Hitachi Ultravision 42HDS69 42" Plasma - PQ issues and sometimes won't power up

[SurrealMustard]

I'm looking at this Hitachi Ultravision for someone and was wondering if anyone was familiar with the types of problems that it is having. Basically, when I plug it in, it'll usually power up (but not always). When it does, it appears to stay on indefinitely, but the picture quality isn't quite where it aught to be (the issue is kind of hard to describe, just take a look at some of the distortion going on in the first two pictures). This is a very complex set, so I'm at a bit of a loss as to where to start. I performed a visual inspection of the capacitors on the power supply and sustain boards and didn't see anything puffed up (and I searched more thoroughly this time ).

Any ideas as to what it'll probably take to get everything working properly again?

[ReeceyBurger123]

Re: Hitachi Ultravision 42HDS69 42" Plasma - PQ issues and sometimes won't power up

Hi when it fails to power up, try heating Psu with a hair driyer could be a bad start up cap.

[Alastair E]

Re: Hitachi Ultravision 42HDS69 42" Plasma - PQ issues and sometimes won't power up

Fujitsu/Hitachi plasma-panels at the age they are, Always look Rough--Worst panels Ive ever seen....

Edges particularly and certain shades of colour/brightness take on a coarse look that improves with temperature/time running. Its a panel ageing thing, known as Mal-Discharge.

The aging algorithm in the set isn't really compatible with real-life degradation over time.....

Sadly, its not curable outside of Hitachi/Fujitsu R/D dept, as its a timing/panel drive issue that would need alterations to the Control-Board Firmware, and they aint tellin'

On the plus side, The X-SUS/Y-SUS are prolly the most reliable ever....

[SurrealMustard]

follow-up questions

Fujitsu/Hitachi plasma-panels at the age they are, Always look Rough--Worst panels Ive ever seen....

Edges particularly and certain shades of colour/brightness take on a coarse look that improves with temperature/time running. Its a panel ageing thing, known as Mal-Discharge.

The aging algorithm in the set isn't really compatible with real-life degradation over time.....

Sadly, its not curable outside of Hitachi/Fujitsu R/D dept, as its a timing/panel drive issue that would need alterations to the Control-Board Firmware, and they aint tellin'

On the plus side, The X-SUS/Y-SUS are prolly the most reliable ever....

Interesting. How many hours of usage does it take for a Fujitsu/Hitachi panel to get that bad? Would this normally only be a factor on a heavily-used set?

Hi when it fails to power up, try heating Psu with a hair driyer could be a bad start up cap.

I'll have to check that out. Given that the sustain boards are usually pretty reliable, is it a safe bet that the issue lies on the power supply board? I'm just trying to assess costs at this point for the owner of this set before proceeding.

[ReeceyBurger123]

Re: Hitachi Ultravision 42HDS69 42" Plasma - PQ issues and sometimes won't power up

Possibly let us know how it goes using the method I said, also could you get us a full shot of the whole of the boards etc buddy ?

[SurrealMustard]

problem vanished

Possibly let us know how it goes using the method I said, also could you get us a full shot of the whole of the boards etc buddy ?

Curiously enough, the issue stopped. It now starts up every time without fail. I've even tried leaving it unplugged for a time to exercise the capacitors. That combined with the fact that the PQ issues are just an aspect of the aging of the panel seem to indicate that everything is as good as it's going to get with this set (although it could use a good dusting).