NEC/Mitsubishi quality control issues

[CP5670]

I have had some really rotten luck with a Mitsubishi Diamond Pro 2070SB I bought about a month ago. The original one had 15 or so vertical lines near the center of the screen (5 out of the box, the rest cropped up in a few days) that looked like the AG stabilizing wires but were vertical and far more noticeable, the left and right edges of the screen were very blurry compared to the rest of the screen and it also seemed to suddenly change its brightness level every now and then. I got it replaced from them; the replacement was less blurry at the edges but definitely still had issues with that and also had poor color purity along the right edge, especially with reds. The most annoying problem came up after 10 days or so, where it would suddenly lose its focus completely and display a blurry mess, requiring turning off and back on the monitor to fix the problem temporarily. This happened a few times a day and was totally random. So I got another replacement a week ago.

This third one was a June 2004 model (the other two were January 2005, just before NEC stopped making them) and had none of the edge blurriness problems that the other two had. Just when I thought this one was all good, it starting exhibiting the same intermittent focus problem as the second one yesterday. Additionally, the superbright mode, which is probably the best feature of this monitor and puts in a class above everything else for gaming, somehow partially broke the second time it did the blurry thing. The superbright 1 mode is normally is able to maintain the contrast (light colors become brighter and dark colors stay dark) but now it just washes out the whole screen and looks terrible.

This is quite ridiculous for a $650 monitor and I have just about run out of patience here. I could do yet another RMA but on the evidence so far I will just get another bad one. I can't understand how so many people/reviews recommend this monitor so highly. I mean, it would be the ultimate monitor if it actually worked properly for more than a week. Is it worth telling them to send me the NEC version instead, the MultiSync FP2141SB? (identical except NEC branded, although it might be manufactured somewhere else) Or should I just screw it and try demanding a refund? There was one guy on epinions I think who said he was able to get his money back from them after going through several duds.

What other options are there for similar monitors? They have some expensive looking Sun and SGI branded 21" Trinitron monitors where I work (apparently just rebadged Sonys, judging from the product codes on them), but those don't look nearly as good as the 2070, especially with text, and have inferior refresh rates. I think the excellent superbright mode also only appears on the Diamondtron based monitors and the QC issues seem to be with the tubes themselves.

I have heard that CRT quality control has gone way down recently for a number of companies, but I didn't think it has been going on for a year. I guess I might be forced to switch to an LCD (and those to me have unacceptable image quality) or look for a refurb on ebay because of this.

Sorry for the long rant, but I really don't know what to do at this point...

 

[imported_humey]

Thats meant to be the wrolds best CRT, ive had my eye on it for long time (outsside that other model thats mad priced at 1000's dollars)

I got a 19" non pro Misub so i think youve had very bad luck or its being thrown about to much in transate :-(

 

[VIAN]

Wow, neither do I. I would just move to LCD. The good ones can show slightly above 30fps which is good for watching movies and decent for gaming. But at least they are making them right. CRT quality like that is horrible. Those are too many RMA's and too much time wasted for me to ever consider purchasing from that company ever again. Getting a refurbished monitor can have defects as well, such as fixing the problem you just had and then reselling. The potential is still there. The monitor might be used -lower brightness. Nothing but new for me.

 

[langpfeife]

I can somewhat relate, just RMA'd monitor #2. Being somewhat of a gambling man I usually order online (in this case, the local stores didn't have anything I was interested in)...and unfortunately for me I rolled snake eyes, twice.

In regard to LCDs...you could buy a high quality LCD for now, as a holdover until something like SED becomes availabe. I don't think you'd be disappointed with the static image quality of a good one, in my *opinion* the PVA panels I've had experience with easily equal my old Trinitrons, in addition to being much, much clearer. IPS panels are said to have (arguably) even better color fidelity, but a bit less contrast (poorer blacks). Gaming won't be as nice as a good CRT due to the blurring.

Personally...I decided to go LCD after my Trinitron died, bought a Samsung 997DF to replace it...obviously wasn't at all happy with that...and also due to the the unavailablilty of new 19" Trinitron/Diamondtron CRTs. Also...FWIW...I found several reviews pertaining to quality control/warranty issues with the 19" Diamondtrons, so the problems apparently weren't limited to the 22".

As an aside, IMO CRT quality has generally been on a decline for years now. None of my trinitrons made it past a few years...yet my good 'ol composite monitors from the '80s still work like new. ;-)

Wow, neither do I. I would just move to LCD. The good ones can show slightly above 30fps which is good for watching movies and decent for gaming. But at least they are making them right. CRT quality like that is horrible. Those are too many RMA's and too much time wasted for me to ever consider purchasing from that company ever again. Getting a refurbished monitor can have defects as well, such as fixing the problem you just had and then reselling. The potential is still there. The monitor might be used -lower brightness. Nothing but new for me.

My first LCD I sent back due to backlight leakage, and I just RMA'd the Eizo due to a cluster of defect pixels in the center of the screen...but to be fair, the majority of LCD buyers receive flawless screens the first time. (I'm just a little bitter right now, lol...hell, my brother wins a NIB Trinitron off ebay for $80 shipped...and it arrives 100% perfect. )

 

[ponyo]

Newer Sony Trinitron models also have superbright mode. Sony calls it Dynamic mode. But new Trinitrons no longer exist. Only used and refurbs. So your only option is to play the RMA game and hope for decent one if you're set on CRT.

 

[CP5670]

Thanks for the replies, everyone.

Thats meant to be the wrolds best CRT, ive had my eye on it for long time (outsside that other model thats mad priced at 1000's dollars)

It would be the best upgrade I have made in years if it worked properly. I wonder if the people who bought that $5000 UWG version have to go through this BS too.

Wow, neither do I. I would just move to LCD. The good ones can show slightly above 30fps which is good for watching movies and decent for gaming. But at least they are making them right. CRT quality like that is horrible. Those are too many RMA's and too much time wasted for me to ever consider purchasing from that company ever again. Getting a refurbished monitor can have defects as well, such as fixing the problem you just had and then reselling. The potential is still there. The monitor might be used -lower brightness. Nothing but new for me.

Yeah, this RMA crap can get very frustrating and I have already wasted many hours with it. I have actually used only NEC monitors in the past and they have all been great, but after this experience I will be staying far away from them. The thing is that this monitor really is impressive when it works and many others haven't had any such issues with it, which is why I am a little hesitant to give up on it. I haven't seen anything that comes even close for my purposes. There are a few Sony Trinitrons that are supposed to be comparable, but are much more expensive and very difficult to find now anyway. The refurbished models can't be any worse than the ones I am dealing with now, but I also want to avoid that route since the refurbs generally don't have the same warranties on them (which is the one good thing about NEC, advanced replacement and prepaid shipping both ways; it's really necessary here).

I can somewhat relate, just RMA'd monitor #2. Being somewhat of a gambling man I usually order online (in this case, the local stores didn't have anything I was interested in)...and unfortunately for me I rolled snake eyes, twice.

In regard to LCDs...you could buy a high quality LCD for now, as a holdover until something like SED becomes availabe. I don't think you'd be disappointed with the static image quality of a good one, in my *opinion* the PVA panels I've had experience with easily equal my old Trinitrons, in addition to being much, much clearer. IPS panels are said to have (arguably) even better color fidelity, but a bit less contrast (poorer blacks). Gaming won't be as nice as a good CRT due to the blurring.

Personally...I decided to go LCD after my Trinitron died, bought a Samsung 997DF to replace it...obviously wasn't at all happy with that...and also due to the the unavailablilty of new 19" Trinitron/Diamondtron CRTs. Also...FWIW...I found several reviews pertaining to quality control/warranty issues with the 19" Diamondtrons, so the problems apparently weren't limited to the 22".

As an aside, IMO CRT quality has generally been on a decline for years now. None of my trinitrons made it past a few years...yet my good 'ol composite monitors from the '80s still work like new. ;-)

I also got this online, but only because it wasn't available anywhere locally.

Thanks for the information on the LCDs, but I can't really tolerate their contrast after having used CRTs for years. They are actually quite okay to me for daytime usage, but the problem is that they look really bad in the dark, even pretty high end ones. The difference in them between day and night conditions is amazing. I generally only have time to play games at night and like to have the lights off; I don't mind the ghosting so much actually and could live with the fixed resolutions, but the nonexistent blacks are what really turn me away from them. I still have the monitor I was using before, a 21" shadow mask NEC from 2002, so I might just go back that for now if this doesn't work out. It doesn't look half as good as a working 2070SB, but it has been operating reliably for over three years without any problems. I would be actually pretty happy if these 2070s worked for a few years (should hold over until one of the new display technologies comes out), but the ones I have gotten so far aren't even lasting two weeks.

I might try this RMA procedure one last time, but explicitly tell them to send me one made in 2003 or earlier (if they refuse to do that or the replacement is again bad, I will seek a refund). Maybe I am being overly optimistic, but what the hell, at least it's not costing me any money. Since it looks like an issue with the Diamondtron tubes I doubt the NEC branded versions or those LaCie ones would be any better. It's possible to tell from the serial number when it was manufactured, so I could tell them to give me the serial before they send it out.

Newer Sony Trinitron models also have superbright mode. Sony calls it Dynamic mode. But new Trinitrons no longer exist. Only used and refurbs. So your only option is to play the RMA game and hope for decent one if you're set on CRT.

It's good to know that there is some choice, although as you said used ones are probably the only option there. Does that 24" FW900 have it? I generally prefer 4:3 monitors over widescreens, but there are quite a few of these on ebay going for pretty cheap.

 

[Squally Leonharty]

I'm very sorry you had to experience that. I guess I was very lucky when I got the same monitor. It's excellent, crisp quality and everything works like it should. Sometimes there are dancing pixels, though, but they occur pretty rarely (usually only after the monitor got turned on for a while). I'm very happy with this monitor.

 

[CP5670]

Well at least there is some good news on this. They told me to factory reset this third monitor and that fixed the superbright problem. I guess the superbright brightness/contrast settings had somehow gotten messed up (and are normally not accessible) when it last did the sudden blurry thing. I actually haven't had that blurriness problem during the last two days, although I will need to wait longer on this as it comes up totally at random. I'm going to hold on to this one for a bit longer and see if anything crops up in the next week, as it does have very good focus and convergence unlike the other two and I would rather avoid taking the chance of getting a blurry replacement.

I'm very sorry you had to experience that. I guess I was very lucky when I got the same monitor. It's excellent, crisp quality and everything works like it should. Sometimes there are dancing pixels, though, but they occur pretty rarely (usually only after the monitor got turned on for a while). I'm very happy with this monitor.

What was the manufacture date on yours? It seems that it's mainly the newer ones that have problems.

 

[Squally Leonharty]

Oh yeah, as for the blurriness problem. If it occurs, you could try to fix it yourself. There are two holes on the left side of the monitor. Somewhere inside of one of those holes is a controller for setting the focus of the monitor manually. You can reach it with some small screwdriver. Mind you, I've never done this, so I don't really know much about it. It's just what I've read on other threads regarding NEC/Mitsubishi monitors.

Maybe someone else can explain this one better? I know it's possible to set the focus and convergence manually like that, but yeah. >_o


As for the manufacture date, it's August 2004. Revision is 1B.

 

[CP5670]

Yeah, I spent quite some time messing with those screw controls for the other two monitors, but they affect the entire screen and those monitors only had bad focus near the left and right edges (for about an inch from each edge), so it wasn't very useful. The convergence can be adjusted from the OSD but that problem was also only in some parts of the screen, so that couldn't be fixed either.

Interesting date there, so yours is actually a bit newer than my third one. Although my sample data was really limited, from what I have seen the January 2005 ones have, among other problems, the bad, irrepairable convergence and edge focus. I don't know if the issues I was having with this June 2004 unit were just a fluke thing or what, but hopefully they will not come up again. I guess I will just have to wait and see; there are still 16 days until the end of what they call the DOA period, under which they pay your shipping costs.

 

[Aisengard]

My Diamondpro 930SB had blurriness issues, which only could be temporarily fixed by turning on and off the monitor. But then I got a small screwdriver, put it into one of those holes and turned, and viola! The blurriness was still there. So then I uninstalled and reinstalled the drivers and installed NaviSet and stuff, and then the blurriness finally went away. I don't even know what I did, but the blurriness never came back.

 

[bigillz]

I would suggest continuing to play the RMA game. I have been using Mitsubishi monitors for some time. First, I had my company purchase 10 Diamond Pro 900U's, Mitsubishi's 19" that was CRT of the year quite some time ago. Of these 10, all but 2 have lasted in great working order since ~2000-2001. The 2 that died just started to blur and become unusable, with the colors becoming seperated. I then had them upgrade me to the Mitsubishi Diamond Pro 2060U, the 22" version of the 900U. Very satisfied, never a problem. Then, about 8 months to a year ago, I had them pick me up the Diamond Pro 2070SB (-black). I am still using this monitor and am extremely satisfied with it. I have experienced none of the blurring at edges that you have described, nor any vertical lines or other faults. From your problem descriptions, it really sounds like issues introduced during shipping, scanning, magnetization, that sort of thing. I'd try a different shipping company. Also, FWIW, I am and programmer and graphic designer by trade, so I am very aware of the visual quality of my display, and am not just talking out of my ass as a gamer with high-end monitors

-jeff

 

[CP5670]

My Diamondpro 930SB had blurriness issues, which only could be temporarily fixed by turning on and off the monitor. But then I got a small screwdriver, put it into one of those holes and turned, and viola! The blurriness was still there. So then I uninstalled and reinstalled the drivers and installed NaviSet and stuff, and then the blurriness finally went away. I don't even know what I did, but the blurriness never came back.

Are you talking about the sudden blurriness issue? I was having two different focus problems, one with the edges (on the first and second monitors, constantly there, only at the edges) and the intermittent one (on the second and third monitors, entire screen shows a hazy blob, fixable by turning off and on). I once had the intermittent one occur with the third monitor when the computer was off (had just turned it off, so the monitor was showing its color test thing), but I will try reinstalling the drivers anyway.

I would suggest continuing to play the RMA game. I have been using Mitsubishi monitors for some time. First, I had my company purchase 10 Diamond Pro 900U's, Mitsubishi's 19" that was CRT of the year quite some time ago. Of these 10, all but 2 have lasted in great working order since ~2000-2001. The 2 that died just started to blur and become unusable, with the colors becoming seperated. I then had them upgrade me to the Mitsubishi Diamond Pro 2060U, the 22" version of the 900U. Very satisfied, never a problem. Then, about 8 months to a year ago, I had them pick me up the Diamond Pro 2070SB (-black). I am still using this monitor and am extremely satisfied with it. I have experienced none of the blurring at edges that you have described, nor any vertical lines or other faults. From your problem descriptions, it really sounds like issues introduced during shipping, scanning, magnetization, that sort of thing. I'd try a different shipping company. Also, FWIW, I am and programmer and graphic designer by trade, so I am very aware of the visual quality of my display, and am not just talking out of my ass as a gamer with high-end monitors

It's good to hear some good experiences with this monitor/company. I have used NEC monitors for a while now and never had any problems although I had not used Mitsubishi's own monitors before. I still have a 13" NEC 3fgx 256 color monitor from 1991 that I think has become darker but still works otherwise.

I tried moving the first monitor around the room and changing its direction but that had no effect, so there doesn't seem to be any EM field issue. You may have a point about the shipping. The first one, which came from an online reseller, was shipped by UPS and that box is in very good shape. NEC has been shipping their replacements by Fedex though, who apparently cannot read the fragile contents signs on the box. The second monitor had a slightly worn box and two of the packing foam pieces were broken. The box for the third one (the one I am using now) was quite heavily smashed up and had some large tears, with all the foam inside broken, but that monitor has actually been the best of the three by some distance.

I will be mainly using this for games as far as graphics go, but almost all of the problems I have been having are really glaring ones that anyone would notice. This third one actually also has a slight issue with color purity at the right edge, but it only seems to be visible with white colors and it isn't worth going through the RMA hassle again for that alone.