Another of the many quirks of this TV is its ability to not only rearrange DTV channels, but to randomly resize them in the process! At first, I thought these problems were caused by technical difficulties at the transmitter site. However, after repeatedly emailing my local TV stations and constantly getting replies such as, "What are you talking about? We're watching our off-air monitor right now and not seeing any problems!", it became painfully apparent the problem existed within the TV itself.
For example, going to channel 40 memory shows high signal strength and guide feature lists programming, but screen is blank with NO PROGRAMMING message box on screen. Going directly to 40's DTV channel number (55.1) allows me to watch programs, but guide function is disabled. So I have to keep switching to 55.1 to watch the show, then to 40 to see whats up next- unless the TV decides to put 55.1 on 55.3, which it sometimes does. This really does happen- honest! I couldn't make up anything this warped! Channel 61 also jumps to 33.1 with same results- go to 33.1 to watch show, go to 61 to use guide function while NO PROGRAMMING box happily bounces around on screen. These channels have bounced back and forth at least a dozen times during the 4 frustrating months I have owned this TV, sometimes jumping multiple times in 1 day!
Other entertaining aspects of this TV include the time local PBS channel 57 had video but no audio for 4 days- during which time another local channel (18) had audio, but no video for exact same time period. What a coincidence! Both problems fixed themselves at the same time.
Photo above shows normal sized TV picture during 16:9 HDTV broadcast. Note position of station logo in lower right hand corner.
This photo shows another 16:9 HDTV broadcast. Video for TV channel 40 decided to jump to 55.1, although guide information remained on 40. Although TV has done this randomly since new, this time it decided to readjust picture size as well. Note the large black area around picture, as well as thin white horizontal barsat top right of visible image. These appear to be some type of digital signaling artifacts. These would normally be hidden in the over scan area off screen, and are only visible due to the grossly undersized image. Picture whent back to normal size a week or two later.
This photo shows result of picture resizing for local Fox affiliate. Note logo on lower right corner of screen. Logo extends well beyond screen edges both horizontally and vertically. Although image above is not the best example, subtitles and chyrons during commercials and local news programming were virtually unreadable, as over 50% of graphic extended beyond bottom of screen!