Living with Dead Pixels

The1970

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I have an Hitachi 42 PMA400 which I have now had for 6 months

After the first 5 months, my first dead pixel appeared! I would consider this pretty unreasonable given the fact that I use it around one and a half hours a day (Average).

Now, a month later, another dead pixel appears. Admittley, for 2:35.1 aspect ratio movies I can't see them as one is located at the bottom (middle) and the other is top left. However, on full screen material and console games, I can see them.

I have been in contact with my supplier who have been very helpful, but it appears that there is'nt alot that can be done due to the fact that it could well fall in with a manufacters tollance level (Whatever that is).

I am not a business, I am an individual. I have a passion for home cinema and made a big leap in this 2,700 pound purchase, so I am disappointed and somewhat concerned that a dead pixel-a-month ratio seems to be on the agenda for me.

I did send a message to Hitcahi by way of thier website's poxy email form, to try and establish what they would consider the tollance level to be, but they have chosen to ignore me (No, I am not just being impatient, I've waited a month). Is this because I am an individual and not a business?

The jist of my post is coming....

Has anyone been in the same boat? Just trying to guage a feel for what you guys live with in terms on imperfections etc.

If any of you have gone through the enigineer callout route, how did you get on? Was it easy? Did they try and make you feel petty? Did you actually get anywhere?

As you can guage from this post, I am beginning to regret my outlay into the world of plasma, and the outcome of the next few months before the feeble 1 year warranty expires will deciede that I will make sure I recommend to everyone I know not to bother to step to plasma, no matter how cheap, because they can't run for a couple of hours a day but can be on in a shop for 24hrs a day without a single dead-pixel in sight! (rant over!)

BTW For those Hitachi-ites out there, my settings are
Contrast 18 (Well below Life Extents 1/2)
Brightness +2
Colour 0
All other settings about default


Best regards

EB
 
hi m8 i think the manufacters tollance level is 4 are 1 dead in the center of the screen i maybe wrong but i dont think i am
 
thanks for the reply SLIM

I wonder how many other board members have at least one dead pixel?
 
I have one red pixel on my 503 just right of centre, must admit it doesn't bother me though. Mark
 
I was advised that Hitachi's tolerence is the worst of all manufacturers, requiring 6 (yes SIX) dead pixels together before they consider it faulty. That's not 6 all over the place, but six in a row...

I wonder whether their opinion has been tested in court yet or by Trading Standards?
 
Originally posted by english_bob
thanks for the reply SLIM

I wonder how many other board members have at least one dead pixel?

I have had one dead (well its a stuck actually...) pixel in my pioneer 504hde. Been there since i bought it 3 months ago. Not bothered by it because, unless standing <1m away its not noticable at all...
 
You think 6 dead pixels is bad, i'm sure that panasonic have the worst tolerance level, i'm pretty sure it's in double figures :eek: Could just be a rumour though.

I'm sure someone will correct me if i'm wrong!! :rolleyes:
 
Hi,

In my instruction manual for the philips 42PF9965 page 6, it states:

"A plasma display consists of a huge amount of coulour pixles. It is within industry standards that very few pixels (<0.001%) may be defective, even for new set."

Dose this mean that for my 1024x1024 x3 (Red, green, blue) more than 31.45 pixels should be dead before doing a reclamation ??? is the actual pixel count = display resulation x 3 ?

George
 
No, more like 10.48 pixels. The individual colours are considered subpixels so 31.45 would refer to subpixels.

Looks like Philips have different policies for monitors and TVs- they have a <0.0004% subpixel defect policy for their 15" TFT monitors (1024x768). It's not just a number, there are policies for the distance between defective pixels, number of bright pixels in an area, etc. Check out their website, they have a pixel policy document for their monitors.
 
I have a Sony PMF 42, with one dead pixel left of centre. Its not a problem, Sony will come and look at the screen, but as its not in the middle of the screen they will not do much.
 
Don't hold your breath with Sony. I had a sony plasma it only had 14 dead pixels spread throught centre of screen - only took 6 months of phoning (Retailer backed me up) until I got my refund. Sony has the worst customer support I have yet experienced and will never purchase a sony product again!

Bought a Hitachi in its place and have never looked back
 
I have had aftersales dealings with Hitachi with my PMA400 (admittedly not for dead pixels) and I have found them to be nothing but professional. BUT: Don't expect to get any joy out of their call centre Customer "Servcie" people, or to make easy contact by e-mail from their website which, you are right, is poxy. I had to e-mail them three times, the third time being a snot-o-gram that opened with the line "PLEASE RESPOND TO THIS E-MAIL!!" in order to get them to notice me. Once I was "inside" so to speak, it was plain sailing from there.

I've had my PMA for nearly a year now and - touch wood - no dead or stuck pixels yet.
 

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