So Sharp called today (after I sent them an e-mail notifying them of their unfulfilled promise of calling me on Monday). Rep says "Hi, I'm calling you about your new exchange, do you have the serial # of the TV?" I say no, obviously I don't, I'm at work, like I am every single day, 8am till 6pm, Mon - Fri, you'd think they'd have it noted somewhere by now after 4 months of talking to me. So Rep says "Oh alright, well thanks anyways, goodbye" and hangs up. I mean come on.. wtf? They send me a TV without writing down the serial of the unit they send? Geez. Ninja-edit: Called em back, the rep I talked to got confused with the new model they were sending and tried to tell me I was going to get the same model again, wasted a good 20mins. Finally though, it was worked out and I'm getting an LC-46D64U ( http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16889101139 ). After reading quite a bit on it, it looks like it suffers a lot from banding issues.. so.. looks like I'm trading the blinking issue for a banding issue.. sigh. Well, time will tell, ETA is 2 weeks.
Firmware So I have a question DarkLord7854? when you got the firmware to install I am guessing that it didn't help at all? I am having this issue.I have traded my TV once, and the same issue happened. I have talked with the Techs at Sharp, and have noticed that they really don't know what are talking about...
Haha, yea, they don't know much from what I've experienced. The firmware made no difference for me, if you'd like, I can forward it to you (PM me your email), but I can't guarantee it'll work or do anything at all. I don't think it's an "officially released" firmware update, but more of a half-arsed attempt at fixing a hardware problem. There was no menu differences, no picture differences, nothing at all.
I have done the update on the first TV, and it didn't do anything still blanking out. I just installed the update yesterday, and I am going to try it today, see if there is any change. I just wanted to see if you still had the blanking issue as bad, after the update.
Was exactly the same as before, I saw no changes what-so-ever. Was watching Jumanji last night.. halfway through, the TV started going into a fit, movie became unwatchable, was disgusted. Here's hoping new TV will work
Just got this TV as a house warming gift. I am encountering the same problems as you DarkLord. Thanks for all the effort you've been putting in and great details. I'm going to give SharpUSA a call today and see what kind of run around they give me. Unfortunately I don't have the option to return this TV. Yes I just joined the forum to post this, I wanted to see what kind of feed back you get. Keep providing the information. I'll let you know what I found out as well. This is one of the only places I found via google with people having the same problem.
Glad this thread helped ya, I'm currently waiting for the new TV to arrive. Expect Sharp to be a pain in the rear in dealing with your issue and be ready to keep calling em.
Also, Don't know if you thought of it. This may be a good story for http://consumerist.com/Don't know if you ever browsed that site. They have some great success stories from people posting customer service related issues. I'm going to browse the site and see if they have any Sharp Executive support numbers or emails posted. I'll keep you guys updated on what I find.
i have this exact same issue and found your post im using an old xbox with xbmc on it and running component cables when the tv is running movies at 480p there is no issues at all when i kick it up to 720p the cutting out occurs at random intervals and replaying the video at the same time i can reproduce the results exactly i have tried moving to a different component input (side) and that has done nothing the sharp customer support guy told me that i need to update the firmware on my xbox but that is completely irrelevant as i am running xbmc and its the current release and i had absolutely no problem running the same videos on my old tv this is apparently a problem that they are aware of cause so anyone have any issues with using hdmi and 1080? cause im about to take this thing back due to this issue (thank god i saved the box)
I have played my friends PS3 with HDMI, and I didn't see any issues, but I didn't get alot of time to test it. From what I have seen it is only the Component Ports. Also a note to add if you can, and want to take this back you could look into the LN46A500 Samsung. That might be a good t look into.
that sucks im seriously considering taking the tv back now shameful thing is i got it for 900 and theres not any of the same size for the same price
I would take it back. I don't think 4 months of frustration is worth a slightly better TV, I'd rather have my money back.
mind sending me the firmware update you got? i have low expectations that it will fix the issue but you never know if it doesnt fix it its going back to the store did your tv get delivered yet?
Tomorrow I am trading my TV in for a Samsung LN46A500 I am getting it for 999.00 from Best buy. I am going to be done with this mess .
The TV blinked out twice yesterday while I was watching The Office on my cablevision DVR (running at 1080i). I'm going to put in another call this afternoon.
If the issues are as you described, i imagine the movie actually improved It's a feature! Seriously though, you really should sue them for the cost of the TV plus the cost of your phonecalls plus the cost of your time. They treat you like an idiot at every single turn, dodge, hide, lie, and never try to work out the problem. I used to work at a helpdesk, and the trick is this: Obviously, they have people working there that know what component input is, and that instantly recognise what your problem is. They are expected to solve such issues, but sometimes they can't. That's why these people are isolated (insulated) from the customer by a layer of reps that still giggle everytime they see a plug listed as "male" or "female". They know nothing, and can't do nothing. They have a holy faith in the engineers, because they do know what they are talking about. The engineers feed these types BS while they either work on the problem or use it as an excuse to play massive amounts of games in the office (true story), and you end up speaking to a rep with a BS story that he truely and utterly believes in. And no matter how many pictures of green grass you show them, they will keep saying it's blue, because the engineers said so. Plausible Deniability. FYI, I was fired for actually sitting down to fix issues instead of meet targets measured in numbers of calls answered. Eventually people got really annoyed with me because i didn't eat the BS. And this was in a GOOD company, AFTER a major re-organisation. I hope that gave you a bit of insight. Ideally, find a way to talk to one of the techs. They are often as frustrated as you, and very willing to share what's really wrong with the TV. Good luck, and keep your chin up!
Yea I kinda figured that's what happens, thanks It's not the first time I have to deal with customer service idiots, it just gets really frustrating and exasperating after a while. If the new TV that's arriving next week turns out to have another defect then yea, I'll most likely contact my lawyer.
