Official Toshiba 42HP95, 42HPX95, 50HP95 & 50HPX95 Thread - Page 3

Hi All,

My 3 week old 42hp95 seems to have developed a high pitch squeal. This occurs when the set is turned off, but still plugged into the wall. When I unplug the unit from the wall, the squeal goes away entirely. The squeal seems to be loudest in the left-center area of the back of the panel.

Has anyone else experienced anything like this? The Toshiba service center seems to be closed today, but I'll call back tomorrow and post back with my experience.

I haven't experienced anything like this but it sounds like a problem with the fan. If so, that should be easily replacable under the warranty.

D

i just picked up the 42hp95 after returning a philips because of frequent BS (black screen of death).

i have timewarner and i can confirm that i had the same two issues as you.
1) tv can't seem to tune to channels that the philips found.
2) using the cablecard from the philips, i also noticed extremely slow response on the toshiba. i'm going to get a new cablecard to see if that helps. i'm not sure if i am suppose to use the same cablecard or not.

Hi,

Thanks for the suggestion, but I don't think that it's the fan that's making the sound. I can clearly hear the fan when the unit is powered on, but the fan goes quiet as soon as it is powered off. When the unit is powered off, the high pitched squeal is still there. Nevertheless, I'll call the Toshiba service dept tomorrow to see what repair options are available.

Getting my first HDTV and need some help deciding. In all I have read plus checking them out in person, I have narrowed it to the Toshiba 42HP95 and Panny 42PX60U. Seems both are good but not sure which to get. Anyone have any comparisons or suggestions??

i would say if u can get the panny for the same price as the tosh, get the panny.

panny has better picture quality, tosh has more features.

It does depend upon your needs. If you need all of the connections and gadgets then you should look into the Tosh. Otherwise, I did notice the Panny had a slightly better picture but it wasn't enough for me to fork the extra cash. Now that I have my tv home I can't imagine having a better picture!

Good luck deciding!

D

Hi,

My cablecard sluggishness seems to have disappeared! Surfing around on channels goes by quickly now, and the remote seems very responsive now in all cases. It seems to me that this sluggishness disappeared after around 48 hours after installing the cablecard. Maybe the TV just needed some time to adjust to it? (i.e. populate TV-guide info, etc.) Anyways, this particular problem seems to be resolved for me.

cool, thnx for the info. something to look forward to when i get the new cablecard.

I called Toshiba support and complained of freeze-ups with my 42HP95 and Symbio AVHD recorder and they're sending me an SD card with the latest firmware. A very knowledgeable and friendly rep named Jeremy was very helpful and patient with me. So much for Toshiba's bad customer support. I only had some issues with the TV and Symbio due to trying to connect it to multiple firewire devices including my Mac running VirtualDVHS and my Pio plasma. The firmware update is mainly for cablecard and TV guide menu issues, but since the Symbio uses the TV Guide, he authorized it. He also said that there aren't any updates for the Symbio yet in case anyone's interested.

I am on my second cable card(Motorola) from Cox Cable. The first time it didn't work, well, I should say it did not pick up the digital channels like ESPNHD, DiscoveryHD, which is why I wanted it in the first place. Toshiba cust. svc. said it was because my software version was old. So, they sent me the newest version on a SD card, I installed it. Cox came back out today with another cable card, inserted it and called the numbers in to Cox, and still not aquiring the channels. Called Toshiba again and they say it is definitely a problem with Cox's signal to the card, not the TV. Toshiba said they turned the case over to their engineering dept., who is to contact Cox's engineering dept. about this.

The Toshiba guy also talked to the Cox guy, and asked him if they had any other cable cards besides the Motorola, which Cox does not.

Is it possible to buy your own cable card that is not a Motorola? Would that be likely to help?

Thanks

Unfortunately you can't buy your own cablecard.

I had used a cablecard in my 42HP95 from November to the beginning of February with no problem. Then the cable company sent out a firmware upgrade to the cablecard and it made it uncompatible with the firmware of the TV. I updated the firmware using the SD card Toshiba sent me and it's been working correctly for a week now.

As was pointed out on the other thread for these TVs, it will stink if this is a normal cycle: cable company updates firmware on card ->card doesn't work in TV -> update firware in TV -> card working then start again. I guess we'll have to see.

-Jody

anybody want to share the picture settings?



i'm still in the break-in period.

I jumped on the 50hp95 today, after months waiting for a Panny at a good price. Fry's put it on sale today, I drove down there and they had 3 in house. I've only used it for a few hours before having to go back to work but here are my initial impressions:

1. This this is really heavy, having had at one time or another 2 42" Pannys and 1 50" Maxent this thing is a rock.

2. A lot of inputs: vga, 2 compenent, 3 composite/s-video, 1 hdmi, 2 coax, and memory card slots to boot. This thing rocks.

3. I love the stretch options, it has a comperable one to Panasonic's "Just" and it even works on 720P and 1080i inputs where the Pannys do not (*don't know for sure if the new 60u series do though)

4. As the Panny it comes from the factory in "tourch" mode known as "sports" in Toshiba land. Didn't have any time yet to play with it so I just changed every thing to "standard"

5. I like the "Auto" feature with the stretch modes. This was something my commercial Panny had but my consumer Panny did not.

6. Speakers are a little better than my Panny 50u.

7. Takes a little longer to power up than my Panny, but not that terrible.

8. The stand is huge compared to the Panny's duck feet model. both front and back stick out much farther than the panny. This makes the set much more stable than the Panny but this might be necessary due to it weighing more.

9. Remote is really wide and not very user friendly. It has a nicer blue backlight compared to the Panny's red. This isn't a huge concern because I was planning to buy a Harmony remote anyway.

10. TV guide looks interesting, jury still out on this one. It can program your VCR for you, but I don't even own a VCR anymore

11. I did a quick test of SD and HD and both preformed quite good compared to my Panasonic.

12. My take on it is that it's has the features of Panny's 600u series at a 60u price.

more to come.

what exactly does the "auto" feature do?

I changes the stretch mode depending on the input feed.

can you site an example?

cause i didn't notice anything when i turned it on and off.

Aspect ratio Automatic aspect size
of signal source (automatically selected
when Auto Aspect is On)

4:3 normal -> Natural (with sidebars)
4:3 letter box -> TheaterWide 2
16:9 full -> Full

*only works with A 480i signal from the VIDEO 1, VIDEO 2, VIDEO 3,
ColorStream HD-1, or ColorStream HD-2 input.
or a 1080i, 480i, 480p, or 720p signal from the HDMI input.

I spent more time last night auditioning the 50HP95.

The Good....
- Outstanding color and clarity every much as good as the Panasonic. Much better than the Maxent 50x3 which the toshiba is replacing using the same video sources. Even my wife noticed right away the picture was much better. For her to even notice says much about this set.
- Speakers sound very good for their size.
- Does everything very well: 480i, 480p, 720p, and 1080i

The Bad...
- there is a very noticable buzz comming from the back of my set. It is very noticeable at 2 feet and annoying in a silent room even at 6 feet. I'm hopeing it will quiet down a little after more hours on the set. I understand that most Plasma will have some electronic buzz but compared to the Maxent this thing is aleast twice if not 3x as loud. don't know if I'm going to return it yet or try to get it serviced, I really like the performance and would like to keep it if I can get this one problem addressed. Anyone else if this problem?

ASLIU--I had two Tosh 42HP95's, both of which had to be returned b/c they were defective. The second had a problem that sounds very similar to what you are experiencing. About 2 weeks after I brought it home, I came home from work and immediately noticed a constant, high pitched sound. I finally traced the sound to the back of the new TV. Like your problem, the sound persisted even if the TV was off (and was not fan related b/c it continued even if the TV had been off for hours), however, the sound did disappear when the TV was unplugged.

A service tech came out to look at the problem. When he found out my TV was still within the return policy, he recommended that I take the TV back. He did not do anything to the TV, but his theory was that the sound was a result of a part vibrating at a very high frequency. He said that the vibration may not ever cause any defect in the TV itself, however, he said it may eventually break loose, possibly causing some damage. Once again, the tech never actually looked inside the unit, this was all his theory, but I would recommend that you have someone look at it.

I started having the same problem about 2 weeks ago and keep meaning to call toshiba customer support. I unplugged the TV for a few hours and it appeared to go away, but then came back again when it was plugged in for a few hours. I'm curious about what the noise could be.

Do you have your rear cover on? I wondered if that would shield some of the noise.

The fan is a bit loud while the TV is on as well. It would be nice to get a quieter fan, but that will probably wait until after the warranty period is over.

I too replaced a Maxent MX-50X3 with the Toshiba 50HP95 and simply could not be happier. Yes, the Maxent was much quieter as it did not have a cooling fan, but it also ran a lot hotter (it would actually heat up my room by a few degrees, it was that warm). When I first turned on the 50HP95 I noticed the fan hum right away and became concerned that it might bother me. I absolutely loved everything about the Toshiba...picture, features, etc...but the first few days I was worried about this fan hum.

About 2-3 days after I had the Tosh my worries were gone...I didn't even notice the fan hum, and it was basically a non-issue. I'm not sure how many folks out there watch tv with the sound off, but I'm not one of them. If you do watch tv with no sound, well, this fan might be a problem for you. But at normal, even low volume levels, the fan noise is without a doubt a non-issue in my eyes/ears. Give it a few days, a week, and see if you feel the same. Good luck.

Cool kgreener! We must think a like

After the second day of use the noise has decreased slightly. One the first day it was about 3 times as loud as the Maxent, if I had to guess it's probably about twice as loud now. It's to a point now that I think I can live with it. I'm hoping that it will get even quieter will more use. Fingers crossed.

Having said that, I watched Episode 3 on it last knight....

Hi BillyMc - Thanks for posting your experience with this as well. I had called Toshiba tech support, and they sent out a local repair place to pick up the TV on Monday - I haven't heard back from them yet, but they said that they'd contact me in 5-10 days - I'll post back here with any new information / resolution! Unfortunately, I'm now out of the 30day return policy (bought it locally at Sears), so, hopefully the repair shop will come through!

Hi Swett - No, actually I had left the rear cover off (still playing around with a lot of connections back there). One thing that I did try was to drape a towel over the back of the TV, and that definitely reduces the noise so that I can't hear it from 8 feet away. But, that solution would probably be no good for overheating, etc. and looks ugly, so definitely would NOT fly with the wife

I agree that the fan that spins up when the TV is a bit louder than I'd like, but that has a sound that is a lot more dull, and lower pitched. I find that as soon as some real content is going on the TV, I don't seem to notice it anymore.

I agree. The worst part about the whining is that its always there, even when the TV is off.

I had considered putting some egg carton style foam back there to absorb both types of sound, but first I'll see what Toshiba does for me.

Question regarding firmware...

I've heard that there are firmware updates available for this series. Does anyone have any ideas what it actually fixes? Is there any way to obtain the upgrade from, say, the internet (and simply use a memory card to load it)?

Is it even worth looking at?

There was an earlier report of a Cablecard issue which required a firmware update. That's all I heard.

toshiba is sending me the firmware upgrade via mail. i heard it will arrive in the form of an sd card. i have an issue with the cablecard and tv guide working together. no loud fan noise though.

Heh, I'm not actually having any real problems...but sometimes, new firmware means new features. I certainly didn't want to miss out on anything like that.