On March 15th I bought a HP PL4245N that had some audio problems. {see my other message regarding this TV on another thread} After been told by a Hewlett-Packard plasma specialist by the named of "Steve" that HP was going to send a NIB replacement and a technician they end up sending a refurbished unit and the so-called "technician" turn out to be just a guy that was going to reconnect my components to the T.V., a simple task my 2-year old nephew could do. I ended up refusing it as i wasn't going to surrender my brand-new set for a remanufacture unit. HP wasn't very happy with my sudden decision, after all they cover all expensives for shipping and for the well-trained "services" of the reconnecting "specialist".
A wise word about HP; Their customer support is nearly non-existent and when you **think** they'll help you solve your problem, the "Steves" "Erics" or "Anthonys" will lie and tell you they will be taking care of everything and will send you a new unit within 5-business days begging you not no return the original unit to the place of purchase. While you wait for your "new unit" to arrived based on their false promises you've had lost your change to get your money back from the reseller and the only solution you've got is take the refurbished or keep the defective.
HP is another Gateway and Dell in basic end-customer abuse, some of their customer service {non-technicians} act like {or are?} Hindu robots reading from a lovely script and giving you their "best" solution, which in most cases is not a good solution to you. The best thing you could do is don't buy ANYTHING these 3 computer makers sell aside from their main products., you'll be much better buying a big ticket item like plasma or LCD T.V.s from a well-established manufacturer like Panasonic, Sony or Hitachi.
Anonymous
Posted on
Have you resolved your problems with this HDTV.
Perrey Z.
Unregistered guest
Posted on
Anon.,
Unfortunately no., After this i got another set., the replacement started OK but by day 20 it started to show an even more dimmer and washed out picture than the day it as delivered. Every two days i have to adjust the contrast 3% and we didn't even use it for more than 25-hours.
By the time the store picked it up on April 26th, i had it set with a contrast of 95% and brightness of 60%, the color temperature was set in user mode with all three colors up to 85.
All of these problems only occur when the unit is in TV mode, which is the RF coaxial.
Unfortunately, this wasn't the only limitation the PL4245N had., When i use the DVi, the only setting available was brightness. This TV was one unforgetable nightmare. This is not worth any headaches, regardless of how low it's currently selling.
On a somewhat positive side, HP will released all-new and much improved models at the end of summer including a 50" Plasma and 32" and 37" LCDs.
Here's some of the specs i got from HP for the upcoming 42" HDTV Pavilion PL4200.
1,366 X 768p Resolution.
3.62 Billion colors.
2,048 Shades of gradation.
3,000:1 Contrast Ratio.
60,000 Hrs. panel life With advance phosphor which will deliver 10% more brightness.
Ambient light adaptation.
Motion Adaptive noise reduction.
Sub-pixel interpolation for a much clear detail.
3D Color management system.
3:2 pulldown film mode processing.
Picture orbiting.
Super slim 26-watts 4-speaker system.
BBE ViVA 3D.
Dolby Digital 5.1 Channel Optical Digital output.
HD/ASTC QAM built-in tuner W/ cableCARD slot.
SD card and PCMCIA picture viewer.
On-screen thumbnail input source selection.
HDMi W/ HDCP.
VGA PC input.
3-S-video inputs.
3-A/V inputs.
3-Composite inputs.
They sound impressive and the new design is even more beautiful than the current one, when i saw the 50" Plasma it reminded me of the Pioneer PDP-5050HD ., but regardless of the specs or their new design i have no rush to buy another HP until i read some reviews from actual buyers and/or Sound & Vision magazine.