vent
Tyler1 said:
It's probably an older floor model right?
As it turns out, it is : (
I assumed it was an older model, but as far as I can recall, at no time was it mentioned to me that it was a floor model. Obviously they were not wanting to draw attention to this fact either way, or it would have put an entirely different spin on things while I was weighing the pros and cons out at the time. I'd have to be mentally hampered to knowingly buy a "torched" floor model plasma which more than likely wasn't given anything resembling a proper break in period to begin with. In retrospect, I should have questioned it and the fact that I wasn't "pressured" to get the infamous extended warranty should have set off a red light.
So, it arrives - I turn the thing on and within minutes I notice that there seems to be a difference in color between the center pixels and those around the edges ( first bell ) ... a moment later I notice what at first appears to be a mark on the bottom left corner of the screen. Upon closer inspection I discover it reads "DISCOVERY HD" ... you fuckin bastards - it's a temporary or permanent "burn in" and obviously has been used. I get on the phone. Of course they insist it was mentioned that it was a floor model and try to brush off this fact with "of course it's a floor model at that price" attitude accompanied by that condescending "eheheh" that just makes ya wanna ... eeergh. Maybe I should have questioned the price, but it's been two years since I investigated plasmas and I always thought of LG as the good, but not great brand.
Anyway, after the initial slightly heated exchange on the phone with the manager and getting nowhere with asking for a refund or immediate exchange, in part due to the fact that I was going to attempt to remove the burn in using the 'whitewash' feature [which I did manage to some degree] and him "appeasing me" with the proposition that if I'm not happy with it after a few weeks they'll exchange it and work something out for a panny [at double the price] ... but there's no current LG 50" plasma so the one I saw in the store must have been an illusion ... where the fuck do they get these people.
OK, so the burn in was minimized to some degree and the picture is "nice" as long as I don't compare it to my CRT or scrutinize too much.
So, the next night I'm watching a DVD and I notice an intermittent flickering in dark areas - as if the brightness is jumping between settings ( lowering the brightness to abt 25 almost eliminates the problem). Back on the phone - me : blah blah blah ... them :blah blah blah ... in essence they say to phone the technician they deal with who is an "authorized" LG techy or some shit to that effect - implicating that any repairs needed will be free of charge. In the time before I finally get hold of the "technician" I notice sparkles on the screen that appear green at first, but upon inspection are red, green and blue - they appear wherever there is motion - as if not all the pixels are keeping up with the change in movement. It's like watching everything in bloody 'never never land'.
meh ... the tech dude's over the phone analysis concludes that the flickering and the sparkles are a "known software issue" (oh boy) and he's waiting to hear back from LG as to how to rectify the problem with an "upgrade" and "he will call me".
yeah, I'm being given the run-around. I've never liked [mass market electronics] salesman in general and trust them abt as much as I do an addict, but in this case it was dulled intuition on my part in regard to what was not said. Yeah, I fucked up.
There are features that I actually love about this TV though - zoom options suit me better than the Panasonic's, as the horizontal option gives a more true looking widescreen - I also prefer it on "low power setting" because it looks less "cartoonish". I detest the way they set these things up in stores. I'm relatively sure I'd be happy with the TV had it been a brand spanking new set and I could justify paying off the CC.
I also notice other odd artifacts such as, what appears to be, polarization ( as if the bitrate is too low or something - who knows) The temporary burn in/ghosting is very evident overall - I'm not sure if this is exaggerated due to aging pixels or if it's as extreme with with new sets as well - overall I could learn to live with this, but am under the impression Panasonic have reduced this problem, inherent to plasma technology, considerably.
Right now, between this & that, I'm just tired and frustrated ... just thought I'd update you all given that you took the time to share your input ... at present I'm wishing I took tboy's advice and just stuck with my CRT for a while longer - I'm not sure I'd be satisfied with a rear projection after experiencing plasma even with all it's possible faults - I could be wrong, but I could also just be nuts .. I'm leaning toward the latter in more ways than one.
