Purchased a DVB 420 in August during the Olympics for $157 from the GoodGuys on a "000" sale (for Police, Fire and Ambo's). Worked really well for about 4 weeks. 1 or 2 lockups but generally very good. Very clear, bright and little jitter or sound issues.

About 4 weeks ago I started getting what can only be described as "interference" and jitterring lines through the output on all channels. It was an interference that made everything unwatchable. Sometimes just once or twice during a show and then sometimes non-stop for minutes on end. If I turned the STB off my AV inputs still showed signs of this interference on the TV output. If I completely disconnected the STB cables from the AV on the TV the output was normal (and completely black). I only used composite connections from a SCART connctor as the S-Video ouput has the pin arrangement problem already discussed elsewhere in this forum.

2 weeks ago the jitterring stopped but the output has no gone dull and has lost all contrast and skin tones look "yellow" and everyone looks sick! The clear picture that I once had is now too dull to watch. Do you think getting the correctly pinned SCART to S-Video connetion might fix this or even update the firmware or do you think that something with the outputs has blown? Both teh SCART and Composite outputs look dark. In fact if both are connected it looks worse than if just one or the other are connected.

Should I take it back to Good Guys or send it off to TEAC? TEAC are not open weekends so this makes it hard to get it fixed.

Personally, I think if you return it back to the "Good Guys", and either get a replacement B420, or simply get a refund and purchase from DSE (less that $200) it is far less stress-free than repair and expencive costs attached, and it seems that once it doesnt work properly, it never seems to be the same. I think its a problem with the unit itself, perhaps a blown capacitor? Also, if that powerpoint that the unit was pulgged into is old, a good idea would be not to use that power point. Recently, my Lamp exploded a bulb, at the base of the globe, because the power point was old, and sended a spinging charge. This may not be the case, but it is note worthy, as the unit had no problems before hand, mabey it was environmentally induced? What do you other guys think? I reckon that you should get a refund/replaced, not repaired.

EDIT: If you have a self wired Scart to RGB, mabey, try the RCA (yellow) output to either the same tv, or another tv that is RCA compadible. When you watch, say, a DVD the colors are fine, yes? I doubt its your TV, but you can never know My money's bet on the TEAC B420, or the cables connected to it. :EDIT

I had a simular problem a couple of weeks ago, where over a period of a week or two the output from the STB started to deteriate to the point where no TV could sync with it.

I simply took the unit back to the retailer for a replacement unit, which also has the latest mods and firmware

TXT,
It would appear to be a fault in which the voltage reference for the digital to analog converter is low. This is because a low output voltage on the Cb signal is yellow and a high voltage is blue. Grey or white is at the half voltage level. This also seems to be happening on the luminance DAC as well.

TVs with no input will normally go to a selected screen colour usually blue, although black could be selected. This is determined by whether the TV can find the synchronisation signals. Interference under these conditions cannot be seen.

AlanH

TEAC are going to send me their correctly-wired SCART adapter for me to try the S-Video output to my TV. I called the Good Guys where I bought the unit and they would not agree with a straight replacement and they wanted to see the issue and may send it into TEAC on my behalf....... Great Customer Service....NOT !!

I had one for two weeks when 'streaks' started appearing across the screen.
Particularly noticable in composite mode (both via the rca and scart plug, so affected the VCR on the rca plugs in particular).
Anyway, anywhere there was a light colour on the screen (like white) it was smeared across the screen.
I had bought mine from Myer (not the cheapest, but I had store vouchers), took it back (was 15 days old), they swapped it straight over without even plugging it in.
New one has been going since... (whenever the last day of the olympics was) no problems.

I've had my DV-B420 now for about a month and haven't had any problems with its output (lots of problems with other things tho, this is my second DV-B420). The first STB had a loose SCART connection at the back which was causing the colours to become green. I would have to jiggle the connection and the colours became normal. The one I have now has a good clean, clear component SCART output with good brightness/gamma. I had a DV-B350 before it which had awful gamma (among many other awful things).

As far as power supply goes, I also had an exploding light bulb, scared the $hit out of me last week. It exploded from the base just as brodymulry's did, so I'm wondering, is there anything I can do to ensure the power supply to my STB is of high quality? I've used one of those test plug things which you plug in and switch on and if the lights come on it means the power supply is "good", and the result was "good", but I dont trust it and I've had a brand new microwave break down on the same circuit as the lightbulb.

I guess the only thing you can do is install a 240/240 adapter, at each power inlet, but this is not very practical. You could rewire the electrical meter box, but im sure that meter man wouldnt like it, becides, its bloody dangerous! My exploding light bulb was from a desk lamp running 240 straight from the powerpoint (no powerboard, piggy back plug, ect). However if you light globe was from the "light" socket in your home, the power is fed from a different sector of the meter box. As my house is, say, built before WWI (found some interesting things under the house, that indicates so) the socket that the lamp exploded from was a very old socket. However this should make no difference. Thats why i run all expencive equipment off new sockets and new power sources, if your house is older that 50 years. I wonder if the insurance covers damage to appliances, when the house caused the damage, an "act of god"?

Good news - Received my TEAC SCART to S-Video connector in the mail yesterday and guess what? When reconnecting the STB back up to the TV via S-Video it looks PERFECT !!! No dullness or loss of clarity. I also changed the power point I connected the box to. TEAC - WELL DONE !! Now onto the firmware update !!