Westinghouse LTV-32w6 HD Freezing Problem

[unicornpegasus]

We went to Worst Buy around 7pm on Black Friday (a day I have vowed to never leave the house on *shudder*) because our regular SD TV decided to take a crap and die the night before Thanksgiving. So, we were despondent over the horrid selection of SD tv's and figured if those were so expensive we'd never be able to get HDTV. Out of curiosity I asked a sales person about a couple of hdtv's and he offhandedly said (after a few minutes of looking and questioning) that they had found 11 of the LTV-32w6 HD (that were doorbusters) in the back and they were going to let people have them for the boor buster price ($479.99.) Hell we were going to have to pay 300 or so just to replace our lowly 27" SD so how the heck could I pass that up? Picture looked good. Had tons of features (all the good high end ones I yearned for, (HDMI 720p AND 1080i, optical output, the list went on.) I hated to buy from BB, since I despise them and they try to screw you over left and right but, they were the cheapest.

Anyhoo, we LOVE the TV. Great picture. Don't use the sound much except for OTA HD and it's adequate. It can have a lot of variance in volume between shows/channels/commercials, but who's to say that's the tv and not the insipid networks trying to get me to buy a Kia by blowing my eardrums out. Haven't tried the optical output yet. It possesses Insane amounts of outputs, though one more composite would make it perfect. We love it.

But a couple complaints/problems. Sometimes, well somewhat frequently actually, when watching the OTA HD channels (through a Newpoint Urban/Suburban Amplified Antenna DB208240 [rabbit ears]) the screen/picture will freeze up. It won't respond to the remote or the buttons on the side. The only thing we can do is unplug the power. Other than this "minor" issue we've loved the tv. HD broadcasts look great. Xbox in HD looks great (why is Halo 2 not in HD, but I digress...) DVD's look GREAT! We'd love to upgrade to the HD channels on Directv, but Directv sucks right now and won't let you have TIVO's anymore so that may have to wait. I do not want their crappy proprietary DVR's. Frak.

It also has one dead pixel in the upper right hand corner. You can't really see it from out couch, but my OCD nags me that I know that it's there, so it's more a personal problem than a real nuisance.

Oh, and yes we get the annoying white staticy line at the top as well. The only thing we do is go to fill instead of standard, but that seems like a shoddy stopgap method.

So in short, does anyone know why our TV would just freeze like that on just the HD?

[Ratman]

You probably need a better antenna. What you see is a "side effect" of poor reception. Usually...

White staticy line at top of screen... generally, that an overscan issue. This can usually be resolved easily/quickly by a service tech under warranty.

Dead pixel(s)... read the manual/warranty. They normally state the number and location of dead pixels that are "acceptable" and will not address unless you have more than meets the documented requirements.

[unicornpegasus]

Ah, thank you. I was hoping it would be the antenna and not the tuner in the TV itself.

[stsimmer]

I had the same model TV with the same problem. I called Westinghouse tech support and they were clueless. Their reponse was "We'll look into that. Call us back in a couple of weeks." A quick web search reveals that this is not an isolated problem. Rather than struggle with an unresolvable problem, I was able to return the TV to Best Buy within the return timeframe. I feel I was fortunate. I now have a Samsung in its place.

[tjhorne]

Its really only a problem with CBS's feed, all other channels are fine. Also, XBOX 360 is fine as well.

I tried to watch golf yesterday on CBS and experienced the same problems, I haven't noticed with any of the other HD feeds I get over the air, I'll try hooking up my HD box to it and test my results...

[unicornpegasus]

I called Westinghouse, and they said they have heard of the problem, but it's rare and it's caused by a bad tuner. They suggested that I take it to back to BB and they have a deal with them to always repair their TV's, but I'm not real keen on leaving my TV with those shmucks for god know's how long, so we've just been living with it. Hopefully if we eventually get a Directv HD box it'll have a built in tuner and solve it.(?) It's so wierd though. It consistantly freezes right before they air the 24 previews for some bizzare reason. It'll be fine through the entire show, but they right as they go to air next week's preview it freezes. WHY? What could they possibly be putting out in their signal to do that?