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This topic comprises 5 pages: 1 2 3 4 5
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Topic: laser phosphor projector vs xenon
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Steve Guttag
We forgot the crackers Gromit!!!
Posts: 12814
From: Annapolis, MD
Registered: Dec 1999
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posted 06-07-2017 06:30 AM
Paul, was your laser RGB laser or Laser Phosphor? They are completely different animals. RGB laser is not compatible (different primaries). Laser Phosphor should still use the same spinning disc as xenon and be compatible.
As for laser phosphor versus xenon on image quality...I can't claim to have done any sort of exhaustive research on it but I'll say that the NC1100L is worse than xenon. Put up swept grey scale pattern and you'll see it trip all over itself based on frame rate. It will also pulsate based on frame rate on any image. Color wise, something doesn't seem right about it or it doesn't appear the same as xenon.
Mark, having the same color space does not make the images identical. You can define the points of the triangle and the white point but you are only manipulating the entire spectrum from those points. What happens along the way can vary. Furthermore, laser can more precisely hit its primary colors than xenon that has to be split apart into primaries, first. However, with laser-phosphor, you typically start with one primary (blue is the most popular) and then use another laser to get the other two to make "white" and then ram all of that through the same optical path to break it apart again.
The method of making the light absolutely has an effect on the outcome. Some have removed the yellow notch filter from the NC900 to obtain more light and then justified it by saying they calibrated the light. That is like having a parametric EQ in the system with a 20dB boots at 125Hz and say you EQed the room with bass and treble. Yeah, at 40Hz and 12KHz and even 500Hz it measures right but there spike at 125Hz remains. The notch filter is there for a reason.
So back OT. Laser-Phospher makes ZERO financial sense for most cinemas. If you look at the cost of xenon lamps versus the increased in purchase price for laser-phosphor, at no time is laser-phospher cheaper, over the life of the unit/ As others have noted, if the projector will be in an inconvenient place to change lamps, then the extra labor to deal with that will need to be factored in. Note too, the filter system for laser-phosphor is essentially the same as xenon so you STILL have a labor factor there.
Another thing to note is the decay rate on lasers. Most manufacturers quote a life span to when the laser output drops to 1/2. Think about that for a moment, if you spec a projector that when new hits 14fL, the manufacturer is telling you when it hits 7fL!!!! The BOTTOM end of SMPTE spec is 11fL. So, what you really want to know is when that laser drops to below 11fL on your worst format and if you have a constant height screen. So forget the 20,000-30,000 claim. Odds are, before you would have changed your 7th lamp, you are out of spec and looking at a new set of lasers!
Now, what you CAN do (and this applies to RGB laser too) is to spec a projector 1-over what you need and run that laser in the basement when new. Then you could push that laser replacement time WAY out there to 50,000-70,000 hours. With lasers you can run them way down and they won't fuss the way xenons will (it varies with the lamp). But if you do spec a larger laser projector, the graphs for cost just got spread further apart!
With respect to other image parts, laser-phosphor offer zero advantage. The contrast doesn't improve, no resolution benefits...etc. With RGB laser, then you get contrast improvements, color space improvements with a side of speckle.
Watch out for misleading ads too that proclaim that with xenon that the light drops to 50% in order to "sell" the laser-phosphor, just about all of our systems are xenon and they are all designed to remain with SMPTE spec from day 1 to day of removal (at warranty). And that can be up to 3200-hours for a 2KW lamp. One nice thing about xenon is that there is a wide range of lamp wattages to choose from. The key is to select the right size for your application to keep the light in the right range. For Barco, you can use from 850-watts to 2200-watts in the DP2K-12C. Likewise, on Christie, there is a 1400-watts at the low end and 2300-watts at the high end. NEC has 1200, 1500 and 2000 watts on their NC1200C. Pick the right lamp for your screen (I used the bottom end .98" machines as the example because they are the right sized machine for MOST cinemas until you get into the really big screens and the S2K projectors have noticeably crappy contrast ratios and often don't have xenon light sources.
Oh and Mark, the NC900C lamps remain crappy past version 2. Would you believe they are on their 4th revision with lamp models 06 and 07 (odd number lamps are inverted, even numbered lamps or for normal projector orientation)? I don't know if I've had any of the "04" lamps die yet but just had another 02 die.
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