Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Bulb shelf life

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Topic: Bulb shelf life

Trevor Cable
Film Handler

Posts: 22
From: Hillsboro, OR, USA
Registered: Jan 2011

posted 01-28-2011 01:17 PM

Hello,
I've got a weird situation going on with one of my projectors I'm curious to get some advice on. It's an NEC iS8-2K which has been a fantastic projector (except for how slow communicating with it is). I recently (November 2010) had my cinema vendor put a new bulb in it. That bulb had been sitting on my shelf for about 3 years. After the new bulb went in we started having a strange problem. At complete random times a white image pops up on the screen and then black for 10 seconds. Our content then comes back. This can happen 20 times a day or not at all. These last couple of days it's been about 3 times a day. The white image is not the white test pattern. It's missing half of about the top 50 pixels. NEC support mentioned that it could be the bulb because it's been sitting around for three years. Is this possible? They want us to send the projector in to be looked at but that will take 3-4 weeks. This projector is used 10 hours a day 5 days a week so sending it in is a last resort.

1) Is it possible to have a bulb go bad from sitting around?
2) Has anyone with an NEC seen anything like this?

I should mention that this weird pattern that shows up will happen with all inputs to the projector disconnected so I've ruled out the dailies server and the RealD ghostbusting unit. Also, I've found that the TI software becomes disconnected from the projector during this "crash" and the RealD hardware loses sync.

Thanks for any thoughts on this. We really want to avoid sending it in.

-Cable

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Carsten Kurz
Film God

Posts: 4340
From: Cologne, NRW, Germany
Registered: Aug 2009

posted 01-28-2011 03:13 PM

Get a fresh bulb and try with it. Usually a bulb shouldn't have this effect in any projector, but it's a high current device and could cause issue with the electronics if some parameters are out of tolerance.

That would show a bad projector design, but as you own it for a long time already, you'll will have to stick with it. If you're dependant on that projector, you should have a spare lampe anyway. What happened to the previous bulb?

- Carsten

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Louis Bornwasser
Film God

Posts: 4441
From: prospect ky usa
Registered: Mar 2005

posted 01-28-2011 03:15 PM

Osram does not have a life limit. Christie has a 5 year warranty limit. Others vary.

What bulb do you use? Louis

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Trevor Cable
Film Handler

Posts: 22
From: Hillsboro, OR, USA
Registered: Jan 2011

posted 01-28-2011 04:18 PM

I am using the Ushio UXL-1003NE. We always keep a spare but I'm a little behind getting a new one. I'm probably going to put the old bulb back in (which has some hours left) to see if there's a difference.

Thanks for the responses. NEC and my vendor are working on this for me but I thought I'd ask around as people here may have had some experience with this projector and I want to feel like I'm doing something on my end to resolve this.

Thanks.

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Carsten Kurz
Film God

Posts: 4340
From: Cologne, NRW, Germany
Registered: Aug 2009

posted 01-28-2011 06:12 PM

If the old bulb is still okay, it would be the easiest way to find out wether the new bulb causes the issue, or if the projector needs a repair.

I'm confident if that test gives a clear result, Ushio will grant a free replacement.

Did you check the current setting?

- Carsten

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Steve Guttag
We forgot the crackers Gromit!!!

Posts: 12814
From: Annapolis, MD
Registered: Dec 1999

posted 01-29-2011 11:54 AM

I would say that it is a VERY slim chance it is the lamp. It it more likely that there is some I2C communication error from the changing of the lamp. That is, the lamphouse maybe having some communication issues since it had to be reseated in the lamphouse though that normally just throws up an error.

I'm most likely inclined to think it is an unrelated problem that happened to show up at the same time. It is more likely a board that processes the image.

Have you verified that you are on the most current NEC software?

-Steve

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Amanda Mundin
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 122
From: Belper, Derbyshire, UK
Registered: Sep 2005

posted 01-31-2011 09:43 AM

We have an NEC NC800C projector, which I believe is exactly the same as the IS8, we have never had the problem that you mention, the only bulb based problems we have had is the bulb not lasting anywhere near as long as it should, and a while ago now we had a bulb that chose to turn itself off in the middle of a screening, we had this a few times. As far as I was aware I thought the only lamp available for this projector was the 1.25kw? I have been told that the warranty with these lamps is only to 500 hours, and unfortunately any problems we've had have been when the lamp is beyond this.

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Steve Guttag
We forgot the crackers Gromit!!!

Posts: 12814
From: Annapolis, MD
Registered: Dec 1999

posted 01-31-2011 12:51 PM

There is only one lamp for the NC800C (aka IS8) and it is made by Ushio as an OEM to NEC.

Is it really a 500-hour lamp? For some reason, I thought it was a 1000 or 1500 hour lamp. It is definitely funky though.

-Steve

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Jim Cassedy
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1661
From: San Francisco, CA
Registered: Dec 2006

posted 01-31-2011 01:23 PM

quote: Trevor Cable
1) Is it possible to have a bulb go bad from sitting around?

I asked a similar question about bulb shelf life several
months ago after I found a stash of 2 & 4K bulbs that had
been sitting around backstage at an old theater, in their
original packages with the box seals unbroken for almost 9 years.

Several people here on the forum advised me that I should
have no problem using them. I haven't tried any of the 4k's
yet, but so far the "old" 2k's are working fine with no
problems, and I don't expect any.

I'm curious to see if their useful lifespan is any shorter
after long term storage, but I've got many hours to go
before I can make that determination.

But, "So far, so good. . ."

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