Its the putting right that counts

Forums › Home Theatre (incl HTPC) › Its the putting right that counts - Harver Norman

euanandrews

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#27136 15-Oct-2008 19:06

All I can say is....WOW!

No problems, no arguements...the manager just said 'We will look after you'.
This is the best example of customer service I have ever seen...

I brought my phillips Plasma from Harvey Norman in Lower Hutt approx 15 months ago, the Phliips 42PF7520G/79...
It was marketed in the shop as 'high definition', and had a screen resolution of 1024 x 768p...so hence the CSR told me its HD...

But I recently found out, this is not actually so...

I normally had my laptop connected to this TV, via VGA out, and as long as my resolution on my PC was not higher than that of the TV, it would work without any problems...

But I have recently built my my HTPC, and that has a graphics card with HDMI.

What I found when I connected the HTPC to the TV via HDMI, is the info would show on the TV during the initial boot up sequence, but just before going into Windows, the screen would then go blank (with the 'HDMI' message flashed in the top left corner)....

I found the only way to get around this, was to turn my TV power off, then back on, and then Windows would display as it should.

So that told me the problem was with the TV, not the HTPC, as I had the resolution of the HTPC set to the same of that as the TV...

So I spoke to some retail people about this, and got the suggested answer that the problem is the resolution, that HDMI has set standards and the TV is resetting itself...blah blah blah...I needed a firmware update...

OK

So after leaving a help request through the Phillips website, I was left a phone number and called the Phillips techie who told me the following:

Its NOT high definition.

Urh...ok...

He made it clear, that the model, while it has a higer resolution, when it uses the HDMI connection, it is actually downscaling the pitcure and I am actually seeing 800 x 600 (just better than SD TV)...

He said it is definately not marketed by Phillips as HD

OK....

So I went in to Harvey Normans and spoke to the manager about this...I explained everything here and quoted the Phillips techie....

The managers respose?

Yup, no worrys, we will look after you.

No arguements, no negoiation, no denials.

The result?

Phillips 42PFL7603

Harvey Norman is replacing my current plasma with this model LCD, at no extra cost...full HD.

Great work Harvey Norman...I can't thank you enough.

Now thats a business I would recommend.

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#171350 15-Oct-2008 20:09

Seeing that Philips is leaving AU/NZ market won't be surprise me if Harvey Norman is trying to reduce their Philips TV stock.. but definitely a big "upgrade" for free :-D

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richms

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#171390 15-Oct-2008 23:42

Its one less that they will sell so have to support when its power supply cooks up and stops working, since the warranty on the swapped one will not restart from now.

Richard rich.ms

Dingbatt

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#171399 16-Oct-2008 07:15

Don't rain on TheBartender's parade too much. Considering the hoops they could have made him jump through HN did a great bit of customer service and as long as he is happy with the new appliance he is certainly no worse off.

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gehenna

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#171429 16-Oct-2008 09:34

yeah that really gets my goat how they marketed 1024x768 tv's as HD or HD Ready purely because they could output 720x480 which sometimes goes by 480p - which is really just progressive standard definition - grrr! I always hit shops up about that. how much did you pay out of interest?

Nety

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#171453 16-Oct-2008 10:34

Nice one Bartender!

Looks like you came out on top big time in the end. From what we found when plugging your media centre into my TV it sure was not a issue with the media centre.

Shocking about the HD TV thats not... wonder just how many others have been dupped with that little cherry.

So have you got the new one yet? Now you need to get yourself a blu ray drive

I should have showen you while you were there.

Anyway glad it turned out so well for you.

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lchiu7

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#171846 17-Oct-2008 19:32

Sort of reminds me when I purchased a 52" Toshiba DLP RP from HN. After 11 months it developed a fault. Toshiba said it could be fixed just be entering the service menu and playing around with it but I wasn't too happy about that. So Toshiba authorised HN to give me a full credit on the item

I was about to replace it with a 50" Sony RP LCD when they offered me a great deal on a JVC D-ILA RP TV (56") and I ended with a store credit since the price was less than I had paid originally.

So I got the new TV and some wall mounting speaker brackets all for no cost!

I guess kudos to both Toshiba and HN this time around

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euanandrews

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#171865 17-Oct-2008 21:12

richms: Its one less that they will sell so have to support when its power supply cooks up and stops working, since the warranty on the swapped one will not restart from now.

It has been 15 months since my original purchase, so I do think it would be unfair to expect the warranty to start afresh.

ghenna: yeah that really gets my goat how they marketed 1024x768 tv's as HD or HD Ready purely because they could output 720x480 which sometimes goes by 480p - which is really just progressive standard definition - grrr! I always hit shops up about that. how much did you pay out of interest?

Yes that was the case here...marketed as HD, but not really technically.
It was the cheapest I could find at the time, that was 'HD', and 42inch upwards...$2200.

Nety: So have you got the new one yet?

I have, but it has not met expectation as of yet...

I did the swap, and recieved the Phillips 42PFL7603, and I must say its a huge improvement in pitcure and sound quality...also looks astetically much more pleasing...but I am issues with HDMI again...

This time, its the sound...there is none.

I have tested this PC and its HDMI graphics card with my old plasma and had sound every time...just video issues which was confirmed by the Phillips techie...

So I told the Harvey Manager I was dealing with about this, and he let me swap it for another (the same model) to try again...
Result: no sound still.

So I thought, am I missing something here...is there a setting with this model I need to enable to get sound via HDMI?...
But I have looked through everything and even read the manual and found nothing to fix thgis issue...it should just plug and play.

So I next took my HTPC into Harvey Norman to test on thier other TV's...
Result: No problems, sound and video worked as it is supposed to

The brand I tested in on at Harveys was a Samsung LCD.

So the end result:
Harvey Norman is making some enquires, but short of an answer, they are going to swap it yet again, but this time for the Samsung, which they know works!

I am fine with that...as long as its the same or better in terms of specs and price.

So my TV is getting better and better...loving it!

rscole86

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#171867 17-Oct-2008 21:27

I would be nice to know what they did for a warranty for you. As the retailer swapped the unit for you, and not philips, then they may well have given you a new unit new warranty. Especially since you are now changing brands.

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#171882 17-Oct-2008 23:39

a few years back i bought a widescreen CRT philips television from Harvey Norman. After about 14 months two tv repairmen a replacement unit, a bunch of magnets stuck to the side of the tube and a picture that we just coulndt get right the guys at harvey norman told me they would take it back and give me a credit for what i paid for it. At that stage plasma screens had come down a lot in price so i used the credit to upgrade to one of these instead. Also, because I got a credit and bought a new screen it came with the standard warranty too.

they are obviously a pretty decent bunch at harvey norman based on this and the other two stories in the thread - i'd definately recommend them to my friends.

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euanandrews

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#171884 17-Oct-2008 23:50

rscole86: I would be nice to know what they did for a warranty for you. As the retailer swapped the unit for you, and not philips, then they may well have given you a new unit new warranty. Especially since you are now changing brands.

Have yet to make that swap to the Samsung...that was a possibility of they cannot figure out why there is no sound coming from the Phillips...

I have some instructions here to try to fix it, left on the phone...but have yet to make it work...

I will likely take my TV and HTPC into Harveys tomorrow to get to the bottom of it all...if they can't figure it out there and then, they can give me the Samsung instead.

muppet

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#171889 18-Oct-2008 01:03

I've never really heard anything GOOD about HN. Good to see things are changing there.

fisher191

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#172214 20-Oct-2008 11:09

TheBartender:
rscole86: I would be nice to know what they did for a warranty for you. As the retailer swapped the unit for you, and not philips, then they may well have given you a new unit new warranty. Especially since you are now changing brands.

Have yet to make that swap to the Samsung...that was a possibility of they cannot figure out why there is no sound coming from the Phillips...

I have some instructions here to try to fix it, left on the phone...but have yet to make it work...

I will likely take my TV and HTPC into Harveys tomorrow to get to the bottom of it all...if they can't figure it out there and then, they can give me the Samsung instead.

There is a setting to change the audio input with HDMI to the RCA connectors (used when you have a DVI to HDMI converter). It should be set to HDMI sound as default but it might be worth a look.

euanandrews

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#173404 24-Oct-2008 18:05

I don't see any option available on the TV to choose between the HDMI and RCA for sound.

I recently took this TV back into Harveys, as I could not get the sound to work...

I took it in with my HTPC, so to show them and do any more testing as required...

The result?

The sound worked. Typical. Murphys law.

We stumbled on it by fluke...it appears to be related to the resolution set on the PC...but why the screen resolution would affect sound output is beyond me...but unfortunatley I have not been able to reproduce this, so currently I still have no sound.

kiwitrc

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#173414 24-Oct-2008 18:53

I can also vouch for Harvey Norman, I had a fridge that was almost 4 years old pop the compressor. Standard warranty was 2 years, I mentioned Consumers guarantee Act and not only did they pay for everything, but lent us a brand new fridge while ours was away being repaired. They were outstanding!!!

euanandrews

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#174032 28-Oct-2008 12:25

My problems with no sound using the HDMI connection appears to be now solved.

It does appear to be the fault of my HTPC, and some updated codecs resolved it...

I do find it somewhat dissapointing though, that such updates/extras were required to make it work at all, when it should just be a case of 'plug & play', with a technology such as HDMI.

Anyway, case closed.

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