Official Polaroid TLX-04240B (42" 1080p LCD) Owner's Thread - Page 9

Could someone please help. I'm a noob at LCD TVs. After reading through this whole thread, I'm glad that some people got VGA to display 1080p. However, when I connected my laptop via VGA, I couldn't even see 1080 as one of the resolution choices. I get these:
800x600
1024x768
1280x768
1280x1024
1400x1050
1600x1200
1920x1200
2048x1536

VGA cable is that blue head cable that you usually use to connect from the monitor to the computer right? How do I get 1080 to display? I'd be happy with 1080i.

1920x1200

I think anyways. Computer monitors are 16:10, your TV is 16:9

Thanks for the quick response stevew75. I couldn't get anything above 1400x1050. Every time I choose something above that, the LCD said "No Signal" and the screen goes blue.

Is it because of my graphic card or the driver that I'm using?

hmm...
I've been wondering about this for a while... is it TRULY full HD?

A friend of mine has a smaller set. Just a few inches. I think his is 37.
Anyway, I was watching our local CBS News, which is in HD, and it looks
different on his set than on mine.

His image is... wider. You can see more of the image from the left
and right margins.

Hey guys - have had this set since Black Friday, and recently (past month or so) when I turn it on the sound comes on, but no screen. I Have to turn it off and on - sometimes 2 or 3 times before the picture actually comes up. Doesnt happen all the time, just randomly. Anyone else seeing this? What could it mean?

Thanks!

New to the list. My picture went blank about a week ago, phoned support, need a new control box, none in stock waiting for shipment, could be 2 - 4 weeks, i was told a sears repairmen would then come and install it. Called Wal mart about exchanging it, all stores do not carry this item anymore, only for the thanksgiving sale, could get my money back, hassle.Phoned Polaroid Head Office, given another # to call , they are going to ship me another one,Fed Ex, coming tomorrow, pleased with the service, very pleasent, no problems.

thats how mine was, then no picture, only sound, told it was the control box, none in stock, waiting for shipment, from China, i guess.

Mine too, just waiting on the part - otherwise happy with the set.

I ended up returning my $800 Black Friday special because of a pixel that wouldn't stop glowing green. Spent $1600 on a 46" Samsung and am satisfied. Good luck with your sets.

Hey all, I've owned this set since Black Friday and have been adjusting it since. First thing I did was hook up my xbox360 via the vga cable and set the resolution to 1920x1080. It accepted it and resized and I'd get a little message in the corner saying "VGA 1920x1080 @60Hz". Games looked great, and it seeme to run just fine. I didn't have access to a 360 HD-DVD addon drive at the time, so I couldn't test 1080p movies, but I did hook up my Toshiba HD-A2 I'd picked up from walmart a couple weeks before, and movies looked fantastic on it. This set does make the difference between upconverted DVDs and HD-DVDs very noticeable, something that my old RCA crt hdtv did not. HD content from Cox digital cable was decent, but I think that's attributed more to their compression than to the set. I've since gotten a good deal on the LG HD-DVD/Blu-Ray drive and am building an HDHTPC right now, which is currently hooked up to this tv at a resolution of 1080p. I had to do the 50Hz trick using powerstrip, but it works beautifully, with a perfect desktop. Once my HD2600 gets in (hopefully tomorrow) I'll do some testing with HD-DVD and Blu-Ray and see how it looks. (The processor on this computer is a 3.0GHz P4 - it can't handle 1080p content on its own.) I haven't investigated the "advanced" menu yet, but might. Will update later, and if anyone has any questions, I'll do what I can to answer.

I do! lol.

check out my previous post:


hmm...
I've been wondering about this for a while... is it TRULY full HD?

A friend of mine has a smaller set. Just a few inches. I think his is 37.
Anyway, I was watching our local CBS News, which is in HD, and it looks
different on his set than on mine.

His image is... wider. You can see more of the image from the left
and right margins.

Well Im glad there is a forum discussion on this TV. We purchased the TV at Wal-mart on BF as well. I was satisfied with it up until tonight. I came home and the wife said the TV screen went black but the sound was still on and that she cut it off and turned it back on. Worked fine for about 10 mins and did it 2 more times. Seemed Ok after that started reading the forums got to page 5 and in the middle of our show it did the same thing after cutting it on and off 3 or 4 times the screen remains black but the sound is still working. I unplugged it and tried again let it cool down for about 20 mins So it looks like Im without a TV for a bit! Oh and from day 1 there was always one white pixel in the middle 4 inches up that irritated me. Should I try taking it back to Wal-mart or call the manufacturer? If I get my money back Im gonna go with at least a 50" or bigger!

Well we ended up calling and they sent us a part took a few days not to bad. Then in the box you have to call a number and set up a apointment with Sears. 2 Weeks from today. So I took the new part (3 plugs easy as crap) put the new one in walla it works perfect. 25 mins go by and same ****! Do I call the people and tell them that my new box is screwd up or wait it out for the repair man in 2 weeks and let him reinstall my broke box? I dont want the warranty to be void but it doesnt take a rocket scientist to change 3 plugs. What do I do? Do they care if we install it?

Ok, so I bought this TV on black friday and recently the screen started to turn black. So I called the Polaroid support and they sent me a part and then a technician came a couple of days later and exchanged it. The tv works fine now, except for one thing. The resolution has become way worse. This is very clear when I play the PS3 on it and also when I plug my laptop into the TV. Before the repair the screen was flawless, everything was crystal clear, texts where sharp etc. But now things aren't as sharp and clear as they were before. When I plugged my laptop in before the screen on the TV looked _exactly_ the same as on my laptop screen, and now it's way worse... I'm gonna call them again tomorrow and complain and hopefully they will fix it.
It feels like when they are supposed to fix the tv it's not supposed to get worse than it was before...

Well after 3 boxes installed on my tv it's finally working fine. I just hope that it doesnt screw up when the warranty goes out.

Oh, joy. I called them today, and all of a sudden they need proof of purchase before they can help me (weird since I already got a spare part and a repair done without it). Of course I can't find the damn receipt and I bought it with my bank card which is swedish, so the only proof I have that I bought it is in Swedish. Hopefully they'll accept it though. Tried to fax them the statement and it wouldn't go through, so instead I called the fax number I got and this lady answers and says that they've had trouble with their fax machines. Trouble trouble trouble...

Hey guys, new to this whole forum, so go easy on me. I recently purchased a Del XPS desktop, and wanted to use this set as the monitor. I had been reading some earlier posts in this forum, which kinda made me a bit concerned. Anyway, I connected the comp to the set using a DVI to HDMI cable, and the screen looks very clear.

The computer is running a nVidia 8800GT video card, which I adjusted to 1920x1080. All I had to do was hit the TV's remote aspect button, and change it to full screen.

Like I said, im new to this whole a/v world, so I dont know if im missing something. I know a lot of people on this blog have been talking about scaling, which my graphics card gives 4 options,
-Use NVIDIA scaling,
-use NVIDIA scaling with fixed aspect ratio,
-use my display's built in scaling, or
-do not scale.
I have tried all of these options, with the defaut being the display's built in scaling. I have not really seen any differences. Does anyone have any recommendations?

Thank in advance.

Adam

Anybody still checking into this thread?
Trying to get the Polaroid code to program my Marantz remote.
Any ideas?
Thanks
Mark

Yeah, I am. Try this code: 11758. If that does not work, try: 01758 or 00647. According to my cable box remote, the code is 11758, but I have experience with this remote (not good) and it sometimes misleads me (in the ways implied by the numbers I indicated). But I'd put money that it is 11758, which just reflects the fact that, underneath, it is really a Vizio box. If it does work, I am sure other folks would appreciate confirmation of that fact, here.

Did you ever get any response on this? I've been trying everything I could think of to do the same edits, but no luck.

Regards,
MV

Ever get any response on this? I've been trying everything I could think of to make similar input list edits, but no luck so far...

MV

There is no (known) way to do this, and given the lack of such a facility in the OEM equipment from which this model was cloned, I suggest that there simply isn't any provision for the desired function whatsoever, even in the service menus.

Hello All,

Well, I just got a Polaroid 42 inch lcd, model number TLX-04244 1080 p.

Is this the one that you guys got? Anyways, I'm in San Diego and have COX cable. I screwed in the cable line, plugged the TV in and realized the picture is really grainy. What do I do now? Whats this HDMI thing? Please help. This is my first LCD and I am VERY disappointed. I was expecting a much better picture. Is there something I am doing wrong? Do I need to program anything? I did program the channels, but dang, the picture sucks. Also, I cant program my cable remote to use with this tv. I cant find any codes. I looked at this whole thread. Any help would be appreciated!

Thanks.

--John

I also purchased this set from Wal-Mart. Very disappointed with the picture. It is grainy/fuzzy. Please let me know if anyone has a solution to this.

It's not the same, but it's close enough to answer your questions. In fact, the answers to your questions don't depend on which LCD HDTV you have.


First, slow down. Take a deep breath. It's going to be OK. You are going to love the picture when you get it working. There's not that much you have to do, but you do need to learn a little bit about HDTV and picture formats (such as 1080i and 1080p). I can't teach you all that you need to know here, but elsewhere on AVSFORUM you will find everything you need to read to learn the minimum that you need to know.

Your experience is typical. HDTVs simply shouldn't -- or typically aren't -- plugged into a cable TV system's cable "raw" (as apparently you did). In many cases (I don't know about Cox) there simply aren't going to be any HD channels available for the ATSC tuner in the TV to find on the raw (RF) cable. Most of the time you will have to have a STB (set top box ... i.e., a "cable box") that is capable of picking up the (usually) digitally-encoded HD channels and passing them onto your TV (usually via an HDMI cable or a set of component cables). It may, in fact, be the case that there are some HD channels being sent out by Cox on the RF cable, unscrambled, that your TV can "tune." But they are likely not to be the HD channels you want to watch in the first place (such channels are most likely to be your local TV stations).

In short, you want to get a cable box and pay Cox for its digital channel lineup, and then also pay Cox extra for their "HD service" (whatever they call it). Then your cable box can select the HD channels offered and send them to your TV. But you have to hook the cable box up to your TV the right way in order to get HD (1080i as it turns out) video sent to it in the first place. You have two choices: component cables or an HDMI cable. For ordinary cable TV (which does not have the quality of a Blu-Ray disc), component cables (which consists of three [or five with audio] separate cables) will be just fine, but a set is just as expensive as a single HDMI cable and you only need the one HDMI cable (assuming your Cox STB has an HDMI output in the first place -- if not, you will have to use component cables). You should now understand that you don't hook your TV up to the STB via the ordinary RF cable that you apparently thought you could. (You can, but you're not going to get what you bought the TV for.)

The technical details can get thick from this point on, so I will not go there, now. If you still don't understand, respond and I (or others) will try to help. But you simply need to get a Cox STB with whatever extra cost options they have to offer digital and HD service, and connect the STB to your new TV with a set of component cables or a single HDMI cable. Once you have done that, you need to configure the STB to send an HD signal (which will be 1080i, I suspect) to your TV, and you need to configure the TV to display that signal in the proper aspect ratio.

When you have done all that, the picture will look like those demos in the stores (provided you have the STB tuned to a good HD channel, such as Discovery HD Theatre).

That "HDMI thing" is just a single cable that carries a digital TV signal (with audio) from a source (such as a Blu-Ray disc player or your cable system's STB) to the TV. It's better than component cables in some ways, no more expensive (I suggest monoprice.com if you are going to buy online) than a good set of component cables, and simpler to keep straight and hook up. When you get a Blu-Ray disc player, you will hook it up to your TV via an HDMI cable (or you should, anyway). Just get two HDMI cables now, use one for the new STB you're going to get and save the other one for later when you get a Blu-Ray disc player.

I don't have any clue what the remote code is for that particular model, but I found mine by using the remote's "search" function, which yours should have as well (don't they all?). It took about a minute to do so, but I'm pretty fast with my fingers and was able to stop the button pressing when the TV went off. It's probably similar or identical to the one I posted just above in this thread (read back a few posts to see that), but if it's not identical, you will have to search for it like everybody else probably did.

WB

I don't know what you're doing that causes this, but it will be everything you expected when you get it hooked up properly, with a good source of HD program material. Since you did not indicate how, EXACTLY, you connected the TV to your source material, nor what that source was (Cable TV system's Set Top Box [STB], Blu-Ray disc player, an over-the-air ATSC TV RF signal cable, whatever), neither I nor anybody else can even begin to help you.

But you will love it when you get it setup and configured properly (but this includes configuring the source as well -- both have to be setup correctly to get a full 1080i or 1080p HD signal in the proper aspect ratio displayed).

So ... provide details, please. EXACTLY what do you have and how did you connect it? EXACTLY.

WB

Regarding the remote codes. This Polariod model is the same as a Vizio model, so if there are any codes for Vizio you might try those to see if they work.

I'm new to HDTV, but I'm a techno geek, so no need for mono-syllabic words..

Just bought this TV (Polaroid TLX 04243B). That model number doesnt exist on the interwebs, but it looks like a clone of the TLX 04240B talked about here. I understand that this is a cheap LCD. I dont expect a $3K Sony picture.

My questions are more about how to make this TV look its best.

Got it installed last night. Wired it up to the STB using component cables
(5 cables - YPbPr1) and the HD looks awesome (display popup shows 1080i).
I havent yet fiddled with the contrast/bright/hue/saturation/etc settings
too much. Overall the color looks pretty good. Watched HD football and HD LotR and both looked amazing.

The Standard 480i channels however have a lot of ghosting around the edges of the images. There is also a some blurring and ghosting around letters especially. QVC is a good example of this. The lettering at the bottom hazes around the edges.

Honestly, I expect some artifacts considering it's enlarging an STD image to 42 inches, but what I'm seeing seems extreme. My GF has a Panasonic 52inch plasma and the same channels look crisp and sharp. I know, I'm comparing apples and oranges, but its the only other TV I have regular access to thats even close to mine. The next nearest is a 32 inch FlatGlass CRT by RCA.


What types of settings affect these types of problems? ghosting/haze around images and letters?

Would an HDMI cable improve the HD or STD picture much over a Component setup?

Is there a good source of information describing the functions available in the factory menu? (Hold Down Vol + Down Channel) and is fiddling with these settings required for a nice picture or to address the issues I mentioned?

Lastly, is there a recommended "calibration" disc I should look into buying/downloading? or is all that calibration stuff a load of hooey?


Thanks in advance for any information. I dont mind RTFM, I just cant seem to find anything other than this thread.

Here's the best "calibration" disc I have found: DVE HD Basics Blu-ray (REGION FREE VERSION). They have an HD version as well, in addition to the original DVD version for NTSC that left my mouth watering for any HD version. Eventually they came out with both HD and Blu-Ray and I have the Blu-Ray, of course.

There is no known source of information on this Polaroid TV's Factory Menu. I have tried to locate some, including anything for the original Vizio model from which all of their HD TVs are apparently cloned, but nothing is available through the usual suspects.

My personal experience is that you will get a better picture using an HDMI cable than component cables, but that could be only because I used cheap component cables (although I doubt it). I only have experience with about a half-dozen "HD" TVs and a very limited number of "HD" program material sources, so the real reasons I observed this could have been due to issues unrelated to the cable technology. That said, I doubt that changing to an HDMI cable will fix the problems that you have observed. It is much more likely that the SD to 1080i (signal) conversion that is taking place in your STB is just not very good. I have a small brand-X HD TV that I have connected to the raw cable TV RF feed, an external antenna, and the cable STB. On SD channels (on this small TV, not the Polaroid), the picture is best on the 1080i converted signal coming from the cable TV signal via the STB. Why or how that could be the case I do not know, but I assume it has to do with the firmware that maps the SD picture geometry to the actual 720 display. The cable STB apparently does this much better than the TV (from either an over-the-air RF NTSC signal or an over-the-cable RF NTSC signal). Thus, I would not be surprised if your cable STB did it better than over-the-air, but you report that it does it worse than over-the-air (or over your girlfriend's setup). Since there is a lot of art in the SD to HD signal conversion, I'm not surprised that some software/hardware does it better than others. To confirm which is the case with your setup, try to receive and tune an SD signal over the air if possible. If that is better than your cable STB's SD-to-HD conversion, that should make it obvious where the problem is.

For what it's worth, both of my Polaroid TV's (I have two different 42" models) produce an outstanding SD picture when fed either the raw cable RF signal or an over-the-air antenna RF signal. The same SD channel viewed via my cable STB (either via component cables or HDMI) is just slightly better, if anything. That tells me that the built-in Polaroid/Vizio SD to HD geometry picture mapping is either only slightly worse or else just as good as that in the Scientific Atlanta STB that my cable company uses.

In short, there are no "settings" that I know of that might "correct" the poor quality SD video that you observe. I suspect that something else is going on elsewhere (that is, not in the Polaroid TV itself).

WB

WB.. thank you very much for your detailed reply.
I greatly appreciate your time in hammering out that text.
Its also nice to know I'm not struggling in vain. Some improvement over what I'm seeing is likely
from the sound of it, once I find the issue.

My GF is using an STB in a town about 40 miles away. The STBs look similar, (both moto STBs). Her plasma is obviously higher quality than this Polaroid, so I was assuming the TV was making the real difference. For the record, she's using the component hookups on hers as well.

I have never tried Over the Air signals on this TV. I'll have to play with that a bit tonight. Common Sense tells me the STB *should* be better than over the air, but I honestly cant say I've compared the 2 yet. I'll also try an HDMI (was buying one anyway) to see if that makes a difference and will report results here.

Lastly, it sounds like I will probably have some hazing, but possibly better than I'm currently seeing.

It was really bad using a 3 cable RCA analog cables (1 yellow, 1 red, 1 white) Once I I realized that cable wasnt HD compatible (doh!), I swapped to the component cables (5 cable) last night and the picture improved considerably in both HD and SD channels.

The component cables I'm using are 4-5 yrs. old and probably on the cheap side. I think the HDMI cable would be the best place to "start" tweaking, since it'll be new and 1.3 compatible. It'll also allow me to clean up my cabling a great deal.

I'll report results and thank you again. If anyone else has suggestions, they are welcome. While they may not help me directly, I'm sure others are finding this forum/thread. It's the best source for info I've found on the net.