The Official Pioneer 9G non-Elite KURO Owner's Discussion Thread - Page 462

No windex.

Distilled water.

Hi Devo,

I picked up my 6020 at one of our few big box stores for under 2K - I bought a wall mount and 4 yrs warranty and the total was still under 2500 (taxes incl). From what I read on this site you can not check hrs with the service remote or any of the menus without third party software.

Doubt you will be able to tell if the coating is damaged without having something next to it to compare. I'd watch for marks or scratches and bring a long some distilled water and some camera lens cleaning cloths.

There is/has been much talk (earlier) of buzzing noises from the power supply. I would let the thing run a bit and make sure the room is as quiet as possible. If it is audible I might skip it. With just a limited warranty you may get unlucky.

I figured my machine had about 4500 to 5000 hrs on it when I purchased it. I also had the scrolled "P" and the "io" from a pioneer logo ghosted into the screen dead center - its been about 6 months of regular use and the ghosting has disappeared.

2K sounds a little high for a used machine especially if you have no option to buy an extended warranty but I know you will love it.

Good Luck

Thanks for the advice Nowin.

I am unsure of the actual hours on the panel, but the owner has said "very low use", for what thats worth...

I have told him that a thorough review was to be in order when I came over to inspect the panel, so I will be sure to be aware of any flaws.

It is true that the warranty will expire soon, but I see no other options as I am very disappointed in my Panny 58S1, and am more than a little pessimistic as to what Panasonic will offer us next year.

I see this as my last resort to own a truly excellent display, and I hope that everything is to my liking with this particular 6020.

A TV is never your last resort.


There are two worst case possibilities. With enough effort, his wife may have removed all the coating. Or she might have removed only some of it. I'm not sure which would be worse. Take a flash light and check the screen for small cracks by shinning the light on the screen from a sharp angle. You want to do that with the set off. Also check out the coating to see how it looks. If she was very careful, didn't rub hard, and used a camera grade micro fiber cloth then there might not be any damage that you can detect.

The second worst case is that she got some of the windex into the electronics by bathing the screen in it. I have no idea what windex would do to electronic parts if the set didn't short out.

It doesn't sound like the owner checked the manual before letting his wife scrub the screen.


That's a good way to check a screen. Remember that a stuck pixel shoiuldn't be a problem if you can't see it when viewing normal material at your normal viewing distance.


What kind of basement. I would worry if it's not living space where temperature and humidity are somewhat controlled. I don't recall reading why the owner move the Kuro to his basement, and stopped using it. That might concern me depending on my impression of the owner, his home, and his story.

If he has a bill of sale, that's in his name, from a known dealer, then you can estimate the maximum time that the set could have been used. Viewing hours would be the least of my concerns. If he doesn't have a bill of sale as I described then I doubt that I would by his set. "The dog eat it." is not an expectable excuse from my point of view.

After checking the screen with the set on, I would watch a variety of material for at least thirty minutes. Will you have a Blu-ray player to use for testing?

I think there are extended warranties that can be bought if it's done before the warranty expires. I don't know if you can do that if you're not the original owner.

Good luck.

Thanks for the advice htwaits, however I do not think I will be joining this particular owners thread anytime soon.

Good news:

No stuck pixels, screen/AR coating looked fine, no cracks in screen, It worked.

Bad news:

Very dusty. There was dust all over it. That concerned me as it looked as if it had just been sitting gathering dust for quite some time (The owner mentioned two months of no use at all). Also, everything appeared to be fine with the unit functionality, until I put in the thumbdrive with the break-in slides. A square (2in X 2in approx) in the very upper left corner turned grey with black downward diagonal bars. This square stayed on-screen as I scolled though most of the slides, poping on and off the screen at random intervals. Under normal viewing conditions (blu ray, dvd, menu screen), the square went away. The owner had never seen the square before as he had never used the USB slot on the side of the unit. I wondered if it was a defective panel.

Also, there was a very audible buzzing when a mostly white/bright picture was displayed, which seemed much noisier than my 58S1.

I told him to call Pioneer Canada and see what they can do. It is still under warranty. I guess it is a waiting game now.

Do you think I should still make a purchase if the unit gets repaired/parts replaced?

The owner also had the original bill of sale and seemed very honest and open.

If the buzz is from the screen, Pioneer won't fix it, but if it's the transformer, that's an easy fix.

I don't know what to say about what you saw. If it's a board replacement, Pioneer will probably fix it. Wait and see.

That's a funny way to treat a Kuro.

Owner probably didn't know what he had.

I was searching around the forum for similar situations and it appears that the board may have fused with the panel. That would require a panel replacement.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...php?p=19119885

I'm not sure what to do now. Purchase it after it gets fixed or forget the whole thing altogether.

As for the treatment of the TV, he just recently got married and the TV was living at his parent's home, unused/unpluged, gathering dust, as he was slowly moving in to his new place. No excuse for that, I know.

I can also tell that he doesn't really know too much about the "legendary greatness" that is the Kuro display, as he told me the story of his purchase:

"I walked into Future Shop and asked for the biggest TV they had, and they showed me this one. I bought it right there and then, and had it delivered the next day."

I found on Craigslist a PRO-151FD. It was delivered tonight. It was manufactured in October 2008. It was brand new in an unopened box.

I now have to read this entire thread.

I did a quick hook up to see if it works and it does. There is always a concern when you buy something second hand. Looks good. I put in D-Nice's break in settings and will keep it there for 150 hours. I sent a private message to him to see if and when he will be in my area. I hope he travels here.

devo235

The box in the upper left corner seems like a similar effect on my PRO-111FD seen on photos, etc. It was fixed by the first firmware upgrade. So that might be easily fixed. Since the seller did not seem to know what he has in the panel most likely no updates were done. Just my 2 cents....

P.E.H.

The owner has definitely never updated the firmware, but am still weary of the purchase, as I have read of the possible problems mentioned above....

If I ask him to update the firmware and the problem disappears, well...perhaps I should go through with the purchase..

Oh what to do, what to do

Can anyone recommend a callibrator for a PRO-151FD in the Los Angeles area?

Don't worry about what to do until the owner gets it fixed.

Can anyone confirm this?

I wanted to thank Dnice for doing a great job on the calibration of my 5020 Kuro Yesterday.

Bought my 5020 in Sept of 09 as a demo at a high end A/V store. This has been a great set since day one without any problems and replaced a good Mits 52628 DLP that never gave me a problem since i bought it in 05. I never thought i would see the pop of my now dead 38" Loewe Aconda as the blacks and color was great on the 38" Loewe, the 5020 is just as good or better and also has a bigger screen.

Dnice did his magic on the 5020 and made a great set even better. Did some viewing on OTA-HD and also my Pioneer Elite DV-59AVI and a Pioneer Elite 05FD Bluray player. Pro and movie modes look so much better.

I will use Dnice again if and when i get another display.

Thanks for your calibration report. I've included it in the flat panel (Post#2) list that's linked at the bottom of my list.

Maybe the experts or some one that has experienced this can weigh in on this;

taken from the Official FW Update for NA PDP 5020FD/6020FD.... thread:

Elimination of potential video noise that may appear in the top left corner of the television when using the slide show mode in Home Media Gallery.

Do any of you know exactly what this "video noise" looks like? Is it like the "grey box" I described earlier?

Can it be visually differentiated from a problem that would reqire a board replacement?

One thing for sure..if the set looks normal when viewing regular tv and blu-rays and the menus, the panel can't be bad. If it was the panel, you would see the same issue on everything you watch on it. I bought a used 6020 about 8 weeks ago. Turned out it had about 1800 hours on it after I paid for and used ControlCal to check it. Mostly love the set...but it does have the 'dirty screen effect' that some on here have complained about. Very noticeable on vertical pans of light solid colors like walls or skies. I would take a movie that has vertical pans on such scenes and make sure the one you are looking at is not bad. It is not very noticeable on solid stationary colors like you see on the break in slides. Also I did the board swap to make my 6020 largely into an Elite...the additional adjustments are wonderful, but it was a rather scary task that thankfully worked out ok! Still the best set I have ever seen beyond a doubt. I hope Panasonic gets off their butts and matches or beats the Kuro by the time I have to replace mine.

devo235:

As I stated in my earlier post, I had the "noise" in the upper left corner of my PRO-111FD before I did the upgrade (there was a second update that could be downloaded from the US site - confirmed to be OK by Pioneer Canada - but I did not do that one as it has to do with the HDTV tuner and there is no over the air HDTV in my neck of the woods). The noise appeared as a grey box, maybe 10cm x 10cm, (it has been years since I saw it!) with a herringbone pattern of colours. It would not always appear, but when it did I do not remembering it going away until the input was changed.

Actually it is best to use a Blu-ray player with USB (in my case a SONY 760) to view pictures, etc. as it is much faster (the Kuro is very sloooooooooow with photo acquisition) and the quality on dot by dot is fantastic (Pure mode setting for Blu-ray and photos through the player).

Hope this info is useful.....

P.E.Hannon

Have a question for you all. I have noticed in the last couple of months that the screen on my 600m has the tiny little specks on it that were not there when it was new. I've cleaned it and they don't come off. I can and have (but won't any more) rubbed in places and have smoothed some away. But I'm assuming the reason they go away is from friction(like rubbing compound to smooth out paint defects). So I don't want to do that any more with risk of ruining the coating, or wearing it thin, or OFF. Now these little specs are so small that you can only see them when the set is off, or when it is on in the black parts of the video signal. AND you can only see them with a light on, kind of ligning your eyes up with the light source from 4 feet away. And you can barely see them(you REALLY have to look to find them), and It doesn't seem to effect the viewing quality of the monitor...not that can tell anyway. I know it sounds rediculous to inquire about something that seems so minute. But first off, I want to know WHY? Lol. Second I would like to know if I need to be concerned. If this is a warning sign of something. I can't get anybody on the phone at pioneer. Pain in the ass. I'm thinking maybe the specs are micro bubbles of trapped gas(not from the plasma) making it's way to the surface as a result of the heat put out in the opperation of the panel. I wonder if anybody would do me a favor and check their panel for this and let me know? That would be great. I'm sitting here wondering if I am looking at an inherent propperty of this panel, or am I the "unlucky" one. All opinion appreciated. Thanks.

Does anyone have any leads on a 6020fd? Ive been looking to no avail...

i know of a best buy in n.j. that has one...been on display for a couple years...and the panel has issues....turns off every hour and a half....still under warranty though......so you would have to have a service tech come out as soon as you got it home......pm me if you want more details....

I appreciate the tip, but I will pass on that one.

Can the speaker be removed from the bottom of the 6020? I might need to do that to get it to fit in my car....

yes the speaker bar is detachable

The speaker bar and the stand can be removed. If you don't remove the table top stand, there's no benefit to removing the speaker bar.

No, I plan on removing the table top stand as well. I saw online that the TV measures 37.6 inches in height. Is this with the speaker or without? Can someone do a quick measurement for me?

I would not suggest trying to squeeze a PDP in a car, "it is not an LCD", you have a good chance of damaging the panel.