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Feb 06, 2006

Exchanging a Samsung for a Samsung

As much as a like my Samsung HL-R4667W HDTV [samsung1080i, samsunghlr4667wservicemenu, samsunghlr4667w, samsungpronto, samsunghlr4667wsettings, exchangesamsung], a few months ago, I noticed a problem with the picture. Darker colors were "collapsing" into a single color. Basically, dark color shades would become one color, revealing some ugly banding artifacts as well as making Anakin Skywalker look rather sunburned.

I found that I could fix this by going in to the service menu and changing the default value of SEQ SELECT from 5 to 0. As long as I didn't turn off the set when exiting the menu, this setting would stick and the picture would look fine. However, if I turned the set off completely, the picture quality problems would reappear then next time I turned the set on.

I had a Best Buy service guy come out to see the problem, and he decided to replace the "digital board". The new board didn't solve the problem, so another service guy decided to replace the "light engine." (It turns out that Samsung doesn't want service guys futzing around with any of the circuitry. Instead, they simply replace one of 3 major assemblies: the "digital board", the "light engine", and the "light bulb".) After 6 weeks, the new light engine failed to arrive, so I called the Best Buy warranty folks and they agreed to replace the set with a new one.

I sure was bummed to see my replacement set look even worse than my first one! Not only did it have the color problem, but vertically straight lines had a jaggy sawtooth pattern to them (likely a problem with wobulation ).

After contemplating a refund, I had them exchange the set one more time. I was totally relieved to see that my new replacement set looked perfect. Out of the box, my new Samsung HL-R4667W had an outstanding picture that I could only achieve via the service menu on my original set.

I wrote down the firmware date as displayed in the service menu for all of the sets I had. My original set, the replacement digital board, as well as the first replacement set all had the date May 2005. My current set (the second replacement) has the date July 2005.

Here are as couple of tips I've learned from this experience:

• Beware of first-run productions of new models. Make sure to test the set thoroughly within your retailer's return policy period (usually 30 days).
• If you see a problem with the picture, don't hesitate to call the warranty provider. Even if you don't have an extended warranty plan, Samsung has a warranty guarantee of one year, which is usually doubled by your credit card.

category: /entertainment |
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