Sorry this is a bit of a tired and possibly dumb quesiton but in searching I haven't found a "clear" answer so am posting.

Hitachi VS810, Set looks good still color wise, but am hesistant to pull the trigger on a bulb without being certain it will at least improve my issue as I am debating a new set in the next 12 months. Light engine is good (replaced 4 times), but the blacks are black, there is no greyscale to this set anymore it seems. even on brightness calibration with someone wearing a black suit shows no wrinkles, folds etc of the fabric even on a bright set (ex. a sports broadcast) in dark scenes ( ex. "24") anything without a light source is just dark.

Adjusted the contrast, brightness and Gamma with little to no improvement prior to washing the picture out. I also have to use this on high color temp as anything less darkens the picture too much.


Does this sound like Bulb?
Is there a downside to using an aftermarket bulb instead of hitachi? ($150 vs $400)
Any suggestions on what this could be if not bulb?


Thanks in advance to anyone replying with insight.

This does not sound like a bulb issue. I would not call any part of the set that has been replaced or repaired 4 times as being "good", but I would not necessarily call this a light engine problem, either. I think you've got a bum set, or it at least needs a massive factory reset done at a service center to resync a bunch of the inner workings.

Was afraid of that, might be time just to look at replacement then.
for interest sake, what would be key indicators of lamp dying?

You right on the replacememnt statement, but the 4th light engine hasn't shown a single sign of the issues I had with the previous 3 in the 2.5 years since install (green and yellow sections of the display), and when it was installed it did look pretty good.

Was afraid of that, might be time just to look at replacement then.
for interest sake, what would be key indicators of lamp dying?
The most immediate indicator is a loud "pop", with some ancillary noise of glass shards bouncing around inside the display's now broken/contaminated light engine. ;) Beyond that, severe dimming, flickering and/or failure to strike (light) are really about the only other ones. If the bulb gets dirty, it can "cook", but that generally leads to something like the first indicator. Seriously, a lamp is a fairly simple device. It is on or off. The spectra can change, but it's really the imaging chips (e.g., DMD, LCoS chips, LCD chips) that "shape" the light into the images we see. If you are having problems with contrast, then that is a problem with the imager or some other aspect of the light engine. Your best hope is that some of the firmware parameters need to be updated or re-flashed. Otherwise, I think you are looking are making a decision on whether you can live with it as-is, or whether you want to seek a replacement.

Bill

heh k, thanks. no loud pops, I did assume the dimming might be due to a lamp nearing end of life, but I guess not.

thnx for the info