Dell W4200 42-inch High Definition Plasma TV with 1-year Onsite Exchange Service

Dell W4200HD

W4200 42-inch High Definition Plasma TV with 1-year Onsite Exchange Service Review, by Sean Captain June 7, 2005

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• Reviewed by: BoyOhBoy

  Strengths: Price, feature set, good picture

  Weaknesses: Lousy quality, sneaky return policy, slow exchanges

  Overall: Count me in the camp of severely disappointed Dell customers. I bought a refurb W4200HD, got what I was promised promptly, but it had the infamous buzz described in other posts. Another problem was that on occasion I would turn the TV on and the whole screen would have this green hue on it. Turning the TV off then on again resolved the problem. Anyway, I got myself into this deal with eyes wide open - even a minor search on the Web points shows consistent complaints and problems with the unit's quality. I was tempted by the ridiculously low price for the picture quality and feature set. After all the rebates and discounts, the W4200HD would have cost me $1500 - yes, the HD, not the ED. There were some indications that Dell is slowly working through the issues, and I was hoping against hope that I get lucky. I didn't! However, unlike some other people, my experience with Dell customer service was pretty positive. Five minutes into my initial call I was put in touch with a return specialist who gave me her direct line, and tried to talk me into not returning the TV by offering to extend the return deadline to 21 days (it is 15 on refurbs) and kicking in a $150 discount. I decided to give it a try, but the replacement TV would not have made it on time even with the extended return policy. Today I called and canceled my order, they are picking up this piece of garbage on Monday. Also today I ordered a Panasonic TH-42PHD8UK for $800 more at 1/3 the feature set. This is a bare-bones unit with no tuners or speakers, and a limited input bay. However, its reviews on the Web a glowing and customers rave about it (and its gen7 sibling TH-42PHD7UY). By all accounts this is a top-of-the-line tube. After my experience with the "bug zapper" on my current set, I especially appreciated the observation that "This plasma TV runs virtually silent. I could not hear the unit running at all. Not even from a foot away." Yeah, I am paying $1000 more, but hopefully when it shows up I will hang it right where the Dell was supposed to be an forget about it. Shame on Dell for (a) not addressing known problems for over a year and (b) continuing to send out rejects as refurbished units in the hope of finding consumers who don't know any better and may keep it, either out of ignorance, or because they simply missed the absolutely sneaky return policies. C'mon Dell, 15 days return option on refurbs from the day of invoice? Add the 10 days it took me to get the unit, and you are left with 5 days to get your money back if you get a lemon. At least they are paying for the return shipping... Hopefully this rant will keep others like me from being tempted by the seemingly good price. To anyone considering this set, my adivice is to visit Dell's own discussion forms and read the customer service horror stories.

• Reviewed by: cbowman1

  Strengths: design

  Weaknesses: hdmi malfunction

  Overall: As soon as you start utilizing the digital HDMI connection, expect to be unplugging the set from the wall now and then to reset it. In my experience the problem surfaced in the first 2 days, then went away for 2 weeks, then showed up twice in the 3rd week. Thats when I learned of the problem and started the return process. If you don?t use the HDMI, it may work fine for you 100% of the time but you wont be getting the best possible picture quality from the set. Maybe there are some sets that don?t have the issue but I'd wage 99% of the ones returned to Dell outlet were returned because they do have the HDMI issue. Find out from Dell if its been resolve before you buy this set from outlet or stock.At one time there were over 100 of these Dells back in outlet. Be careful!

• Reviewed by: omar818

  Strengths: PRICE...PICKED UP THIS SET AT DELL OUTLET FOR $2,099 (That's 1,400 less than new priced set)

  Weaknesses: Problems with DVI RGB Settings, I get a green tint sometimes, requires you to switch to AUTO COLOR to avoid this problem

  Overall: Well... I did my homework on HD TV's and after months of reading reviews and checking prices, it came down to Dell finally reducing price down to $2,099 on the HD4200 at DELL Outlet. I knew for sure that this set was not worth $3,499, so I knew If I wanted a bargain and a "Good" HDTV set, I would not go wrong paying $2,099 for it in the Outlet. I was very suprised by the picture quality of HD broadcasts utilizing the COMCAST HD cablebox. It's very important to setup your COMCAST HD cablebox to 16:9 and default to 1080i to avoid the black bars on HD programming, my COMCAST installer helped with this, just leave TV set on, turn off COMCAST cablebox and click on the menu button manually on the COMCAST cablebox, you should see a black and white screen with the TV setup information. Also, don't forget to change the TV remote picture size settings to "WIDE" vice the default 4:3. This will ensure all channels to include HD programming will show on complete screen without the annoying Black Bars. I watch a whole lot of HD programming on COMCAST INHD1 and INHD2 channels, and the picture quality is amazingly crystal clear on the 1080i broadcasts, this TV does a great job of showing these broadcasts. Like I said, I'm happy with this TV, and I highly recommend it. Again, is it worth $3,499 or $2,999 - NO.... Is it worth $2,099 - YES