Samsung TV: Death Becomes It

[Jason Dunn]

Out of all the electronics in my house, the one I worry/think about the least is my Samsung TV. It's a DLP, 61" model that I purchased about two years ago. It's been a great TV and performed well at everything - until a few days ago when we turned it on and only sound came out, no video at all. I could hear the colour wheel spinning inside the TV, and could see there was some sort of light coming from the screen so I didn't think it was the bulb. I unplugged it for 60 seconds, powered it up, and everything was working fine. I've found that with my newer home theatre components, things just aren't as stable as they used to be. My Kenwood amp for instance, tends to "lock up" now and then and refuses to respond to any IR inputs. Disconnecting it from power for 30 seconds always brings it back. The TV was working ok until last night, when it exhibited the same behaviour, only leaving it unplugged for several minutes didn't help. Uh-oh. 8O I got out the user manual, but the troubleshooting guide was one page long and clearly not designed to be useful in any way. There are some basic diagnostic tests that can be done using the lights on the front of the TV, but my TV has none of them lit, which isn't supposed to be possible according to the guide. Very unhelpful.

I've now booked in a repair with a local repair center, but the repair guy says it sounds like a defective bulb, which will cost $300 to replace and of course isn't covered by the extended warranty. :evil: This is the first TV I've had conk out on me, and it's surprising how frustrating it is to not have our TV working. Thank goodness for the 26" LCD TV I have in my office. ;-)

[Felix Torres]

I've found that with my newer home theatre components, things just aren't as stable as they used to be.


Wild shot: how are your components powered?
Are they running off a power strip?
Have you added any new hardware recently?
Have you tried powering off different outlets?
For that matter, how stable is power in your neighborhood?

I'm not about to suggest you need a power conditioner, but I have heard of cases where power fluctuations mess with equipment stability. There is a *very* small possibility that the problem is in the power flow rather than the equipment.

On the PC side we learn to always suspect the cables; on the home theater side, line fluctuations and ground loops are always a possibility...

[Anthony Caruana]

I'm still running an old fashioned TV. The screen's flat but it's definitely old tech. I keep hearing stories from friends and other blogs of plasma and LCD TVs that just die. I contrast this with the number of 20 yr old CRTs still in operation.

Also, I've got three kids and the youngest guy still, when pointing to something on the screen, touches the screen. I suspect that a plasma or LCD will get destroyed by constant poking and prodding.

As far as TV goes, I'm going to remain a luddite until my kids are older and the reliability of these things improves.

[EscapePod]

I have 50" version of your Samsung DLP. I made sure the bulb was covered on my extended warranty from Best Buy. However, I would not have even bought the warranty (actually bought it 3 days after delivery) had not the first batch (several thousand???) of Sammy DLPs had a design flaw in the bulb system. My whole TV was replaced 3 days after delivery (second one was brought to me on Sunday morning, the fourth of July, 2004). That one had the same problem, and that's when we found out about the Samsung recall. They replaced the whole bulb cage including ballast. It's worked flawlessly ever since.

(famous last words -- :D )

[Macguy59]

Had a very similar experience with my 2 year old 50" Hitachi LCD. At power up/down theres a brief moment when the TV signal is not present but the bulb is lit causing a backlight effect. One morning at power up I noticed a pink blob dead center in the sreen. Turned out to be something they called the "light engine". I was suprised to see the number of hours that component had 5,000+ Watch it more than I realize.

[ploeg]

From about.com (http://tv.about.com/od/dlp/a/DLPprojlamp.htm):

How long does a DLP projection lamp usually last?

It is safe to list the lamp life for most DLP front and rear projection televisions between 1000 and 2000 hours. I know that’s a cop out, but it’s hard to nail down a direct length of time. Some lamps might last only 500 hours while others may last 3000 hours.

The window is so broad because no one knows for sure how long one lamp will last versus another. They’re like light bulbs, and depending on how you use them, some will just last longer.

To put it simply, if you watched television three hours a day the lamp would last approximately 333 days at the 1000-hour lamp life and 666 days at the 2000-hour lamp life. That’s pretty realistic because most people will want/need to replace their lamp every 1-2 years, but there are stories of people replacing a lamp every 6-8 months or every 3-4 years.

Which is why your bulb isn't covered by the warranty. It's a consumable item. Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but you'll probably need to budget for replacing the bulb every few years for the life of the TV.

[Jason Dunn]

Which is why your bulb isn't covered by the warranty. It's a consumable item. Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but you'll probably need to budget for replacing the bulb every few years for the life of the TV.

Yeah, that seems to be it - though I won't know for sure until the tech shows up on Thursday...

[mcsouth]

I'm not about to suggest you need a power conditioner, but I have heard of cases where power fluctuations mess with equipment stability. There is a *very* small possibility that the problem is in the power flow rather than the equipment.

On the PC side we learn to always suspect the cables; on the home theater side, line fluctuations and ground loops are always a possibility...

Since moving to Pennsylvania, I have become intimately familiar with brown-outs, power surges, etc - I had heard of these things before, but never experienced them where I lived previously....

...which was Calgary, AB, preceded by Saskatoon, SK, preceded by Brandon, MB, etc......

My point is that I never noticed any brown-outs or power surges while living in Canada, but they have become a pretty normal thing here in Pennsylvania. I'm not sure why this would be, but suspect that age of components, and overall load on the grid probably have something to do with this - as big as Calgary is, it is a drop in the bucket compared to the Eastern seaboard of the US in terms of energy demands.

Beyond all of this rambling, I do agree about power conditioning and modern electronics - I do not own an expensive TV right now, but would like to purchase one in the near future. I am curious to know if purchasing something more than an APC surge protector would help increase the stability and life of the unit. What do you think, Felix, would this product (http://www.apc.com/products/family/index.cfm?id=67) make a difference? On-line pricing appears to be about $52, which seems reasonable, if it does what it claims.....

[Felix Torres]

I'm no expert on power conditioning but that sounds like a reasonable product. When I got my HD display last year I looked into the subject a bit after hearing some of the horror stories floating among the home theater crowd and most of the conditioners I saw were in the $300 range. So far I've gotten away without one by spreading the load across various outlets.

As for what causes them in a given area, your guess of population density and age of infrastructure is a likely reason. Around here we only get an occasional blackout (a couple times a year) apparently when the utility guys are working or during a big summer storm. Yet a few miles away, a friend of mine says he gets blackouts and brownouts regularly, at least once a week. Some folks I know make a point to connect a UPS to their desktop PC and other high-end gear, as protection.

Thanks for the link, that looks like something I can use for my mothers new display come the holidays.