2010 Mitsubishi 3D DLP Owners Thread (738/838 series) - Page 287

Happy Dance short lived.

New mirror ordered. Just over 100 bucks,

Lines started coming back. Did some digging into the "mirror". Its not the classic mirror, glass with reflective coating on the back. The mirror in my 65738 is a thin sheet of glass with very thing reflective coat on the front.

While I probably could buff it and wax it again, that will be short term fix once again. The problem is that thin reflective coating has gotten weird.

I don't think its sprayed on. Seems more like the glass and the coating run through some kind of rollers and the reflective coat is pressed on.

Local glass company could probably cut a mirror, a real mirror, to replace it. Cost unlikely to be significantly less than the replacement OEM mirror and I'd have to figure out how to reattach the support brackets. Probably just industrial two sided tape.

Picture is livable for the Super Bowl.

New mirror scheduled to arrive by Feb 7th.

Easy to replace.

It has to be a front surface mirror, not the common back surface mirror, that kind of mirror will cause very bad reflections from the front surface of the glass. You have to be very careful cleaning a front surface mirror as the reflective coating is usually pretty soft.

Mike T

Learned more about the "can't use regular mirror" today. Spent some time talking to a mirror/glass shop owner. The typical mirror, according to him, the glass has a prism kind of effect as the image goes through it from the light engine and then back out through it to the screen.

He said he wouldn't even know where to start calling in the Phoenix area for someone that might have any bulk front reflective glass to cut to size. Then I'd have to attach the support brackets.

Still not sure why mine starting having streaks in it. Don't know about how soft it is in comparison to other types of surface additions but I do know it is THIN. Would have never cleaned it other than wiping with a lint free microfiber cloth if it didn't first have the irregularities. When I look at it from the side I can see where the image has been hitting. The area of the mirror that has never been touched by the image from the light engine is clean and bright. The area where the image has been hitting it is easy to see the outline, there is like a shadow. Its not burn in. Its hard to describe.

In AZ it is so hot in the summer that the plastic in our car interiors gives off some barely noticeable fumes. BUT you get this fine fog like coating on the inside of the windshield. You don't even notice its there unless you wipe the windshield with something. Then you can see the clean streak where you wiped it and the fine fog like layer where you didn't.

The area on the mirror where the image has been hitting, it looks like that. Can't see it from head on. From the side you could use a felt pen and outline where the image has been reflecting off of perfectly. You wouldn't notice it except for where the image has not been hitting is clean and quite shiny.

New one is available and I'll have it in a week or so. I was hoping I could find a solution so the image would be pristine for the Super Bowl. Most of the time you can't see the marks but once and awhile with a light background you can see them plainly.

Have learned a lot in the process. I'm still always amazed at the dust inside the thing even in just a short time. Not as bad as the LED's in the last of the Samsungs but still the air flow could be improved.

Guys and Gals need some help!

I posted awhile ago about my replacement that was ordered from Shopjimmys. It didn't fit the OEM slot in the TV and I had to swap the new bulb to the old housing to get it to fit. After that the TV fired up and was bright but short lived. TV bulb appeared to be flickering badly after about 5 minutes and then TV shut off with a pop and solid red light. This happened twice. I then swapped the OEM bulb back to the OEM housing and TV came back on but flickered occasionally but not as bad as the replacement bulb.

So I ordered and received the MITSUPARTS OEM bulb today. BAD NEWS!!!!

Installed new OEM bulb/housing and the TV started flickering badly immediately. TV shut off with a pop and the solid red light!!!

I don't have an extended warranty and I'm horrified. I hope that main board or light engine didn't go bad. But I don't understand why the OEM (dim) bulb flickered a little but didn't shut the TV off with the red light??

I don't know what to do next... Any suggestions??

Could be the ballast/power supply board for the bulb.

Thanks JS. I'm handy with electronics.

1) Is there an easy way to test the ballast/power supply board with a multi-meter?

2) do you know approximately how much that board costs (order direct through Mitsubishi?) ?

Hey guys, have not received a response in 2012 thread, so maybe you can provide some assistance:

Hello, I have purchased the 73742 a few weeks ago, and really love it so far. I do have a concern about the convergence, which I know is not something to adjust on these TV's. Maybe I am paranoid from my old Panasonic set where I had to spend hours adjusting all the convergence points. I have taken some pictures in the Geometry menu showing the white lines having blue or red to each side. Even the red/blue color border produces a clear purple area I can see this clearly in Xbox menus also. Can anyone comment if this is normal for these DLP's? Or is there a potential problem with my set that I should be calling Mitsubishi for? I have also aligned the Geometry crosses to the bezel and let it auto correct, but that makes no difference to "convergence". The pics are before I set the geometry.

Thanks,
Tom

I'm sure there is some way to test it. I don't know how.

They are available and not that expensive.

I've seen them on eBAY used.

Searsparts would be a good place to start. I'd call Mit TV Parts as well. You'll have to search for contact information.

Just as an example, not sure if right part number....

http://www.shopjimmy.com/mitsubishi-934c409005-power-supply-unit.htm
Edited by jsmiddleton4 - 2/6/13 at 6:27pm

Very bad move with the Phillips. OEMs are only Osram. Someone lied to you. Shopjimmy just partnered up with a company and they were pushing Phillips lamps on unsuspecting Mitsubishi TV owners. They have great prices, but that was a little uncool of them to do that to you.

Pro71HD you have a pm.

UPDATE: tech came out and I installed new OEM MITS bulb (OSRAM). TV powered on and started flickering immediately just as it had done previously. It powered off with the solid red light after about 20 seconds. He said "light engine." I asked him if he was sure and he nodded and started walking toward the door. I hope he's right (and not a board swapper) and I also hope MITS agrees to replace at their expense since the "flickering" was well documented with MITS when it WAS under warranty. Stay tuned..

Just want to confirm. There are users on this board that have had the "flickering screen" issue fixed by a Light Engine, correct?

I've never had a problem with a flickering image.

The phrase "Light Engine" is tossed around in near mythological terms. It is pretty straightforward. The only light produced is by the lamp. The "Light Engine" makes the image and reflects it focused to the back mirror and on to the screen.

There are two areas for the "light engine". For lack of better terms there is the hardware part and the electronic part. The hardware part are the mirrors, lenses, the color wheel (it is kinda both but roll with me for second). The electronic part which is the dlp chip, the DMD formatting board (the brains that tell the DMD chip what to do) and the lamp/ballast.

The color wheel is controlled electronically no doubt. But it is a mechanical part, for these models spins on an air bearing, etc.

The only mechanical part that might cause flickering would be the color wheel. I suppose it could somehow mis-function so as to create flickering. Usually when it isn't working right you have color issues, not flickering. At least I've never seen anyone complain of flickering when the problem was the color wheel. Seen lots of the color lost its red, etc., kind of thing. Not read flickering when its the color wheel.

If you look at Light Engines on eBAY typically its the mechanical stuff, metallic housing, lenses, etc.

Sometimes you'll see a complete light engine with the DLP chip, formatting board, the metallic housing plus the black housing that holds the lamp and the lamp's ballast.

The DMD board that tells the DLP chip to make the image could cause flickering by having issues which impacts what it is telling the DMD chip. I'm thinking it could be power supply to the lamp however.

If the Light Engine replacement is everything but the black plastic housing, the current lamp's ballast is likely to be reused. It lives to the side of the lamp, kinda above the lamp on the far side of the black housing. Sometimes the replacement package is the mostly mechanical stuff and the tech reuses the black plastic housing piece. Couple of screws and the two come apart.

Sometimes the light engine is the whole thing, black housing attached, new lamp ballast, etc.

I would not think the signal coming from the main board to the light engine if it was causing the flickering that you'd not see flickering as the only symptom. Would think if the main board was bad you'd not have any image, other issues along with the flickering, etc. In other words the signal/information/data is getting to the light engine correctly. Something happens in the DMD board, the DLP chip, etc., and the flickering shows up.

It sounds like a reputable shop and tech.

No reason not to trust them. If MIT doesn't cover it and you have to pay for it will the shop stand behind their diagnosis and not charge you for the light engine if that isn't it?

There really isn't that much "stuff" on the inside of these TV's. While each piece has a lot of technology and engineering in them, the modular nature of the pieces makes the guts kinda sparse. Was surprised when mine had initial repairs and when it was apart seeing how much was NOT inside them.

I never really asked either, is the flickering a flickering as if the lamp was going from bright to dim and back to bright really fast OR an image problem?

I'd like to know the answer as well. I occasionally get the flickering on my 82838...

A technician will probably have to answer that kind of question. Off the top of my head I'd say the answer is both. Given the light source has its own power supply and of course bulb, etc., seems like the flickering could be light intensity related. As you noted, bright to dim, dim to bright, etc., as power fluctuates.

At the same time the lamp does not cycle bright to dim, etc., to create darker areas and lighter areas on the image. If it did the image would change 100% not just in certain areas. So something with the DMD board, the DLP chip, etc., create the lighter and darker areas on the screen/iimage.

The DLP chip is flat out amazing. If its bazillion mirrors were getting the wrong signal, or it was defective itself, it would not reflect the light correctly and go from dim to bright due to the angles changing on those many mirrors. Like moving your rear vision mirror a bit when an idiot behind you hasn't turned off their brights. You angle the mirror just a bit so the brightness is dimmed.

If the "Light Engine" replacement is the entire assembly, you'll not really know for certain which component of the light engine was the problem.

Yes. It flickers rapidly. So fast it's really hard to tell what's really happening. Best I could tell, it was changing intensity from bright to dark. I tried to tell if it was from color to B/W or just change in intensity but it honestly flickers too fast to even tell.

I agree on the engine. I'm not sure what if anything MITS will cover and what the light engine replacement will consist of. I know I'm not paying a ton of money out of pocket for the part thought since I had called to document this problem about 4 times while the TV was under warranty.

Keeping fingers crossed and will update what happens next..

My tv gets flickering generally in bright parts of a screen. So when playing Black Ops, they load a picture of the map that you are going to play next. One of these pictures shows a grey building and a snowy background. Only the white snowing background would flicker while the grey building would not. I beleive they say to run the bulb at normal/high brightness for a couple hours and it should take care of this. I've tried that and it doesn't seem to fix it for that long if at all. I do have a warranty but it's not bad enough for me to call. Plus sometimes it does it and sometimes it doesn't, so I may not be able to reproduce the problem while a technician is out.

Cost gets to a point of diminishing return making new LED flat screen better value.

Do you have an electricity supply problem? Are you describing what can be seen under fluorescent light on the old CRT screens especially due to the 60hz cycle in 110 volts?

I've the identical experience(Black Ops especially). I know on the older DLP's it was an "iris pumping" problem...

Source is PC/XBOX/PS3?

It's more noticeable on Xbox(shimmering on a white start-up screen).

Of course the obvious is that it is source related. Which is why I asked about source. Do you see the flickering at all if playing a bluray or over the air TV? Any flickering on the component inputs if you use them? I use mine as it works better for my cable box to use the components and RCA jacks for audio.

From what I remember(I try not to pay attention to it anymore), it's not source related; I believe it was across all platforms. I haven't used components since my 55" CRT, but I would love it to be source related!

You'll have to test it.

I have a customer with a 82838 that called because he heard a pop and the picture went out and the front light started blinking green rapidly.
I replaced the lamp with one purchased directly from Mits. Tv turned on fine and ran for 15 minutes, then the entire picture started to flicker. This went on for 2 minutes and then the TV shut off and the green light started blinking again. Uplugged the TV for 15 minutes and it turned back on. 15 minutes later the flickering started again and I shut off the TV manualy with the power button. As it was shutting off the Mitsubishi logo was flickering. I'm reasonably certain that the flickering is not source related. I've read through many of the posts in this thread and don't see a similar flickering and shut down issue. The TV is 19 months old and no extended warranty. Seems like a pretty high end TV with a big price tag to fail in such a short period of time. Any suggestions on troubleshooting or dealing with Mits would be appreciated.

If you're an authorized dealer, you ought to have some sort of channels to communicate with Mitsubishi. If you're not an authorized dealer (in which case the warranty would have been void anyway), I'd suggest calling their regular customer support line and getting a service call scheduled with a local service center.

UPDATE: received call from my dealer. Said MITS authorized repair and replacement of the Light Engine. So is the main board part of the Light Engine or is that a separate component?

Mainboard not part of light engine.

Oh boy. Well I hope the tech. got it right. He didn't do any testing (voltage readings on board etc.) other than watching the TV flicker and shut off by itself. They called to tell me the engine is ordered. Now to wait for the install..