Gizmo

Hey all.

I recently purchased a used Samsung 30 Inch Widescreen HDTV for $200. All was great until about a week later I started seeing a purplish smudge on the screen. Its not the cables as I have both my Adelphia Cable Box and Xbox 360 hooked up through seperate Component cables going into two different inputs. Any ideas?

X

Try moving it or speakers that may be near it. Sounds like a magnetism problem.

Gizmo

There is nothing by it (No speakers or anything, just two bookshelves)

X

You might just try moving it. My RPTV had a spot that made its picture get blotches. I moved it away and it was fine. I figured it was either earth's magnetic field or some wires in the wall or floor.

DVD Josh

The fact that it's reds and purples makes me think macroblocking rather than magnetism. Magnetism would effect all colors.

BobDole42

Red and purple sounds like magnetism. As X said, try moving it around to see if the problem disappears or changes.

Gizmo

I'll try moving it around. It seems to only appear after the TV has been on for a while. It comes and goes, but always appears in the same spot.

DVD Josh

Same spot? Then Bob and X are probably right, at least more right than me

Spiky

You could try to find someone with a de-gausser that could come by and fix it. But it might come back, so I'd only try that if you can find a buddy who would do it free. I've got a Mits that has a similar problem. It's always the same place, some internal issue with the TV, I guess. I thought it had gone away when I moved it to another room, but it is back, just saw it this weekend. Very annoying.

Brian Shannon

If this is on any input source even without a signal it is magnetism.

AGuyNamedMike

I, too, vote for degaussing that puppy.

Joe Molotov

Odd, I have a purplish spot in the lower right corner of my Samsung 30" HDTV. It's not there all the time though, it comes and goes. I thought maybe my speaker was too close, so I moved it as far away as I could, but I still notice it from time to time. It hasn't gotten any worse, and it's usually not noticeable, so I haven't worried too much about it.

Brian Shannon

Moving the speaker only prevents further degredation. If you have a spot the tv needs to be degaussed, especially if the tv does not degauss itself.

DVD Josh

Have you tried the old-school degaussing trick of unplugging the TV for a few minutes and then plugging it back in? Some TVs will auto-degauss when being disconnected from power.

Also, check the net for how to access the Samsung service menus. There should be a way to degauss the set from the service menu options.