Community poll forum: Hitachi Ultravision Magic Focus problem

I am having the same problem with my Hitachi Ultravision. When I called customer service the response I received was, ''it shouldn't be doing that (duh)'' and ''your TV is no longer under warranty , so I suggest you call someone locally for service to fix your problem''. Did you recieve any helpful advice?

I seem to be having the same problem with my Hitachi Ultravision 51'' HDTV. Model 51S500.

All of a sudden the other night, the TV went into Magic Focus mode by itself. I cannot stop it. It will not allow me to access the menus or use the remote in any way. Finally after unplugging the TV for several hours and plugging it back in, I was able to access the manual convergence mode and fix the TV's coloring. However, as soon as I turn the TV off and on again, or when I access a menu, the Magic Focus starts up on its own again, and screws the color up again.

Is there any way to go into the TV and disengage the Auto Magic Focus? Hitachi was not helpful and just recommended and authorized dealer that wants $200 just to tell me what's wrong with it, and probably $400 to fix it. With the sharp drop in HD pricing, the TV is probably only worth $700 now anyway.

Just looking for self-help info, so I can fix the problem myself.

Bob Charette

Unfortunately that doesn't help me. I go into the manual mode and fix my color manually. However, after watching TV for a while, the Magic Focus just begins by itself for no reason. Nothing has seemed to work for me. Magic Focus takes over and runs by itself. And it doesn't stop, it just keeps going.

Is this the same problem you were having?

I've been having a similar problem with my 50" Hitachi UltraVision model: 50UX58B.

First of all I really, REALLY like this TV and I was purposely looking for a standard 4:3 screen telesivion when I bought it second-hand about a year and a half ago, because I would have to get at least a 62" 16:9 widescreen and take up half my living room to get the same image size. Why do I care about the extra viewing area on the sides and is it really worth almost an extra $1K? Panavision is perfectly fine for me and if I wanted a realistic movie experience I would go to the movie theater.

Ok so getting off of my sop box, my problem was that I would turn on my television and "Auto Digital Convergence" followed by "Stop" would blink in and out on the screen for at least an hour during which time no image could be seen. I called so called Hitachi 'Tech Support' line and they of course gave me the number of a repair technician in my area which quoted me $250 labor, $80 diagnosis, and $75 pickup/delivery not including the cost of parts. Also I couldn't find hardly any information about my problem online, except for this discussion, which I'm sure is the point. So I tracked down a service manual and started taking the TV apart and low and behold I found a small burn spot on the control PWB at DM05 (5v Zener Diode which regulates the voltage to the Magic Focus button) Service Manual p. 51. So I checked the voltage across the diode and found that it was only dropping a little over 1v. Once I removed it the Magic focus quit. So for about $2.50 at Radio Shack and some cleaning and soldering I replaced the Zener and everything is back to normal including the Magic Focus.

With luck I'll never have to replace this TV which is a good thing because the guys at Circuit City and Best Buy thought I was crazy for wanting a standard screen 4:3 and not the latest and greatest Widescreen HDTVs that they wanted to sell me. Am I alone in NOT wanting to upgrade? Why does nobody carry/make the standard ratio big screen TVs anymore? By the way I picked this thing up on eBay for $375.

Kevin
Virginia Beach, VA

You'll want to go into your setup menu, and go into where it shows Magic Focus, and convergence. You'll want to select manual. You should get a picture of a grid on your TV screen with horizontal and vertical lines. All of these lines should be white, but if you're having a color problem, you'll be able to see blue and red lines outside of the white ones. Using the remote's cursor you need to manually go box to box and push down and pull up these red and blue lines, almost as if you wanted to hide them behind the white ones. Once you just see a clear grid of white vertical and horizontal lines, you're picture will be perfect.

the magic focus manual is in the setup menu, not vedio. I still have magic focus coming up when turning off but I turn it off with an external switch and TV works ok. still, hitachi has problems!!

Hi,
I just got the extended plan for $200 (1 year plan). I called the problem in about 1.5 weeks after the plan started and they came out and fixed it, the kit included parts that were burned out. (mind you - this is the 3rd time this happened) This way I have 12 months of warranty, in case it happens again. Its better than paying $150 for a quote and then paying another $$$ for parts, and thats all you get.......(no more warranty).

I know it sucks....especially when Hitachi was suppose to be the best brand to buy (I could have purchased same size 53" projection for alot less from a different brand). I even called Hitachi and they didnt even know the part that needd to be replaced....they said that they didnt have a tech dept......This is the last time I buy anything from Hitachi.

I can't get the grid to show up when I goto setup and press Magic Focus...it just automatically focuses......

I am also having a problem with the Magic Focus on my Hitachi. We only purchased it Sept. 2003. I noticed the other day that one side (left) was all blurry and when I put the menu up I can see the words only on one side were blurry and the screen looked warped. reading all of your inquiries, I didnt see anyone say anything about only one side being out of focus or a warped screen. It was like my TV had a stroke and it affected the left side only. We had a repair man out and he was determined it was just the chips, he replaced the chips and realized it wasnt the problem. So he did something else but was vague on what he found. Hmmmmm. My husband noticed he was fooling around with the Manual Focus. So later that night when I had got home, I checked the TV myself and still noticed the warped screen. I called the repair man, unfortunately he will be on vacation for a week and wont be able to come back out til he returns. He didnt say much when I told him about the warped screen and why he didnt notice it was still having a problem. I told him from the beginning it was warped and blurry. So do these repair men (Hitachi) really know what they are doing?????? I also said to my husband maybe it was still out of focus, so we did our Magic Focus on Auto and it screwed up again. We were able to Manual focus it and got it back in focus, but realized we can't use our Auto Focus anymore (or until we figure out what is goin on) 'cause it scews up and makes it blurry. Anyways, if anyone else has a simliar problem, please let me know. Also, I am wondering if I will need a whole new Convergence kit. I was told they go for like $500-$600, plus labor of around $250-$300 to install.

I think that what he means when he says:

"pressing the service mode button on the main board"

is this

open it up and find the main electronics board then expect to find a svc mode button (hopefully labeled ;~)

I don't have a svc manual either but will try this to get to manual convergence and then look for manual

I was able to access the manual mode by pressing the magic focus button on the front panel a couple of times. Not sure how many but, was able to get to the 2nd line up and manual converge the lines. Mine is an older 60 inch rear projection. Have to reset the convergence on occassion but, better than spending several hundred.
Hope this helps.

mine powers off after about 10 minuters and will not power on

I've read nearly every thread and still didnt find ansewrs to my question...Then took fifteen minutes and fixed it myself...So I wanted to make this if you are haveing this same problem. To manually focus you can either press the magic focus on the front of the t.v. or do it by the menu prompts. When the grid comes up and you see all the crosshairs (blue,red,green) you need to put them (red and blue) over the green one until they become white. To switch between the red and blue crosshairs push the menu button on your remote and then use the select (analog) button and mover left,right,up and down.....Now the problem i was having was when i moved the center crosshair it was messing up the three crosshairs on the sides...which was letting the middle of the screen be normal but getting a 3-d effect on the sides...So to toggle between all the crosshairs you need to use the number buttons on the remote (do center one first) and you can manually move all of the until all are in focus. I got this tv (42inch) for free because owner thought somethin was serouisly wrong and auto magic focus doesnt work. So i never even seen a hitachi till then...Im not a tv tech (as you can tell by this thread lol) But it was so simple to fix but every thing on google and post like these didnt tell me how to switch the crosshairs or change between the color. All were saying in needed a $300 dollar service and parts fee. So I hope this helps....Cause it would've helped me...

My magic focus isn't working either. How do you get to the grid? This happened to me before and I also paid a fortune to have someone align the grid.

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