2011 Mitsubishi DLP WD-73640 official thread - Page 52

If the image is letterboxed AND pillarboxed at the same time then your local station took a SD version YES A SD VERSION of The Office and put it on a HD (720p or 1080i) broadcast. They added the letterbox and pillarbox bars. The equpiment they used to do this is most likely the cause of your issue, not the TV. The TV is just showing what the local broadcaster did to the content. If your TV looks good when viewing a real HD program on a 1080i station (like CBS) or a 720p station (like ABC) and only looks bad on these weird conversions on those stations, it is the station not the TV at fault.

If you want to know the quality of the TV conversion, then you have to send the TV native resolution - in short when watching a SD TV program on a SD TV station, press INFO on the TV remote. If it is native resolution it should read 480i. If it reads anything else then conversion is happening outside of the TV. The quality of the conversion will be affected by where the conversions are happening.

I fully understand all that. But I never noticed the interlaced-looking problems on my other sets when stations did similar nonsense... only reason why I brought it up.

I know for a fact that some TV stations, up convert only one field per frame, to 'save disk space'....

Those will be the one's who look worst.

As others have noted this is just sloppy work at the broadcaster. Even if you have a very high quality outboard video processor you will see this lousy SD on HD stuff it is not the TV. The big display size it makes it worse so in that sense the TV adds to the problem, you are just getting a big zoom on something ugly. The TV did not not make it ugly, just harder to overlook.

I noticed that Dell again has the 73C11...which is the same as the 73640 at $999.

That may be true but I never saw these deinterlacing errors on my SXRD, which at 60" I would not consider too small to notice said issue.

I've tried numerous times to flash 13.06 firmware and it won't work. I was able to successfully flash 13.04 several months ago when it was released. I'm following the instructions in there exact order. I've also tried formatting my usb stick several times and have re-downloaded the firmware several times as well.

The first time I flashed the procedure actually went exactly as stated in the instructions and I got the message that the update was successful. Upon turning the TV on again when I go to the menu it says the firmware is still 13.04.

On all subsequent attempts when I plug the TV in with the USB stick in the port I get the flashing green light for about a minute and then the green light goes out and nothing happens. After another 4 minutes I hear a click (like how it sounds when it goes on) but it doesn't go on. If I unplug and plug back in (after waiting 15 seconds) the exact same series of events happens.

If I remove the USB stick and then plug back in the TV turns on as normal but is stuck on the 13.04 firmware.

EDIT: The update finally took but when the TV turned back on showing 13.06 firmware on the menu, instead of a blue background when the Mitsubishi logo displayed the background was green. The picture also then had a totally green tint to it. I turned it off and then on again and experienced the same result.

So then I held the power button down for 10 seconds on the front panel to to reset it, and the green light stayed blinking for 10 minutes and failed to turned on. I've unplugged, waiting a minute and plugged back in multiple times and just get the blinking green light. If I plug back in with the USB drive in the slot to try to re flash I also get just the blinking green light.

Can anyone give me some advice?

Make sure you include the text file on the drive. No clue beyond that format extract the two files to the drive.

Thanks for the tip. I did in fact have both files in the zip extracted onto the USB card.

Now its worse unfortunately...here is where I'm at now:

The update finally took but when the TV turned back on showing 13.06 firmware on the menu, instead of a blue background when the Mitsubishi logo displayed the background was green. The picture also then had a totally green tint to it. I turned it off and then on again and experienced the same result.

So then I held the power button down for 10 seconds on the front panel to to reset it, and the green light stayed blinking for 10 minutes and failed to turned on. I've unplugged, waiting a minute and plugged back in multiple times and just get the blinking green light. If I plug back in with the USB drive in the slot to try to re flash I also get just the blinking green light.

Had the same problem with mine except purple instead of green.

Apparently the light engine data can get corrupted during an update.

If you can get the TV to turn on and get a picture, perform the following with the MITS remote...

Menu, 2,4,5,7 then 0. Use arrow keys to highlight "Restore engine data from backup" if not already highlighted, press enter. This will restore your previous settings.

If you can't get past the blinking green light call MITS service as you may need a replacement mother board as I did.

Thanks for chiming in. Unfortunately I can't get past the blinking green light. I jumped the gun by holding down the power button while having the greenish screen. Wish I could have restored the engine data when it was still turning on. Oh well...that's what my fall back Samsung 40" LCD is for - its sooooo small!!! I did actually call Mitsubishi yesterday and an advisor should be calling me today. I'm under warranty so hopefully they can get a tech out her this week to replace whatever component failed which sounds like its most likely the motherboard. I'll post my results here.

I wouldn't hold out for them calling you. Call them again today.

You were right. 3:30 PM rolled around and no call from them...what a surprise!

I called them back and then transferred me to a level 2 tech. They scheduled a service appointment for next Tuesday the 24th. They said they have to have a new motherboard shipped from California and they want the tech to come out with the part in hand. I'm in New Jersey. I want that the tech to have the part with him when he comes too, but it sucks having to wait a week. And of course since they didn't take care of it earlier today now the part won't ship until tomorrow. I almost want to call them back and bitch and complain and tell them overnight the motherboard so I can get someone out here this week.

I'm sticking to 13.04 for a while...it still looks fine to me.

Keep in mind that they are in California, 3:30pm your time is still 12:30pm thier time, they still would have 1/2 of the day and I am sure other cases as well. They still might have contacted you before the end of their business day. However they still contacted a local service company for you and created a scheduled sevice call.

Amazing that you could "brick" the MB doing a FW upgrade. Who designed this set? Oh wait it's a Mits.

I highly suggest you do too. I had NO problems till 13.06 and now I watched hockey this weekend it was stuttering while panning. I also noticed because of the white ice, the screen looks like it is pushed out in the center like a spindle. Gonna called Mits later in the week, don't have time right now to deal with this. More pissed that I "fixed" something that wasn't broken before. (Except the screen problem, which is probably an easy fix.)

You might want to copy the restore intructions for the repair folks. MITS doesn't ship instructions with the new part and it might save the repair folks some angst figuring out why your picture is off color.

Good call. I'll be sure to let the tech know how to restore the light engine data from backup, via the service menu.

On a side note, I did calibrate the advanced menu using an Eyeone LT colorimeter. Does the motherboard being replaced impact my calibration or do you think I can reuse the settings that originally calibrated? How about restoring light engine date and/or upgrading to 13.06 - will this impact the calibration?

Both the "Save To Back UP" and "Restore from Back UP" options are in the same service menu as the manual geometry. I do not which is which but I have seen these there.

Don't know for sure but I imagine if you backed up the settings through the repair menu they should be brought back during the restore of the light engine.


FYI, prior to the mother board replace I had the MITS logo on a blue background during startup and now its on a black background. Why, I don't know, but its different.

Did you write down your calibration settings? They should work fine.

V13.06 firmware here....
Last night we had a strange issue with the 73640:

Using remote, turned it on. Came on, then went off.. Turned it on again....
It ran for a few hours normally, and when it was time to go to bed, hit power button on remote... Light on Remote came on indicating that a button had been hit... Nothing happened....

What followed was a test of: "What works -- What doesn't?" Favorites works, Info works, volume works, but channel doesn't, power off doesn't, nor does video adjust... and so on.... Tried new batteries in Remote.. Still won't turn off via remote.

Since unit was still on with picture, I didn't want to pull plug... that's too brute force....
But when I hit the POWER button on the DLP, it ACTED as if the light tuned off....... but when I looked at the lamp behind the unit... Lamp was still on, though screen was pitch black.... Not dark--Pitch Black... (That's why I though lamp had turned off).

I decided to wait it out..... About 3 min later, lamp did go off... and then the cool down cycle began.... When that finished..... I waited 30 seconds and pulled the plug...

Waited 30 seconds and plugged it in again.... It came up as normal, with the remote issuing all the commands as usual....

As I type this....I've tested the DLP via remote today.... and it is back to working normally.....

???????????

More info.... The Circuit breaker panel has a whole house Surge Protector installed.
In the 'Theatre' area, there is a UPS with a brute force RFI/EMI/Surge filter on all the AC outlets. None of the DVR's (LG3410a) lost their time (TVG Disabled, so any power interruption causes time change)... Programmable modulator (another unit that is finicky about power) still working fine.... No issues on any other computer based (and there are many in this house) appliances....
The only item that acted strange recently was the 73640.

A couple of days after I bought this set the remote did the same thing to me. Some keys worked others didn't. There is a reset method regarding the remote in the manual.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...1#post21304571

I hate to keep bringing up this point --- but just as an FYI, I noticed the same thing again... though this time on a BD.

It was a forced preview which was standard def (I think it was actually behind-the-scenes-footage that may have been up-resed). I believe Peter Jackson was waving his hand around, and you could see really nasty, horizontal, interlaced lines.

Pretty sure I never noticed this type of thing in my 61" LCoS.

Honestly, I'd be a little bit happy if the TV wasn't handling the interlaced footage perfectly --- a sign of manufacturers not caring about old and outdated video content might also be a sign of progressing past old tech.... As long as it isn't in my SD dvds.

* come to think of it, I've watched a few SD DVDs recently and don't remember seeing this problem. I wonder if it's specifically interlaced AND upresed stuff. Or maybe it really is baked into the material, and I just happened to never notice it before in my 61" TV.

Again --- not looking to incite arguments. Actual HD material looks wonderful on the set now. Just something to talk about.

You are not alone. I have seen it on what I would consider low production value local TV commercials but recently I noticed it in some DVD scenes. The other night I noticed it badly in several scenes of 60 Minutes:

Here's another one from 60 minutes

That's exactly it... good catch.

It is now $949. I am thinking of ordering one, any opinions on this model? The reviews are very positive.

This whole thread is about opinions on that model.