LG 50PK550R Owner's Discussion Thread

[dotMac]

I have a LG R&D Pune guy(same one who went to Shaiju's home in Mumbai) coming over to Bangalore for applying the fixes. And he says they will not open the panel but use software update and service remote to make some changes. Well fingers crossed and more updates by today evening.

I am not sure on how to convey this to LG. But they could have sent him to homes of all of us in one shot. LG could in that way save his travel cost at-least Or hope LG will take this opportunity to utilize Pune guy to train the LG staff in Blore/Karnataka so they equipped for this kind of service.

Anyways, all the best Vivek and do let us know the progress made.

 

[viveknath]

Dotmac, I told the same to this gentleman that he could have met few owners in Bangalore and tried this.

Will keep you guys posted.

 

[VivekM]

Hurray !!!
Purchased 50pk550 at 60k.
Installation tomorrow at 1pm.
Thank you all.

 

[Srinivas29]

Viveknath,

Please do provide the tech's phone number. I would like to get the changes applied on my TV as well.

Thanks,
Srinivas

 

[heynownow]

My replacement came..one little problem. There is a piece of plastic INSIDE the glass. The guy assembling the set must've been drinking on the job. Sewrvice people said they will rectify the problem. basically open the set and pull out that piece.

I notice green dithering problems, though still there, is much less than the earlier set.

 

[krinamob]

My replacement came..one little problem. There is a piece of plastic INSIDE the glass. The guy assembling the set must've been drinking on the job. Sewrvice people said they will rectify the problem. basically open the set and pull out that piece.

I notice green dithering problems, though still there, is much less than the earlier set.

Sorry for you ....
LG seems to have been developing an awesome Quality Control Team

 

[shreeps]

Sorry for you ....
LG seems to have been developing an awesome Quality Control Team

Planning to purchase the 50PK550 soon. Getting scared looking at the number of TV replacements due to panel issues. Agreed its great value for money but it'd be a pain running behind LG to get a brand new tv fixed/replaced.
Fingers crossed.

 

[shaiju_o_thomas]

dotMac(Kiran),

I got a call from LG tech for your details. He couldn't dig up your information.

Anyone who needs the fixes, either PM me your details or drop an email on [email protected].

Vivek,

How are the changes coming through?

 

[shaiju_o_thomas]

My replacement came..one little problem. There is a piece of plastic INSIDE the glass. The guy assembling the set must've been drinking on the job. Sewrvice people said they will rectify the problem. basically open the set and pull out that piece.

I notice green dithering problems, though still there, is much less than the earlier set.

Similar plastic thing stuck inside my panel.

 

[viveknath]

Alright guys I had a visit from the LG R&D guy ..all the way from Pune. Our issues have been discussed vehemently in India and Seoul. In fact he mentioned they stopped production of this TV till they could find some solution. Hence the shortage in market. And well Kudos to us all - we stopped production at LG - Yipeeeeee

Well he did not open the panel ( though thats an option as was done for Shaiju's case) but most of the settings he played with were from the Service Menu. Primarily its a change in the SubBrightness and Subcontrast (105 and 119)...and this now allows my Brightness to be jacked till 70 before the green pixels get visible again (it used to appear at 53 earlier).

He acknowledged that they are not in position to fix this issue and getting it to no green pixels stage. Hence this fix of firmware update and service remote based setting changes. These have been tested and approved from their HQ in Seoul.

Next he showed pics and a ppt which clearly highlighted the same issues in Samsung C550, except that instead of black backgrounds this issue arises with the white backgrounds ...an issue which is called panel noise( please don't harp if it is something else

Another setting he showed we can use to minimize the green pixel is by changing the GAMMA (under advanced control) to high. Other people can check and confirm on their sets if it made a difference with the content they have used for checking green pixel issue.

I did not have the R&D guys number to share. There was another local Bangalore support guy who has recorded the settings and changes which need to be made.

BTW Shaiju you are extremely famous at LG R&D in Pune and I too have got an invite to see their Plasma TV making process at their Pune plant

 

[csczero]

Alright guys I had a visit from the LG R&D guy ..all the way from Pune. Our issues have been discussed vehemently in India and Seoul. In fact he mentioned they stopped production of this TV till they could find some solution. Hence the shortage in market. And well Kudos to us all - we stopped production at LG - Yipeeeeee

This is NEWS to all of us !! does that mean they will importing pk550 directly ? :sos:

 

[Imrahn]

^^ Thanx for the update bro....and hats off to the LG ASS,they are doing a simply outstanding work here,have to say.I honestly cannot see ANY OTHER brand going this far to address customer issue of a low magnitude as this,and that too quite promptly.Seems they are in the Plasma business for serious and have set the bar higher for others in the Customer Service department.

and abt the panel noise issue in Samsung,did they mention any particular settings when it happens? Now that u have mentioned it, i have to test it right now Have run break-in slides at varying intensities from extremely low to torching ones so far, but didnt notice any dancing pixels as in LG,but will look for it now.

 

[VivekM]

Is there anybody in this forum using 50pk550 without any problem?
How many percent of 50pk550 go under repair?

 

[shaiju_o_thomas]

Viveknath,

Thanks. Good update.

Any reason they did a firmware update and what did it achieve?

Are you sure about the sub-brightness and sub-contrast (105 and 119)? My settings are sub-brightness and sub-contrast (115 and 165).

So, even at 70 brightness are the green pixels with similar intensity or reduced? I agree they haven't done away with it totally but the on my set the problem has reduced to a great extent. Black bars on movies stay black rather than grey. It is another story that LG blacks are not pure blacks

If there is no visible change even after the firmware and service menu changes, do let us know.

dotMac, should be next for the update as Krishna asked me for his details.

Btw, the LG Pune guy was Krishna?

 

[shaiju_o_thomas]

Famous, who me? Well browse through my phone call records and you'll know instantly why

Well, I did have Krishna and one more person look at the problem for almost 5 hours at my place. Showed them some blu-ray material and reference scenes (not much though). I think LG arrives at universal picture calibration by test techniques (patterns). However, it may be of little use if tests do not reveal real world problems.

Hope that with all the replacements and fixes, the problems are minimized to a great extent. If LG is (further) handicapped due to set design then I guess the only option for them is to launch a new model (and possibly replace our sets in 2011).

This is just a workaround to get rid of few problems but I still remember my original request - advanced calibration options!

 

[viveknath]

Well the advanced calibrations, doesn't look like a possibility very soon ( just like my HD on USB :0)

And yes thats the setting he put for my TV. He mentioned it was based on of my viewing distance from TV, room lighting and my preference for brightness etc. So perhaps that's the reason the settings might be little different.My viewing distance is around 12-13 feet from the TV.

The guy who came down was Rajesh and he said he has been to your place too with the TV they had got from Pune plant

The firmware update was nothing new, the same firmware 3.28 version. They just resetted everything to factory settings, applied the service remote based changes and then put the firmware update again. Also the changes are applied to all input source modes, HDMI, AV etc

 

[heynownow]

Similar plastic thing stuck inside my panel.

Did you get it rectified??

 

[heynownow]

Apart from a tiny 1/2 sq inch piece of plastic stuck inside the right hand corner of the Panel, the display was mind boggling. Greens still there, but none at brightness levels < 50. What blew me away was when I hooked up my gaming PC via VGA and Info indicated 1920 x 1080 60Hz and played some proper 1080p content, and played split second (car racing) . Hoo Boy! it will be difficult for me to game on my 22" LCD monitor anymore. My gripe with the inbuilt media player is that it crashes if I try to access a folder with a lot of mixed media/HD content. And if u leave the xstudio interface for a couple of minutes, it leaves very visible IR on teh screen, but can be tackled with the ISM options. Anyhow I'm getting a proper HD media player, so I wouldn't have to the use the TVs one anymore (since it cant play mkvs anyhow). I will like the greens fixed eventually, but right now to be honest it's really not bothering me so much, since I don't have my nose on the screen.

 

[dotMac]

Are you sure about the sub-brightness and sub-contrast (105 and 119)? My settings are sub-brightness and sub-contrast (115 and 165).

Vivek/Shaiju,

Are these sub-contrast and sub-brightness applied per sub-pixel level(individual color) or entire pixel (RGB combined).
i.e. Does this setting effect only Green subpixel in panel or the entire pixels in panel. In case it is color specific, you must have seen(in service menu) three sets of control for sub-contrast and sub-brightness; one for each color.

If it is for entire panel, then as Mehul said, the problem would simply shift from one number to another. Like you said from 53 to 70. So I dont see the point
So am I correct in saying that new contrast range of 0 ~ 100 simply maps to the old contrast range of -17 ~ 83?
I mean the contrast I get at 53 will now be at 70 (i.e. +17). The contrast I get at 70 will after update be at 87. So TV's contrast has been effectively reduced by 17 points. i.e After I updater the contrast of 100 would match with old 83. :sad:

Well the advanced calibrations, doesn't look like a possibility very soon ( just like my HD on USB :0)

Any reason why you lost hope of advanced calibrations will making it? It there a technical limitation in Indian model? Did you get a chance to discuss about this with Pune RnD lead? Whats his response?

 

[krinamob]

If it is for entire panel, then as Mehul said, the problem would simply shift from one number to another. Like you said from 53 to 70. So I dont see the point
So am I correct in saying that new contrast range of 0 ~ 100 simply maps to the old contrast range of -17 ~ 83?
I mean the contrast I get at 53 will now be at 70 (i.e. +17). The contrast I get at 70 will after update be at 87. So TV's contrast has been effectively reduced by 17 points. i.e After I updater the contrast of 100 would match with old 83. :sad:

I agree with you dotMac.
Technically speaking the set will be now in the -17 to 83 range.
But if we have the Advanced Calibration enabled we can change this anytime required. As it is done with service remote now, we cannot change this. :sad: