HDTV Forum

Hi, first time posting on this board. Hoping someone can help me. I have owned a Toshiba 46HM95 for about 13 months now. All has been well until the last couple weeks. Lately it seems to be stuggling with it's brightness levels. It will go from normal brightness, to a dimmer level randomly. I have it set to high brite mode. Usually it will fade from full bright, down to a dimmer level for a second, then back up to full bright for a second, then back to the dimmer level, back up, back down, over and over. Like switching back and forth between high brite and low power modes on it's own. When the image gets darker I can still see the image. Sometimes it fades slowly down, sometimes it's faster, and sometimes really fast (a flicker). Sometimes if I turn the set off for 10-15 seconds, and turn it back on, that will make the problem go away. And other times that doesn't fix the problem. So what I am saying is that the issue is very random. I end up turning it off and on until it doesn't do it. I have a tech coming out Tuesday and was hoping I could get some info from someone here before then. Thanks so much!

I guess a lamp...

Please let us know what it was!

Thanks for the reply!

Looks like it IS the lamp. Service guy came out. Fortunately the TV was having the issue when he was here. He took the old lamp out, installed a new lamp, and the problem went away. Then he put the old one back in and the problem came back. They however wouldn't replace the lamp under warranty, even though my set falls under the two year warranty that Toshiba has extended. He said I needed to get the replacement direct from Toshiba. I called Toshiba and they are shipping me a new one free of charge. I'm happy with that. I guess I'll just have to live with it as is for a few more days.

Thanks for following up!

If you would have called me I would have told you to get a lamp from Toshiba first. I didn't mention that because I assumed if they were coming out they would also provide a lamp rather than bring a test lamp that they keep.

You may find this of interest...

TV: Lamp driven projectors - Extending Lamp Life
viewforum.php?f=98

Thanks!

When I had originally called Toshiba last week, they wouldn't send me a new lamp at that time. They said the problem my set is exhibiting isn't the normal failure mode for lamps. As everyone knows they are usually either all or nothing. So I guess they wanted the service guy to come out to prove it. Unfortunately it ended up costing me $81 for the service call this way. The service guy said it could also be the ballast, but it seemed pretty obvious to me that is is the lamp. Toshiba had the lamps in stock, and said the replacement should be here within 5 days. I just hope the old one holds out that long!

Thanks for the link!