[xilinx]

I got my Hitachi F510 about 2 weeks ago. And I plugged it in to my DVD player and started watching movies after a lil color tweaking and convergence fiddling.


Image was absolutely outstanding! Couldn't have been happier. Into about the third or fourth day of viewing...(still under 10hrs of usage) while watching a DVD, the image suddenly disappeared. The power light stayed on...no image.


I tried to play around...nothing worked. Remote didn't function, not even buttons on the tv. No menus showed up. Only the power button worked, but nothing happened. Still a brand new TV. I even turned down brightness/contrast..30/35 respectively. No abusing...nothing.


Called up Hitachi, repairman came within 3 days, took a look at it for about 15 minutes and deemed he couldn't repair it there. He opened the back and took out the whole unit, put it in his van and drove off to the repair shop. Picked it up on a Friday, and was going to call Monday to tell me how it would take to fix. He eventually called Tuesday, and said they still haven't located the exact problem, although it was based on some chip/transformer in power supply. He sed they'll run test throughout the night on it.


*sigh* GRRRR...now i have to wait to finish my movies!!! lol


Brand new TV, under 10h usage. I am suspecting a power surge, but I am not totally sure if that was the case.


So the question I ask are, how do CRT RPTVs stand up to power surges? Hitachi in particular (since i bought the Hitachi over the Panny due to Hitachi's good reliability/quality record). Is it a good idea to get a surge protector? I don't have one yet to protect the TV.


Thanks in advance for your replies!

 

[Newbie88]

Quote:

Originally posted by xilinx I got my Hitachi F510 about 2 weeks ago. And I plugged it in to my DVD player and started watching movies after a lil color tweaking and convergence fiddling. *sigh* GRRRR...now i have to wait to finish my movies!!! lol Brand new TV, under 10h usage. I am suspecting a power surge, but I am not totally sure if that was the case. So the question I ask are, how do CRT RPTVs stand up to power surges? Hitachi in particular (since i bought the Hitachi over the Panny due to Hitachi's good reliability/quality record). Is it a good idea to get a surge protector? I don't have one yet to protect the TV. Thanks in advance for your replies!

This reponse is kinda long, but bear with me:


I also bought the Hitachi 51F510 about 2 week ago; however, while waiting for delivery I went out and bought a good quality surge protector for about $50.00, which isn't bad (Monster sells really high end ones for up to $400.00, but unless you're running your own local theatre, that's probably overkill). I purchased it at the same big box store that I bought the Hitachi from, there are lots of them out there (even Home Depot sells a couple of pretty good ones).


I don't know about RPTV's in particular, but I know from experience that almost every electronic device is susceptible to power surges, and sensitive things like computers, stereo equipment, etc. are probably the most likely to have adverse effects due to abrupt changes/flucuations in current (i.e. surges). Even telephones, cable boxes and cable modems should probably be protected just to be on the safe side (especially if there are in any way hooked up to, through, or via your RPTV or any home theatre device), there are lots of powerbars/surge protectors that have coax and phone line outlets on them to pass these connections through the surge protection mechanism. The one I bought has 1 set (in/out) for coax and 2 sets (in/out) for phone lines (I guess 1 set for your computer modem, if you still use one, and a set for the regular phone line).


A procedure you may want to consider, depending on what the results of the diagnostic of your RPTV problem is, would be to have a licensed electrician do a simple electrical "noise" test on your house. An electrician would test (using an analyzer or other specific test equipment) at your fuse panel/circuit box and at several points within the house to see if there is an unusual amount of noise emanating from the power supply ("noise" in this case being being in the form of excessive electronic magnetic intereference or EMI). Really excessive EMI (do your light bulbs or small appliances "blow" out regularly or otherwise not last very long, this is an initial sign of a possible problem) may require your local power utility/supplier to check the lines in the vicinity of your house. Low amounts of EMI can be dealt with via surge suppressors or "power conditioners" which help regulate the flow of AC to your valuable stuff. Keep in mind that this whole process is a little "over the top" and in most instances wouldn't have to be performed. I lived in a pre-WW II apartment building in Southern Germany for 3 years and I went through light bulbs, toasters and coffee makers like I had stock in the companies that made them. Turned out the place just had really poor quality (i.e. below modern spec.) wiring that couldn't handle modern electronics.


Regardless of what the repair shop tells you, I would strongly urge you to purchase and use a good quality surge suppressor to avoid any further power related equipment fatalities. However, remember that you should plug ALL your sensitive home theater equipment into the surge suppressor (use more than one if you need more outlets) as any item connected to your system that isn't protected could cause the rest of your system to fail if that one unprotected device takes a direct surge "hit" during an electrical storm (referred to as the "single point of failure").


Good luck. Hope this helps.

 

[Newbie88]

One more thing......you may want to check out the "Surge Supressor and clean power???" thread.

 

[swats]

I just purchased this tv as well and have been very happy. I noticed in the owner's manual it says something about having built-in surge protection, and to follow some sequence of pressing the power button if it doesn't power on.


Side question- I haven't purchased a surge protector yet for it due to this. SHould I?

 

[Newbie88]

Quote:

Originally posted by swats I just purchased this tv as well and have been very happy. I noticed in the owner's manual it says something about having built-in surge protection, and to follow some sequence of pressing the power button if it doesn't power on. Side question- I haven't purchased a surge protector yet for it due to this. SHould I?

I'm not an electrical engineer, but I don't think an electrical appliance can provide surge protection without having a 3 prong plug on the power cord(basically, I think the plug has to have the grounding pin on it).


Regardless, as I stated in my earlier post, to fully protect your entire home theatre system from the potential damage of power surges, every electrical device in the system has to be plugged into a surge suppressor, not just the TV. In the end, better safe than sorry. Buy a decent surge suppressor and plug all your devices into it.

 

[Jordan420]

Before you spend any money on a surge supressor please read the post by Doug Decon on page 2 of this thread

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...76#post2421176