Acer AT3705-MGW 37" LCD TV

[JSmith]

I presume you are joking. 3 dead pixels in over 2 million or 0.000145% How perfect do you think your CRT is? The Acer has way more serious problems than that...

I notice that the profits from our purchases have gone to good use.

2073600 to be exact... I think the percentage you stated while correct, is irrelevant, as why should a brand new screen have any pixels not working? Even though it is a small amount of pixels, it is something you can clearly see, and once seen would have trouble not noticing. Why are we talking about my CRT now? I don't believe I referred to my CRT here... but it is well known that a good quality HD CRT will still give you the best PQ over LCD and plasma, but won't get bigger than 86cm. Perfect? nothing is perfect... I just want my SED It's a shame to hear the Acer has larger issues also.

JSmith :ph34r:

[crtlover]

2073600 to be exact... I think the percentage you stated while correct, is irrelevant, as why should a brand new screen have any pixels not working? Even though it is a small amount of pixels, it is something you can clearly see, and once seen would have trouble not noticing. Why are we talking about my CRT now? I don't believe I referred to my CRT here... but it is well known that a good quality HD CRT will still give you the best PQ over LCD and plasma, but won't get bigger than 86cm. Perfect? nothing is perfect... I just want my SED It's a shame to hear the Acer has larger issues also.

JSmith :ph34r:

I want my SED too!

Heard anything recently?

Mark

[double07]

Turns out the tearing I was getting at 50/60hz was in mediaportal only. Enabling "DirectX exclusive mode" fixed this up, apparently it matches the video frame rate to the refresh of the video card. Sweet.

I'm extremely happy with this TV now by the way. Perfect for HTPCs. Now... to build a new HTPC

[keygar]

Keygar, I am using a DVI cable and PC audio socket without any problem. I have not tried this with the VGA socket but I suspect it will work as these are the two PC input options.

Nup, if I select DVI input and run audio to PC input from eg STB or DVR, I get no audio. Must be another fault. Think I'll stick with component input. Could not face going thru Acer repair again. Thanks for replying.

[JSmith]

I want my SED too!

Heard anything recently?

Mark

Not much, release been set back from beginning 2007 to Q4 of 2007, probably won't see them until 2008 here. Just posted a topic on these screens. Have a look at it here .

JSmith :ph34r:

[voigtstr]

Well, I stand corrected!

Maybe the initial impression i got from HDMI was the first version? Anyways, untill PC cards ship with HDMI I wouldnt have a way to connect it at 1080p to my PC, so I still will focus on DVI for present.

playstation 3 HDMI 1.3 november 17

[Guest skipp]

Hi. Finally hooked up my PowerBook G4 today. Will go to 1920x1080 @ 30 Hz (no higher refresh rate, I get 'out of range' messages), but I need to use a program called SwitchResX to make the resolution accessible. What is weird is that there's a 5cm vertical border on the left of the screen...

Could these issues be because I'm testing it out using HDMI->VGA->Acer from the PowerBook? I'm going to pick up an HDMI cable soon to see if it works better. FWIW, it looks damn fine via VGA @ 1280x768, but I'll be getting some real HD content soon to test it out at 1080.

Paulie said "Not convinced that a Mac is the way to go either. Obviously you don't have the range of software available. I'm going to try VLC for DVD playback and see how that goes. It would be great if frontrow was configurable."

There are a number of 'media centre' projects for the Mac at the moment. MediaCentral is one to try out. Not as slick as Front Row, but much more powerful. There's a couple of others whose names I can't remember.

Last question: Does anyone know where (or if) you can download a copy of the warrantee (didn't get one with it, it was a display model). Damn 1.01 firmware makes the tv turn on after 17 hours and I want it sorted now...

[BB88]

Got the DTV version in Canada. The firmware (Appc) says 1.03. I wonder if the firmware version is different than the MGW model. Manufacturer date is 2006 Week 16 or something.

[pauli]

Skipp:

Thanks for the tip on MediaCentral. I am going to test it out. Shame it's not free to use, but I guess I can't deny the work these guys have done.

The TV looks great, driven by my Macbook and 1920x1080 (i). I think I would have to pick up a DVI-HDMI cable to get 1080p, but I'm not that fussed.

Major problem with teh Macbook is that the DVD drive is locked to one region which is a major pain. I'm not sure I really want to hack the firmware on teh drive, which is why I was hoping to try VLC, which may "fix up" the region business. Obviously I don't really know much about this.

Cheers,

Paul.

[jakes]

Major problem with teh Macbook is that the DVD drive is locked to one region which is a major pain. I'm not sure I really want to hack the firmware on teh drive, which is why I was hoping to try VLC, which may "fix up" the region business. Obviously I don't really know much about this.

I don't want to take this thread too far off topic, but it seems that VLC worked for getting around region coding on older Macs, but due to new drives with problematic firmware this isn't possible (on macbook pros but also, I assume, plain macbooks).

There's some info on the problem here.

Hopefully, somebody will work out a way to fix it, but it would seem in the meantime you've got problems

[pauli]

Jakes, thanks for that, I suspected as much.

Not a huge drama I guess.

The TV is still great!

[WRC]

HI All,

My 1st post. I am real keen too purchase the DTV. I got a quote from DSE Power House for $2650.

Is this a good price?

I will mainly use it for TV, DivX and DVD.

I also want to ensure I get the most upto date firmware version (V1.11), is the below correct for checking firmware versions?

Go to a non-TV input and hit 2, 3, 4, 5 then menu on the remote. The firmware version is in the value of AppC.

Cheers All

WRC

[double07]

HI All,

My 1st post. I am real keen too purchase the DTV. I got a quote from DSE Power House for $2650.

Is this a good price?

I will mainly use it for TV, DivX and DVD.

I also want to ensure I get the most upto date firmware version (V1.11), is the below correct for checking firmware versions?

Go to a non-TV input and hit 2, 3, 4, 5 then menu on the remote. The firmware version is in the value of AppC.

Cheers All

WRC

Yeah $2650 is a good price. I got an exdemo for $2125 off ebay and it's been fantastic. There's actually another one from the same mob (refurbyte) finishing in 2 days.

Yes that's how you check the firmware. I could be corrected but I think 1.09 is the latest for the DTV model.

[BB88]

My TV turned on yesterday automatically after a electric outage in the area. I was lucky to went home 5 minutes after the outage. I think that will be annoying if I am out-town for 2 weeks or so with the TV burning-in at a blue screen (it was at DVI connection). Is that normal?

When I am not using the TV, should I turn it off using the power button on the remote or TV front panel (which leaves a orange light on the power), or do i have to crawl at the back of the TV and turn off the power switch at the back?

[JSmith]

My TV turned on yesterday automatically after a electric outage in the area. I was lucky to went home 5 minutes after the outage. I think that will be annoying if I am out-town for 2 weeks or so with the TV burning-in at a blue screen (it was at DVI connection). Is that normal?

When I am not using the TV, should I turn it off using the power button on the remote or TV front panel (which leaves a orange light on the power), or do i have to crawl at the back of the TV and turn off the power switch at the back?

So after a power outage in standby it just turns on? My PC does that

I'd turn it off at the screen at least if not the power when going away, but probably just use standby still generally. How often is a blackout?

JSmith :ph34r:

[BB88]

So after a power outage in standby it just turns on? My PC does that

I'd turn it off at the screen at least if not the power when going away, but probably just use standby still generally. How often is a blackout?

JSmith :ph34r:

You can control if you want the PC to turn back on or not in the Bios setting, but not on the Acer TV

Other people said the updated firmware (1.09?) will fix that, since I only have 1.03, so I'll just contact Acer Canada for the firmware upgrade.

[Spk]

After gaining lots of useful info from this forum I thought I should contribute my experience with the AT3705-MGW

I purchased the unit about 2 month's ago with an extended warranty (3y + 2y).

Was very happy until it started to turn itself on as experienced by others in this forum.

I became aware that a firmware update was required to solve this problem.

I checked my firmware version and found I had 1.07 for the TV and 1.06 for the MGW.

Contacted ACER to make the warranty claim and was told that I would have to return the unit to the Sth Melbourne repair centre.

As it is such a big screen I was not happy with the idea of transporting the unit so I read the fine print on the warranty and realised I was indeed entitled to onsite service.

Contacted ACER again and they tried to tell me that the repair could only be done in their shop. Thanks to these forums I knew how the update was performed so I told them to stop bluffing me or I would formally complain to ACER head office. At this point they agreed to honour the onsite service call.

A bit over a week later a technician came round and updated the firmware to version 1.11.

The technician told me that 1.09 did solve the 'turn-on' problem but there were other problems with 1.09. He didn't know exactly what had been fixed with 1.11.

He also told me there are only 5 firmware update tools available to acer technicians across Australia and that Acer is about to change their warranty to 'no onsite service' for future customers.

Anyway now I'm happy again with firmware 1.11 for the TV and 1.06 for the MGW.

Cheers

[photojj]

Contacted ACER again and they tried to tell me that the repair could only be done in their shop. Thanks to these forums I knew how the update was performed so I told them to stop bluffing me or I would formally complain to ACER head office. At this point they agreed to honour the onsite service call.

A bit over a week later a technician came round and updated the firmware to version 1.11.

The technician told me that 1.09 did solve the 'turn-on' problem but there were other problems with 1.09. He didn't know exactly what had been fixed with 1.11.

I live in rural Tasmania, outside the service area. According to my warranty Acer will pick up by courier service a faulty unit to be taken to Hobart, the nearest service centre.

The only problems I have are:

White bleed at screen edges when first turned on, goes after about 20min.

still image resolution is crap from anything but the dvi input. The card reader is a waste of time until they fix the software that reads it.

Still images through a computer are excellent.

Do you think the firware 1.11 will fix either of these problems? I have cer 1.09

Jeff

[BB88]

You guys are lucky over there... the Acer support in Toronto, Canada told me there is no firmware upgrade (mine is 1.03), and they said even if there is a fix needed, I have to bring the TV to them or ship it to them... That's really annoying to do with a TV, and each moving is going to add risk damaging the TV

How did they update the TV firmware at your home? Do they have to take the TV apart?

[JSmith]

How did they update the TV firmware at your home? Do they have to take the TV apart?

I wouldn't imagine they would take the TV apart...

Network Interface RJ45 Network connection

Card ReaderCard Reader (CF, MMC, MS, MS PRO, SD)

JSmith :ph34r:

[BB88]

I wouldn't imagine they would take the TV apart...

Network Interface RJ45 Network connection

Card ReaderCard Reader (CF, MMC, MS, MS PRO, SD)

JSmith :ph34r:

I have the DTV version that doesn't have the network nor the card reader though.

BTW, can anyone in Australia (and other countries too) post the full AppC string of your TV to me? Since I remember it's not only 1.03 (or whatever version it is)... but something like CAxxxAU 1.03. I am wondering if the Australian model will have a different firmware than the Canadian model.

Thanks

[Wayne7497]

For ALL and Sundry according to my Loacla Rep who confirmed his order Retravision will be selling the AT3705 (not MGW) in their next catalogue for $1999.00..

They have 6 on order at Gosnells WA August 8th (or 6th cant rememebr) expected..

Warehouse (main one) tried to tell him they were 3704's But rep checked his orders and said he defintiley ordered 3705s, as they aready have stock of 3704's

[fobfob]

For ALL and Sundry according to my Loacla Rep who confirmed his order Retravision will be selling the AT3705 (not MGW) in their next catalogue for $1999.00..

Wow.

[crYnOid]

I have the DTV version that doesn't have the network nor the card reader though.

BTW, can anyone in Australia (and other countries too) post the full AppC string of your TV to me? Since I remember it's not only 1.03 (or whatever version it is)... but something like CAxxxAU 1.03. I am wondering if the Australian model will have a different firmware than the Canadian model.

Thanks

Mine is:

AppC:VWE7_EU_CMO37_V1.09

[crYnOid]

How did they update the TV firmware at your home? Do they have to take the TV apart?

Laptop + adapter (Laptop serial to TV VGA, it also has it's own power supply) + flash update program (just like any other flash update software) is all that is needed.

The tech turns the power off at the switch, plugs in the VGA adapter, starts the software on the laptop, turns it on at the power switch. The screen remains black while the software updates (about 3-4 minutes). Once updated turn it off at the switch, remove the adapter, turn it back on and check the version is now the new version.

I also had to reset the audio (in the audio menu) when the update broke it.