New Hitachi 51F59A HDMI fix already done

I, too, noticed that my Hitachi already had the HDMI fix setup on it. (After I had taken time to write down jwebb's post numbers and prepared to start punching numbers in! ) After a little more tweaking, the set looks great! Got to see Game 3 of the Ottawa / Buffalo series in crystal clear HD afterwards. Man! How awesome! Good color, sharp edges on the uniforms, words on the screen stood out more....


Only thing that threw me off was that the white ice was really bright. It made it hard to see the puck most times. Anybody here watch hockey on this set and have some numbers to give me for the best viewing? (Contrast, brightness, etc.) It looks good now, I just want opinions from the more seasoned experts that have had this set.


Also have to give a nice shout out to Sears for saving me money. When I bought this TV, it was on sale for $699.99. I thought I got a superb deal, then 2 weeks later, they lowered the price to $599.99! I called them up yesterday to see if they did "price matches" on their own stuff. 10 minutes later, they called back and said that they gave me $100 credit on my account! Definitely made my day.

Yeah, the F59s were Hitachi's last hurrah for CRT RPTV. Too bad, as they can display some downright gourgeous HD. Both BestBuy & CircuitCity appear to have sold thru the last of their remaining stock, but have seen a few posts around of folks finding either new or refurbed sets (as well as the F59 predecessor F710A) online. The last big sale on these got people big, beautiful HDTVs for an absoulte steal. A bit bulky? Yes, but if you have the floorspace you just can't beat 'em for the $$


All that's currently left in most retailer stock appears to be are the RCAs--which what little I've heard about them is mixed. Every one I've come across sound like older models, considering they were/are advertised on the CC site as having a DVI input instead of HDMI (the F59s/F710As are HDMI). The others one can find are the Philips/Magnavox (same TVs). BB and Sears, I believe, still carry these. When I have seen these, they aren't going for the bargain basement prices the Hitachis were recently---yet. Appear to be pretty equivalent in features to the F59s, but have never seen one lit up in person. They do have an actual HD OTA tuner vs. the F59s digital "faux HD" tuner.


edit: Just saw on another F59 thread that others have foud both refurb/new sets @ Overstock.com and NIB models @ US Appliance.


Overstock currently has both the 51F59A and 65F59A (as of 6/11) and US Appliance (look under "ELECTRONICS") has the 57 and 65.

Thought I'd post my problem on this thread because I'm not sure how to search for it. If anyone (jwebb, Mr. Bob? ) has an answer for this, I'd be grateful.


One day, my wife turned on my 51F59 and said "Those are moldy looking tomatoes." (She watches the Food Network.) I looked at the set and the picture had a greenish tint to it. Almost like the old black & white shows in the 50's, only more green on it.


After unplugging different cables, doing a magic focus job and moving the video percentage #'s around, I shut it off, waited a little bit, and turned it back on. Surprise! The normal color picture was back. I figured it was just a minor flaw.


However, I've turned on the set on 2 different mornings, and 2 different looks have popped up. One had the screen totally black (but with normal sound), the other was totally black, except for the red of whatever was on that particular show. Nothing else, just a red shadow.


Anybody else have this problem and does Hitachi know about it? The set still looks and plays fine except for these incidents. Thanks for the help!

Intermittent issues (in relation to convergence, esp) often mean that there is a likely a cold solder joint somewhere.


As far as your issues are concerned? Don't know.


Is this only happening on a particular input, or all of them? How is the Food Network (and all other TV signals) delivered to you? Obvously it's via cable or sat, but how in terms of connection to TV. Component or HDMI?


If via HDMI, it could be something caused by the "old" HDMI bug. Did you perform the service menu fix for the major HDMI issues posted on the F59 Tweaks thread, or was your set a newer release that had it implemented @ the factory? The "old" bug could be cleared up temporarily by turning off the TV.


If cable/sat is via component, it could be a case of either a bad cable or defective input (on TV) or output (@ cable/sat box).If you have ever disconnected one of the 3 component (red/blue/green) cables while watching something sent that way, color anomolies can happen--and a black screen can, too. May want to try a new set of component cables, just to see if it still happens.


Another possiblity is to plug some other device into the input causing problems (if it is just one input freaking out, of course). If a DVD player, for example, has the picture issues on the cable/sat's input...then it's likely that it's that component input that is the problem.


Sorry this is more just possible problems as opposed to an actual solution. If you've had the set less than 12 mos., this is a definite candidate for warranty repair. Of course, getting the set to freak out when a tech is in the home is difficult sometimes. Before making a warranty call, confirm that this is happening on just the one input. If it doesn't happen on other sources (DVD, OTA signals, video games, etc) on other inputs, then you can at least be assured that the problem may not actually be the TV--or at worst, a relatively easy TV repair.


If we don't hear from him relatively soon (mentioned elsewhere going out of state about this time for a cal tour recently), you might want to shoot Mr Bob an email from his forum signature link and relay the issue to him for advice/thoughts.


Keep us posted on what you find out.



edit: Just saw your post here from 5/20. Sounds like yours is current in terms of HDMI fixes/software versions. Still could be an HDMI issue, if your TV signal is getting sent that way.