HP PL4260N and PL5060N Owners Thread - Page 74

Anyone have any advice on this? See alot of posts about the defective YSUS board, but I had no loud pop and there is still somewhat of a picture..

Good luck man, nobody has replied to my three posts before yours and those are recent posts. Not old posts.

Yeah its kinda depressing throwing out a 42" plasma that still kinda works, but my posts on here and my google searchery isnt leading me anywhere other then spending a bunch of money for a tech to maybe fix it. Suck too, wish it was the YSUS board and I would have a nice bedroom TV.

On the bright side my Samsung PN50C490 should be in town on Thursday....

I know this is a very old post but it was exactly what I needed. I have had this TV for awhile now. I had the speakers stored and I had a 5.1 surround sound system but had to get rid of it. I couldn't find the screws but this post helped me find the correct ones. Thanks...

Sorry to hear your woes prodirtraker.

Mine's still chugging (not to rub it in), and I got it in 2007 also.

6 degrees does the trick for me too Kerflop, and on all but the sunniest of days I can keep windows unshaded.

Figured I post just to celebrate a TV that was mid-ranged priced at the time, and with a good feed (love my DirectTV dish), still gets compliments from owners of much newer LCDs. .

Hey thought I would chime in with a fix I did yesterday to my old pl4260n.
It started acting up last week going into and out of some audio menu, volume changing it's self, and then (the most annoying) constantly changing it's input. Was going to scrap it for a 240hz led (and additional credit card debt I don't need) but ended up opening it up and fixing the problem by disconnecting the wire from the system board that goes to that bank of buttons on the side of the panel (buttons I have never used). The power button still works.

I don't know about everyone else but my picture still looks as good as the day that I bought it and even though tvs like ours go for under $500 now at least they are still relevent!

I keep this thread under subscription so I get an Email any time someone posts. I'll keep that fix in mind, if my HP starts acting up and doing the same thing.

Thx.

About the only problem I've been having is that "pink snow" occasionally. And only when the TV has been on for hours on end in hot weather. I usually run the AC so it's not an issue. At it's worst it's only slightly distracting, not a major storm of static particles. And it only shows up in the blackest of black conditions, for example when a program has lots of night time scenes. When the there's colors being displayed it's not an issue at all.

I prefer a very crisp picture to a more lucid and "watery" one. So the 2d Comb filter (as apposed to a 3d one), sort of gives me what I like. Others think the picture is a tad "grainy", but I like it.

When I eventually replace it with another plasma, I'll be looking for similar PQ. Concise and sharp as apposed to fluid and bleeding.

+1 still enjoying this television set.

Purchased in 2006. May have been lucky in that early on, a high pitched whine warranty claim lead to HP changing all parts. At the time, I thought HP's response was overkill. Without me know it, I probably got the hardware update that fixed the problem that later killed a lot of these TVs. Friend of mine who bought one the same day as me, and never had hardware swapped, had his die a month before Best Buy warranty expired and got a new TV as an exchange. That's about 1.5 years ago.

PQ has remained good. The brightness is not as good as it used to be, but I have it set to 42, so I could always ramp it up if so desired.

Pink snow has been a problem in the past, but when still under Best Buy warranty, had voltage fixed a few times. Has not been an issue in two years. If snow comes back, I am liable to replace the TV because cost to repair is in the hundreds; about 50% the cost of a comparable new TV.

Nice to see I am not alone who has good things still to say about this TV.

Hmmm I see a pattern forming here.

My first set from BestBuy was defective. A narrow but prominent lime green vertical line was present in all feeds.

This set that has lasted so long was the defective ones replacement.

Anyone have a fix for the hdmi it won't receive a signal from either my ps3 or anything hdmi I throw at it no picture no audio

I'm bringing this oldpost back from the dead...

Has anyone had a problem connecting a laptop to their PL4260N via HDMI cable? I've tried two different computers and two different HDMI cables with the same result, "No Signal" on the TV. I've connected both computers to other TVs via HDMI with no issues. Any suggestions?

Don' have a fix for your HDMI problem, I connect my laptop via HDMI through another device (bose strip that handles audio/video).

I was just glad to hear from the old forum.

My 5060N is still kicking strong with a picture that continues to receive compliments. Glad a got a good one!

Could it be that the HDMI cable is too "new" a version for the TV? Try a very old HDMI cable if possible. Is the laptop outputting at a refresh rate that is too high for the TV, try 60hertz . Lastly, set the Laptop to output at the native resolution of your TV. I have the 50" version of your TV and the native is 1366x768, I forget if yours is the same.

Get compliments on mine too. Just bought a Panasonic Viera 32" for the bedroom, nice LCD, but it's just not as crisp as my old HP.

Looking back through old posts today and I think the native resoltion for the 42" is slightly lower. Check old threads for that info.

The native resolution is 1024x768. I tried that and every other resolution my laptop could display with no luck. How do I tell the difference between an old HDMI cable and a new one?

Do you use a dvd/blueray with hdmi? Try plugging your cable into one of those and see if it works. Maybe the hdmi connection on the tv is bad. Mine htpc works fine via hdmi...even if the resolution is wrong.
One other thing to try...turn off your laptop...then turn it on with the cable connected. Also look for a control panel on your laptop to make sure it's outputting to hdmi and the main screen simultaneouely. Controls for this should be in display properties, advanced....

Ps-has anyone heard of the "soap opera effect"? A lot of friends and family have been getting new 240hz leds and they have this, it's this ultra crisp almost washed out look that reminds you of the look of a soap opera. I'm sure you get used to it but I don't really care for it and I always fiddle with the features on thier sets to smooth it out a bit.
Another reason to keep rocking my technically ancient pl4260n till it officially passes away on me haha

I have a couple things plugged into the HDMI port with an auto HDMI switcher. I tried connecting through the switcher and directly to the TV with no luck.

Well I must have jinxed myself, because I'm pretty sure the old girl just croaked on me. Started flickering a snowy mix during a viewing of a DVR'd program. Thought it might be the DVR, it subsided, but in just a few minutes came back. When I power everything down, even the initializing screen has it which is isolated from the set-top box. Thought maybe it could be a bad input but if I cycle through the sources it get the same results. I can barely see what's changing in the background but there's enough that I know it's going through each source. I put a CD in my player, turned on the cable box, and cycle through everything too. Same results, brutally snowy flickering.

Any thoughts on a "fix"? Probably not, looks like I'll have to start boning up on tech stuff for a new purchase. I'm powering it down now for an extensive period of time to see if heat might be an issue, or perhaps a Gremlin might be vanquished. But it doesn't look good.

I have red sparkles (not snow) periodically and if I do the White Wash screen thing, it fixes them (while probably reducing the lifespan of the product). Not sure if this will help with your snow.

The age of my now 6 year old PL4260N is starting to show as I get a lot of temporary ghosting of images. If I open the TV guide box on screen, the shape of the box will stay against a dark screen (but not at all visible against any colour screen). This being my first plasma ever and so my first experience with an aging plasma, I wonder if this is characteristic of old plasmas or just this one in particular.

Still kicking though....

I've always had problems with the HDMI support in my 5060N. I think it was too early for LG/HP. Many HDMI sources won't work with my display ... at least they won't pass audio.

If you want to drive these sets from a modern HDMI device, you are probably best off getting an HDMI to VGA adapter. Both Sabrent and StarTech made them and they are still on the shelves of CompUSA / TigerDirect stores today. They take HDMI in and output stereo and VGA which can be broken out into component cables for feeding your HP display.

As of last Friday though, these devices have disappeared from online stores, eBay, etc. I think the ones on the shelves at retailers will be the last you will see of them. They violate the HDCP agreement and so Intel and Warner Brothers sued the makers last week.

HDCP Suit

Nonetheless, they will enable you to extend the life of your HP5060N or other older HP television if you're using more recent HDMI based Blu-Ray players, cable boxes, or whatever. The component inputs on these sets work just fine as do the RCA audio inputs. There's no reason to toss a 50"plasma display over the horrendously poor HDMI implementation.

I never ran the whitewash, but the "snow" was so bad you couldn't even see a menu.

I was getting them (red sparkle), on the darkest areas of the screen. For me it was heat, if I shut the TV down for 20 minutes they'd mostly go away. If you search back in this thread I thought there was a "fix" for the red sparkle problem. But it does entail opening the back of the set and adjusting some potentiometers.

If you're having problems with the audio feed via HDMI, why not get a cheap surround? They can be had for as little as $150.00, and include a DVD player with them. Feed your optical and RCA audio out from your cable boxes to this unit and bypass putting sound through the TV first. There's lip syncing problems sometimes, but if it extends the life of the TV that's not a bad price to pay.

If anyone's interested I preplaced the HP with this: http://www.lg.com/us/tvs/lg-60PM6700-plasma-tv

I was going to opt for a Panasonic GT series, but preferred the LG picture in the store. The fact it was less money than the Panny didn't hurt either.

Still rocking the PL4260N.

Really starting to show its age though. Image ghosting is quite bad (though very temporary) and other not unexpected problems from a 7 year old TV. Even a dead pixel.

Only posting this update out of some strange joy in being the last guy to still operate one these much-maligned sets.

Probably replacing the unit by year-end.

They were great TVs

You might want to consider an LG as a replacement. If I rememeber correctly the HPs used an LG panel at the time (although I could be wrong). The LG panels are more "crisp" than other plasma panels. Some would say they're grainy, but I prefer that type of picture over one that's more fluid or muddy. It could be because it's what I've been watching, but it seems to be what my eye happens to be attracted to.

I have no complaints so far with my LG (listed in my previous post). Very Good PQ, good Price, and I just got the apps going and they're kinda fun too.

yeah,i think so, Maybe HP learned from the previous generation TVs and aquired supported codes this time. thanks