Christie CP2210 Blue Bars

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

The big difference Steve overlooks is that I've never had a formatter failure in an NEC in over 300 installed, or an outright DMD failure. Only a DMD failure because of some nearby demolition. That was corrected with a brand new prism we bought out of a new, case damaged NC-2000 projector from one of the NEC distributors on the cheap. A couple of prism cleans via Strong, and that's about it. Even the lovely NC-900's are still running. Since I have never cared for Sharp since my TV repair days in the late 60's - early 1970's, I will no longer recommend them even though there are a few familiar faces in their Cinema-Con booth. Sharp was a PIA back then and parts were difficult to get. Between that, stupid Laser, and an exhibition industry somewhat in decline, I retired at the right time.

[Steve Guttag]

As is typical with Mark...his experiences are uniquely his own. I have had NEC formatter failures. Note, unlike the other three, you CAN change just the formatter on the NC1200/2000C and not, necessarily, do the full prism swap.

I do recall a Mark story of saving the day by retorquing an formatter on an NEC prism so that it made proper contact and even pressure.

Since all three companies shopped at the same TI store for their DMDs and formatter parts, the failure rate for those are going to be similar and for the same reasons. Now, one could say that the cooling is different between the three companies and that may attribute to more or less heat related failures.

To the best of my knowledge, with respect to the Digital Cinema equipment, there is no change in policy or personnel.

[Marcel Birgelen]

I don't have anywhere close to sufficient numbers for any representative analysis of failure rates between DCI projector makes and models. For me, Christie has been a bit of a hit and miss in overall. The failure rate in stuff like ICP, DMDs etc., is probably comparable with other manufacturers.

There have been some specific issues though with several of their projectors. Not that other manufacturers never had problems, but Christie has had a few nasty ones that can be noted: The LVPS, especially the first revision that came with those 22xx models, was a faulty design, something Christie never officially acknowledged. Then there was this Solaria One IMS thing, Christie's first attempt at building their own integrated server, we all know how that went.

Also, after COVID restarst, a lot of little things reared its ugly head. Not that there weren't problems with NECs, Barcos and Sonys, but given the fact that Barco is far more dominant than Christie around here, we had a considerable amount of Christie machines with issues, especially after the first restart.

I wouldn't call Christie a bad company, but a company with somewhat of a typical "West Coast Silicon Valley" attitude: We'll fix it once people start complaining. Christie has a competitive edge over others, since they're the last xenon holdout and while less relevant for DCI, they offer some pretty advanced projection mapping solutions, which is why you find their projectors at many big venues, events and stuff like theme park attractions.

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

As is typical with Mark...his experiences are uniquely his own. I have had NEC formatter failures. Note, unlike the other three, you CAN change just the formatter on the NC1200/2000C and not, necessarily, do the full prism swap.

I do recall a Mark story of saving the day by retorquing an formatter on an NEC prism so that it made proper contact and even pressure.

Since all three companies shopped at the same TI store for their DMDs and formatter parts, the failure rate for those are going to be similar and for the same reasons. Now, one could say that the cooling is different between the three companies and that may attribute to more or less heat related failures.

To the best of my knowledge, with respect to the Digital Cinema equipment, there is no change in policy or personnel.

Steve, Actually, failure rates are more determined by the batches they are made in. No batch is exactly the same as the last! That's why they track where batch numbers of parts go to

That same projector I had to re-torque the formatter board on was the one damaged in the jack hammer demolition incident. I did keep the old light engine for spare parts, formatters, prism, etc, but never used any of it. Anyway, many people probably have no idea how all this stuff connects together, so here are a couple of images of a formatter board detached and a second shot showing the contact assembly with the DMD still behind it. Those contacts can fall out of the plastic alignment frame if the light engine is not kept in the correct attitude. Am pretty sure that the small DMD's in the NEC's and Christie machines have gold pins on the backside of the DMD's, and are simply soldered to the formatter, not unlike certain types of CPU's. These images show how both 1.2" and .98" dmd's are set up.

[Gordon McLeod]

We have had formaters on NEC1200/2000 failures and one lvps and 2 rubicon lamp ballasts. On christie 3 ICPs 4 PIB 5 LVPS and 2 lamp ballasts and one red formater

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

I don't have anywhere close to sufficient numbers for any representative analysis of failure rates between DCI projector makes and models. For me, Christie has been a bit of a hit and miss in overall. The failure rate in stuff like ICP, DMDs etc., is probably comparable with other manufacturers.

There have been some specific issues though with several of their projectors. Not that other manufacturers never had problems, but Christie has had a few nasty ones that can be noted: The LVPS, especially the first revision that came with those 22xx models, was a faulty design, something Christie never officially acknowledged. Then there was this Solaria One IMS thing, Christie's first attempt at building their own integrated server, we all know how that went.

Also, after COVID restarst, a lot of little things reared its ugly head. Not that there weren't problems with NECs, Barcos and Sonys, but given the fact that Barco is far more dominant than Christie around here, we had a considerable amount of Christie machines with issues, especially after the first restart.

I wouldn't call Christie a bad company, but a company with somewhat of a typical "West Coast Silicon Valley" attitude: We'll fix it once people start complaining. Christie has a competitive edge over others, since they're the last xenon holdout and while less relevant for DCI, they offer some pretty advanced projection mapping solutions, which is why you find their projectors at many big venues, events and stuff like theme park attractions.

Marcel... , My dislike of Christie goes way back to the early model and later P-35 projectors. Only when they went to round tooth timing belts and pulleys did the P-35GP actually run correctly, and they actually become viable projectors. Users that bought the versions before that with Basement SRD readers had to go back and install top mount cat 700's or 701's because the jitter created by square tooth belts was so bad that often the DA-20 wouldn't even recognize any incoming data. The Cine-X35 worked fine and I could get over 8 years out of a set of belts in them. The round tooth belts in both versions also generated almost no rubber dust inside the projector.

My experience with their Series 1 stuff was mostly positive, except for software bugs in some updates that caused a couple disasters. Then along came the CP-2210... it was in many ways saved by being able to install the GDC SX-3000. An expensive upgrade to fix already existing projectors. I was done with Christie at that point.

[Steve Guttag]

Are you confusing the CP2210 with the Solaria 1 and 1+? The CP2210 worked with anyone's IMB as well as HDSDI and used the tried and true .98" DMD chipset. The Solaria 1/1+ forced the IMBS2 (and later Christie gave a big discount for those that wanted an IMS3000 or SX-3000 and was based on the .69" chipset (the S2K series of low contrast projectors that Sharp/NEC seem to cling to).

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

Steve, No. The 2210 is more or less the replacement for the Solaria. I never serviced any Solarias, and I only knew of one located in Thermopolis Wyoming, Not sure they are even still open as their web site barely functions. There is a Twin in Wyoming that has 2210's.

[Steve Guttag]

Nope. Your history is off. The 2210 was part of the series 2 line up that started with the 2210, 2220 and 2230. The 2210 would be the S2 version of the CP2000-M (M is for "mini").

The Solaria 1/1+ came out AFTER the CP2210 and the CP2215 as a low-cost "S2K" projector. It looked similar to the 2210/2215 but used completely different lenses, light engine and even the I/O panel was completely different as it hid all fo the cards behind a faceplate.

Anyway...the Solaria 1/1+ was their "entry-level" projector:

https://www.christiedigital.com/prod...-one2/overview

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

Nope. Your history is off. The 2210 was part of the series 2 line up that started with the 2210, 2220 and 2230. The 2210 would be the S2 version of the CP2000-M (M is for "mini").

The Solaria 1/1+ came out AFTER the CP2210 and the CP2215 as a low-cost "S2K" projector. It looked similar to the 2210/2215 but used completely different lenses, light engine and even the I/O panel was completely different as it hid all fo the cards behind a faceplate.

Anyway...the Solaria 1/1+ was their "entry-level" projector:

https://www.christiedigital.com/prod...-one2/overview

No doubt my history is off since I never installed either. I only serviced the 2210's on and off for a few years...

[Marcel Birgelen]

The CP2210 was the first entry in Christie's Series 2 projectors. I know quite a few places still running them in a HDSDI setup. Like Steve indicated, they were IMB-independent and afaik, Christie didn't even offer their own IMB back when it first launched.

I know a few places that upgraded a bunch of rooms from Series 1 to CP22xx projectors when HFR hit back in 2012 with the first Hobbit release. The CP22xx was also supposedly upgradeable to 4K, and while there apparently was an upgrade kit from Christie for a short while, I know nobody that ever took that upgrade.

The Solaria One was Christie's answer to the likes of the NEC900C, especially targeted at the lower end of the market: smaller independents and art houses that had a hard time converting from 35mm to digital and weren't eligible for VPF. While Christie's solution sounded compelling, we all know how that story went.

I think the worst thing you can do with a CP22xx is pulling the power for a lengthly time. Those things are a bit like a pet: They tend to develop all kinds of problems, that aren't necessarily media-block related, when you leave them alone for prolonged times. Otherwise, after the obligatory LVPS change, I've found those projectors to be mostly fine, on part of reliability.

Regarding the formatter mount: those use pogo-style gold-plated pins that are spring loaded, this ensures them making contact, even if there are slight deformities due to changing temperatures. Unless the mount is damaged, those little pins should not fall out, if they do, the ceramic socket probably has been damaged due to severe overheating. Those sockets are made by Amphenol. Cheaper TI DLP chips, like most of the consumer stuff features static pins, like your old-school 486 or Pentium CPU.

Marcel... , My dislike of Christie goes way back to the early model and later P-35 projectors. Only when they went to round tooth timing belts and pulleys did the P-35GP actually run correctly, and they actually become viable projectors. Users that bought the versions before that with Basement SRD readers had to go back and install top mount cat 700's or 701's because the jitter created by square tooth belts was so bad that often the DA-20 wouldn't even recognize any incoming data. The Cine-X35 worked fine and I could get over 8 years out of a set of belts in them. The round tooth belts in both versions also generated almost no rubber dust inside the projector.

My experience with their Series 1 stuff was mostly positive, except for software bugs in some updates that caused a couple disasters. Then along came the CP-2210... it was in many ways saved by being able to install the GDC SX-3000. An expensive upgrade to fix already existing projectors. I was done with Christie at that point.

I have practically zero experience with Christie 35mm projectors. I guess they never really made it across the pond. Around here, in the latter 35mm years it was mostly Kinoton and Cinemeccanica, Philips and maybe the odd Simplex XL. My first ever encounter with 70mm was a Bauer U3... the poor-mans DP70, I guess none of them ever made it across the pond.

So, not so much history for me to hate on Christie and afaik, the current Christie has also almost nothing to do with the 35mm Christie. Afaik, the current Christie is what remains of Electrohome, a Canadian electronics company. They were also known for their high-end CRT projectors, that ended up in many professional applications, like the Marquee 8500, which was extensively used in stuff like simulators, but also found its way into some advanced theme park rides.