So this is my 3rd post on how crappy Maxent, Sampo, and Regent's televisions and their customer service is.
A couple of months after returning to us a reconditioned TV to replace the one they were to "fix" under warranty, the TV picture started turning off occasionally, though the sound would continue playing. To get the picture back, we would have to turn it off, and back on. Twice we have come home after departing the house with the TV off, and upon our return the TV screen was black but obviously on because of the faint glow and warmth radiating from the screen. We think this happens when the power goes out and comes back, though we have the TV plugged into a high quality A/V surge protector.
We discovered that if you are watching anything connected to the HDMI input, and switch to another input like the TV, then back to the HDMI input, it will only show a snowy/static picture until you turn the HDMI device off and back on. The same will usually happen if we turn on anything connected to the HDMI input before we turn the TV on.
We have cable TV with some digital and analog stations. The Maxent will sometimes not be able to receive a significant number of digital channels, and generally if you tune to a digital channel that is not receivable, any channel you tune to after that will not have a picture, but will have sound, until you turn the TV off and back on.
The DVD player connected to the component input of the Maxent TV developed a jittery picture, and on some scenes the sound gets scratchy. But the picture and sound are fine when the DVD player is connected to the Maxent HDMI input, or the component input of another TV. So I think the Maxent component input is going out.
Twice over a year's time, I have emailed the Maxent customer service address on their website telling them we have experienced some weirdness and asked if there are any firmware updates they would provide we could upload through the service port. I get a form email reply that Maxent doesn't provide email customer service, and to call that customer service phone number that no one answers.
And here is just an example of a stupid interface glitch. You can program it to skip inputs (TV, composite, component, PC, HDMI1, HDMI2). To me that means making them disappear from the menu right? No, the Maxent only greys it out. So you think it obviously skips those disabled inputs right? No, you can still select that greyed out input, it just won't work. So exactly what does the input skip function do? Yep, it just greys them out. How helpful!
These problems are known to Maxent here, and here. Once again I humbly suggest to steer well clear of this company's products.
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Thanks very much, i almost bought one of these tonight on a giant no tax sale.
ReplyDeleteYou probably just saved me a lot of pain.
I love my Maxent 50 inch plasma. Everyone that see's it says it's the best picture they've seen.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous,
ReplyDeleteMy first Maxent TV had a very good picture. If you look at my 2 other posts on it, I praised it for this. The only problem is it quit turning on, and a local warranty tech couldn't fix it. The refurbished TV Maxent sent to replace it has been total crap. When the TV works, the picture is good except on the component input, but it has lots of other problems.
The newest problem is about 80% of the time, when I turn it on, the screen flashes and goes back to black, then it quits responding from the remote or buttons on the TV. I have to get off the couch and unplug it. When I plug it back in, it automatically comes on. That is another annoyance when the power goes out while we are away from the house, causing it to chew up electricity until we get back.
But unfortunately it is still working, so I don't have a good reason to replace it yet. This is the first time I have wished a piece of electronic equipment I have would die.