DLP Rainbow Effect - is it covered by extended warranty?

[Petrovich]

I have a Samsung HLN4365W which is over 3 years old, but is still covered by a 4 year BestBuy extended warranty plan. About 6 months ago I started to see the rainbow effect way too often, to the extent that it became very annoying. I don't know why I haven't seen this effect for the first couple of years. Either I haven't paid that much attention, or my eyes got worse (I am shortsighted). To my knowledge, the rainbow effect is not something that gets worse or better, am I correct? A couple of months ago I did call a service technician, and to little surprise he said that he wasn't seeing any problems. I had to let him go as I am aware that not everybody sees this rainbow effect.

Anyway, I am frustrated that having paid about 3.5K for a TV I cannot enjoy watching it anymore. Did anybody have a similar issue? Is there a way to get this problem covered by the extended warranty plan?

Thanks everybody for your advice!

 

[StevenD]

Some people see them and some people dont. In almost 5 years of DLP ownership, I have only seen the rainbow effect one time.

Im willing to bet that they will not repair or replace your TV because of it.

 

[8bitbytes]

RBE is an anomaly seen with DLP systems that use a color wheel. It is much more visible to those who see it when the wheel speed is slower and if the picture is very bright like in bright scenes and black and white presentations.

It is possible to train the mind to ignore it in some cases, so I'm sure if you see and look for it, you can also train yourself to see it more often as well.

With six color segments spinning at 9000rpm, or 150rps, the HLN4365W delivers 900 sub-frames per second (150 x 6), which is about 3X slower than what would be required to totally eradicate the rainbow effect. Each color (R, G, and B) is drawn 300 times per second, and in a 60 frame per second display scenario, each color is drawn five times per frame, so the Samsung DLP color wheel is considered a 5X system.

If you are seeing RBE with a 5X color wheel, you are very sensitive to the effect and if you cannot train yourself to ignore it, you will need to try a different technology.

It is not a warranty issue.

 

[JimMcC]

Rbe

Your situation is the opposite of just about everybody else. Most people see them right away if they're sensitive to them. And with most people they decrease as time goes on. I agree with 8bit, it is not a warranty issue.

 

[Petrovich]

Thank you for your responses!

I have read elsewhere on the web that the color wheel may slow down in time producing noticeable noise. It looks like the case with my TV. I will go ahead and try to get both the color wheel and the lamp replaced. I will post the results afterwards.

 

[8bitbytes]

Thank you for your responses!

I have read elsewhere on the web that the color wheel may slow down in time producing noticeable noise. It looks like the case with my TV. I will go ahead and try to get both the color wheel and the lamp replaced. I will post the results afterwards.

Here is an interesting read based on your post - How To Replace the Color Wheel in Your Samsung DLP Television and Save $400 at Jangro.com

I doubt you will get RBE from a speed change in your wheel though, you should be getting much worse problems with the screen color and your image black shades if the wheel was slowing down improperly.