Tosh 32zp18 and the Bluebottle!!!!!!

[amuse]

Flash Announcement

Major Bluebottle infestation found in Toshiba factory, beware your TV could have unwanted guests in the form of a noisy persistently irritating Bluebottle buzzing around in the back of your set. This insect is fussy and tends to get very highly agitated when you switch to Cinema Mode (not that you really want to, so perhaps the Bluebottle has a point) and will in all probability drive you mad.


Or at least I assumed that was the case.............................


Anyway all joking apart I have read quite a few comments reference the problem of persistent Buzzing from the 32zp18, the frequency and pitch would tend to suggest a fault with the power supply as the Buzz is close to mains 50Hz.

My questions as follow:

1 Do all of them have this problem?

2 If so is there a recognized fix from Toshiba?

3 If there is a fix does it eliminate the problem completely?

4 If not what is acceptable?

5 Will a can of Raid work?

As you can guess I have this set with the above issue and was wondering whether sitting 10 ft away and listening to speech only at volume setting 15 I should still be able to hear the Buzz? Had a Panasonic before (32pk25) no Buzz, poor tube, sorry all you Philips wanabe's.

Final thought:

Great looking, quality image, sounds good and is well connected, but enough of me the TV isn't bad either.

My first set buzzed like and alarm clock, the replacement is fine.

Obviously there is slight buzz if the room is quite but under normal listening you cannot hear it. Every TV in our house buzzes and so do many of our friends but none as loud as the bottleblue infested Toshiba!

[jasonlgriffin]

Mine also buzzes (P(B), serial number 42****** or something like that - got it a week or so ago so should be recent).

I can hear it from 8-9 feet when the action I'm watching is quiet - it is there in every mode but definitely more so in Cinema and Subtitle.

I also get a hum (different sound and much more noticeable!) when the scene goes bright (when say around at least 1/10th of the scene is bright as a complete guess). This disappears (or at least becomes inaudible from 8-9 feet) when the sound is muted so I assume it is coming through the speakers. Not really a fix though!

I heard it did vary between sets (cannot vouch for this myself) and also that it depends on the environmental conditions in the room (humididy, temperature etc.). Something to do with the laminations of the transformer or scan coil resonating (?).

Very difficult to judge if your particular set is better/worse than others - I have the same problem with lots of things on this set (dirty screen, tuner, convergence, etc.) - don't want to swap to an even worse 'un!

Anyway, I would imagine a heavy dosage of RAID would work but expect a a loud bang and smoke prior to the buzz subsiding (oh and lack of picture for ever more)!

I have a 32ZP18P (B) and there is no buzz on mine.

jasonlgriffin

Where abouts in the UK are you?

Sounds like you need to see someone else's set or have them come and see your to see how they compare.

[jasonlgriffin]

orange

I am based in Wiltshire. I may try and see some of the sets in the surrounding stores at the weekend although it is unlikely that I will be able to hear it in a store.

Last night I watched some DVDs (Shrek, The Matrix, Ultimate Platinum) for the first time (my new 510 arrived!). Even using the bundled component cable and a crappy phono for the digital audio, the picture and sound was pretty amazing. The dirty screen appears less obvious through the DVD than the tuner/VCR which is good news.

Anyway back to the buzzing/humming. I thought the extra humming I get on bright scenes was purely through the speakers. I'm not so sure now - even if I mute the sound, brighter scenes cause an audible increase in the humming (which is even worse when you turn the sound back on). I'm not sure this is right is it? This increases even more in PM-1 and PM-2 where the brightness is higher (my PM-M is from PM-3 with settings 45, 55, 50, 00, -50, 100Hz, Auto).

If I run the CLAMP test on my Ultimate DVD Platinum where there is a black box on a background that cycles from white to black (no sound from DVD but not muted either), the humming increases as the background gets near white. Again PM-1/2 are worse and muting the sound only slightly lessens this effect.

Additionally, I get the audible buzz on 14:9 zoom mode as well as Cinema and Subtitle (14:9 seems to be overscanning vertically as do Cinema/Subtitle, whereas the other modes don't - could this be why the buzz occurs?).

2 main things for me now are (may go for a swap based on these):

1) buzzing/humming
2) dirty screen

If 2) gets better with use then I'll be happy (I'll check sets in stores again to see if they have the same problem - they have been on a long time so should indicate if it does get better).

PS: Saw the brighter sides last night - not really a problem for me yet as it is only obvious when screen is totally black (also noticed brighter side on right appears bigger than that on left).