Th42px600a Owners! Anyone Passed The "purple Snake" Test?

[SenojNW 0]

I have a TH42PX600A on order and have been reading about the "purple snake" phenomenon on the US 42" models - seems to be occurring in batches and only on the 42" according to the AVS forum...

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread....t=purple+snakes

I plan to check it out on mine when it arrives but thought we should run a bit of an Australian survey here of:

1) does your set have the problem?

2) when was it manufactured & where?

Seems like the standard test setup is "Harry Potter, The Goblet of Fire, Chapter One at the 5:10 mark. Harry and his buddies are running up to a boot on the top of a hill and the sky is filled with ominous gray clouds. Check out the edges of the clouds in upper mid screen. Should be visible from 8 to 10 feet away"

Some good pics of the issue here...

http://www.cc.jyu.fi/~jakeisal/pictures/

[Guest spoleweski]

I have a TH42PX600A on order and have been reading about the "purple snake" phenomenon on the US 42" models - seems to be occurring in batches and only on the 42" according to the AVS forum...

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread....t=purple+snakes

I plan to check it out on mine when it arrives but thought we should run a bit of an Australian survey here of:

1) does your set have the problem?

2) when was it manufactured & where?

Seems like the standard test setup is "Harry Potter, The Goblet of Fire, Chapter One at the 5:10 mark. Harry and his buddies are running up to a boot on the top of a hill and the sky is filled with ominous gray clouds. Check out the edges of the clouds in upper mid screen. Should be visible from 8 to 10 feet away"

Some good pics of the issue here...

http://www.cc.jyu.fi/~jakeisal/pictures/

all i can say is... mine better bloody not have it!

[SenojNW 0]

Some more info here...

http://www.avforums.com/forums/showthread....t=purple+snakes

Anyone game to test theirs?

[andym 0]

All I can say is look out for it when you get your display so you can return it ASAP without too many hassles if it occurs. I had the problem and its no fun at all once you spot it, all you end up doing is looking out for it.

The worst culprit I found was watching The West Wing on the ABC on Monday nights. That show never failed to show the fault.

My new 50 inch is a whole lot better. I can still detect it very faintly on certain occassions when Im up close to the screen but its only about 5% of the problem the 42 inch gave me, so I can live with it.

[SenojNW 0]

OK - questions...

What process did you go through when you noticed it? Who did you buy from and did you have any problems returning under warranty? Interested to know whether Panny in Australia are acknowledging the problem? Did you have to pay the difference to upgrade to the 50"??

Do you recall the manufacture date of your 42" and where?

Whoa - thats a lot of questions...

[andym 0]

OK - questions...

What process did you go through when you noticed it? Who did you buy from and did you have any problems returning under warranty? Interested to know whether Panny in Australia are acknowledging the problem? Did you have to pay the difference to upgrade to the 50"??

Do you recall the manufacture date of your 42" and where?

Whoa - thats a lot of questions...

Hi, Yeh I posted most of that detail in the pana best price thread (posted 31 dec 06). I've copied it for you below.

quote

Had a quick look at the avs thread. The pics showed the exact same problem that I encountered with my 42pv60a bought in August (made in Japan June 2006). Had a hard time convincing the first service centre that it was a genuine problem. Took it to another service centre who diagnosed the problem in about 1 minute. He said the sustain board (if memory serves) was on the way out. However the problem existed from day 1.

Managed to get a refund from Myer and upgraded to the 50 inch. No such problems with the new panel

I'd recommend anyone with a new pana panel to check it for this problem and exchange it ASAP if you notice it. Hope this helps someone.

Quote end

I was "lucky" enough to get a full refund from Myer (less delivery costs) even though it was 4 months post purchase. Once I was convinced it was the plasma at fault and not the source material I notified Myer (about 6 weeks post purchase). But they refered me to pana who refered me to the closest service centre. They dragged their feet and took about 3 weeks just to look at it. They proved to be absolutely useless (long story I dont want to relive ). Called pana again who recommended a second service centre to check it out. They confirmed the fault as stated above. With that I spoke to the Myer sales manager asking for a refund and he obliged (actually he was quite sympathetic). Not sure if that would've worked at HN .

The moral is, check for the fault ASAP so you can return it straight to the retailer if it exists (usually 14-21 days post purchase) no questions asked. Then you wont have to go through what I went through. If you can go through a full episode of the west wing without seeing it you should be ok.

[SenojNW 0]

Bump!

Thanks heaps AndyM - I have taken a 5 year warranty so some comfort there. I will be renting Harry Potter on the way home from picking up my set...

Anyone else want to run the test on their set? Sounds like there are a lot out there so it would be good to get some more feedback...

[Guest spoleweski]

I shall put the incredibles and harry potter on as soon as i get it to check for the problem. i really hope it doesn't... maybe its a bad batch thats been released or something? But is it a common problem? is there anyone out there that doesnt have it? because if thats not the case i just wont buy it.

BTW, should I have the tv settings on 'run-in' settings or on full capacity when looking for the purple snake?

[SenojNW 0]

I dunno how common it is - but it seems to be immediately obvious on most sets. It seems pretty prevalent in the UK and US - that's why I am trying to get Australian owners (I know you are out there!) to run a few tests on their sets to guage the problem over here - if it does start to show up this sort of thread will be useful for any sort of warranty stuff...

[SenojNW 0]

*Bump*

C'Mon! There must be heaps of owners out there! I know Harry Potter is a bad movie but I gave you guys the specific time and place to watch!

[Paulo1503561023 0]

Have to wait until I get home to test. Man, you guys have me worried now.

[SenojNW 0]

Panic Room also seems like a good test run according to the UK forums...

[smargs 0]

Good due diligence, SenojNW. Here's my results as per spoleweski's request.

Pic1. For comparison with the pics above:

Pic2. Picture settings at low.

Pic3. Auto adjusted - Better

Contrast, Sharpness, Color Management, & MPEG NR all affect the degree of this artifact. Contrast makes the most difference as the purple dither effect is worse at low contrast settings. Almost looks like a color space conversion/banding issue, although it's not the same every time.

Edit: Sorry guys, looks like we can't have inline pics.

[Guest spoleweski]

Good due diligence, SenojNW. Here's my results as per spoleweski's request.

Pic1. For comparison with the pics above:

Pic2. Picture settings at low.

Pic3. Auto adjusted - Better

Contrast, Sharpness, Color Management, & MPEG NR all affect the degree of this artifact. Contrast makes the most difference as the purple dither effect is worse at low contrast settings. Almost looks like a color space conversion/banding issue, although it's not the same every time.

Edit: Sorry guys, looks like we can't have inline pics.

hey steen thanks for those! You know what, i can hardly see it anyway, if its like that on my set i wont be worried. those previous pictures worried me because it looked so evident.

[SenojNW 0]

Good start! What is the date/manufacture details of your set?

[SenojNW 0]

Steen

The only one where I could really see anything that looked like it was with picture settings at low - but certainly not as bad as some of the sets in the UK/US...

You happy with the picture?

[SenojNW 0]

C'Mon! I know you are all home now and just itching to get that Harry Potter DVD out and give it a spin...

[smargs 0]

You know what, i can hardly see it anyway, if its like that on my set i wont be worried. those previous pictures worried me because it looked so evident.

Please bear in mind that these pics are:

1. P&S at 100ISO.

2. Stills. In motion it may bug you.

3. Downsampled to 1024x768.

4. Have jpeg compression artifacts.

5. Shaky-Cam...

I'm usually very fussy with tech details/implementation, but I can live with this panel. On occasions I've noticed colour banding across gradients esp in the horizon/sky (esp Ch7 HD loop - although I do have a high threshold for Sophie Falkiner in a bikini ). I will check out West Wing.

What is the date/manufacture details of your set?

As per here. Dec06 Made in Japan FW v31.040 SW 1.02

The only one where I could really see anything that looked like it was with picture settings at low

Yep. That's the point. Pic1, the typical "boot" scene as per the pic archive above is nowhere near as bad. The worst is Pic2 on the upper left cloud area, but the same still image in Pic3 with the settings as shown improves the image substantially.

You happy with the picture?

Yes. I'm surprised how reasonable it is with settings ~40% max. Colour saturation is very good (an area where LCDs excel). Blacks are very good as expected. Detail is also surprisingly good for an ED panel, although I prefer sharpness at 2-3 stops when HD content is available. There is some grainyness, but not too objectionable and dependent on source/content. MPEG NR at min knocks most of this off on SD/DVD. Certainly nothing I haven't seen in every PDP/LCD panel I've looked at. Final settings will improve things further. The HD tuner/reception is also very good. I haven't come across signal strength in the menus yet (maybe service menus?) to confirm.

The 50" PDP Pana/Fuji & Pioneer looked better in store. The 46" Sony/Samsung LCD looked great with 1080p, but backlight & typical large panel LCD issues kept me from buying. Also, I'm not a gamer these days, nor will I connect a HTPC for 1:1 pixel mapping. I was very tempted by the 50" Pana due to <$4k price & 1366x768 square pixels/correct AR, but thought I'd grab the 42" & put the ~$1300 difference towards replacement tech in 3-5yrs. In 12 months, better 1080p PDP/LCD panels will be released anyway...

Edit: Correction. Addendum.

[diesel 1]

although I do have a high threshold for Sophie Falkiner in a bikini ).

The only reason to watch the HD LOOP

[AusZeus 0]

Just put on Harry Potter and I have the snake !!! Doesn't worry me though.....

[Nevyn72 31]

Still on run in settings but have seen no sign of the snake......

Don't have Harry Potter GOF, any other suggestions?

Build date Nov 2006 for the X600A.

[magregus 0]

Just put on Harry Potter and I have the snake !!! Doesn't worry me though.....

Bothered me to no end, replaced set within about 7 days. You will see it everywhere now, adverts, tv shows...

[Guest spoleweski]

Bothered me to no end, replaced set within about 7 days. You will see it everywhere now, adverts, tv shows...

so your set was fixed? or is it a complete new one? do you know what the cause of the problem was?

[SenojNW 0]

Great! So it sounds like the snakes are in Australia too - better call Samuel Jackson...

Still no word on when mine will arrive but will test as soon as I get it...

Peter VFR - either rent Hazza Potter or have also heard of testing on West Wing (ABC) and Panic Room.

I fired off an email to Panasonic Australia with the link to both UK and US forums asking whether they were aware of the issue and whether it had been showing up in Australian sets... no word yet...

I have a feeling it will p*ss me off if I have it so might need to consider the 50"

[SenojNW 0]

A couple of good links for a DVD test reel so we can standardise the test for these sets... It shows the snakes well based on what I've seen on the UK site... Can we run and post some pics on various settings?

http://www.4shared.com/file/8670152/eec5b1...esnaketest.html

http://www.4shared.com/file/8718626/220efb...aketest_v2.html