth it

you can check it out at BB (though they have the 4066, difference is the speakers are on the bottom) though if i remember they won't be next to each other..that and the samsung usually will have a better source and the westinghouse usually will have a horrible calibration

I was at circuit city yesterday and it looked like their displays were a bit more honest...they even had the 4061 next to the 4065, but no westinghouse to compare it to

Last night I got TV #3, hopefully three's the charm. The new set is the newer build date. They did change some things on the TV, like make PIP not even show up on the menu anymore.

Lutch - What's the new build date and firmware version?

Lutch - What's the new build date and firmware version?

It is the same as the one that is listed here previously, but I'll check it out tonight and post it.

This wasn't the case with my other two TV's that died with the startup issue. Cable was never dropped, and when I attempted to turn the TV on there was cable connected and available.

I can second that... my guess is that in our cases something with the cable caused the firmware to hose up.

for those of you who had their TV's not startup again and had to be returned..did you have instances where the set would randomly shut off, i.e. not touching the remote

I just experienced that, but it turned back on after using the remote

I just got off the phone with them on the adjustment. I expect at least one more as this thing will probably go on sale for another 10 percent in the next month and a half I suspect. As long as this is the new base price.

They are jerking me around saying that it's over 30 days. They don't seem to be understanding that HDTV's are 60 days during this period.

I posted this in the 42w2 thread, and I'm sure you guys will find it helpful, as well. huggy, since you have control of the first post, you may want to drop this information into it.

For those sending in their set for warranty service/replacement: do not bother with tech support after you have sent in your set. Tech support cannot directly answer questions regarding status updates on RMAs, and they have to put in a status request to 'corporate', and then call you back in 3-5 days with an answer. Good luck with that, they usually never call back. Instead, directly call the center you sent your set to. If you send to Santa Fe Springs, CA, the number for their facility is 562-236-9800. Just tell the operator that you want to get a status on your RMA, the person will direct you to their RMA department, who I have found to be VERY friendly and helpful.

ALSO OF NOTE: Westinghouse tech support/customer service is NOT Westinghouse, it is a large outsource company called microdyne, www.microdyne.com Considering they are just a call center, I would NOT bother trying to get them to answer questions regarding firmware updates or known issues. These people know nothing more than what Westinghouse tells them.

Has anyone else had this problem? in standered aspect view there is unused space thats at the bottom of the screen on HD channels. Almost like the screen is up to far by a 1/5 inch. I had already tried what westinghouse stated below before I wrote them the email. Hopefully my new direct tv box won't have this problem. I use a comcast hd dvr currently...
Hello Jason Denzel,

Thank you for your inquiry.

There are no firmware updates available for this model. If you are
having a loss of viewing area then the issue is likely with your set up.
You should have the TV on a fill setting, and the receiver set to 16:9.
This should allow a full screen picture without loss of viewing area or
distortion.

If you have any further questions, you may contact us through email, or
by calling us toll-free at 1-866-287-5555, between 9am and 9pm Eastern
Standard Time, Monday through Saturday. One of our technicians will
assist you.

Yep, I noticed it with my Philips upconverting DVD player. It was very random and would happen maybe 2-3 times during a movie. I then switched the audio output to Analog and no more pops. Kind of lame but it works. I thought maybe it was my stereo system at first since that only takes analog audio but after making the switch it's got something to do with the set.

I also noticed some while watching HDNET Movies last night to. That's coming HDMI from the cable box. Also sometimes it has issues getting a lock on a channel and the picture drops out all together. Switching from inputs or channels brings it back.

I wonder if anyone else is experiencing audio clicks and pops when using the HDMI digital audio. I am using an LG V194H DVD as the source. This seems to occur in 1080i using the HDMI input. When first powered up and playing a DVD, everything is normal but eventually spurious clicks and pops show up in the audio stream. They seem to occur at random intervals. Powering the 42F down and up cures it for a while but the problem returns sooner or later. I am using PCM from the V194H as the TV does not appear to support bitstream audio. I am also experiencing some occasional blocking and rarely brief lockups. A friend has suggested that it could be a bad HDMI cable. The random audio clicks and pops continue even when the DVD playback is paused or stopped but the V194H is, I assume, still sending HDMI frames to the TV???

I have experienced most of the issues posted on with this set. They are an annoyance but this audio click/pop is a show stopper for me. Any ideas on how to isolate the problem to the culprit would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Zeph

They are jerking me around saying that it's over 30 days. They don't seem to be understanding that HDTV's are 60 days during this period.

I dont see how, Give them their own web address. It states as much.

great the damn thing almost died on me when i turned it on again..it just sat at the logo then went black

I tried holding the power down for who knows how long then the logo pops up again and it worked

great -_-

Yep, I noticed it with my Philips upconverting DVD player. It was very random and would happen maybe 2-3 times during a movie. I then switched the audio output to Analog and no more pops. Kind of lame but it works. I thought maybe it was my stereo system at first since that only takes analog audio but after making the switch it's got something to do with the set.

I also noticed some while watching HDNET Movies last night to. That's coming HDMI from the cable box. Also sometimes it has issues getting a lock on a channel and the picture drops out all together. Switching from inputs or channels brings it back.

Yes, that sounds similar to the problem I am having. It happens way more frequently on my setup. It may go 5-10 minutes without a problem and then pop 3 or four times in a minute or two. Switching inputs and then back to the HDMI or power cycling the TV clears it up for a while. If I put the TX-430S into "audio only" mode, the problem disappears. I am not sure how the TX disables the video display in the audio only mode or how it affects the HDMI data stream but it definitely stops the audio popping artifact.

I am close to the 30 day BB return deadline on the set and I am not sure if I am going to return it. I foolishly got rid of the box after testing the set on everything but HDMI sources. I purchased the 4 year PSP, and I suppose that I can get some kind of resolution via that route with lots of persistent effort and the "lemon clause" if need be.

A friend advised me to try a Sony upscaling DVD player and see if that solves the problem. If not, he said to return the set or at least exchange it.

The main purpose of the TX is to play movies and I am relying on the PCM decoder in the TX as a source for my surround stereo system for now as I don't have a HT DD or DTS 5.1 receiver yet.

Thanks for the responses and inputs. Not sure if this is just a bad set or a compatibility issue. I'll post if I get it figured out...

I've got two days left on my 30 days and unless something goes really wrong, I'll keep mine. I've got a solution and to take the chance to trade it in and maybe get some worse problem, I'd rather not.

Maybe a different DVD player is a good test. Hope it at least minimizes the problem or gets rid of it!

So far so good for me, Coming up on week 1 without to many big issues here, Hope it continues. I convinced a guy at work to get the TX42 and things didn't turn out to well for him in the first week with 2 lockups. He has decided to return it for something else. I wouldn't be to happy with several lockups within the first week either. I have had probably like 5 lockups total on my LVM-37W1 over 2 years.

Ok, I am on my third tx42.


First one had a problem with sound when I switched channel or source. The sound would go off for like 20-30 seconds and then comes back.

The second one had also sound issue but only with the hdmi ports. It was making hissing sound every 2 or 3 seconds whenever I was playing a video or a game on my ps3. I did not test any other devices that uses hdmi since I don't have any but I did test 3 different hdmi cable and all 4 hdmi ports.

The third one seemed fine at first but then the problems that I had with my second started ... but it is now even worse since the video will also randomly flicker from time to time.

I found this on the web
Issues with westinghouse with the ps3
http://www.popularmechanics.com/blogs/technology_news/4212508.html
http://www.popularmechanics.com/blogs/technology_news/4212233.html
and
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/search.php?searchid=6183210


I honestly don't know what to do anymore. I am thinking of getting a new TV instead of getting a fourth one.

I'll go buy another hdmi device to test on my tv and see if the sound and video problem occurs and I will try to find somewhere else I could test my ps3.

I will keep you guys updated.

I'd really like to know if there is anyone else with the same problems.

I got an HDMI cable for my Xbox 360 and hooked it up to my TX-47. Then I hooked my optical audio cable from the TV's SPDIF Out to my receiver. The TV will play HDMI audio through its own speakers, but it won't pass anything to the receiver. Other people in this thread have complained that it won't pass Dolby Digital, but I don't know if anybody else has said they can't pass ANY audio. Help, por favor?

Ok, I am on my third tx42.


First one had a problem with sound when I switched channel or source. The sound would go off for like 20-30 seconds and then comes back.

The second one had also sound issue but only with the hdmi ports. It was making hissing sound every 2 or 3 seconds whenever I was playing a video or a game on my ps3. I did not test any other devices that uses hdmi since I don't have any but I did test 3 different hdmi cable and all 4 hdmi ports.

The third one seemed fine at first but then the problems that I had with my second started ... but it is now even worse since the video will also randomly flicker from time to time.

I found this on the web
Issues with westinghouse with the ps3


I honestly don't know what to do anymore. I am thinking of getting a new TV instead of getting a fourth one.

I'll go buy another hdmi device to test on my tv and see if the sound and video problem occurs and I will try to find somewhere else I could test my ps3.

I will keep you guys updated.

I'd really like to know if there is anyone else with the same problems.

Correct me if I'm wrong but these issues came up before this TV even hit the market. They are related to the older model, not this one.

I was in the same boat and choose the TX47 for these reasons....

Banding isn't a huge problem from reading through the thread, LVM series has suffered from banding for some since I could remember. I had banding on my LVM-37W1.

Remote is just plain terrible on the LVM series, All around is what I mean very unresponsive. The TX is much better here as well.

TX has overall newer Tech, All HDMI, Built in tuners, Much nicer on screen menu system.

On a side note, Both these TV's have their share of issues. But if you read through most of the threads almost all of them have some issue or another. Other thing that I liked is being able to take it back to Best Buy if I have a problem in the first 30 days and also 60 day price protection which has already come in handy and I'm betting it will drop again once a sale hits on it soon I'm sure. :D

well after months of looking and deciding, im sticking with one of my original choices and buying the tx47 today

the local BB has a good price on them, very competitive with onliners without hte wait.

pics to come since there arent any really

the CNET editor's review is out.


CNET editors' review
Good
6.6
out of 10The good: Relatively inexpensive; excellent connectivity, including four HDMI inputs and one PC input; solid range of picture controls, including fine color temperature settings; helpful menu system.

The bad: Reproduces a light shade of black; subpar detail in shadows; uneven screen uniformity; clips detail in white areas; ho-hum all-gray styling.

The bottom line: Despite its lighter black levels, the Westinghouse TX-47F430S 1080p LCD widescreen television produces an otherwise solid picture for a very good price.


go to the site for the full review.

So why were you forced to send it in? Maybe thats the way they are going to handle it as far as them paying for shipping. Would be a real pain for me to send this big thing in. Warranty states in home service for anything over 46".

The place I bought the tv wasn't going to let me get anonther tx-47. They were going to make me get a different set because I already exchanged it 3 times. There return policy is kind of screwy.

I got an HDMI cable for my Xbox 360 and hooked it up to my TX-47. Then I hooked my optical audio cable from the TV's SPDIF Out to my receiver. The TV will play HDMI audio through its own speakers, but it won't pass anything to the receiver. Other people in this thread have complained that it won't pass Dolby Digital, but I don't know if anybody else has said they can't pass ANY audio. Help, por favor?

I'll second that issue. I have the new build date on my third set and it doesn't pass sound from the HDMI to the SPDIF. It will though put out sound from the TV. HMMM.

I'll second that issue. I have the new build date on my third set and it doesn't pass sound from the HDMI to the SPDIF. It will though put out sound from the TV. HMMM.
I told ya thats the same stupid problem i was having with the new firmware also.And my pq looked nasty,compared to the 1.1 one.You seemed to not have much pq problems like i did.

I was out of town when it arrived (long story), so my in-laws received it. I think the UPS guy intentionally placed the box with the hole against a wall. I didn't open it until a couple weeks later. UPS sucks. Now I need to worry about whether some arbitrary time passed. Curse me for not having my in-laws check out the TV while I was gone. (Curse them for not looking at the box and saying, "Hey, you f***ers dropped this HDTV!")

Maybe you can get your credit card to pay for it. Many of them have accidental loss or damage protection. I know my American Express Gold Card covers me for example. They might not cover shipping damage, but you just tell them that it fell on the floor when you were setting it up.

the CNET editor's review is out.

CNET editors' review
Good
6.6
out of 10The good: Relatively inexpensive; excellent connectivity, including four HDMI inputs and one PC input; solid range of picture controls, including fine color temperature settings; helpful menu system.

The bad: Reproduces a light shade of black; subpar detail in shadows; uneven screen uniformity; clips detail in white areas; ho-hum all-gray styling.

The bottom line: Despite its lighter black levels, the Westinghouse TX-47F430S 1080p LCD widescreen television produces an otherwise solid picture for a very good price.
Thanks for the heads-up. Here's the link:

http://reviews.cnet.com/flat-panel-and-plasma/westinghouse-tx-47f430s/4505-6482_7-32429415.html

I posted this in the 42w2 thread, and I'm sure you guys will find it helpful, as well. huggy, since you have control of the first post, you may want to drop this information into it.

For those sending in their set for warranty service/replacement: do not bother with tech support after you have sent in your set. Tech support cannot directly answer questions regarding status updates on RMAs, and they have to put in a status request to 'corporate', and then call you back in 3-5 days with an answer. Good luck with that, they usually never call back. Instead, directly call the center you sent your set to. If you send to Santa Fe Springs, CA, the number for their facility is 562-236-9800. Just tell the operator that you want to get a status on your RMA, the person will direct you to their RMA department, who I have found to be VERY friendly and helpful.

ALSO OF NOTE: Westinghouse tech support/customer service is NOT Westinghouse, it is a large outsource company called microdyne, www.microdyne.com Considering they are just a call center, I would NOT bother trying to get them to answer questions regarding firmware updates or known issues. These people know nothing more than what Westinghouse tells them.

Useful info indeed - thanks! I will add it to the first post (below the problem list for now until the letter gets set out).

I think the score is a bit on the harsh side myself based on their comments I believe 7.5 would have been more appropriate. As far as styling goes thats totally subjective. I like the styling myself. But thats coming from the LVM-37W1 which really does look ugly after looking at the TX47. :D

I told ya thats the same stupid problem i was having with the new firmware also.And my pq looked nasty,compared to the 1.1 one.You seemed to not have much pq problems like i did.

I'm starting to think I have the same PQ issues as you, MAYBE. It seems the blacks are nicer and what not but makes an "ink" blotch feeling, if you can understand that, the dark blacks seem to "float" on lighter areas, kinda strange. And the SD tuning seems to suck as well. I've only had it two days, so after this weekend I'll know better.

The CNET review states that the picture memories are independent per input. Clearly they know something that we all don't then. ;) The wingnuts also claim they couldn't get a resolution higher than 1280x1024 on the PC input. Going to 1920x1080 was as simple as selecting it in the windows display control panel for me. Also, whereas most people have noted that green seems to be a little too strong they claim that the set UNDERsaturates green heavily. *sigh* Even the "professionals" never seem to know what they're talking about anymore. The only thing CNET has going is the fact that they have measuring equipment for varifying color accuracy that I personally cannot afford. I find their tips and tweaks advice on calibration to be highly suspect. In a wide gamut of devices most call for a contrast setting of at least 65 to exploit the full dynamic range of the display. They suggest 50 which is the factory default.

edit: just got to the end of the review and they state the set handles 1080p/24 sources?! I thought this was checked and found to be untrue. It also fails the black level retention test like some of us have been observing. I'm pleased out of box color is so good though. I thought it looked pretty darn close to my eyes.

I have to say, with my ps3, hooked up via HDMI, I have had no flicker. Mind you I have only played VIrtua Fighter 5 a few times, watched 300 once, and that was it since I got the new set. My 360 has been getting all my play (Hooked up via VGA).

Ill play some more VF5 and RFOM tonight to see if I get any flicker.

Just tried to turn on my TX-47 via the remote and no response.... tried the power button - nada. Started having flashbacks to my first set that died. I cut the power, waited a minute and tried again - it fired up! Phew!

They really gotta do something about these lockups!!