Toshiba 50HM66, 56HM66 Discussion - Page 35

I have owned my 50hm66 for about a year and a half now. I have been very pleased with its performance, especially with HD DVD and Blu-ray.

Last weekend, I was watching "my name is earl" and the picture just went out, with no warning or sound. The LED lights that blink on the front suggested the lamp was not working. I ordered another lamp, had it delivered the next day. Put in new lamp and still didn't work.

Called Toshiba, since it is past the one year warranty, nothing they could do. Just gave me a number for a repair shop and told me good luck.

I don't know how many hours I had on the tv, but I work two jobs, and only watch a little late at night or on weekends, so it can't be that many.

Guess I won't buy toshiba anymore. I think my next one may be LCD RPTV by sony.

Finally blew this past weekend. Over 6000 hours on the bulb, I'll get exact numbers when the new one gets here and I can check. Can I reset that info?

Got my new one from eBay today. $197.40 shipped. Seller has their own 6month warranty (does not rely on manufacturer). I forgot how bright this thing is when it's new. Now, on low power, it's brighter than it was on high bright before it blew. Everything is so much brighter, it's nice. I had to change my settings again to get back to a good normal view. Can't wait to get back to playing 360 on this now that classes are almost over.

BTW, here's a pic showing all my stats on the previous bulb. I'm not displeased with the bulb life, made it appx 16 months from the day it was set up.

Tech came out to my house friday and and the tv turned on. However there was the telltale shadow wedge which confirmed the problem was a light engine. He said they extended the recall on this model.

When I first bought the tv I checked the serial number on toshiba website and it said it was not one of the affected models. After the tech mentioned the extended recall, I checked again, and now it says that my tv is one of the affected models and will replace the light engine.

Waiting to hear from tech after he talks to toshiba. It would be nice to get if fixed free, but the still sucks about the wait time. 3 weeks without tv and counting.

Got mine back from the LE replacement. Took approx.6 weeks for the part. I called and prodded Tosh. weekly.

Free fix=+1

Time for parts on a 2yr old tv=-1

Pissed w/o the TV due to a Man. defect

Glad to have it back.

My lamp finally blew, yesterday, after almost exactly a year. I bought my TV refurb, though, so it's not exactly a surprise.
Having never seen a lamp go bad, before, I didn't ever think that the flickering on startup, the longer time to full brightness, etc. were indicators of the lamp dying. In retrospect, it was easy to spot.
Ordered my lamp from Tritronics. $227 + tax (since I'm in MD). Should be delivered in a couple days.

I own a Toshiba 50HM66 and I was wondering is there a way to do overscan compensation on the TV or display 1:1 pixels or full pixels? I subtitle my DVD movies for my deaf mother and when i play the movies either on the DVD player or my Playstation 3, the top and bottom are cut off, including some of the subtitles.

I compensating for this by add black borders to my movies on the top and bottom in Avisynth. I think it is called letterboxing by some. This is the amount of pixels I use:

addborders(add pixels left side,top,right side, bottom, border_color)

1920 x 1080 addborders(0,24,0,24,color_black)

1280 x 720 addborders(0,20,0,20,color_black)

1024 x 576 addborders(0,18,0,18,color_black)

848 x 480 addborders(0,18,0,18,color_black)

848 x 496 addborders(0,18,0,18,color_black)

720 x 480 addborders(0,18,0,18,color_black)

704 x 400 addborders(0,14,0,14,color_black)

704 x 396 addborders(0,14,0,14,color_black)

So is there a way I can prevent overscan on the Toshiba 50HM66? I haven't found anything on the service menu using the remote.

I don't think so. I posted the service menu information many pages back. You can adjust vertical and horizontal position,but not size.

A friend of mine's 50HM66 just died on him. I'll have to look into the recall status...

He just bought a new bulb for it before knowing that wasn't the problem. Anyone want a brand new bulb for less than brand new cost? PM me.

How does one access the service menu on the 50HM66 using the remote?

EDIT: answer here

Hey all,

Long-time lurker, first time poster...

I have a Toshiba 50HM67 that just stopped displaying video through all the inputs. I'm getting a steady blue light on the front and I can see the on-screen menus just fine. I even get the closed captioning in a text box. I'm also still getting sound to the TV from the HDMI connections (both cable box and DVD player)

Unfortunately I'm not getting any video. At all. PC/VGA, Composite, HDMI, all of my inputs just show a black screen.

This doesn't seem like a lamp/bulb issue because I see the on-screen menus fine and I'm getting just a normal steady blue light on the front of my TV.

Any guesses out there as to what it could be?

Another issue: I'm currently 1 month and 10 days over my 1-year warranty. I called up Toshiba and their service guy seemed optimistic that I could get a warranty extension if I faxed in my receipt and a cover letter explaining my situation. Does anyone here have any experience with this kind of scenario? Any tips?

Thanks all, any advice would be much appreciated.

I own the Toshiba 50hm66 (bought it Nov 2006) and the lamp went last week. TV went black and got the blue and yellow blinking light indicator. Ordered a new lamp, installed it and the picture looked great for a couple of days and then I got the indicator that something was wrong with the lamp again and the picture went black. I heard about these tv's having an issue with the light engine and I checked my serial # on the toshiba website but is not on the recall list. Any advice? I am going to call Toshiba and ask them about it. May also be an issue with the new lamp I got from electrified.com ($145.00 plus tax).

It's hard to say, but you could have just been unlucky enough to have picked up a bad new lamp. It does happen. First try re-seating the lamp. If it's still a no go, see if you can get it exchanged for another lamp. Or, buy another one. If it does it again, it's probably a bad ballast.

Spoke to Toshiba and they said to take the lamp out and tap it on the back and sides to get the mercury flowing, then put back in and see. Did that but still not working. I am now sending it back to the company I bought from and they are going to send a replacement. I hope it works and this is not a bigger issue. I bought the generic version of the lamp also and wondering if it would be better to invest in the original and spend a little more money. I could ask the company to send me the original and pay them a little more. What do you think? Sorry I am stupid when it comes to this stuff but what is a ballast and is that easily fixed?

The ballast controls the amount of electricity going to the lamp. I've never replaced it on this particular model of TV, but it's not difficult on a Samsung DLP. However, it is not an end-user task. In other words, if it is the ballast, a service call would probably be required.

You said that with the second lamp the TV went black and you received the LED indicating something was wrong. Did you try to turn the TV back on? (I assume you did.) When you attempted to turn it back on, did the TV do anything?

Again, it's probably just a faulty lamp.

If I had a choice between OEM and after-market, I'd go for the OEM (original equipment manufacturer) lamp. There may have been some slight re-design of the OEM that the after-market is not replicating.

This is what I bought:

TOSHIBA Y66-LMP New

It is a new g series OEM equivalent replacement lamp for my toshiba model. Heard anything bad about these? $50 more for the Factory Original OEM which would be worth it if it gives me better results.

I did attempt to turn the tv back on and the picture came back for a few seconds but then went black again and I got the indicator. During the process of the 8 time retry it does, the pic would come back again for a few seconds and then go black again. When I first installed the new lamp the picture looked like it did when I first bought the tv which was awesome. The next night I got the bad lamp indicator but the picture did come back during the 8 time retry and I was able to watch a DVD. The next night though is when it completely stopped working except the few seconds during the 8 time retry i mentioned above. Don't know if all this tells you anything but let me know. Just have to wait for the next lamp to come now.

I still think it's the lamp...but ballast is a close second. And I would pay extra for the OEM as opposed to the "OEM equivalent".

Sent the lamp back and called them to request the factory original. They are going to send it. Hopefully I will get it by Friday. Also, I have the power strip the tv is plugged into turned off right now which will reset everything on the tv once I turn that on I believe. Besides keeping lamp on low, and the color, brightness, and contrast down, anything else you recommend to save lamp energy? I assume it is best to install the lamp first and then turn the power strip back on? Thanks for your assistance.

I don't think so.


The single most important thing you can do to preserve lamp life is to limit power cycles. It is generally accepted that total hours burn time is much less important than how many times the lamp has been struck by that ballast in order to fire it up.


Well, no need in turning on the the TV until the lamp is installed, right? You shouldn't even try to to replace the lamp while the TV is on, the circuit breaker wouldn't let you anyway. So, in a word, yes, install the lamp, then return power to the TV.

Please let us know if this resolves your problem.

Ok I have a 50hm66 and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. When it doesn't the tv shutsoff 8 time then flashes the red light which means there is a problem with the bulb. So I ordered another bulb and guess what? I still did not work. But if I unplug the tv a couple of times sometimes it will come on with a perfect picture, it may stay on for a couple minuted or a couple of hours there is no telling once we get it to come on.

At first I thought it was the light engine but I dont have that top shadow on my tv so I think that has been ruled out. So as I write this I now have the OLD bulb in and the tv is working fine.

Has anyone has this problem? I am trying to find a serviceman to come and look at it but as soon as I tell them I have changed the bulb they want to take the set in (which is $120, if I take it to them it is on $80).

Is it possible a transformer inside might be going bad?

Thanks
Dan

The fact that you don't have the shadow doesn't rule out the light engine. It only means that your light tunnel (just one part of your light engine) is not collapsing.

While your problem could be a multitude of things, it could be as simple as a bad power supply or failing ballast, but it could be as nefarious as a bad board. I'm not smart enough to tell you how to diagnose or fix either of these problems.

In a nutshell, since you've ruled out the lamp, a service call is your best bet. Unless, that is, you're very good with electronics and willing to possibly waste some money by replacing parts that don't need replacing.

Just installed the factory original lamp tonight and the tv is working now. Of course when I installed the last one, the tv started having issues again after a day. I am keeping my fingers crossed that the problem is solved this time. I will keep you posted.

Please do. Your experience here will likely benefit someone else. If it turns out to be a lesson learned by purchasing an "after-market" lamp, then so be it. But please note that all (even OEM) lamps can go bad early.

Well, my lamp finally blew out 4 days before the 2 year anniverdary of my 56hm66 purchase. attached I have a photo or the lamp hours, how does it compare to others out there? Did I get good life out of this lamp? They came out and replaced the y66 lamp with a y67 lamp. All seems well.

Did a search but didn't come across anything. My Toshiba 56HM66 does not always recognize the signal coming into the the tv via the HDMI input. For example, if I turn the DVD player on and then change the input to the appropriate HDMI input it shows a blank screen. Video portion is connected directly to the tv from the DVD player. But, if I then turn the DVD player off and then power it back on the signal is shown on the tv.

Overall, a minor quirk which has been a good tv. It is two years old and no issues and still have the original bulb. Although, it is starting to dim so I turned it to the high setting so it will need to be replaced soon.

With all of the issues, I went ahead and bought the extended warranty through Best Buy. Do you think this HDMI input error could be corrected via software update?

I could be wrong, but I would imagine this is expected. Your set is not monitoring the port for an HDCP handshake until it is switched to the HDMI input. If the player is already on before the TV is switched to the HDMI input, then the introduction has already taken place and the TV missed it. You should switch the TV to the HDMI input first, then turn on the DVD player.

I occasionally have a similar problem with the TV not seeing my DVD via HDMI, though I don't think it depends on whether the DVD is turned on first. As a back-up, my DVD is also connected via component. I think the HDMI "handshake" issue is a known issue with the format in general. If anyone has a good link that talks about is more, feel free to post!

Well, five days and the tv is still going. Hopefully it just was a faulty lamp with the first replacement. We'll see.

Seems that around two yrs is the common lifespan for these lamps. Mine went around the the 2 yr anniversary as well. Really don't like that but oh well. Got the same one you bought in my 50hm66 now. Going to keep the lamp power set to low and will hopefully get more longevity out of it.

I'm trying to help my mother out ... any suggestions?


I replaced the lamp on this unit the 56hm66 and now the tv will only turn on once in awhile....most of the time they get the Blinking Yellow LED in the front panel section indicating a lamp issue.


Any suggestions? What can I do? I've tried to "reseat" the lamp several times..... I'm running out of Ideas?????