How to Upgrade a Film School's Projector with $30k or so

[Josh Park]

Hi everyone,

First time poster here. Forgive the ignorance that will surely be on display, new to this world (coming from being a sound mixer on set) and just recently got hired as a tech for a film school.

One thing I've been tasked with is attempting to get a new projector and install it into our main screening space. Right now we have an NEC 1200NC installed in there which has done our institution good for a while, but now seems to be on its last legs. It's been serviced in December, but the MIT tech let us know we have about 1-2 years left on this thing before it goes kaput.

The school is telling me we have about 30K dollars in the budget for a new projector, and I'm assuming we'd need a bit for installation as well. It seems like a very low budget to me for this kind of upgrade, and I was hoping to get a laser system in there, but wondering what thoughts this brain bank had for this situation?

Thanks!

[Leo Enticknap]

MiT tech who made the kaput prognosis here! Though to clarify, I wasn't trying to suggest that there might be a huge bang followed by a pile of smoldering wreckage in the booth, only that a 12-year old projector in regular use is not going to become any more reliable as time goes on, no matter how well it is maintained.

For others' info, the issue in December was sporadic "No LPSU Power" errors popping up that prevented site staff from striking the lamp. We eventually had to replace the lamp (which was due anyways), the lamp power supply, the igniter, the PJDIV board, the PEDE-A board, and the cable loom between the LPSU and PEDE-A board, in order to finally make that problem go away and stay away.

You could be lucky and get another 4-5 trouble free years out of it; but on the other hand, the input board or motherboard could decide to check out, in which case you'd be looking at a pricey part and service call to get you back up and running. This is the equivalent of a '99 Honda Civic with 200,000 miles on the clock. It could be good for another 100,000, but the transmission could seize up tomorrow, leaving you with a four-figure bill and several days without the car before you're back on the road. That risk is an order of magnitude higher with a '99 Civic than with a '19 Civic (all other things being equal).

The crucial question for Josh is whether or not DCI (DCP) capability is needed in the replacement projector. The NC1200 is currently only being used for its DVI input: there is no IMB or IMS in it, and the input board is the variant that does not have an Enigma card on it.

If you do not need the ability to play DCPs in that room, $30K would buy you something very decent. If you do, I don't think a new projector would be possible on that budget: even entry level projectors, such as the NC602L or SP2K-11S, are now significantly more expensive. Used options could be explored, but you would want to look at the condition, hours run, maintenance history, parts availability going forward, and whether or not you could extend its warranty, when evaluating them.

[Josh Park]

Oh gosh! Wonderful to see you on here, good to put a face to the name (or forum avatar, whatever the case may be). That's all very good to know, I suspect many of the problems being blamed on the projector's age that I've been seeing are actually just user error; we have lots of hands on that thing between professors, student workers, and TAs who all boot up/shut down when I'm off the clock. Hopefully a newer unit would be more "protected" from all those variables.

I was hoping to get a projector that could play DCPs, but knowing now that our current unit doesn't (and probably never did) have that capability ready, I'm pretty confident in saying we don't need it, which is a relief for the budget I have to work with!

Thanks so much for the response, I was told so many different things by so many different people about this situation that it became hard to coalesce into usable info. Glad to get the scoop direct from source.

[Ryan Gallagher]

Oh gosh! Wonderful to see you on here, good to put a face to the name (or forum avatar, whatever the case may be). That's all very good to know, I suspect many of the problems being blamed on the projector's age that I've been seeing are actually just user error; we have lots of hands on that thing between professors, student workers, and TAs who all boot up/shut down when I'm off the clock. Hopefully a newer unit would be more "protected" from all those variables.

I was hoping to get a projector that could play DCPs, but knowing now that our current unit doesn't (and probably never did) have that capability ready, I'm pretty confident in saying we don't need it, which is a relief for the budget I have to work with!

Thanks so much for the response, I was told so many different things by so many different people about this situation that it became hard to coalesce into usable info. Glad to get the scoop direct from source.

If DCPs is part of the curriculum, you could look into adding a PC based DCP player such as NeoDCP. Studios may not issue you keys for features on that platform, but any student film non-encrypted DCP could be played back to a non-DCI projector (but perhaps not at intended 2K or 4K DCI resolutions etc).

[Fraser Falconer]

Hi Leo,
I was having that very same issue with a NC1200 a couple of years ago and went through swapping all those parts out from another machine to diagnose the fault, and finally found a dirty contact on the CPU PCB, cleaned the gold teeth by the usual means, and all good for over 2 years now. It was a truly bizarre fault.

Cheers Fraser

[Leo Enticknap]

Agreed with Ryan that a "semi-DCI" system consisting of a high end classroom projector coupled with a powerful PC running a software-based DCP player is worth looking in to. That way, students making DCPs for festival entries, etc. could play them: it would only be content from the major studios that would be a problem. Again, although my knowledge of the non-DCI, medium-sized auditorium projector market is very limited, I'd be surprised if that wasn't possible for $30K.

Fraser - very many thanks, and info noted. I did DeOxit all the PCI contacts on the cards at the start of this troubleshooting process, but with no luck. Given the distance from the site and the mission criticality of the projector, we ended up having to do what one of my favorite auto maintenance bloggers calls "shotgunning parts" and regards as the mark of a bad and lazy tech: simply replacing all of the parts that could possibly be causing the problem, rather than investigating more thoroughly to determine which one actually is. Investigating thoroughly is great if you have the machine in your shop and with no deadline for getting it fixed. But when it's a nine-hour drive away and classes have to be canceled or relocated if it isn't working, we had to order all the parts that the service manual tells you to try replacing one by one if this error presents, and swap them out in one fell swoop.

My point was that the older and higher mileage a projector becomes, the greater the likelihood of an unusual and difficult to diagnose fault like this one happening becomes. Therefore, when it's in intensive use and mission critical, planned replacement before these situations are likely to start happening is a good idea.

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

ALL projectors Nylon Multi pin connectors, PCB edge connectors, and especially those near or at a coast or large body of water like the Great Lakes, should be treated with De-Oxit when they are initially installed. The projector will have zero, or almost zero issues through out it's life if that's done. It can also be done during it's life as well. Also, get some thin, narrow foam tape and put it around the bottom base of new air filters when they are installed.This being done eliminates dust and dirt being sucked around the air filter.