Sony KDL-42V4100 backlight issue, help!

J

JohnnyNapalm

[H]ard|Gawd
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Jul 13, 2007
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Took delivery of my new 42'' KDL-42V4100 yesterday, and 10 minutes after the delivery guys left, the bottom half of the screen starting flickering. It was like the backlight on the bottom bar had a bad connection or something. It persisted all afternoon, but after turning off the "auto-dim" feature that reads ambient light, it went away.

Any ideas? It was cold (30s) and rainy all day, so maybe having it sitting in the delivery truck affected it briefly?
 
I read that the 42V4100 is made with a Sharp panel. Sharp has had problems over the past two years with their panels. I have a 46V4100 that is an excellent TV. It also looks good connected to a computer except for the text. The 46V uses a Samsung panel that has pixels arranged in a zig-zag pattern. The zig-zag makes text look rough.

Send back the 42V. Consider a 46V if you are not using it with a computer. If you are using it with a computer, buy a TV with square pixels.
 
Yeah, I read that about the Sharp panel a few days ago. I also hadn't noticed the pixels being offset until you brought it up. I use mine with my PC probably 80% of the time, so definitely not getting something that sucks at text. Also, 46'' is out of my price range.

On topic, the flickering hasn't come back today.
 
Ya, sharp pixels are offset, but some panels like the 46V actually have subpixels that are angled left and right, alternating. Probably even more annoying than the sharp.

My Panny has excellent, square pixel structure but suffers from other problems so I don't recommend it. In fact, apparently, many HDTVs suffer from the same problem the Panny suffers from, signal processing that can't be turned off. When you put colored text, like red, on a black background, the text appears blurry. Black on white and white on black look good, but truetype looks poor. Haven't tried the tuner for truetype yet.

The next time I buy a HDTV for use with a computer, I will definitely bring a notebook computer to the store and test the TVs with HDMI output. You should too.
 
It started flickering again as soon as i adjusted the backlight. Going back to Amazon. Picked up a Sammy LN46A550 instead.
 
i would have just gotten another sony ! They make the best LCD's
 
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