I’ve had my 9905 since late October and have had issue with its extremely poor geometry and convergence since then. I initially, contacted Philips service mid-November to report this and other problems (see my problem list below). Nearly four months later, I’m exactly where I started and am beginning to think that Philips has no intention of making this set operate the way it should.
The irony in all of this is that the 9905 was not available at any retail locations ANYWHERE within a 2 hour driving distance of Boston. As a result, I ended buying the set sight unseen (purely on specs and reviews) directly from Philips through their employee store. While their pricing and service were exceptional, I have now discovered that without a retailer on my side, getting this set repaired or exchanged has become a huge hurdle.
To add further insult to injury, Philips only has 2 authorized service companies in my area (20 minutes north of Boston) one of which had no experience with the Philips HD line. The other company, supposedly experienced with the 9905’s chassis “had seen one, but never worked on oneâ€. After several false starts (“oops, I didn’t think I’d need the alignment template—I’ll have to order one. We’ll call you to reschedule…â€) and missed appointments (bad weather) a month later the guy finally shows up with everything he needs to fix my problems. After nearly 5 hours of trying to fix the geometry and convergence, the authorized Philips service guy declared he couldn’t fix it and suggested I call Philips directly.
So after an additional volley of phone calls and emails to my Service contact at Philips and recapping 3 months of issues ranging from gross geometry and convergence errors, intermittent loss of sync using the Aux Inputs, Intermittent CRT drop outs, the list goes on and on, I was told that there is nothing more service can do for me and that my problems were being turned over to Philips’ “Industry†group and that someone from this group would contact me—5 weeks later I’m still waiting. I’m not sure what “Industry†is specifically responsible for at Philips, but I’m quite certain that it isn’t customer satisfaction.
Over the past six weeks I’ve sent a half dozen follow-up emails to my service contact at Philips who has now stopped answering my emails--not good!
The Problems:
1.) Convergence and Geometry – All Input Modes
Horizontal lines bow upward near the upper corners and downward near the lower corners. The bow is sudden and sharp: horizontal lines are reasonably straight until the last inch or so and then bow upward or downward up to 1/2 inch. The effect is more pronounced the closer you get to the top or bottom of the screen and looks like hell when watching anything that has horizontal lines near the top or bottom edges of the screen. It’s particularly bad with wide aspect ratio DVDs where there is a sharp contrast difference between the letterbox black bars and the film—kind of a subtle convex fun-house mirror effect. The Windows desktop is yet another treat: the “Start†button droops downward with a certain Salvador Dali quality. Additionally, vertical lines near the edges of the screen are grossly misshapen and mis-converged. This is particularly noticeable with images that contain white or neutral gray vertical lines such a document window frames when in PC mode.
2.) ATSC Sporadic Gross Mis-convergence
Power the set down while in ATSC mode and you’re likely to be greeted with an extremely misconverged (R, G, and B off by over an inch!!) image when you power it up later. Not always, mind you--just often enough to impress you friends and family when they happen to come over. The fix suggested by Philips? Wait several second before you switch to ATSC mode. Um, Uh but I’m already IN ATSC mode. Ok, switch to NTSC, wait a minute and switch back to ATSC (amazing the convenience you can get with a $10K MSRP piece of second generation consumer electronics!!!)
3.) Intermittent Loss of Sync in Aux 1, 2, 3 Video Input Modes
Very sporadic loss of sync that lasts approx 1 second and seems to happen only in these modes. In some cases it happens a couple of times in one day, in others a week goes by without occurrence. Since I now use the ATSC and EXT-HD (VGA HTPC) exclusively, this issue is less annoying but I’m quite concerned that this will come back to haunt me after my warranty has expired and will cost me an arm and a leg to fix.
4.) Intermittent CRT Drop-out
Similar to the loss of sync problem, this also occurs sporadically, lasts for approx 1 second, and seems to be related to the Aux inputs only. I’ve seen the red CRT drop-out (picture had a strong cyan color cast) and the green CRT drop-out (picture had a strong magenta color cast). Like the sync problem this issue does not occur in the ATSC and EXT-HD modes and yes, I’m quite concerned that this too will worsen after warranty expiration.
5.) Video Games Jitter
Many video games are basically un-watchable on this set—parts of the image jitter up and down to the point of nausea. As far back as November 2000, Philips engineering was reportedly “looking into the problemâ€, which they believe is related to the internal line-doubler. I have been unable to receive any assurances regarding if/when this problem will be solved. I now run all video game sources through my HTPC’s video capture card and use dTV for de-interlacing and scaling with exceptional results. However, if you plan on playing video games on this set and don’t plan on investing another $1200-1500 on a HTPC, be prepared to be VERY disappointed with video game image stability.
6.) Dolby Digital Drop-outs in ATSC Mode
All my HD Channels suffer from frequent (3-4 times per minute approx duration 1 second) DD audio dropouts. Philips has pinned the blame on my Kenwood 1090VR DD receiver. Short of purchasing a new receiver there’s no way for me to prove or disprove the Kenwood is the culprit. The problem is annoying enough that I now listen to all ATSC material in Dolby Prologic.
7.) Fan Noise
Although I haven’t bitched directly to Philips about this one, do yourself a favor and audition one of these babies in a very quiet environment. The dual cooling fans on my 9905 make more noise than my refrigerator! To their credit, Philips supposedly has a fix for this annoying problem. Hopefully, I’ll be able to enjoy its benefits once my more pressing problems are corrected.
The bottom line? I can live with problems 5, 6, and 7. Problem 1 is a pisser that I’m sure can be minimized by a tech that has experience and patience with this set. Problems 2, 3, and 4 scare the crap out of me as I’m certain these will get worse and they certainly won’t cure themselves. If anyone has any contacts at Philips I’d appreciate some names so that I can get this resolved once and for all. I don’t think I’m asking for much: I just want my set to work as it should.
BTW, I’ve forwarded a copy of this email to my service contact at Philips’ Kentucky plant (home of Philips HDTV) and have invited someone (anyone) from Philips to reply. If you don’t hear from me in a while, send the EMT’s; I’ve probably died from holding my breath.
Regards -- Steve
------------------
STOP DFAST, BOYCOTT JVC, LONG LIVE HDTV
The irony in all of this is that the 9905 was not available at any retail locations ANYWHERE within a 2 hour driving distance of Boston. As a result, I ended buying the set sight unseen (purely on specs and reviews) directly from Philips through their employee store. While their pricing and service were exceptional, I have now discovered that without a retailer on my side, getting this set repaired or exchanged has become a huge hurdle.
To add further insult to injury, Philips only has 2 authorized service companies in my area (20 minutes north of Boston) one of which had no experience with the Philips HD line. The other company, supposedly experienced with the 9905’s chassis “had seen one, but never worked on oneâ€. After several false starts (“oops, I didn’t think I’d need the alignment template—I’ll have to order one. We’ll call you to reschedule…â€) and missed appointments (bad weather) a month later the guy finally shows up with everything he needs to fix my problems. After nearly 5 hours of trying to fix the geometry and convergence, the authorized Philips service guy declared he couldn’t fix it and suggested I call Philips directly.
So after an additional volley of phone calls and emails to my Service contact at Philips and recapping 3 months of issues ranging from gross geometry and convergence errors, intermittent loss of sync using the Aux Inputs, Intermittent CRT drop outs, the list goes on and on, I was told that there is nothing more service can do for me and that my problems were being turned over to Philips’ “Industry†group and that someone from this group would contact me—5 weeks later I’m still waiting. I’m not sure what “Industry†is specifically responsible for at Philips, but I’m quite certain that it isn’t customer satisfaction.
Over the past six weeks I’ve sent a half dozen follow-up emails to my service contact at Philips who has now stopped answering my emails--not good!
The Problems:
1.) Convergence and Geometry – All Input Modes
Horizontal lines bow upward near the upper corners and downward near the lower corners. The bow is sudden and sharp: horizontal lines are reasonably straight until the last inch or so and then bow upward or downward up to 1/2 inch. The effect is more pronounced the closer you get to the top or bottom of the screen and looks like hell when watching anything that has horizontal lines near the top or bottom edges of the screen. It’s particularly bad with wide aspect ratio DVDs where there is a sharp contrast difference between the letterbox black bars and the film—kind of a subtle convex fun-house mirror effect. The Windows desktop is yet another treat: the “Start†button droops downward with a certain Salvador Dali quality. Additionally, vertical lines near the edges of the screen are grossly misshapen and mis-converged. This is particularly noticeable with images that contain white or neutral gray vertical lines such a document window frames when in PC mode.
2.) ATSC Sporadic Gross Mis-convergence
Power the set down while in ATSC mode and you’re likely to be greeted with an extremely misconverged (R, G, and B off by over an inch!!) image when you power it up later. Not always, mind you--just often enough to impress you friends and family when they happen to come over. The fix suggested by Philips? Wait several second before you switch to ATSC mode. Um, Uh but I’m already IN ATSC mode. Ok, switch to NTSC, wait a minute and switch back to ATSC (amazing the convenience you can get with a $10K MSRP piece of second generation consumer electronics!!!)
3.) Intermittent Loss of Sync in Aux 1, 2, 3 Video Input Modes
Very sporadic loss of sync that lasts approx 1 second and seems to happen only in these modes. In some cases it happens a couple of times in one day, in others a week goes by without occurrence. Since I now use the ATSC and EXT-HD (VGA HTPC) exclusively, this issue is less annoying but I’m quite concerned that this will come back to haunt me after my warranty has expired and will cost me an arm and a leg to fix.
4.) Intermittent CRT Drop-out
Similar to the loss of sync problem, this also occurs sporadically, lasts for approx 1 second, and seems to be related to the Aux inputs only. I’ve seen the red CRT drop-out (picture had a strong cyan color cast) and the green CRT drop-out (picture had a strong magenta color cast). Like the sync problem this issue does not occur in the ATSC and EXT-HD modes and yes, I’m quite concerned that this too will worsen after warranty expiration.
5.) Video Games Jitter
Many video games are basically un-watchable on this set—parts of the image jitter up and down to the point of nausea. As far back as November 2000, Philips engineering was reportedly “looking into the problemâ€, which they believe is related to the internal line-doubler. I have been unable to receive any assurances regarding if/when this problem will be solved. I now run all video game sources through my HTPC’s video capture card and use dTV for de-interlacing and scaling with exceptional results. However, if you plan on playing video games on this set and don’t plan on investing another $1200-1500 on a HTPC, be prepared to be VERY disappointed with video game image stability.
6.) Dolby Digital Drop-outs in ATSC Mode
All my HD Channels suffer from frequent (3-4 times per minute approx duration 1 second) DD audio dropouts. Philips has pinned the blame on my Kenwood 1090VR DD receiver. Short of purchasing a new receiver there’s no way for me to prove or disprove the Kenwood is the culprit. The problem is annoying enough that I now listen to all ATSC material in Dolby Prologic.
7.) Fan Noise
Although I haven’t bitched directly to Philips about this one, do yourself a favor and audition one of these babies in a very quiet environment. The dual cooling fans on my 9905 make more noise than my refrigerator! To their credit, Philips supposedly has a fix for this annoying problem. Hopefully, I’ll be able to enjoy its benefits once my more pressing problems are corrected.
The bottom line? I can live with problems 5, 6, and 7. Problem 1 is a pisser that I’m sure can be minimized by a tech that has experience and patience with this set. Problems 2, 3, and 4 scare the crap out of me as I’m certain these will get worse and they certainly won’t cure themselves. If anyone has any contacts at Philips I’d appreciate some names so that I can get this resolved once and for all. I don’t think I’m asking for much: I just want my set to work as it should.
BTW, I’ve forwarded a copy of this email to my service contact at Philips’ Kentucky plant (home of Philips HDTV) and have invited someone (anyone) from Philips to reply. If you don’t hear from me in a while, send the EMT’s; I’ve probably died from holding my breath.
Regards -- Steve
------------------
STOP DFAST, BOYCOTT JVC, LONG LIVE HDTV