2 yr old 42" Panasonic Viera screen goes black when changing channels

Why do people have an idea that if they spend a certain amount of money on a product it's supposed to be impeccable? My uncle dropped almost 5 thousand dollars on a Samsung LED last year and had to get it fixed twice now. You either get lucky or you don't. Net time purchase the extended warranty.

Anyway, you should try calling Panasonic to see what they say first.

it is called getting your money's worth.

crazymomo

Your question:
>>>"Instead of going to the channel selected the screen goes black (actually it's more like a dark gray screen) Sound is lost as well."


How long does it stay black? Are you saying a few seconds or forever, until you cut the power for a while, like 30 min?

After tuning channels will the picture come back in 2 seconds 5, 10, or maybe as long as 15 seconds?

Also, is this set OTA only, direct cable connection to the QAM tuner only, or Both? Or cable box?

Ya mean like you???

Call panasonic and find out who is your local service center. If you post your name , address and telephone number we can help you out. Wouldn't happen to be Kate Gosselin would ya?

After tuning channels will the picture come back in 2 seconds 5, 10, or maybe as long as 15 seconds? [/quote]

The tv works perfectly normal in between these "episodes" of going gray. So the channels tune in at normal speed, maybe 2 seconds. No picture quality change or anything. Just when it's been on for several hours it then will unpredictably respond to a an attempt to change the channel by going into this mode where the power light is on but the tv is unresponsive and the channel identifier box (upper L corner) flashes.

[/quote]Also, is this set OTA only, direct cable connection to the QAM tuner only, or Both? Or cable box?[/quote]
We have basic cable going thru the DVD player to the TV. tv picks up additional channels via the built in (QAM?) receiver.

Thanks so much for your interest in helping! I've spent all day on the phone and the internet trying to get to the bottom of this.[/quote]

It's hard to get a grasp as to what is going on. Basically, everything you have indicated is pointing to a tuning issue and not a power issue..but still hard to tell without being there. You might what to pull the DVD player out of the loop for a while, hook the cable up direct to the Panasonic, and then rescan the channels. Perhaps first rescan both antenna and cable, with nothing connected to the set, to fully clear it out the tuner; then make a direct connection to the cable side without the DVD player.

Generally, that flashing of the channel logo tag in the upper left means tuning until it locks in.

Given you are requesting, asking for help a kinder tone on your part crazymom would probably go a long way. I just find it ironic that you don't view yourself in that "nasty group of internet people" yet you were the lecturing and yelling in posts.

Take a hard look in the mirror...

Your answer was given - call a service center. Additionally, try to be kind and not give a lecture to whoever comes to your home to work on the issue. They are there to help you - not to act as a vent for whatever frustrations you have. I think all too often people like to blame their problems on others as compared to taking the higher road.

Have a great day toots

What your wrote certainly "defines" you...

I just came across this thread and am having the same problem with my 42" Panasonic plasma that was two years old last month. I called Panasonic and they just told me to try the remote (which didn't work) and to plug and unplug the TV (which I had already done). Nothing worked so they referred me to a local service center. Of course, I did not purchase the extended warranty. Any suggestions?

Sounds like a heat issue on one of the main boards and or power supply. I haven't had an issue like this on my tv, but have seen issues similar on others (friends etc). Make sure the tv if unplugged and take a can of compressed air and try blowing out the cooling vents at the back of the tv. You will be surprised how much dust will come out of it. Hopefully with the heat being able to vent properly this will solve your issue.

I'm having the same problem with our Panasonic LCD HDTV model TC-32LX85N. It is about a year old on a one year warranty (can we say planned obsolecence...?)

So, recently it has started to get into the described state in which the display is a uniform dark gray except for the little information box that indicates the channel number and name. The info box flickers on and off about once a second. The system is unresponsive to the remote and the buttons on the unit itself. The unit will stay in this state indefinitely. Usually the power button works to turn it off, but I think I've had to disconnect power to shut it down at least once. (fortunately the surge protector is easy to reach). The red power LED stays lit solid and does not flash any error codes like the manual implies should happen when it detects an internal error.

Generally, disconnecting it from power will resolve the issue, but then it will recur with increasing frequency while surfing.

I believe that I've also found that disconnecting the coax cable feed when powering the unit back on will allow me to get it out of the state without needing to keep it unplugged for minutes/hours to reset it.

I've never seen it lock up like this on an analog channel. It has always been a digital one.

The TV has shown the issue hooked up to a DVD/vcr (passthrough) and hooked up directly to the Comcast feed.

I agree it sounds a lot like a tuner issue. I don't buy the heat argument, as it will do it from a cold start.

I tried to do the live chat with Panasonic, no reps available. I guess it will come to email or phone... *sigh*

I'm also disappointed that an expensive piece of consumer electronics with no moving parts would fail after only a year. The MTBF should be much better. Our previous cheap CRT has been going strong (though much smaller, heavier, and low-def) for over a decade.

Horrible analogy, a piece of electronics is hardly a person.

Unfortunately technology is not infallible. There is a reason they offer a limited manufacturers warranty: they guarantee each part will work to a certain point of the equipments lifetime and will cover any required repair during that time but after that; you're on your own. Spending more or less on a product simply is not a guarantee it will last any longer than spending less on the TV initially. You're paying for the technology and quality of what the equipment does (picture quality in this case), not how long it will last.

There was recently a thread about whether people should take extended warranties. Many people laughed at the idea and see it as a last resort money grab from consumers (well they are still a business and yes they make money on them) but if you ever have to use an extended warranty, it more than pays itself off.

Not sure what you expect to hear on these boards; you said not to give you a lecture right after giving one yourself. It doesn't matter how much you spend on a product; they break, thats why manufacturers only give you a limited warranty.

Unfortunately there is nothing you can do but either contact the manufacturer or a local tv repair agent. Both options cost money but short of buying a new TV, they are the only options.

Whether you hear from friends that a certain brand is bulletproof or from forum members that you can't go wrong with X brand because they've never heard of one breaking down; consider each piece of equipment seperately, you maybe the first person that experiences a problem with that piece of equipment and when it does, hearing about how reliable everyone else claimed they were is little comfort, they might as well have a 100% failure rate in your own experience.

Going from the clue that unplugging the cable worked, I've come up with an easy workaround for now:

Turn on the VCR.

The VCR disrupts the signal and the digital tuner in the TV gets out of the frozen state and just shows a message that the channel is not available.

I then tune to another channel and all is well.

I suspect there is a bug in their firmware for certain types of digital signals (perhaps it is attenuated, jittery, out of sequence, frame loss, etc.).