wtf... This is faulty, right? (pic)

PardonTheWait · 3 Sep 2006 at 16:24

Bought a Hitachi LCD telly yesterday, and couldn't help noticing it seems to have some distortion going on - it's most noticeable when watching football because of the lines on the pitch, obviously, but I've noticed it in films and on other TV programs. I'm not sure if it's there on DVDs, but I'll have a look in a bit...

Has anyone seen anything like this before? I've never noticed it on any other LCD TV.

It's slightly more noticeable at wider angles but it's still definitely visible head-on to the screen, too.

squiffy · 3 Sep 2006 at 16:33

Take some photos of a white test grid.

PardonTheWait · 3 Sep 2006 at 17:28

Strange... looks fine with the grid I made through the PC input... But it's *definitely* distorting when playing TV.

One head on, one from an angle:

I'm confused.. any help would be much appreciated! Could it be the tuner or something?

vintage-x · 3 Sep 2006 at 19:34

what model is it?? I have the 326600 and it had an issue like that I got rid of it by messing with the brightness and contrast

AdWright · 3 Sep 2006 at 20:07

Is the tv picture a 16:9 source? If it is 4:3, the Hitachi may be stretching it in a non linear way to fit the 16:9 screen, ie stretching more at the corners so that info in the middle of the screen doesn't look stretched

PardonTheWait · 3 Sep 2006 at 20:54

vintage-x said:
what model is it?? I have the 326600 and it had an issue like that I got rid of it by messing with the brightness and contrast

It's the 266600.. I'll have a little go at that later

AdWright said:
Is the tv picture a 16:9 source? If it is 4:3, the Hitachi may be stretching it in a non linear way to fit the 16:9 screen, ie stretching more at the corners so that info in the middle of the screen doesn't look stretched

Now you mention it, that sounds dead on - the distortion seems to be about 1/4 or so in from each side... Makes perfect sense

Er... silly question. If I got a freeview box.. do they output in widescreen or does it vary?

chaparral · 3 Sep 2006 at 21:33

Can you take some striaght on shots of the football with the TV set in widescreen and 4:3

PardonTheWait · 3 Sep 2006 at 22:47

chaparral said:
Can you take some striaght on shots of the football with the TV set in widescreen and 4:3

The footie's not on anymore, so not really! Next time something's on TV where it'll show up well, I'll be sure to check it out though switching between 4:3 and 16:9 - to be honest it sounds entirely logical that it could well be that.

PardonTheWait · 4 Sep 2006 at 00:16

A more careful perusal of the manual has confirmed what AdWright suggested, it was defaulting to the squirly Panoramic Zoom mode.. I've got rid of that, it was rubbish!

Cheers everyone for helping a noob