[sullly11]

Purchase the PT 50LC13 8/03 and first bulb blew 4/05 after less than 4,000 hours of use. Fortunately I purchased the EW from Tweeter. Tweeter gave me no hassles, showed up when they said they would and replaced the bulb.


Four months later the replacement bulb blows. I will be calling Tweeter tomorrow and will keep all apprised of the outcome. It is really unbelievable that a company would sell a $3,000 tv that had the large number of bulb and ballast problems reported here and at other sites.


Make sure you sign the petition at www.**************.com/panbulb/

 

[bigc_2k3]

Good luck with your lamp replacement, i feel your pain. My bulb blew on my pt50dl54 DLP after only 2 months!!! mine was model i purchased on boxing day but never received until june, so it might have been an earlier build.


hopefully this won't be an ongoing problem!

 

[MrC1ark]

Hey guys, can anyone cofirm that Panasonic has indeed fixed this issue with the CL14's and up. Any LC14 owners out there who can confirm they've had the TV for a while now with no problems?


I have the opportunity to pick up a good deal on the PT50LC14cs but I can't afford a bulb a year or less.


Thanks in advance

JASON

 

[PghGary]

I have a panny 60LC14. Purchased 12/10/04. Bulb blew 2 weeks ago. Called Panasonic, after a hold of 45 minutes the service rep stepped me through pulling the bulb out. It was shattered. Faxed receipt the next morning and had the new bulb in 2 days. Panny will cover that new bulb for an additional year.


I have seen posts of people claiming the LC14 line does not have this problem. It does. I had 1600 hours on the bulb with a LON of 400 when it blew.


I am not happy this has happened and the possibility of it happening again is very good, however I am happy with the TV itself.


Gary

 

[Danabw]

I joked about the bulb issue early in this thread and of course ended up on the less funny side of things...


I had my PTLCX63 stop working few months ago, just a month or two out of the 1 year warranty. Luckily I had purchased w/American Express, so I was able to use the AmEx extended warranty coverage to get both ballast kit and bulb replacement free...total cost would have been around $800 or so, if I remember correctly. The bulb hadn't blown yet, but did get a new one as the repair shop said the old one was "too dim" and didn't look good.


I'm hoping the ballast fix will stop the bulb problem...anyone also had a ballast fix have any new bulb problems?

 

[Grumps]

Have had my panny PT-50LC13 since 1/2004 and picture is getting dark - briteness down, and picture is degraded and have a tech coming out from Tweeters to check it out and clean it. Have the extended warranty. Following this thread I see that there must be a way to check hour use on the bulb. Can someone clue me in please. I am under the impression that if you crank up the brightness when the unit is dirty it will shorten the life of the bulb. Also has anyone cleaned the set themselves?

 

[Bookworm]

I can help you with the lamp hours:


With TV off, press and hold volume down on TV and TV/Video on the remote for about 7 seconds.

When TV comes on look for xxxh and xxxlon.

The xxxh is the number of hours the lamp has been on and the xxxlon is the number of times the lamp(TV) has been turned on.

To get out of this mode just turn the TV off.

 

[Grumps]

Bookworm - couldn't get it to work for me - thanks anyways

 

[Bookworm]

That's odd, can anyone else confirm that this is the correct procedure? That's what I have written down and have used a couple of times to get my hours.


I bought my 50LC14 in Aug '04 these are my numbers so far:

11/04 688h 106lon

04/05 1768h 297lon

08/05 2568h 420lon

 

[Grumps]

Bookworm - maybe I can't get it cause I'm using DVI cable and set is always on digital input. I've retried it on every input and get nothing. Picture has gotton so dark I'm not using it until Tweeter gets here. I can lighten pic but have to go top of the setting. I see Panny is getting $299 at their site for bulb - has anyone gotten it cheaper? Gotta watch the Pats on regular set today. Is the set supposed to come on on it's own after pressing volume down and tv-video buttons on the remote as you stated ? I shut set off - wait until red light stops blinking - on remote hold down volume button and tv-vidro butto at same time for 7+ seconds - then turn set on - and have gotten nothing

 

[Bookworm]



Quote:
Originally Posted by Grumps /forum/post/0


Is the set supposed to come on on it's own after pressing volume down and tv-video buttons on the remote as you stated ?

Could be I didn't make this clear in my original post. Start with the TV off. Press the volume down button on the TV and the TV/Video button on the remote simultaneously and hold for about 7-8 seconds. The TV will come on by itself and then you see the info on the screen. To exit this screen just turn thr TV off and the next time you turn it on it will go back to normal operation. Hope this clears up any misunderstanding.

 

[Grumps]

bookworm - just as you said and it helped if the remote had good batteries in it -had to hold down volume button on the TV itself and hold down tv/video button on the remote for over 7 seconds and then red light went out and up popped info on the screen - had 6593 hours. Thanks - think they will soak me for a new lamp - 299 and they are not coming down in price (yet) I do not use the Panny TV remote but a Harmony to control everything so thought the batteries were OK.

 

[Bookworm]

I'm glad it worked for you this time.

That works out to about $13.50 a month, I guess that's not too bad, huh?

 

[Grumps]

Got a call this PM that Tweeter could fit me in today instead of scheduled 20th date. I was worried that something outside of the bulb was wrong because briteness had gotten better but picture was inferior to before. Well new bulb was put in and it's like brand new - terrific service - no outragous costs - and saw the tech clean the set - He took off the back lower cowling which is a one piece job.(vents are located on bottom of each corner of the set) He stated that the fan can get dirty and should be cleaned fairly often. Fan natch is behind the bulb and gotten to from the back. I was under the opinion that everything else was sealed by what he had said. His opinion was that the increased brightness I suddenly got was that the bulb was probably going to finally go kaput. Did not feel that I got ripped off with 6,602 hours (not the 10,000 as Panny advertised) on my bulb and would not hesitate going to Tweeter again. Service tech was a nice guy - knew his stuff - and treated my wife and myself very well. Did not make us feel uncomfortable at all. Bulb is good for 5,000 hours. Will have to see how long it lasts.

 

[Danabw]

One note of caution...if the problem w/your set blowing bulbs early is in the ballast, replacing the bulb isn't going to fix the problem...so the extended warranty on the bulb is in some ways a bit of a distraction. When my bulb blew I had the bulb and ballast replaced so that I wouldn't have the same thing happen to my new bulb. I did this through the Amex extended warranty...not sure how hard it would have been to get Panny to replace the bulb and ballast without having more than one bulb blow, and didn't want to take my chances and wait for that to happen.

 

[Electro Al]

I just burned out my second bulb - 10 months on each! With my EW at Sears, Sears & I had quite a tussle & quite frankly I lost! The first occurance, they agreed to send me the bulb directly for my install. This time they won't - they're concerned about the reason it failed again. Anyway, I need a technican to look at the broken bulb so he can order a new one - and hopefully a ballast at the same time. BTW - where is the ballast located & how easy is it to replace?

 

[AcuraCL]

My second bulb just burned out last night. 6 months on this one.


I called Panasonic directly, and they're sending out a new bulb and a technician to have a look at the ballast. I have an EW with Tweeter, but have chosen to deal directly with Panasonic on the bulb thing after reading the post here about them covering it.

 

[gotpeter]

Right. A "technician" came out to examine the ballast and ended up destroying the set. "Shorted out the light engine" or so they say. Final chapter on my experience with Panasonic. My dealer replaced the set with a Mits DLP. Unbelieveable.

 

[NVboy]



Quote:
Originally Posted by AcuraCL /forum/post/0


My second bulb just burned out last night. 6 months on this one.


I called Panasonic directly, and they're sending out a new bulb and a technician to have a look at the ballast. I have an EW with Tweeter, but have chosen to deal directly with Panasonic on the bulb thing after reading the post here about them covering it.

Ouch! Good luck with the ballast. Has this given you any push to get a different TV? I need to use mine more often so that I can have all of my problems while the EW is still valid, although I've been looking at other sets nevertheless.

 

[AcuraCL]



Quote:
Originally Posted by NVboy /forum/post/0


Ouch! Good luck with the ballast. Has this given you any push to get a different TV? I need to use mine more often so that I can have all of my problems while the EW is still valid, although I've been looking at other sets nevertheless.

Nah. I went looking at sets a week or two ago. I saw the latest and greatest and nothing really blew me away as compared with mine. Plus, I'm one of those "buy and hold" types. I was actually hoping the second bulb would go because I have suspected based on incidences reported here that there certainly is a ballast issue, and this seems to confirm it.


You've had a much worse time of it with Pan. though, and I can understand why you'd want to move on. But so far they've treated me pretty well, and I still love the picture on this set. I am (cautiously) hopeful that a ballast fix will return it to "normal" bulb life expectancy.


Prices on sets have trickled down slowly until a couple of months ago, when they plunged. I don't know if that's in anticipation of holiday sales, or whether it will continue. I still think we're in HD-technology infancy (well, maybe toddler-hood) so I just can't see ditching this set for something else that's still not quite free of glitches.


Now if flat-panel LCDs hit the same price/inch as RP-LCDs ... I just might grow weak