Home Theater Hacks

Hack #12. Fix Panasonic's Picture Glitch

Many of Panasonic's 16 x 9 rear projection TVs have a nasty picture glitch: if power is lost, the picture looks odd, with the top and bottom cut off, and the convergence goes screwy on you. A little service menu magic will get you back to normal in no time.

The PT47/56/65 and WX51/49 series of Panasonic rear projection TVs have a glitch that results in what appears to be a hardware problem with the sets. If power is lost (a fuse shorts out, or even if your surge protector trips) and is then restored, the TV picture suddenly looks strange. No matter what you try, you won't be able to get that picture looking good.

The easiest way to verify that this is indeed the glitch discussed here is to examine the picture on the screen (with the TV on, of course). The top and the bottom of the picture will be cut off if you've got this bug. If you're not sure how to check for this, tune to either a sports channel such as ESPN or a news channel such as FOX News. These types of channels usually have a ticker running at the bottom of the screen. If it's cut off, you're missing part of your picture. Additionally, you'll often see a fishbowl effect, where the picture almost appears to be curved on the sides; convergence won't help this, either.

Entering the Service Menu

The first thing you need to do is enter the Panasonic service menu. This requires your remote (often, programmable remotes [Hack #84] are a pain for this; the original remote is recommended). ...