Audio and color on NEC NC900C

[Ryan Gallagher]

Yeah our xenon supply, all but one arrived pre-pandemic. As one venue is about to be remodeled, and the other will follow not long after completion of that, both slated for new projectors, we are opting to use up good lamp hours on non-premiere events with even older lamps that got swapped ahead of prior festivals. Some as old as 2016. The lamps currently in our 35/70 projectors were acquired in 2018.

Maybe this is ill advised, but we regularly exceed warranty storage hours because of our sparse film programming as Leo discussed with other such clients.

[Leo Enticknap]

Leo, Once the issue with the lamps was fixed, I never had a single problem with lamps over about 30 screens. All but one location is still open and using them.

If you mean the change from the NEC NP-9LP02 lamp to the -06, the design change was done to fix an issue whereby if the -02 actually blew (as distinct from being replaced before it blew, in which case no problem), it would fail to a short circuit and thereby take the ballast with it. The -06 should not (these models are for a projector mounted the right way up: if the projector is hung upside down, you're supposed to use different ones). AFAIK, there is no other difference.

This is another reason to be cautious about Chinese, no name aftermarket lamps: they could be copies of the -02 design, with that risk built in.

I know Xenon lamps can be stored for two-digit years without issues.

Maybe this is ill advised, but we regularly exceed warranty storage hours because of our sparse film programming as Leo discussed with other such clients.

This is not an absolute thing: of course many lamps will survive happily on the shelf for a decade or longer and then be OK when needed. But there is a reason why the major lamp manufacturers only offer a two-year shelf life warranty, which is that after that time, the risk of a problem increases from almost zero to unlikely but possible. I understand that many customers have good reasons for needing to take that risk and keep their lamps in service for a lot longer than two years. But as a dealer and vendor, we want to prevent situations whereby a customer installs an old but unused lamp, it flickers like a candle, and then they're upset because they can't make a warranty claim. For that reason, our advice has to be that customers don't stockpile lamps that they are unlikely to use within that two-year window.

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

If you mean the change from the NEC NP-9LP02 lamp to the -06, the design change was done to fix an issue whereby if the -02 actually blew (as distinct from being replaced before it blew, in which case no problem), it would fail to a short circuit and thereby take the ballast with it. The -06 should not (these models are for a projector mounted the right way up: if the projector is hung upside down, you're supposed to use different ones). AFAIK, there is no other difference.

This is another reason to be cautious about Chinese, no name aftermarket lamps: they could be copies of the -02 design, with that risk built in.

I've only ever used Ushio... I tried a few Osram digital projector lamps to see what would happen, and none of them even made the rated hours. On the 900's, I did lose one ballast... Of course it was the bottom one too...

As far as the Chinese go, They build a majority of the Digital Projector parts in use today. But I agree on the Suspicious Chinese lamps. I had a customer with 150 screens that decided to go that route on his own. He ended up having to replace three reflectors pretty much right off the bat.

[Randy Stankey]

... But there is a reason why the major lamp manufacturers only offer a two-year shelf life warranty, which is that after that time, the risk of a problem increases from almost zero to unlikely but possible. ...

Don't forget! The longer a lamp sits around in a storeroom, the more it gets moved and bumped around and, maybe, even dropped. The more it gets bumped the more likely it is to suffer damage. That damage might not be visible to the naked eye, especially an untrained eye.

Even if that lamp stays in its factory sealed box for the whole time, there's no way of knowing whether it has become damaged until you take it out of the box and look at it. Then, of course, it's no longer in a factory-original package. Is it?

The only way to know, for sure, whether an old lamp that's been in storage for a decade or more is good is to take it out and try to use it. If it works, you're all right. If it goes "Boom!" the lamp is bad.

To add insult to injury, your fancy, new digital projector has built-in obsolescence. All those lamps you bought, ten years ago, might not work in the next projector that you will be forced to buy, just to stay in business. Then, what are you going to do? You can't, rightly, sell them. Nobody is likely to want them, anyhow. All that money that you THOUGHT you were saving just went down the drain!

[Leo Enticknap]

The longer a lamp sits around in a storeroom, the more it gets moved and bumped around and, maybe, even dropped.

The packaging that xenon arc and mercury discharge lamps are shipped in is designed to protect them when being moved for days on end in planes, trains, ships, and big rigs, and almost always does that successfully. Furthermore, most of the customers who receive them know that they are fragile, precision engineered objects, and handle them accordingly. So I'd be surprised if that's a major factor.

The only way to know, for sure, whether an old lamp that's been in storage for a decade or more is good is to take it out and try to use it. If it works, you're all right. If it goes "Boom!" the lamp is bad.

Spontaneously going boom is no longer the most likely failure mode of a xenon arc lamp. The manufacturing techniques and QC have gotten good enough to make that almost unheard of. The most common failure mode I've encountered in recent years is when the pressure seals on the cathode and anode caps start to leak xenon gas in a "slow puncture" sort of way. The symptom is that either a lamp simply won't strike at all, or it does but then flickers badly, or a flicker develops within 10 to 100 hours of operation. I'm involved with, I would guess, a warranty claim every year to 18 months resulting from this. I couldn't tell you the "one in X" number, because I don't have the sales figures I'd need to be able to do that; but in general terms I'd opine that you are very unlikely to receive a flickery DOA lamp, but not "almost unheard of" unusual.

[Randy Stankey]

The packaging that xenon arc and mercury discharge lamps are shipped in is designed to protect them from being moved for days on end in planes, trains, ships, and big rigs, and almost always does that successfully.

Yes, but those shipping boxes are filled with foam rubber supports to protect them during shipping. Most people aren't going to store their lamps in oversized cardboard boxes with padding inside. They are more likely to take them out of the overpack and store the bare box on a shelf, somewhere. Meanwhile, various people... ushers, cleaning crew, delivery men and all sorts of other random idiots are going to be going in and out of that storeroom for what? Ten years? People are going to be shuffling boxes around on shelves, reorganizing, taking things down to find other items and putting things back when they are done... sometimes. I guarantee that box is going to get knocked around and even dropped. Who is going to remember whether that box has been treated kindly during its ten year tenure on that shelf... if it even stays on that same shelf.

Neither are they going to store them vertically with the "big end" up. They are going to be stored on their side where other things can be stacked on top of them. That's a whole different kettle of fish!

I can see my way to storing xenon lamps for a couple-few years but ten years? Nuh-uh!

[Ryan Gallagher]

Yeah I’ve had to correct folks here about storing vertically, thankfully they do stay in shipping boxes. And these are folks that should know, rather than non technical staff.

[Randy Stankey]

I agree with Big-Endian storage but, in real life, it doesn't matter so much. Lamps often get used up faster than the time it takes for electrode sag to set in. It might make a difference in critical applications but, in daily use, it's not noticeable if it occurs at all.

If you want to be the most conservative then certainly. It's not that difficult to rearrange your storage room to make space for boxes stored vertically. You might even find that you've got more space to store things.
If you want to be ultra anal retentive, you could rotate the boxes every three months, too. It'd be great to do that but I wouldn't have the spare time to do all that. I don't think that many other people would, either.

It would be great if we could do this but the realities of running a business often don't leave us with enough time to do all that on top of our regular daily grind. It doesn't matter so much, given the frequency that some places change lamps is so short. Most lamps don't stay on the shelf long enough to show problems due to storage position.

We should all just store our lamps the "right" way, dammit!
While you're at it, go check all the restrooms and make sure that the toilet paper rolls all spool in the "right" direction!
Oh! Here! Take this screwdriver. If you see any of the screws in any of the light switch plates aren't lined up, turn them so that they go the "right way!"

Nah! Just put them on the shelf and make sure they don't get bumped or dropped.

[Armand Daiguillon]

So I´m currently working with an NC900, and would like to create a cue so I can select my audio automatically. I also use a SP2K Barco, and it is easier to do, I only have to create the User Cue (I didn´t know the correct value so I copied it from a Cue that the Projector already had and copy pasted this ´setvol 8\0D\0A´ , which btw I didn´t find where those commands are on the manual).

Also, my NEC compared with the Barco is really really really dark, it has the lamp at %97 and still looks too dark, I think it might be that the projector is just a bit old, but just as an example, we had Nosferatu and it was basically black, it completely lost information at some points of the movie. The same movie with the Barco, perfect.
Is there something to try to fix this? Is it just the projector which is like that? Is it the color space?

If necessary I can attach some pictures of the config of my DCC

Edit: And I forgot, on that Barco model, is there a way to stream my PC screen without connecting a PC directly by HDMI cable? Because I have the projector on an elevated platform and it´s a bit hard to get to it.

Hello Rodrigo,

There are some great minds in here who know their stuff ... but I have not seen any responses that seem accurate to your light issue. I have had nothing but 900C's at my theaters (One of mine has a Christie now but i've dealt with 900c's A LOT.)

That being said there are two things that cause brightness issues in the 900c - and to be clear a properly working 900C can be very bright on a decent sized screen.
First thing is basic and has been mentioned - bulbs. Not being an official "tech" I don't use the fancy equipment they have, but I have a light meter on my phone that has always given a reliable bench mark.
My phone as it is, shows an "excellent" bulb at 70 lux. (thats the phone reading and not an official lux rating) so if both bulbs are on i've gotten as high as 140 lux. HOWEVER I can almost NEVER find bulbs that put out that anymore. Most "good" bulb gives me 50-60 lux. However I have had BRAND new bulbs labeled as "genuine NEC" only put out only 35 lux out of box. (and yes I know this should be in foot candles but thats just how the app works)

From a customer perspective 100 is a good level - 80 is passable and anything below that is no good. So even with two brand new (bad) bulbs i've gotten only 70 lux.
So first possible issue IS the bulbs, even brand new NEC bulbs can be "bad" out of the box. And if you go the cheap route that I have and gotten off brand bulbs, then you have a 50/50 shot of them being any good.
You should know that there are 2 types of bulbs that can be used, the NLP-01 and NLP-06 .....the 06 are better and supposedly will not explode at end of life liker the 01's did. But I have found that often they advertise one and send the other.
Anyway - that's light issue one. Highly inconsistent bulbs.

The second main cause of light issues and I have not seen anybody here mention it. Is the "crystal alignments" - there are crystals that focus the bulbs output and direct it on the light path.
These crystals go out of alignment VERY easily. Slight alignment issues on these cause MAJOR differences in light output.
They are very difficult to align and are easily broken during the process - but after having that alignment done, projectors that I thought were bad suddenly had double the previous light output.
However - it seems only people who really know NEC's know how to get this done. There may not be someone in your area who can do this.

But as someone has had had nothing but NEC 900c's in my theaters I can tell you that your issue is most likely one of the two i've mentioned.

[Leo Enticknap]

The -02 vs. -06 lamp issue is more than just that the 02s blow. When they blow, they are very likely to destroy the ballast card in the process. Replacing the ballast is a part in the mid three figures, followed by 2-3 hours of disassembly and reassembly if you know how to do it yourself, or a tech call if you don't. The -02 ceased to be manufactured in November 2017 (I've just checked on the Sharp support site) and we haven't had any in stock since long before covid, so any unused ones still in existence now are very old. No official SharpNEC dealers should be selling them any more, but just as a safeguard, I would advise anyone placing an order that the lamp has to be model NP-9LP06 for conventional use, or NP-9LP07 if the projector is hung upside down. If you receive an -02 or -03, return it, stating that this was not the model you ordered.

I haven't seen the term "crystal" in any of the NEC training materials or service manual. I don't think you mean the integrator rod, because that's not adjustable: it just installs in a fixed position. I'm guessing that you mean either the glass piece on the front of the lamp assembly, or the fold mirror at the front of the light pipe. I was told by a former, senior NEC tech that the fold mirrors do drift and that this is something to check if an unexplained light loss occurs. I did indeed check the one on the projector I replaced the integrator rod in mentioned in one of my posts above, but it seemed OK to me: any adjustment made the image worse rather than better.

[Armand Daiguillon]

The -02 vs. -06 lamp issue is more than just that the 02s blow. When they blow, they are very likely to destroy the ballast card in the process. Replacing the ballast is a part in the mid three figures, followed by 2-3 hours of disassembly and reassembly if you know how to do it yourself, or a tech call if you don't. The -02 ceased to be manufactured in November 2017 (I've just checked on the Sharp support site) and we haven't had any in stock since long before covid, so any unused ones still in existence now are very old. No official SharpNEC dealers should be selling them any more, but just as a safeguard, I would advise anyone placing an order that the lamp has to be model NP-9LP06 for conventional use, or NP-9LP07 if the projector is hung upside down. If you receive an -02 or -03, return it, stating that this was not the model you ordered.

I haven't seen the term "crystal" in any of the NEC training materials or service manual. I don't think you mean the integrator rod, because that's not adjustable: it just installs in a fixed position. I'm guessing that you mean either the glass piece on the front of the lamp assembly, or the fold mirror at the front of the light pipe. I was told by a former, senior NEC tech that the fold mirrors do drift and that this is something to check if an unexplained light loss occurs. I did indeed check the one on the projector I replaced the integrator rod in mentioned in one of my posts above, but it seemed OK to me: any adjustment made the image worse rather than better.

Yes, "Crystals" may very well not be the official term .... just what the tech called them. He described them as glass rods glued in place but that over time they move (due to heat expansion/contracting) and slight movements make a big difference. All I know is that once they were re-aligned the light output doubled. This needed to be done at some point on every 900c I had.

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

Something to do with the integrator no doubt. There are two lamps feeding one going into the prism. I had to deal with two projectors that were chipped from lamp explosions.