Pixel light, pixel bright...ah me.

July 30, 2014 10:13 AM

We've owned a largish Mistubishi HD TV, for five or six years. The only issues we've had were two: the lamp had to be replaced, and then the set began to shut down a few minutes after we fired it up. We wait until the little green light stopped flashing then fire it up again, and it works just fine. We do this procedure pretty much every time we turn the set on. But that's not my main problem now.

A few weeks ago a pixel went "clear" near the border of the screen. It was a bright little star, noticeable against a dark background, and we were able to ignore it. After a few weeks three more of these little fuckers appeared.

I have check the net for solutions, and the only thing I've found is a Java applet called JscreenFix. After researching it, I came away with mixed reviews that ranged from "it works fine" to "but it's not really free" to it didn't work at all. Other reviewers claim it works only by letting it run for several hours, and then the results are spotty, or temporary. I have learned from these anecdotes that unruly pixels are not necessarily dead, but can get stuck. My virus scanner goes nuts when I asked it to survey the app.

That's what I found out. I have not much faith in my button-pushing skills. Mrs Mule and I have no qualms about replacing the set, but it seems prudent to check in with the hive-mind before tossing this one into the back of my car and sending it to cyberheaven.

Four white, bright pixels, with the prospect of more to come....fixable?

posted by mule98J to Technology (3 answers total)

Presumably this is a DLP set?

You may be able to replace the DLP chip module, sometimes as simply as changing out the lamp module. A friend did it on his DLP Samsung set once.

I wouldn't think that running a pixel-exerciser utility would be a good solution.
posted by tomierna at 10:34 AM on July 30, 2014

As tomierna said, this sounds like a DLP set with stuck mirrors in the DMD, and if that's the case it will get worse as time goes by. Before long, your TV may look like the inside of Space Mountain when the scene on TV is dark. I replaced the DMD in a Samsung TV a few years back. The part cost about $150 and it took an hour or so to complete the repair, most of which was spent re-aligning the image on the screen. There are plenty of guides online that can walk you through the process. Search for "Mitsubishi YOUR_TV_MODEL_NUMBER replace DMD" and you'll probably find a thorough guide with a bunch of pictures to show you the process.
posted by ElDiabloConQueso at 2:54 PM on July 30, 2014

Response by poster: Thank you for your input. You have confirmed what I suspected, but hadn't the insight to know for sure. I wasn't looking forward to tearing out the guts of the set, and wasting a couple of hours, in an attempt to do for a paltry couple of hundred bucks what a qualified geek would do for maybe $800. Or what my son could do in a few minutes (probably with only a length of wire and a few gum wrappers) if he wasn't living across the continent.

Mrs. Mule and I went down to Best Buy this evening and took advantage of their free delivery and installation policy. The guys will show up next week. They promised to give the Mitsubishi a decent burial.

Thanks again.
posted by mule98J at 10:27 PM on July 30, 2014