Mike,
Factory setting for thermal characteristics not set up properly in the service menu contributing to early bulb failure?
Worth checking out.
Thanks Mike for your expertise and follow up.

Warren, you got lucky :o I got mine march 24th and my bulb lasted 96 days. Toshiba flat out refused to do anything under warranty. They gave me a number to call to purchase a replacement bulb for 449.00 but every time I called they were on backorder. I finally found a place in Atlanta that assured me that they had them in stock and could get it to me in 3-5 days. That was two weeks ago and still no lamp. I called yesterday and was told that their warehouse was out but they were expected in on Monday and they would overnight it to me. This is getting real old real fast.

Clay

Jeffcom -- From my 12+ years of Reliability Experience, the normal burn-in time (stabilization & weeding out of early failures) is considered to be between 168 and 250 hours. Within this period of time, most electronic parts (that have manufacturing defects) will fail. Once you get past the 250-hour point, 99.9% of the "infant mortality" failures will have occurred, and the normal part lifetime will be experienced. Since good Quality Control, for commercial parts, is considered to yield "less than 10% defects allowed", means that a significant number of HT-ophiles (myself included), can experience early lamp failures.

Those parts, which are “lifetime limited”, such as lamps, are more subject to this rule-of-thumb, but it does apply to all electronic parts and assemblies. This is why spacecraft parts are much more expensive than commercial parts. The spacecraft parts are all burned-in (operated at maximum stress levels) for at least 168 hours (= 1 week of running 24/7). I’m not recommending that you run your PJ 24/7 for a week, but I would recommend trying to get a total of 250 hours on your PJ (HT Receiver, DVD Player, etc.) as quickly as practical (within the 90 day/500 hour lamp warrantee period for PJs). This is also why I would recommend that, when you turn on your PJ, that you watch movies, TV, etc. for at least 2 hours (4 hours is preferable) at a time. This will shorten the burn-in time and maximize the stress conditions, and get you over that “infant mortality” hump. It’s also very enjoyable :D.

-- End of Reliability 101 :cool:!

PS -- I got involved in testing, calibration, TV, and movie watching for 12 hours straight, yesterday. My new (used) MT700 had 204 hours on it when I got it and I'm up to about 227 hours now. I'm lined up for another 8 hours today (San Jose Champ Car Grand Prix on the Speed Channel + a movie + a Discovery Channel special + another movie :eek:.

Claus, your reasoning is exactly why I didn't feel bad in the least last night when I surfed the web on an 8' screen in my living room!... Any kind of gaming will make those hours fly by...

Claus,
Been searching old posts for any info on early bulb failure and yours is the first one that is quantified.

Every PJ enthusiast should be aware of this.

Thanks.

Does the BenQ and the Toshiba use the same bulb?

Somebody (either MikeSRC or presenter - Art) said that they are the same lamp. It may be a post on the PE7700 thread, or on a PM to me, I don't remember (and I can't find it right now). It would make sense, since they are both made by BenQ.

EDIT: I just found it. Art (presenter) sent me a PM in which he included the statement that the lamps are the same for the PE7700 and the MT700.

. . . . and the same lamp fits both BenQ and Toshiba! . . . .

I just got through playing with the “Service Menu” tonight. For those of you that missed it:

Factory OSD for MT700 : "Menu" -> "Up"->"Down"->"Up"->"Down"-> "Up"->"Down"->"Menu" ( Use remote )

To exit the Service Menu: “Menu -> Factory -> “Return User OSD”

Just for kicks, I selected the “5x without SLR” for the color wheel speed. I was running DVE while I did it. I didn’t really notice any obvious changes. I then put in the HQV disk. I went back to the service menu (it remains active until you do the “Return User OSD” action). The CW speed was back to 4x. I reset it to 5x again and ran through the HQV tests. Going back to the Service menu, the CW speed was back at 4x.

I then set it to 5x without SLR and went to Factory and selected “Save Factory Default”. I exited the Service menu and did some more watching. I then went back into the service menu and the CW was back at 4x.

Apparently, we can get into the Service Menu, but we cannot change anything. By the way, according to the service menu data, my MT700 has a Mar. 7, 2005 date and is Version 0.25, A00.

rjyap (post #1490) Claimed that he could change his Service Menu settings on his PE7700:
I own PE7700 and my CW is set to 5x without SLR (whatever SLR means). You can choose among 4x, 5x without SLR, 5x with SLR and 6x. I had try 6x and it screw up the sync. 5x with/without SLR doesn't seems to be any different. So far the tweaking I done that give me more 3D feel is under DLP Degamma. Default for Home Theater profile is graphic. I change to film and the picture looks more 3D.

I found that setting the "Home Theater profile" to Film" resulted in flesh tones being too red.

I'm curious if only the PE7700 owners can change Service Menu entries or is it a universal function that was enabled only on later versions of either PJs?

Have any MT700 owners tried to get into their service menus and tried to make a change (like CW speed) and have it stick?

NOTE: My DVD Player is a RP91 connected via component inputs to my MT700. My D* HTL-HD STB is connected using a VGA cable with a VGA to RGBHV adapter (MT700 uses the GBR sleection).

Concerning the blown bulbs can people who have this happened tell anything about the roomtemperature? It is summertime and here in Europe it is a bad summer with temp at the moment of 22C (72F) I hear nothing about blown bulbs here in my country. Then again I heard in some places in america it can be over 100 F , so i find it interesting to see if the ambient room temperature played a role in this.

Claus, I'm not sure if rjyap actually had the settings stick either. I did what he describes (PE7700), and also lost sync at 6x, but after switching between the settings, I never tried to exit out and keep it there, then go back and see if it stayed. Rjyap doesn't explicitly say that he kept the settings either (though perhaps he did, of course).

I'll check this out tonight.

72F? Brrrr. It was around 115 for a couple weeks here in Phoenix. It has cooled down to the low hundreds now. I keep my thermostat at 78 or so in the house.
Warren.

It's been over 90 deg F many times here in MN. But my house is kept around 71 so my wife can breath, and the basement rarely breaks 68 even with the AC turned off. Also, my lamp problems happened before it got this hot out. Don't think that's related.

I'm now up to 200+ hours on lamp two, with no problems whatsoever. Other than not being calibrated anymore. Hopefully I'm past the break-in period and will enjoy a normal lamp lifespan.

I changed my speed to 5x without, but didn't go back to check it. I have the same firmware as Claus. Probably it is on 4x, according to this discussion. I'll have to look. I wonder if we can change color settings since some are duplicated in both User and Service menus.

BTW, got a ND filter, love the improvement. Much closer to black and it hasn't damaged anything else. Guess my machine was way too bright before. Has anyone tried a 4x filter?

Hi,

on cine4home is a Information of a new Firmware for the Toshi.
Because of my Newbie Status i cant post the URL.

I try to make a not to bad short translation:
"The Bug of the bad black- level will fix by this. The Bug exist in the Black- Levels between 0 and 10% Brightness. Now for digital and analog there is a much better Black- Level and the Bug is fixed."

This is tested and related for PAL only. I don't now if there was a same issue for NTSC

Greets Damdy

Kjelt – When you live in a relatively cool climate like you do, 22 C does seem like a heat wave. San Francisco has temperatures closer to yours and it’s 25 to 35 degrees cooler there than it is here in San Jose (50 miles to the south and behind our costal mountain range). It’s been over 90 degrees (32 C) for the last week, or more, here (still a lot cooler – 10 to 12 C cooler – than Warren is in Phoenix).

Tim – I had the same sync problem at 6x too. I couldn’t tell the difference between 5x, without SLR and with SLR. That’s what got me into toggling the Service menu ON & OFF; I was trying to see if I could tell the difference without the menu masking part of the picture. That’s when I discovered that the CW speed didn’t stick.

Spiky – I was born and raised in Minneapolis and I loved our basement. You’re right; you should be on your way with lamp #2, and I agree that your lamp #1 problems were probably just a bad lamp. There was 204 hours on my lamp when I got my MT700 and I’m up to 240+ hours right now with another 4 to 6 hours on tap for tonight (trying to get my PC to talk to the MT700 over HDMI).

You said that you tried a “ND” filter; did you mean a ND2 filter? A ND4 filter will cut your output by 2 f-stops (twice as much as a ND2 filter). For a totally dark room, that may be Ok, but you will be down to 25% of the, calibrated, MT700 light output. I assume you’re using the “Standard” (low lamp power) setting. Unless you have a screen like mine (gain =2.8), or it’s smaller than 92” diagonal, that will be too dark.

damdy-cash – Vielen Dank Damdy (mein Deutsch ist schlecht). I wonder if that update is for European versions only. I found the page (Google translation) and found this comment at the end (they don’t know if older versions of the MT700 can be updated):
To what extent an additional update of models of past weeks already delivered is possible, is at present not yet well-known us. Their competent specialist dealer advises you gladly!
Here is the page:
http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=de&u=http://www.cine4home.de/&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dcine4home%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26sa%3DG. Click on the first article's link.

MikeSRC, can you find out anything about this update?

Claus, are you hearing a noise difference between the color wheel settings?

Cool to hear you're from Minneapolis... :) And now I gotta ask.. any relative (around your age) that you know named Glen?

I used to live in Kodiak, Alaska. One day shortly after I moved there everyone was complaining about the heat. It was 72F. I was saying "It is room tempature, how can you be hot?" Of course after a few years I was complaining with them. The normal high in August is 61F. Average 16 days of rain every month of the year. I like Phoenix better. When I get my projector back I am going to use the high altitude setting to see if that keeps the bulb cooler. We also have very low humidity usually (although not now with the rainy month in effect.) One day the dew point was -9F.
Warren.

I wonder if that update is for European versions only.
Maybe this is why cine4home is in PAL-Land Germany and he only has tested the PAL- Issues? I don't now..
I found the page (Google translation) and found this comment at the end (they don’t know if older versions of the MT700 can be updated):

I think this is no Problem. A few weeks ago I have speak with my Dealer about the Black- Level Issues and he have take contact to a German Toshiba Product- Manager. He say to him, there is a Firmware- Update in Work but at this time not ready. It was no Issue to Upgrade later, but also at this time not real. Now I have send a Mail to my Dealer about the Update. When I get his answer, I will post the details.

Greets Damdy

BTW: Now I can Post Urls :) http://www.cine4home.de/tests/projektoren/ToshibaMT700/MT700TestUpdate.htm

Tim -- Not that I could hear. I even turned off the AC & muted the audio to listen for it. If it was there, it certainly was less than the normal MT700 fan noise. I'm not sure that the CW speed even changed, since I couldn't tell any difference in the picture (there was a little picture hiccup when I when I selected 5x, so I assumed that the speed actually did change).

Not that I know. Glen could be a relative if he's a second cousin, twice removed :cool:. More than likely he's from another branch of the Wiebe family (there are 3 main branches that emigrated to the USA in the late 1800s). I do have a distant relative in San Jose, but I've never met him.

I just tested it, and my 7700 keeps the 4x setting after turning the service menu on/off, as well as after I've switched it to the factory OSD then back to the service menu. Haven't turned it off and checked yet, but you can assume it stays unless I report back differently.

I'm going to keep it at 4x for a while.. I can hear a difference in the noise level, but I do need to be within inches of the PJ. I can't see any difference, and RBE isn't an issue for me, so perhaps it will last longer at 4x? (Probably not a factor, but for slightly less noise and no discernable difference, it's worth a shot, if not only for experimentation's sake)

Claus, I'm not sure if rjyap actually had the settings stick either. I did what he describes (PE7700), and also lost sync at 6x, but after switching between the settings, I never tried to exit out and keep it there, then go back and see if it stayed. Rjyap doesn't explicitly say that he kept the settings either (though perhaps he did, of course).

I'll check this out tonight.

I currently stick to film mode. I don't really have to save to factory settings as the adjustment will stuck with the profile. Currently I set profile 1 for Graphic Mode and Profile 2 for film mode. I had made a few A/B test between this 2 profile and always profile 2 (Film Mode) is more 3D feel. As Kevin mention earlier that Graphic mode might able to render 0-10 IRE accurately but my eyes somehow feel that graphic mode had lost the popping picture I see.

As for the CW do stick after changing the speed, I'm not really sure. I remember changing to 4x and 5x with SLR and exit the factory OSD. Take a few seconds look at the movie and go back the service menu again, the settings is at last settings. Don't really need to save to factory settings.

I'm still waiting Kevin testing and measurement for film and graphic mode with his expensive equipment. I can only play with AVIA only. Do agree with Claus the profile do push the red a little bit as using AVIA decoder check, the red is around 10% more. But the extra 3D feel had me keep the setting.

One to two month old projector (my personal one) and bulb is toast!!! didn't catch how many hours. I am a dealer and will be contacting a toshiba sales trainer (inside guy) tommorow. We will see what happens. I also have one in the warehouse ready to go to a client in the next few days...I hope I don't regret that sale.

I am also still having the component video black level issue with mine (solarization, crappy depth etc.). Anyone have a fix yet?

Would you like your factory menu settings to stick? Simply exit the factory menu to save them. Press Menu til it goes away. Then you can go back to it to revert to User Menu and they will stay put. So far, anyway. Haven't tested turning it off and back on since I'm not going to power cycle the lamp, I'll just check next time it's on.

I don't know if the color wheel speeds up going from 4x to 5x (one would assume so), but it certainly gets louder. Not loud enough to bother me unless the sound is completely off, I tested on pause so I could hear it quite clearly. Mine is now set to 5x With SLR (if you haven't noticed, the menu item a couple higher becomes available using "With", but I haven't played with it to see what it does). I also bumped Overscan up to +98 to get a little more pic. Time will tell if I like these settings better.

Spiky –

You said that you tried a “ND” filter; did you mean a ND2 filter? A ND4 filter will cut your output by 2 f-stops (twice as much as a ND2 filter). For a totally dark room, that may be Ok, but you will be down to 25% of the, calibrated, MT700 light output. I assume you’re using the “Standard” (low lamp power) setting. Unless you have a screen like mine (gain =2.8), or it’s smaller than 92” diagonal, that will be too dark.

Yes, I know what it means on paper, but not to my eyes. Don't know if I'll try it, we'll see. My screen is currently 90" diag and I generally always have a totally dark room, so I am close to those specs. Although I plan on adding some ambient lights, just not sure what, yet. So far I love the filter.

I tried the CW speed again tonight. You're right, it does go louder, when I get within a couple of inches of the top of the PJ.

On mine, the first time I tried to change the CW speed, I set it to 5x, without SLR, and exited the Service Menu. I played with DVE for a little, and went back into the Service Menu. The CW speed read 4x again (it did not stick). This is why I tried the "Save Factory Settings", and got the same result.

I did not try the "Film Mode" profile in the same way (to see if it "sticks").

jonvan -- I'm wondering if the lamp manufacturer has a handle on who's screwing up on the assembly line (or in the shipping department (someone dropped a bunch :eek: ). It sure sounds like someone isn't doing their job right.

Spiky -- With a 90" screen in a dark room, I agree that a ND4 might be what you need.

I have the answer to the Firmware- Update:
TODAY I drive to my Dealer and he make a Firmware- Update on my MT. He say to me, he has become the Informationen from Toshiba, that this Firmware is a further Firmware as the reviewed on cine4home with additional improvings. He cant say what this improvings are.

Greets Damdy

Claus, did you try exiting the service menu by hitting menu until it disappears yet? If I switch to the user menu first, all changes are lost. If I exit the service menu first, they stick around.

I might pick up another 2x sometime to test. Then I could switch easily for movie night vs football where lights might be on. But I'm also considering a cc filter and other things, so I'm not in any rush. This 2x has gone a long way towards giving me blacks. I'm guessing I'd like about 1.5 stops down, not 2.

Well, US Toshiba knows nothing about a firmware upgrade (at least not at the moment). I've been busy with an install so I haven't had a chance to check out the various settings in the service menu. Maybe later this week.

Spiky, I wouldn't go beyond an ND2 filter. Ity just makes everything too dark.

A combination of Film mode and a gray screen gives me as black as I would want it... (without starting to lose the brightness of the image significantly).

Spiky -- Yup! I tried it both ways. The first time, I jest exited the Service Menu (pushing the Menu button) without going to the User Menu. I wanted to see what the picture looked like (without SLR), with the idea of going back to select "5x, with SLR" to see what the changes were. That's when I found that it didn't "stick".

Tim -- I guess I'm going to have to try the Film profile, and re-calibrate to get rid of the red push. Right now, I'm getting very acceptable blacks (with the ND2 filter).

now I have a Firmware called "Plus Version 0.29,A00" from 19.Juli in my MT.
There is new a point for setting the Overscan in the User-Menu. I miss the Blue- Filter Option in the Factory- Menu, don't now where this point was before?

I only have make a short Calibrate by Eyeballing, and there are much other settings as my Calibrating before. I don't need to much push the Brightness to see the blacker than black, my old setting what 15 and now I have 3. The look from the middle- Color- Temp. makes a good Picture for me, without much adjust the parameters. I have only a very short test, but I think the new FW is a clear improvement.

Greets Damdy

That's weird, Claus. It worked just fine for me last night. I was in and out of both menus several times and 5x and my +98 overscan (up from default of +94) stayed put each time. I'm sure I'll fire it up tonight, so I will see if it is still set and report back.

I wonder if some of this could be related to the incoming signal type or the connection used. I was on 720p input from component all last night.

Damdy,
How is that firmware installed, were you there to watch? I wonder if the Zoom mode is different at all.

Damdy,
How is that firmware installed, were you there to watch?
My Dealer flash it yesterday over the Controll- Jack

Greets Damdy

Change in firmware is an ongoing thing. My projector was manufactured in May 2005. The firmware is 026,A00 Apr 18 2005. I have no problem with blacks. Amazing picture. Using upscaling dvd player at 1080i which gave the sharpest and brightest picture using Avia disc. 720p was dimmer and not as sharp probably due to the dvd player.

Ok, bad news on my service menu saga. When I turned it on last night, it was back to 4x speed. But, the overscan was still at 98. So I reset to 5x. This morning I checked it quick and it is back to 4x AND the overscan is back to 94.

So mine will stay set as long as it is on, but apparently resets when turned off again. Note, I only go into standby, I do not switch off main power or unplug.

FYI, my PE7700 did the same thing... changed back to 5x after I soft powered off and back on.

I thought the 7700 was found to be in 5x mode from the factory. Did it change or something?

Whoops, I typoed it.. I meant to say that it switched back to 5x, not 4x (I edited my previous post to reflect this)

I hate that my first post to this tread is negative, especially after I've been enjoying this projector so much for the last couple of months . . . until it went "dark" a couple of days ago. I'd be surprised if there were more than 100 hrs on it, since I use it only 3 or 4 days a week at around 2-3 hrs per session. It is really hot outside, usually over 100 deg. F, but we try to keep the inside temp below 80, especially when using the projector. Since this is such a common problem, is it really a lamp problem or is the projector somehow killing the lamp? Is Toshiba owning up to the problem? I use the thing normally, watching only dvd through HDMI, keeping it in standby mode when off. Anyone know if there's anything special we can do to prevent this?
Scot

It isn't just toshiba. The Benq's are going too now. I am on that list. BenQ makes the MT700 for Toshiba. I really hope it is just a bad batch of bulbs.
I think the high altitude setting cranks up the fan. I might try that when I get mine back from BenQ.

Scot,

Go back to post #1503 (3rd post on this page). I discussed the "lamp problem".

It's a quality control problem with the lamps. Room temperature is also not helping. In Rocklin, I would suggest investing in a room AC, at least, that's what I did.

I also sent you a PM (same info :eek: )

I'm estimating that the air flowing around the lamp is at least 50 degrees hotter than your room (I'll try to check mine tonight and post back, I think the lamp temperature is in the service menu?).

EDIT: I could not find a Temperture measurement. I used a temperature probe that I stuck in the fan output grill. My room temperature was 75.4 F. The exhaust air pegged the themperature probe at 158 F (the air temperature was higher). Therefore, the exhaust air is more than 83 degrees above room temperature. It felt like it may have been closer to 180 or 190 F. This gives you some idea that it is really HOT.

For those who want increased airflow without any increased noise, stick a couple Nexus 80mm fans on the air intake. See SPCR (http://www.silentpcreview.com/article63-page2.html) for a review.

I have a couple of these on my air intake and can feel the increased airflow. These add no noise whatsoever over the MT700's fans, even at 12V. Just buy a good quality 12V AC/DC adapter, hack off the end and add on a female 4-pin driver power connecter (from a splitter).

I've often thought about replacing the MT700's fans with quieter fans, but was worried decreased airflow would increase temperatures. Now with the service menu there's a way to measure this, so it's a possibility.

Also on the bulb QC control issue - remember we only hear reports of failures. People who don't have a problem often don't come find this or just stay in lurk mode. All mfgs have early bulb deaths, that's why they give us the generous 90 day warranty. As others have mentioned, make sure to run the heck out of the pj for the warranty period. I treated it like an extended burn-in period and would just leave the pj on if I was going to come back to it in an hour or two.

Thanks, Claus, for the suggestion. Hopefully, the main problem is that it's just a bad batch of bulbs. The Toshiba service guy said that as long is the unit has good air flow for venting and the room is at a comfortable temperature to be in, then it should be okay (makes sense, I guess). Mostly, I make sure the A/C is on when we're in there and with the ceiling fan also, it's almost too chilly. And we sit only 2-3 feet from the projector. From now on, I'll definitely manually force the A/C on in the summer time. Other than the fan being a little noisier than I expected, this is a phenomenal projector and can't wait to get it running again.

Well I experienced the same issues Nothru did trying to go dual display with my LCD monitor and MT700. Unlike my single DVI 6800, the 7800GTX (and I assume all dual DVI Nvidia cards) doesn't seem to activate DVI when forced to via a profile. I could get both displays working with cable swapping, but saving the profile and then later reloading it did not force use of the MT700 as a digital display.

My solution: impetuously buy a second 7800 because I stupidly have a fatwallet alert on 7800 and I'm a BF2 junkie. SLI doesn't support dual monitors so now I'm not losing anything (yes I use flimsy justifications for my purchases).

With a little more reading I saw this page (http://www.geocities.com/jgeneedid/) on the Nvidia EDID implementation. It sounds like the MT700 may just be missing an EDID. The $60 Gefen DVI detective looks like it might fix things. I may buy one if Nvidia ever supports dualview in SLI. Or maybe I'll just create a second non-SLI XP installation someday...

Also on my FL-D relative numbers - I haven't forgotten, but have more relatives coming this week, so it's going to be another week or two. I'm hoping to use darinp's contrast methodology (meter close for black, far away for white) to get repeatable contrast numbers.

FYI I've been having a great time running my HTPC through the BNC cables. I miss my second component, but not that much.

Just finished the basic theater tonight, more pics soon.

Could you recommend me an adapter? I have a notebook with a VGA port that I'd like to connect to my MT700. I'm not interested in HTPC per se, I'd just like to use the PJ to get a lager image when I have to bring work home. Is it usually as simple as buying a VGA to Component adapter cable (like from RAM)?

I figure the PJ is always on in the evenings so why not use PIP and have a huge desktop!

VGA to BNC (aka RGBHV), as in my previous post.

I'd either go VGA to BNC or use something like this (http://www.ramelectronics.net/html/video-to-vga.html#hd15rgb).

I just wanted to make sure I wasn't missing something silly before I bought one. The only caveat is this requirement of the device to "sync on Y". I'll probably never get an answer from the computer manuf on that, so I'll probably just buy one and try it out.

I'm not even sure something like that would work or why you would even consider it when this projector has high end RGBHV connectors.

Found it. At first I didn't see the big difference between the two inputs, but now it's clear. That's the way to go. I need to get a VGA to 5-BNC adapter and roll with it.

Thanks for the kick in the butt nothru. ;)

Found it. At first I didn't see the big difference between the two inputs, but now it's clear. That's the way to go. I need to get a VGA to 5-BNC adapter and roll with it.

Thanks for the kick in the butt nothru. ;)

This cable/adaptor was shipped with the MT700 twin, the benq 7700. I suppose you need a longer length.

Going back to my fiddling with 2 service menu items...

I have not found a way to keep the CW speed set when turning the PJ off. But I have noticed that different inputs and different signals are defaulted to different overscan numbers. And these apparently seem to stay with my settings. I had thought it reverted once, but it was a different input or input signal. Other settings also appear to stay set, it's just the CW speed that I've not been able to permanently change.

Pretty sure I got my adapter from Triangle Cables. It was cheap, good quality and came quickly. It works great.

For DVD's without subtitles, is it possible to display the close-captioning on the MT700? I'm watching Day of the Dead and it's hard to hear some of the dialogue. Anyone figure this out?

This cable/adaptor was shipped with the MT700 twin, the benq 7700.

I didn't get no stinking cable with my Tosh. :p

Ordered one from RAM today. Can't wait to try it out.

For DVD's without subtitles, is it possible to display the close-captioning on the MT700? I'm watching Day of the Dead and it's hard to hear some of the dialogue. Anyone figure this out?
Haven't seen anything for CC. I don't think most PJs have this. Probably only if there is a tuner included.

Haven't seen anything for CC. I don't think most PJs have this. Probably only if there is a tuner included.

That was what I was expecting. Maybe some mfg. will add the functionality to a DVD player sometime soon. It seems to be a gap in the FP process at this point.

Weird. My friend has a toshiba dvd player, don't remember what kind, and an X1 projector. Watching DVD's he seems to be getting Closed Captioning and neither of us could figure out how to turn it off. I thought it was subtitles till he turned subtitles on, then both sets of text were there. The CC puts the text where people are talking though it seemed. Never did figure out if it was the projector or the DVD player.
Warren.

No projector will have close captions. It is a function of video processing in players or tvs. It use to be in dvd players but manuf. are eliminating this feature in favor of subtitles. The dvd may contain cc but not subtitles, both or neither. CC is processed differently and requires a cc decoder. My new DVD player doesn't have cc. One of my older player had cc in regular mode but not progressive mode.
wnielsenbb Look in the DVD player setup to turn cc on or off.

If there is CC on the DVD, it is selectable from the DVD setup menu at the start of the movie (same place as the audio setup, sub-titles, etc. -- before you hit "play movie"). It should be one of the DVD play options.

I don't know if there is any CC selection in the DVD player itself, I would not expect it though. It's not on mine.

Yeah, we didn't even think to look for CC. I told my friend to look for it now.
It was watching the Excellent Firefly series on dvd, which if you don't have you should pick up immediately. Best show ever.
Warren.

Can someone help point me to a recent post that explained why the mercury lamps in these things flicker? I read it in passing, and only later found my MT700 to start flickering when in standard (i.e. ecomomy) lamp mode. Switching it to "high" immediately eliminated it. I want to go back and better understand this. (I searched, but so far haven't found it; somebody who obviously knew a lot explained the whole reason for flickering and why it is a good idea to switch modes periodically) Thanks.

Can someone help point me to a recent post that explained why the mercury lamps in these things flicker? I read it in passing, and only later found my MT700 to start flickering when in standard (i.e. ecomomy) lamp mode. Switching it to "high" immediately eliminated it. I want to go back and better understand this. (I searched, but so far haven't found it; somebody who obviously knew a lot explained the whole reason for flickering and why it is a good idea to switch modes periodically) Thanks.
It was a post by Bob Williams. He is an Infocus engineer and he recently explained what causes it and how to alleviate the flicker problem in the Official 4805 Thread.

It was a post by Bob Williams. He is an Infocus engineer and he recently explained what causes it and how to alleviate the flicker problem in the Official 4805 Thread.

Thanks smithfarmer. That was the info I needed to find this post:

Lamp Flicker (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=5820302#post5820302)

Thanks smithfarmer. That was the info I needed to find this post:

Lamp Flicker (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=5820302#post5820302)

Wow guys, thank you. My lamp had started flickering over the past few weeks more and more often, and I basically ignored it in denial (don't want to use up a warranty lamp yet at 300 hours). That link is to one of the most informative posts I've seen in a long time. Thanks.

It was watching the Excellent Firefly series on dvd, which if you don't have you should pick up immediately. Best show ever.
Warren.

OT, but I agree. It's unfortunate that it didn't get a chance to catch on. Maybe the upcoming movie in September will help. The series is also currently being rerun on the SciFi channel on Fridays.

That link is to one of the most informative posts I've seen in a long time. Thanks.
Nothing better than an engineer explaining how stuff works :)

Oh no, I like it better when people just guess and talk loudly to convince you they are right. :)

Well as I posted on Friday my bulb went out on my MT700 and I shipped it to Toshiba (actually a third party service center they instructed me to call) and just received it back today. No info came back with the projector except the address and ph # of the service center, so I called to inquire what was done and finally spoke to the tech. who worked on it. He stated that they replaced "the board" and put in a new bulb. I had sent it in with note on poor black level through component video and obviously the failed bulb. The note stated that I was more concerned about the performance than the bulb (which would obviously be an easy fix).

Anyway I talked with him about a flash upgrade and he had no info whatsoever on firmware upgrades, had never done one on the 700, but had performed many on the MT8. They are getting no tech support at all from Toshiba. They just get a batch of projectors to strip and replace defective parts.

Needless to say I still have VERY poor dark scene rendition with component and BNC inputs.

Sounds like Toshiba does not seem to care much about service after the sale, so much so that they don't supply their service center with knowledge or support.

The tech said that he would try to look into the flash upgrade issue and let me know if he comes up with any better results...we shall see.

Needless to say I still have VERY poor dark scene rendition with component and BNC inputs.

Make sure you have the NTSC setting to Japan and even then, you may need to adjust the brightness control on your DVD player if you can't see the black bars on the Avia or DVE test patterns. That should improve your black levels.


The tech said that he would try to look into the flash upgrade issue and let me know if he comes up with any better results...we shall see.

I spoke to Toshiba a number of times this week and no one knows anything about a firmware upgrade. As the projector is made by BenQ, it would likely come from them first.

I've been planning to buy the MT700 projector, but I just read this:
"Toshiba Discontinued Their Entire Projector Line As Of 7/02/05"
on "planetdtv" web site.

I'm not allowed to post url's yet... =o(
Replace the stars with dots below to get the url:
planetdtv*com/PROJECTOR/TOSHIBA/MT700*htm

Does anyone know if this is true?

Rabagast

I have no idea where they're getting their information, but it's not verifiable and most likely false. I have to laugh when they give it a 8.0/10 for "value" and their top picks are all NEC and Panasonic items. Seem quite biased if you ask me.

I recently heard from John at Integrity Home Theater that Toshiba is indeed getting completely out of the projector business. John is someone I totally trust as well.

~Josh

i do find it odd they don't have the mt700 listed on the site yet, it's still only on the press release page..

Interesting, Josh. Well, I guess there's additional evidence. Mike (SRC), have you heard anything from Toshiba about this, and any potential future lack of inventory?

I'm starting to be more thankful that I got a BenQ I guess... (but I'm sure Toshiba will honor the warranties and provide support, etc)

That is sad news, even as a BenQ owner. Front projection is so awesome, and now affordable, I was hoping it would pick up. The more of us the merrier. I really think that blackscreen technology will help the FP market. Can't wait till it is affordable.
Warren.

I think it really comes down to end user education... the average consumer probably thinks most projectors are $5K+, and are difficult to setup, etc. Though I suppose it's all relative, as there are some consumers that don't want to hook up even their TV.

Well, with a black screen, they will be over $5K.

I seem to be the only one talking about this, but I have another comment on the CW speed. It reverts to factory setting whenever the PJ resyncs. So every time you change the input, every time you change resolution on your source, possibly every time you change input with an external switch like your receiver.

I have heard the rumors about Toshiba and they're probably true. Projectors are about the only Toshiba product that are OEM'd from outside sources. They likely aren't making enough money off them to justify the hassle. That doesn't mean they won't be producing their own someday. They certainly have the resources.

Spiky, I have found the same thing with the CW speed. Although I have no real need to change it, there must be a way for the change to hold. It's possible that someother sequence of commands has to be entered to retain the change.

I've been putting off writing this because I have so much to say, but here goes. My theater is finally "done", I have the walls painted dark blue (LRV of 5) and the screen hung. Mike calibrated my projector before he sent it to me, but I wasn't crazy about some of the color settings, so I took out DVE and I expected to be changing a lot, but everything is almost at near 0, with tint a -1 being the only thing I changed. I noticed way too much red so I bumped that down from 15 to 13. One of my biggest problems is that I have no idea how to calibrate the color. Everything shows up right on the color charts of DVE, but that only relates to the color and tint bar. Everything was right, but all the people in Lost looked like they had bad sunburns , so that's why I bumped the red. But I have no idea what to do with the rest of the colors. Right now they're all at 15 except for yellow at 14 and white at 0. My temp is middle. Any suggestions on how to calibrate for that?

Also I was really hoping the calibration would fix the 8 bit color in dark scenes that no one else seems to see. When it's dark, it looks like windows safe mode. Gradients are way off and only made of a few shades. It almost looks like my Tivo's HDMI port when it started going bad. Jonvan's comments made me think that maybe it was only over component and RGB that look so poor and I think he may be right. I have my DVD player hooked up over HDMI and I don't think I've noticed the 8 bit color on that. I also haven't had a chance to watch too much on it because of my Tivo backlog, but I have been using DVDs to demo the system. Why aren't more people reporting this problem? Is it just mine and Jonvan's units? It's BAD.

Also, I am quite distressed over the fact it looks like Toshiba is going to drop support for this unit. I want a firmware update, dammit, those cheap bastards. Has anyone with the BenQ reported this 8 bit-ish color? I will try to capture it with my camera but my camera is a piece of junk and there's no way it'll pull a dark image well. Any suggestions would be appreciated. I am going to call Toshiba on monday.

Also I was really hoping the calibration would fix the 8 bit color in dark scenes that no one else seems to see. When it's dark, it looks like windows safe mode. Gradients are way off and only made of a few shades.
I think I have the same Prob with the FW 0.20, it have makes me crazy. Green jumping Clouds in dark scenes. With the 0.29 it is gone.
I cant believe, that it will no FW- Update give in US. In Germany, it no Prob to get this from the HC- Dealer.

Greets Damdy

nothru, have you tried setting the color temp to "cool"? It seems like that's a bit brighter, and perhaps a bit less on the reds. I like it on "normal" as well, though...

If you're going by broadcast TV, what you see is going to vary like the weather. One show, everyone will be sunburned and the next, they'll be green. Stick with DVE and put up a grey ramp (I foirget what the pattern's called on DVE). The light greys shouldn't look red or blue.

The calibrated greyscale is on Color Temp User 1. Normal is too high and Cool is even worse. Warm is the closest to being correct, but it has too much red that has to be reduced in the Red Gain. I don't bother with the color settings, as they are very good in the default, but if you want to play with them to reduce the red (or any other color), they don't have much affect on anything else.

I'm only using HDMI and I don't see the problem you're having with 8-bit color. It's undoubtedly related to the black level setting over component that the firmware apparently addresses. I haven't had a chance to see if this can be improved in the service menu, but that's a possibility as well.

Regarding a firmware upgrade, I talked to one of their lead techs and he knew nothing about it. I suggested he contact their European branch since they seem to have it, but I don't know what will come of it without BenQ taking the lead on this.

Just got off the phone (Thursday actually) with my tech from Screen Innovations (fairly new screen manufacturer) and asked them about their new Mirage screen material. It is a black screen from what I gathered. They partnered with the largest rear projection screen company (rear as in CRT, DLP etc. enclosed in a box) to co-brand a new screen. But hopefully this screen will be somewhat reasonable in price as Screen Innovations 100" diag. deluxe model with wide velvet frame runs at $1199 retail. They said the obvoius benefit was the fact that it looks incredible in ambient light conditions, however they did camparisons with their 1.3 gain screens in controlled lighting with excellent results.

Price was not set yet, he said, but would be revealed at CEDIA. ;)

I know this post would be better in the Screen area but someone a few posts ago mentioned $$$ on black screen technology.

MikeSRC- Set to japan mode and still having the same issue. Count me as another very anxious firmaware upgrade prospect.

This projector just blows me away how awesome it is. My friends are all impressed and I think people are on crack when they say Xbox or DVDs don't look good on a 100" screen. I only notice rainbows when there is white against a dark background and the noise level is great. If they could only fix this one little problem (the zoom one doesn't bug me that much) then it would be so money.

Northu22 -

I agree with you. I play xbox, watch dvds, and watch crappy SDTV from Cable all the time on my MT700. I think they all look fantastic. I know SD isn't HD, but you know what? I can't get Battlestar Galactica Season 2 in HD, so I'll take what I can get. And even over a pretty crappy Sci-Fi channel feed, it's still 106" and is awesome to watch. I hate being over-critical and not enjoying my setup - so I'm learning to just enjoy :)

I got my MT700, used, with a ND2 filter, from a fellow AVS member, about 10 days ago. Since then, I’ve put on 80 more hours on it (284 hours total), about 10% of that was testing and calibration. The MT700 was calibrated by the original owner, and looked good in my HT, but not quite what I thought it should be.

I connected my RP91 DVD player to the MT700 using my existing component cable run (24’) and my HTL-HD D* STB using my existing VGA cable run and a VGA to RGBHV conversion cable to the HT700’s BNC connectors. D*s digital SD aren’t bad (I haven’t watched a HD show yet – so no comment on that programming), a little soft (expected) but certainly watch-able and some programs (and channels) are much better than others.

My first order of business was to use my AVIA (non-Pro), DVE and HQV DVDs to check out the MT700, its component interface with my RP91, and my susceptibility to motion artifacts. Happily, I saw no motion artifacts at all.

I fired up AVIA and went through the Basic Video Calibration. I set the Brightness, Contrast, Color, Tint and Filter. I had to change all of the values by several steps, to get the correct settings for my configuration, from the previous owner’s calibration. I did notice that the MT700 Sharpness was set to 0, its minimum, but I was still getting excessive edge enhancement. I went into my DVD player’s menus and found that the RP91 has 5 different Sharpness controls. I set its global control to –1 and that helped tremendously (-2 was too much).

BTW, with regard to the “8-bit” color effect on dark scenes reported here, I did not see that. I went through the RP91 menu structure and found that the contrast level controls were set to provide “Darker Blacks” (its default). I suspect that this is providing the correct black IRE reference levels for compatibility with the “Japan” setting on the MT700. For those of you that have this problem, I suggest looking at your DVD player to see if you have this kind of adjustment. If not, try to change the MT700 to USA/NTSC and see if the “8-bit” problem goes away.

Nothru22 – I found that watching “The Abyss” Special Edition, Widescreen, that I had to use the Zoom mode in order to get the correct aspect ratio (the “Full” mode gave me a vertically squished picture). I’ve never seen RBE, so far, and I sit 11’ from a 106”, 16:9 screen.

Jon O. – As you can see from my usage, that’s what I’ve been doing. Enjoying my MT700 :D.

Claus, zooming in on the Abyss or other non-anamorphic DVDs does not give you the "correct" aspect ratio, it would actually need to zoom in a little more veritically to do that. It's very close though. Most displays zoom mode would properly zoom on a picture that has black bars on all sides, not just at the top and bottom.

nothru -- I checked the manual, the zoom mode does a vertical stretch only and the Theater Wide does both a vertical and a non-linear horizontal stretch. For "The Abyss" only a vertical stretch was needed. I agree that it should have been a little bit more than it was, but, like you said, it was close. The Full mode was unacceptable. I did not check my DVD player settings though (it is set to "Auto", IIRC).

Jon O. – As you can see from my usage, that’s what I’ve been doing. Enjoying my MT700

I approve of that much more so than calculating DLP and LCD refresh times, heehee :D

edit: I wish I could sell ad space for every time I post and get the top of a new page....

double edit: Fat Tire is a great beer. New Belgium brewing company from Colorado folks. Try it. (Go for Blue Paddle if you like it lighter)

It's only a new page with certain page settings.

I have found some interesting effects combining Zoom with reduced overscan. When in Zoom, overscan seems only to affect the width. Decreasing overscan squeezes horizontally a bit and helps the shape. Still not perfect, but better. Assuming there is enough picture from the source to do this. Watching a 1.85:1 Bond flick on AMC the other night I managed just about perfect shape with a small 1-3" border on all 4 sides in Zoom.

Another old topic:
Overscan changes seem to stick around on all inputs but HDMI, which is factory set to 100 (zero overscan) on my unit. Kinda annoying.

Another bonus of the iScan HD+. I keep the projector on "Real" and adjust everything on the iScan. No matter what projector I get it will always work as I want.
And yes, Fat Tire is excellent beer.
Warren.

Ah, yes good old fat tire. I forgot I posted about beer in my posts last night - must have been the beer's fault.

Anyhow, I would love to have a good scaler like the HD+. The new VP30 looks great as well, but I can't find the money. I'm going to need a 4-6 port HDMI switcher within the next year though, that's going to hurt the wallet... :(

Guys I sent in my projector last Monday for repair for solarizing, and strange artifacts. I called Tops Service in Ma today and they said they do not have access to the "main board" and firmware update neccessary, I then called Toshiba to help move it along and ask why they have not responded to the parts request.

The rep was nice but in a nutshell said I would have to wait 3-4 days for an answer on why they can't get the part to Tops?

I am getting concerned at this point with the news Toshiba is "out" of the projector Biz, my unit is only 3 months old with a mainboard failure and no parts to back it up, and they can't explain why they can't update the firmware to the current shipping models?

I am very disappointed, so I called a Supervisor, I very pleasantly explained how this is not a toaster oven, and we are not doing a simple repair here, what is wrong with this picture?

Why should I have to wait to have one of the largest components in the unit to be replaced, I mean this is not a control panel, or input panel, it is the main board.

He listened to my concerns and I got the stock "I'll look into it and call you"

Well no call, no news....I am not trying to be special here but..damn....I know this one is going to drag on....


Thoughts?

TJ

TJ,
Just got mine back from Tops recently to have the fans replaced. When asked about the firmware, he said that Toshiba is not providing any support- blamed the newness of the product. Heard Tops is scavenging parts off new projectors. Why no main board available, who knows.

This thread lives again!

If they are pulling parts off new units, and the service costs 300.00 min through Tops, why not ship an exchange? Plus it's more than likely 50 each way in shipping?

I will not stand for some 3-4 week ordeal, it's not like this thing is 5yrs old with 1ks of hours.

Three months and 120 hours, now a full service down to the main board, and that is appropriate? What about the depot repair turn around time they quote.....

This is a bummer, I am thinking now I am waiting for a pretty turd to come back to me...

No support, no updates, possibly out of the projector arena, no service after the sale.....

Great :)

TJ

TJ,
Toshiba does not have an exchange policy period. I also asked Toshiba about their position on any "lemon law" and the reply was they take this up on a case-by-case basis. Unknown as to how many repairs or how serious before they will break down and replace it, if at all.

Keep pounding on them to get it done!

I wonder if they could make a deal with BenQ to service these since they are the same machine.

BenQ has an exchange policy, but it isn't doing any good right now since they have no bloody projectors to give in exchange. I have been without a projector for three weeks now. Very sad.
Warren.

I'm counting my blessings and praying for more... (no problems yet with my BenQ)

When I had my projector fixed by Toshiba, I was told that they had a 24 hour turn around policy. If they couldn't fix it in 24 hrs they would ship a replacement. If they didn't have the same model in stock they would replace it with a better one. My projector was fixed in the 24 hr period and Toshiba paid for shipping both ways. Been working great with no black problem people been talking about.

The recent reports of PJ failure with no support or long repair lead times have me somewhat concerned.

It would be nice to see Toshiba and BenQ somehow compensate those owners who have been without their PJs due to lack of replacement parts. As a minimum they should extend the projector warranty since these owners’ warranties are slowly getting eaten up by downtime.

Well, I spoke to Leo at Toshiba today again, he is a customer care Supervisor, he stated I had not waited long enough for an answer, He said my 18 years experience in customer service and consumer electronics was irrelevant. His attitude was extremely poor.

I merely asked him for an appropriate amount of time to return a call, he said there was none and to wait to hear from them? How long "he had no idea" He said we might have to wait for the part to be manufactured !!!!!!!!

Does anyone know or have some contacts to get an email to someone above the "frontline" people I am dealing with here?

I am confident in the fact that Toshiba in the higher ranks would not find this service acceptable or the way I was spoken to today.

All I want to know is when I can expect the part or an estimated ETA? They are the supplier, even though Benq oems it to them, 2 phone calls max for them to have an answer, albeit not the one I want, at least I am not in limbo.....

I am going to try my best to get an e-mail to someone high in the food chain and see what kind of response we get from that.

This type of indifference and lack of empathy burns me to no end. I am not expecting the thing tomorrow, but I should not be belittled in asking for some updates...


Very poor indeed...

TJ

The more I think about it, the more I am upset about this lack of a firmware update that actually exists in Europe! If Toshiba USA does not take care of this, I will have to buy a $1000 scaler! That's ridiculous! I can't watch Lost and everytime there's a nighttime scene it will look worse than my old SDTV! Someone needs to figure out if the Europeon firmware can be made to work on a US device.

justhanging can you access your service menu and tell us what your firmware is?

I might have to change my avatar back to the mad face.

nothru22
My firmware is 0.26,A00 dated April 18, 2005. Projector manuf. May, 2005.

nothru22
My firmware is 0.26,A00 dated April 18, 2005. Projector manuf. May, 2005.
My firmware is 0.22,A00 dated February 22, 2005. There is newer firmware! I am going to call Toshiba and FREAK OUT on monday. Are they open on weekends?

Grrr (http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/image.php?u=110167&dateline=1115399195)

nothru22 - if you wouldn't mind posting how to access the service menu; I'll check my firmware rev. You may recall, I was one (in the minority) who posted earlier in this thread that my PJ seemed to be sizing various signals more correctly than some others were experiencing. I suspect my PJ may also have the later firmware.

Service menu access is posted here (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=6010949&&#post6010949).

I don't think that the 0.26 firmware does anything to solve the black crush over component (beyond setting NTSC to Japan). None of the newer projectors I calibrated were any different in that regard. Also, the person that had the firmware upgrade in Germany reported it to be a "Plus" version 0.29. It's been over 4 months since I first reported it to Toshiba and even though I recently got a call on it, they still didn't know what, if anything, was going to be done. :rolleyes:

OTOH, the PE7700 owners have versions in the 30s and are still reporting the same issues with blacks over component. I don't think anyone (other than in Europe) knows what's going on.

My firmware is .26,A00

How do I get back to the "regular" menu??

EDIT: just found it. There is a selection on the "factory" sub-menu that says "return to ..... OSD".

When I had my projector fixed by Toshiba, I was told that they had a 24 hour turn around policy. If they couldn't fix it in 24 hrs they would ship a replacement. If they didn't have the same model in stock they would replace it with a better one. My projector was fixed in the 24 hr period and Toshiba paid for shipping both ways. Been working great with no black problem people been talking about.
I was told the same thing.

I normally use an HTPC, but picked up a used OPPO from another forum member. With the OPPO set to 720P it doesn't fill the width of the projector's panel. I've only played a couple 2.35:1 movies with the OPPO, so I haven't been able to check pixel cropping on the top and bottom.

Normally the width of the image (htpc & hdtv) is about 1/2" into the black border of my 106"diagonal screen. With the OPPO the width of the image is about 1" in from the edge of the screen.

Anybody else have this issue or know of a fix?

It's almost certainly DVD player related and not projector related, Steve. Try checking in the DVD players forum for answers on that specific player. (Though others who frequent this forum and have that player may know as well, of course)

The overscan may be set differently, especially if used.

OK, after a bit more playing around with the OPPO, it's definately not the player nor the projector -- a few titles (I.E. Fifth Element SB) simply do not fill the width of the panel in "through" mode. Most do.

This player really does put out a great picture -- no macroblocking with the MT700. However, I'm still undecided as to whether or not I'll be keeping the HTPC. The HTPC scales non-anamorphic discs better, and with TheaterTek I can correct the size of the image and save such settings on a per disc basis.

The "Through" mode give you the smallest picture and I never use it. I use the "Full" mode for my DVDs (component inputs from an RP91). On some DVDs, the "Theater Wide" or "Zoom" works better (it depends on how the DVD was encoded).

I'm thinking of getting the Oppo because I can't get my PC (video card) to give me a 1280 x 720 picture (its a software compatability issue that is frustrating me).

I always use the "Through" mode with the Oppo. It's the only way to get 1:1 pixel mapping over HDMI without scaling the 720p output of the Oppo. The other modes involve some scaling. As noted by ssj2, some DVDs will display a bit smaller, but the pixel mapping test patterns on Avia Pro display perfectly, with zero overscan.

Update 1 week out at service no responses:

In desperation I have contacted the Lead Public relations individual at TACP, my hope is even though she may not be responsible for these matters, by her possibly forwarding to the appropriate people I can leap frog the frontline people that have no authority to make the right decisions in this type of situation.


I spoke to a woman at Tops who said they usually turn the units in 48 hours, she does not understand why this is happening here?


Thoughts?
TJ

That's interesting Mike. I'll have to try that with my PC, to see if that helps my problem with it. If not, I guess it's Oppo time for me.

tehotaone -- Did the Tops gal offer to help you with your problem? If not, call her back and see if you can get them to help expidite your PJ processing.

Try checking the Overscan setting in the service menu. Mine always defaults to 100% for the HDMI input, meaning zero overscan. Curiously, the other inputs appear to keep whatever settings I make, not HDMI though. If the player isn't giving the bars as Mike mentioned, the DVD is probably created with overscan in mind, since most TVs use something like 6%. The 100% default is occasionally annoying for me since TV is the same way. Many shows assume there is overscan so the edge is a mess. I often have to tone it down in order to watch without messy edges. I generally find that 98% works great for almost everything.

For HDTV I set Contrast & Brightness using the HDNET test patterns, and saved the settings (and color temp etc) under "User 1". Settings for DVD are saved under "User 2", and include slight adjustments for Color & Tint.

The HDNET test patterns don't include Color & Tint. Should the settings for DVD for Color & Tint be carried over? Or, is that something specific to an NTSC source? Both HDTV & DVD (OPPO / HTPC) are fed through DVI.

Thanks.

I use the same color & tint settings as I have set for DVDs. It may be a little off, but the differences between stations varies greatly, and it's just not worth the hassle to set C & T for each station.

Update: I just downloaded and installed the latest (version 5.8) of the ATI catalyst software. After I fired up my MT700, and connected my PC to it (DVI to HDMI cable), it worked - 720p and full 16:9 picture. This latest software even recognizes the PJ correctly. I had to go into the Control Center to get the colors to register correctly (I didn't change anything, but I told it to do a auto-check of the PJ).

I did a quick calibration with AVIA and had to change the Contrast, Brightness, Color and Tint. I will have to do some more looking, because I can't rid of the white clipping (can't get either of the white bars to show). Otherwise it looks great.

I found that there was no apparent difference between "Full" and "Through", in terms of picture modes. Both appeared to give me 1:1 mapping, so I left it on "Full".

Claus, what software DVD player are you using? I have TheaterTek with the latest Catalyst drivers for my ATI 9600. TheaterTek's picture controls are optomized for Nvidia cards, so the player's controls (especially saturation) need to be adjusted quite a bit.

I would request all Toshiba Mt700 owners check the Benq 7700 thread for a very informative post by Keener at the end of the thread right now.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=6087132&&#post6087132

There are some screenshots that you may find interesting, it will also show some scenes that exhibit a problem with the unit/colorwheel settings

Benq is reacting to the problem internally for their customers, but Toshiba is in the dark. We need to see if this is a widespread issue and push Toshiba to get a fix before their projector line goes dark....

I currently have an issue with my MT700 and wonder if the guys here could check these scenes and conditions on their projector and see if it is widespread?

At the very least, it would seem without the fix the projector can't run at the sold 5X CW speed without the contour 8 bit effect, which would explain our units shipped with 4x speed in lieu of a real fix and advertised 5x speed....which is a serious unaddressed false advertising issue to begin with, but not yet looked into?


Thanks,

TJ

I'll try to check this out with the movies Keener and others have discussed, but I just watched 24 episodes of 24 on DVD in the last week, and saw nothing like this. RBE drove me nuts a couple times, but nothing like this. I generally always switch my Tosh to 5x. DVDs are watched over component 480p input from a Denon 2900. Haven't seen anything from TV sources, either. Most TV I watch is 720p input over HDMI.

I could add that I have seen stuff like this (but not as bad as his pics) and macroblocking, but that was all from SDTV from D*, so I would blame the source for being crappy.

I haven't seen that problem with mine or any of the ones I calibrated, but it sounds like it may be something that develops over time as well. The pictures posted by Keener are like nothing I've seen on the MT700 before, but sound like the problems nothru22 is having. Not good. :(

It appears they may be a service menu fix to this little problem! Check out this post here http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=6093110&&#post6093110 and the post preceding it. In fact, it looks like the person found this colorwheel setting accidentally, but BenQ is shipping new projectors with this same setting! Can't wait to try it out tonight. Something about setting cw delay to 55. Read the post!

If this works I will post a video of myself doing the jig.

Actually, I won't make a video, but I'll do the dance.

I wonder if the setting will stay after power cycling. I haven't tried it, but I know setting the color wheel speed and power cycling changes it back to the default.

Edit: It seems that keener in the 7700 thread states that the setting saves after a power cycle!

I don't have any of those problems at 4X and delay at 59 (which is the default on my older MT700), but I'll give that combo a try as well. I had tried adjusting the cw delay upward and downward with the 4X wheel setting, and it caused some bad color issues. I'll give it a try with the 5x without SLR setting.

I just got off the phone with an old industry contact explaining my situation.
He says that is not a good sign, He confirmed he had been told Toshiba in fact is exiting the FP market all together.

Now if we have this level of issues today, with the"support" of Toshiba. What level of service and updates can any of us expect in the 2 years to come?


I still have yet to hear from Toshiba if/when they can supply the parts for my projector? We are approaching 2 weeks at this point..... just to get a part number, nevermind if that really solves the problem or not?


TJ
:(

In case you missed it on the BenQ thread, saving your service menu setting can be accomplished by going back to the user menu and saving it under one of the user memories. This will stick even when you power off the projector.

Went into the service menu and noticed that it was set to 59 and so I set it lower and every tick down, the problem got worse. I went up and every tick up it got better! So far I don't see any banding at 63 but I may have to go higher once I watch a dark show. Can anyone on here that's brave enough come up with the best setting? What's the drawback to setting it higher?

Went into the service menu and noticed that it was set to 59 and so I set it lower and every tick down, the problem got worse. I went up and every tick up it got better! So far I don't see any banding at 63 but I may have to go higher once I watch a dark show. Can anyone on here that's brave enough come up with the best setting? What's the drawback to setting it higher?

Color wheel sync should vary from pj to pj, at least it has on other threads I've read. So the ideal setting for your particular pj should be found through trial and error.

Not being a pj engineer, I'd guess that this is something in the millisecond range to adjust for slight variations in the motor that drives the wheel. Maybe someone on the inside could post if they know for sure.

My friend with an MT700 tried changing CW a while ago on the opening dithering problems in LOTR: FOTR EE and saw no improvement in a quick scan of a few settings. He's going to try more extensively and with different scenes at some point.

In case you missed it on the BenQ thread, saving your service menu setting can be accomplished by going back to the user menu and saving it under one of the user memories. This will stick even when you power off the projector.
I did miss this even though I am reading both. Does this apply to the Speed setting, also? Or are we still lost on that one?

Does this apply to the Speed setting, also?

Yes, it works for the CW speed settings as well.

My friend with an MT700 tried changing CW a while ago on the opening dithering problems in LOTR: FOTR EE and saw no improvement in a quick scan of a few settings.

I tried different CW delay settings with the poster scene in Spiderman 2 and saw no improvement with that scene either.

The correct way to set the CW Delay is with an oscilloscope or a colorimeter. Since most people don't have access to such equipment, an alternative is to use this pattern from DVE (see download).

Look at the grayscale ramp above and below the steps. Adjust CW Delay until you see the smoothest transition in the luminance ramp from black to white without any coloration in the gray scale. If CW Delay is out of sync, you will see banding in the luminance ramp and colorations such as purples, browns and greens.

Single-chip DLPs display colors by having the mirrors turn "on" in exact sync with the colorwheel filters of red, green and blue. If the colorwheel gets out of sync, the DLP mirror is "on" as the colorwheel transitions between say the red and blue filter, thereby creating a purple image.

When colorwheel delay is properly set, it will minimize banding and maximize grayscale accuracy.

New to avsforms and hate to be posting a negative post but this whole bulb issue has got me a little freaked. I received my Toshiba about 4 weeks before I was able to finish the theater and install it. Around 97 days after purchase (but only around 50 days of actual use) the bulb died. It flickered for about 2 days prior to that, regardless of the brightness setting. Anyways, enough of the sob story. I luckily purchased the extended lamp warranty but it seems to be doing me no good. It's been over 2 weeks and the tell me that it's backordered by Toshiba. The fact that everyone is having these problems and the current shortage of bulbs mixed with fact that Toshiba is getting out of the business is extremely worrisome. What if the bulbs are backordered for 6 months? What if they never come back in stock or what if after I do get mine fixed something happens to it a year later and Toshiba offers no support? I guess what I want to know is if there are any options to take to get things straight. Perhaps everyone that has had the problem and has not had it resolved can get together online to discuss options. If we have enough people hounding Toshiba daily it may be effective? Also, I have access to some free legal counsel and can try to get things done that way. If anyone has any additional info or help to offer please drop me a line or post a response. Thanks and sorry for the verbose posting.

My bulb died at 96 days and I didn't have the extended warranty. I called Toshiba at least twice a week for two months trying to order a bulb but it was always on backorder. I finally called Visual Apex and ordered a bulb for the Benq PE7700. I got it in 2 days and it is an exact replacement. This will be a good work around for those like me who are out of their warranty period.

Changed DLP degamma from video to film in the service menu. Enjoy the results except for the red push reported in earlier post. Anyone have a good fix. Problem lies with fleshtones, too many sunburns.

Kevin, could you recommend a pattern using Avia, for setting CW delay?

FYI my CW delay is +50. Am reading posts with 10-15 point spread for the same PJ. Seems worthwhile to use Kevins method.

At 50 (and below 56) blacks turn bright blue on my projector. And mine shipped with film mode.

Jeffcomm:

You just want to look for a "ramp" pattern in Avia that looks similar to the one I posted. It is a pattern that goes from black (0% luminance or digital video luminance level 16) to white (100% luminance or digital video luminance level 235) in a smooth transition.

I have AVIAPro, that has dozens of these types of ramp patterns, but I don't have the regular AVIA, so I can't tell you the specific pattern on that disc.

Another, but more subjective, way to set CW Delay is to put up a full screen primary red pattern and adjust color wheel delay until you see the deepest red.

This is much easier to do with a colorimeter like OpticOne or Colorfacts to measure the x,y coordinates of the red primary, but it may be worth trying to "eye-ball" it. Just remember to first write down the default values in the service menu.

You can also fix any red push in the user menu. Color filters don't work great on DLPs for setting color and tint, but if you AVIA or DVE with the red, green, and blue filter, you can try tweaking the color decoder settings in the user menu.

Just got an e-mail from the 3rd party taking care of my bulb. They said the ETA from Toshiba is October 31st!!!! This is total BS!!!!!

Did anyone notice that the Canada version has a bulb warranty of 180 days. It says that in the brochure posted in the beginning of the thread.

-tom

This lack of replacement bulbs is ridiculous. BenQ's telling my supplier 2 weeks, but the supplier says that usually means more like 4 weeks in BenQ time. I'm going to have a nice talk with both them and Toshiba next week at CEDIA. :(

Mike, thanks. I bought my MT700 from you in June.
My bulb just died last night. No flicker or any other sign. This is football season next week! Looks like I'll be calling customer service. :(

-tom

Hi Cheezmo1, sorry to hear your bulb died. Would you mind sharing how many hours you had? I ordered mine in Mar ...but have used it sparingly. I am at 105 hrs and counting *knock on wood*

Just to remind all, as SSragtop posted, the BenQ PE7700 lamp is the same as the one used in the MT700. For those of you who are out of lamp warranty, this is an alternate source.

MikeSRC, good luck, I sure hope you get some real results on the lamp replacement issue from Toshiba, et al. It sounds like the lamp manufacturer is having real serious quality control problems. I'm willing to bet that both BenQ and Toshiba are leaning on them really hard, they don't need this kind of bad publicity. BTW, Mike, as soon as I exited the Service Menu, the CW speed reverted to 4x on my MT700 (firmware version 0.25, A00).

nothru22 -- I haven't checked my CW delay. I'm not having any banding problems, or black level issues (I'm set to "Japan").

PS -- As a repeat, I'm using component connections from my RP91 DVD player and SVGA to RGBHV input from my HTL-HD D* STB (my Pioneer DVL-919 Laserdisk/DVD player is connected via S-Video). I did have my PC connected to the MT700 (DVI to HDMI), but I had a major XP crash which will require a reformat and re-install. I'm up to about 324 hours on the lamp (knock on wood), at just under a 30 hour/week rate (average).

BTW, Mike, as soon as I exited the Service Menu, the CW speed reverted to 4x on my MT700 (firmware version 0.25, A00).


That's odd. I have an original firmware version (I think it's the same as yours, I'll have to check) and the setting stays when I exit the service menu (through the exit page in the menu). Then, saving as one of the User modes retains it even after the projector's turned off.

I'm not completely sure it's a bulb problem per se. There could be some problem with voltage regulation in some of the units causing early bulb failure. I'd like to see how long a second bulb lasts for those who just had one replaced.

I'm probably going to attend the Toshiba press conference, so maybe I can grab one of the higher-ups afterward.

I had less than 100 hours. At this point I can't check but the last time I did was a couple weeks ago and it was at 56 hours. I haven't used mine much. I just mounted it on the ceiling last month. The wife wanted me to clean up my mess first. So I put off cleaning up and could only watch sparingly some HD football.
So a couple nights ago I turned it on and started watching some SD baseball. No problem with picture, no blinking or anything. I turned away for a minute and looked back and there was no light. I had no issues what so ever before, except the fact I was using the wrong input on the remote for VGA. But that's it.
If it's a voltage issue, is there anyway I can check the voltage going to the bulb myself? I have a volt meter.

Claus,
I also have .25 firmware and it works for me. Whenever I exit the service menu to screen (press Menu repeatedly), NOT to user menu, it saves the speed setting. Then go back to service menu to exit to user menu and save to a User Setting. I've been set at 5x for a couple days, now.

NOW, my problem is the overscan setting on HDMI. I like HDMI better than component because the zoom modes are available even on HD resolution, but I may switch back to component (from my HDTivo) because I can seem to get the overscan setting to stay at what I want for everything but HDMI. (haven't tried VGA) It always reverts to 100% as if HD will always be perfect. But it's not. Tennis on UHD this week needs a bit cropped off the top, for instance. And I watch SD occasionally, too. That really needs to be at 98% or lower.

I'm not completely sure it's a bulb problem per se. There could be some problem with voltage regulation in some of the units causing early bulb failure. I'd like to see how long a second bulb lasts for those who just had one replaced.

They replaced the ballast (lamp power supply?) when I got my lamp replaced. I'm up over 300 hrs on the 2nd one, I think. No breakage. I've had flickering a couple times, but took Bob from Infocus' advice and switch to High lamp for a day each time. That seems to work. The first lamp continued flickering in Standard mode even after a week on High, so I think it was more than burning a tough spot.

I think your ballast replacement is what made me think about causes other than the bulb itself.

NOW, my problem is the overscan setting on HDMI. I like HDMI better than component because the zoom modes are available even on HD resolution, but I may switch back to component (from my HDTivo) because I can seem to get the overscan setting to stay at what I want for everything but HDMI.

Are you set on Through or Full for screen size? If you're on Through, try Full (or vice versa) to see if that gives you better Overscan control. Just a thought, I haven't tried it.

They replaced the ballast (lamp power supply?) when I got my lamp replaced. I'm up over 300 hrs on the 2nd one, I think. No breakage. I've had flickering a couple times, but took Bob from Infocus' advice and switch to High lamp for a day each time. That seems to work. The first lamp continued flickering in Standard mode even after a week on High, so I think it was more than burning a tough spot.

You've described my lamp exactly. I'm at about 325 hours. I've had flickering on low 3 or 4 times, but high always immediately eliminates it and, after a few hours on high, I can switch back to low without flickering. At this point I'm just hoping that my lamp lasts for its planned life. Even if I only get 10 months out of it at $30 a month; bright, 720P FP is still a great value.

I think your ballast replacement is what made me think about causes other than the bulb itself.

If there are other causes other than the bulb, how would we know? ie if there are other causes than the bulb, an MT700 customer should not have to pay for the replacement bulb.

That's the problem. There's no way for the consumer to know without Toshiba (or really, BenQ) looking into the issue in their engineering department.

When I first learned about the service menu trick, I went in and tried all the CW combinations I could think of. Since I’m satisfied with the picture in the 4x mode, I’m not going to worry about it. If I get a chance, and feel like tweeking, I’ll go back and play with it, but right now, I’m just enjoying the MT700. I’m up to 325 hours, all in the normal lamp mode (low power equivalent), no flickering, and no problems. I’m going to leave it well enough alone (“if it a’int broke, don’t fix it” mode).

-- Rant On:
I agree, that if the PE7700/MT700 lamp problems are due to bad ballast or regulators, then the lamps should be free regardless of if they’re in the 90 day period or not. That’s a hardware issue not a lamp issue. It still represents a quality control issue, which has to be solved ASAP or BenQ/Toshiba will really get a “black eye” in customer relations and cause a real loss in sales (present and future).

As other companies have ruefully discovered, not admitting to a problem and marshalling resources to fix it, can have a significant long term impact on sales due to the bad reputation (real or perceived) that gets established.
-- Rant Off

So far, I love my MT700 and hope to have at least 2 years, or more, of great HT viewing.

Claus,
You mentioned a few posts back that idf you were buying today you would get a H77?

I have followed your posts in your search and comparisons, It is puzzling that you don't see motion/panning issues on the MT700, because I saw them on mine, but then again it's BROKEN :) But all HD2+ machines suffer this artifact to some degree, maybe you are lucky, because they are there...

Can you recap briefly the advantages other than company support and issues, in other words, purely from an image on the screen comparison between the 77 and the clones?

I am just worried spending the extra money will be anticlimactic?

I am also worried about the pans on the H77, because right near the end of my MT700 ownership I saw them, and possibly hyperfocused on them...

I am really leaning to going up to the 78 and be done with the compromises, but my gut says to buy a 7700 and save money, but this bulb issue and supply problem has me shook on that idea?

I hope something staggering comes to pass at CEDIA that will clarify this, but i doubt it, we would have more rumors..

Ahhh...I am rambling sorry...I just want to get 2-3 years ownership form a great picture...is that too much to ask? :)



TJ

Are you set on Through or Full for screen size? If you're on Through, try Full (or vice versa) to see if that gives you better Overscan control. Just a thought, I haven't tried it.
I know I've tried both and didn't see a difference in anything. I think I was at 100% overscan when I tried it, but not sure. I'll try that sometime to see if it helps.

If there are other causes other than the bulb, how would we know? ie if there are other causes than the bulb, an MT700 customer should not have to pay for the replacement bulb.
And, your unstated point is, or should be....the PJ warranty is far longer than the lamp warranty. Makes you want it to be the PJ if something comes up. Which may color people's support calls if they are past the lamp warranty.

And, yeah. They better replace them if the machine does the damage. They did mine on that basis, but I was still in the lamp warranty period, so no help.

I have followed your posts in your search and comparisons, It is puzzling that you don't see motion/panning issues on the MT700, because I saw them on mine, but then again it's BROKEN :) But all HD2+ machines suffer this artifact to some degree, maybe you are lucky, because they are there...
TJ
What material did you see this on? I see motion problems on poor HD material, but not on good HD material. Poor=UHD tennis from D*. Good=CBS football from OTA NONmulticasted channel. So I blame the source more than the PJ.

At least I think this is correct. This is my first PJ and first HDTV, so I'm not totally with it on this particular artifact, yet.

My bulb died at 96 days and I didn't have the extended warranty. I called Toshiba at least twice a week for two months trying to order a bulb but it was always on backorder. I finally called Visual Apex and ordered a bulb for the Benq PE7700. I got it in 2 days and it is an exact replacement. This will be a good work around for those like me who are out of their warranty period.

I have a bad bulb too. I took your advice and ordered one 2 day shipping from them on Wednesday morning. Got it this morning. They told me it comes directly from BenQ. I will be putting it in later today to watch some football.
Also, I called Toshiba and went through the hassel of faxing my receipt to them and they would send out a new bulb. But from all the horror stories I would be missing my big screen if I waited for Toshiba, so that is why a ordered a new one.

Installed the BenQ 7700 lamp in my MT700 and it's up and running. I also changed the altitude setting. We'll see how long this bulb lasts. :D

-tom

And, your unstated point is, or should be....the PJ warranty is far longer than the lamp warranty. Makes you want it to be the PJ if something comes up. Which may color people's support calls if they are past the lamp warranty.

And, yeah. They better replace them if the machine does the damage. They did mine on that basis, but I was still in the lamp warranty period, so no help.


From what MikeSRC indicated there is no way a consumer would know if it was the bulb or the PJ itself. I guess for those of us who are past the warranty, we'd have to buy a new bulb, put the new bulb to it's paces and should it fail within the replacement bulb's warranty, -then- would it be safe to report to Toshiba that there is good reason to believe that the PJ itself could be at fault ? Since it is unlikely to have two bad bulbs X months apart?

-then- would it be safe to report to Toshiba that there is good reason to believe that the PJ itself could be at fault ? Since it is unlikely to have two bad bulbs X months apart?

That's why I said in a previous post that I'd like to see how long a second bulb lasts for those who just had one replaced. If the second one goes in a short time as well, then I'd look to the projector (barring any misuse, of course).

That's why I said in a previous post that I'd like to see how long a second bulb lasts for those who just had one replaced. If the second one goes in a short time as well, then I'd look to the projector (barring any misuse, of course).

Roger that...Owners with 2nd bulbs, please let us know how you folks are doing! :cool: Right now I can't turn on my PJ without being paranoid that my bulb is going to go out at any time :(

Installed the BenQ 7700 lamp in my MT700 and it's up and running. I also changed the altitude setting. We'll see how long this bulb lasts. :D

-tom

Hey Cheezmo, Great minds think alike. I set mine to high altitude too ;)

tehotaone -- I sent you a PM regarding my take on the H77 vs. MT700.

I also agree with Spiky, the motion blur that I see on the MT700 is what is expected (and very much the same as I saw on my L300 (LCD PJ). The Roller Coaster scene on the HQV DVD showed very close to zero "trails" on the coaster (I had to really stare at it to see any) -- RP91 in progressive scan mode, component inputs. The motion blur is extremely close to what I see on my 27" Sony CRT TV set.

Add my name to the "dead bulb list", apparently.

Are we in this (ever-expanding) group supposed to 'just spend the US$400 and accept it as normal probability of failure' if we are past 90 days but well under 200 hours?

I am considering starting a poll: "MT700 and PE7700 owners-have you replaced your bulb?". I would want it separate from the 'discussion' threads for the two projectors, partially because happy owners with good bulbs may not always read either or both of those topics. Any comments about this, or suggestions for the poll options?
Thanks.

Oops... there already is just such a poll. More 'good' than 'bad' bulbs, so far, but at least seven dead ones-that seems like a h*** of a lot as a percentage of owners who are on AVS Forum.

I'm now over 400 hours on the 2nd lamp. Seems to be just fine.

Oops... there already is just such a poll. More 'good' than 'bad' bulbs, so far, but at least seven dead ones-that seems like a h*** of a lot as a percentage of owners who are on AVS Forum.

Bulb Life Poll (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=576422)

And last night it stopped working. Happiness level: zero.

I'll be sending the whole thing back just to make sure.

Unfortunately it appears you can add me to the list of early bulb failure. I've got about 200hours on it, and was watching something just moments ago, and I heard a pop and it went black.

Question for those of you who have had service, do you have any contact info for getting service?

For Toshiba, call 800-631-3811, options 1 then 4. Business hours only. NOT happy that I know this and have it handy to copy to you.

Well I appreciate it (grudgingly :() none the less.

NMJack, can you post that link on the BenQ thread. I never saw it there. Just added my vote. I was on the last day of my warrenty when mine blew, but then she just took the whole projector back. A month later and I still haven't seen a replacement projector. This sucks.
Warren.

Spiky,
Read your post #12 on the bulb poll thread. We both may have similar experience.

After receiving the MT-700 back with new bulb after 150 hrs of use my woes did not stop there. After just three hours with the new bulb the screen went dark and power indicator on PJ went to yellow and both temp and lamp indicator were flashing red. Manual says fans not working.

Sent back to Tops who said they replaced both fans. Have about 100 hrs on 2nd bulb, no problems as of this post. Strange thing is I swear the PJ is louder now even though service and user menu settings are the same.

Look forward to your post on results of your latest journey with Tops.

BTW, their phone number is 978-374-9877. AFAIK.

Maybe they put heavier duty fans in. Maybe they all need that.
Warren.

DOH!

Turned on the PJ for "Hump Day Halo." Watched about 30 mins of XXX (Ahem...the movie..) while it warmed up and just hanging out. Didn't hear a pop, but all of a sudden...no picture.

Powered off. Powered up. Orange power light and red lamp light.

I was at around 300 hours btw, purchased the PJ from the first batch that hit U.S. shores in April.

Thank god I have a lamp warranty, but I am really pissed. This is way too comon. BenQ and Toshiba have a problem on their hands it seems. I almost hope that it seems bad to us only because we AVS'ers probably bought most of the units, haha. If I don't get a free replacement from my extra warranty I will shoot someone, or just be cranky.

Has anyone tried reseating the lamp...does that work? Or does it void something :P

Someone tried reseating the lamp, but it didn't help. Yours could be different, but I am not holding out a lot of hope for you. The lamp is user servicable so you can't void anything doing that. Can't hurt, besides you will need something to do for the next month while you wait for a bulb. :)
Warren.

This really sucks. My girlfriend deployed (we're both AF) for a month just the other day so all I had to do was hang out in my theater by my lonely self. Now, I have the Xbox upstairs on the 24" TV. Crap.

Has anyone gotten a replacement bulb in any reasonable amount of time?

Jon O. -- Bummer! I sent you a PM. The lamp warranty (even the extended one) is only for the first 90 days, so your lamp may not be covered :mad:.

Is this projector louder when it's upside down? I swear it's making more noise now that it's upside down and five feet away than when it was sitting on a chair right next to me.

The lamp warranty (even the extended one) is only for the first 90 days, so your lamp may not be covered :mad:.

Not sure what you are referring to Claus, but the lamp warranties I'm familiar with cover the projector from the 90 day period forward for 3 years. The wording can be confusing in that what they mean is that they'll only cover the same lamp failures that would have been covered under the original manufacturer's warranty. The problem is actually finding a lamp. :mad:

I posted this to Claus on another thread but wanted to ask other people as well,

I am at about 120 hours now on mY MT700 and so far OK *knock on wood*. I only watch DVDs so I only use my MT700 for 1.5 - 2 hours at a time but I do not power on/off more than once a day. Also I don't watch everyday cause I mostly just watch my older movies and do not rent very often. From the other PE7700/MT700 Lamp life thread it seems a few people are experiencing bulb failure at 300hrs and greater but for me I don't want to force myself to watch more than 2 hrs at a time just to get past the "infant mortality" period (whatever that is I'm not even sure anymore). With all the bulb failures reported, I am now even considering selling my MT700 and picking up a H77 and hopefully not have to worry so much about bulb failures or other failures (someone correct me if this is not true). The distance between my PJ and my Dalite HCMW 92" screen is just under 12' and I only use my PJ at night. Any opnions on this course of action?

What is the best way to sell a PJ? Would AVS consider a trade in of some sort?

johnnyzero,
I tried reseating the lamp this time, no help.

Interestingly enough, my PJ just showed up at work via FedEx. (sent Tuesday, received back Thursday) I can assure you it will be plugged in tonight to see if it is working again. No answer at Tops, waiting for a response on what they did.

Spiky,
Eagerly await your post. Would be nice if Tops would just slip a copy of work order on its way back to you. Hmm :(

quack724 -- Here is my response from the "other thread":

For your usage, you will not get past the "Burn-In" period in the 90 day lamp warranty period. However, with some users reporting lamp failures extending into the 300 hour time frame, that may not be so important. In your situation, I'm not sure what I would do. The H77 is more expensive, but it's street price is coming down too. It's really a value judgement. Not having seen the H77, I can't say how much better it is, than the MT700.

If you do decide to sell your MT700, you likely will not get more than about $2K (possibly less) for it (a replacement lamp is less of a hit -- BTW the PE7700 lamp is identical and is more available).

Since having a bad lamp or ballast regulator problem is a crap shoot, I would lean towards keeping the MT700 and crossing your fingers (and toes :rolleyes: ). If you get an early lamp failure, you can also try to talk to Toshiba about the possibility of a bad regulator (the PJ will still be under waranty -- before you spend money on a new lamp).

COMMENT: If your lamp starts to flicker, switch to the "High" lamp mode. This changes the lamp operating mode and can "burn through" a lamp bad spot. After running it in the "High" mode for a while - for the rest of your movie session, you can switch it back to the "Standard" mode again in your next session. Some users have reported that this seems to work.

Spiky -- Second lamp failure - a real bummer :eek:.

Claus, also copying my response from the "other thread" :-)



Thanks Spiky...I really home this time (your third PJ now if I recall correctly?) you have no further issues. However, I am glad to hear Toshiba has taken care of you. This should be encouraging for all MT700 owners.

Claus, thanks for your comments and recommendation. If I do get an early lamp failure, I will try to talk to Toshiba about the possibility of having them at least investigate if it is a bad regulator as you suggested. So far I have not noticed any flickering. Actually the only issue I have had so far is that a few weeks ago, my HDMI input seemed to have had poor contact with my HDMI cable so I would lose "synch" (for lack of a better word) and not lock in to the signal and you could see the image for a split second then go back to the default blue screen. Repeated insertion/removle/slight wiggles in the HDMI connector would bring it back for a split second but it would then go back to the default blue screen. I called Toshiba, but right before I was about to send it back to them, I tried another HDMI cable and the problem went away. I then re-tried my old HDMI cable and the problem ALSO went away! So I am thinking maybe there could have been debris or something preventing good contact and somehow the newer HDMI cable "cleaned" it. It's been two weeks or so and that symptom has not shown up again *more knock on wood*

HDMI is difficult because it is a poor connection. Questionable design at best.

Not 3rd PJ, 3rd lamp presumably. No phone call, and it's already after hours there. I'll see in a couple hours when I get home and plug it back in.

Federer? Or NFL opener? Hmmm. Superman or Superfreak? Oh, yeah. Tivo. I'll watch both!!

MikeSRC -- It is confusing. I thought it only covered failures during the 1st 90 days, for each lamp ("original manufacturer's warranty" time period), for a total of 3 lamps over a 3 year period. I like your interpretation better. The extended lamp warranty, that I have, is the one you're familiar with.

It seems that the only lamps that are readily available are the PE7700 versions (identical, but different IDs). Would the warranty cover those (for the MT700)?

I had interpreted my warranty to extend coverage after the 90 day point for 3 years not to replace more than 3 bulbs in that time period, just as Mike said. I hope that's the case, and I think I remember that's what I discussed with the warranty people. I wish I didn't get back from work so late - they're probably closed.

Claus - I'm writing back to your pm in a sec. Thanks, you made me feel better ;)

Okay, I just spoke with Warrantech/Repairmaster (my warranty people) and the warranty is indeed for two lamps in three years after the original 90 days - at least that's what "Owen" said.

Owen the service guy was unfortunately a little annoying and combative. I'm very nice and reasonable on the phone, but when he prounced my town name incorrectly and I repeated it the right way (nicely: Pah-pill-yun), he was a little idignant - he said, "Papillion (Pap-eee-yawn) is the french word for butterfly....but it's your town..."

Grrr. How annoying. I know how the word is really pronouced, but dangit, it's not how "Omaha'ns" speak. And I'm from NY so I talk how I damn want to ;) And for the record when I lived in Texas I pronounced "Bexar" county as "Bex-ar" because I reserve my right to pronounce things how I want. Even when the lady at the DMV tells me its "bear".

How hypocritical huh? Heehe. At least I know it. Okay, now I'm not so mad at "Owen." It really wasn't that he pronounced it different, it was his attitude towards me just telling him how it was really pronounced. Oh well. Small potatoes. :)

Anyhow, the slight abrasiveness of "Owen" aside, it looks like I may get this processed quickly. I just hope the bulb supply is okay - he said he didn't see any indications of a short supply, but if there was he wouldn't know until later.

He did try to tell me that I wasn't supposed to have purchased this warranty without a warranty for the PJ itself as well, but my response was essentially, "so?" and we moved on.

We'll see how this pans out. I have to send in a fax to change my contract because I messed up some info when I signed up - that will extend my replacement submission from 1-2 business days to about 3-5. Not too bad I guess. I can live with that.

I didn't mean to type so much, but maybe being funny about pro-nunce-eee-eh-shuns this late at night made me talkative. Just wanted to share the story. You may all now return to watching your beautiful, WORKING, hi-def projectors. :(

Jon O. -- :D:D:D.

Send me a PM on your results with the lamp replacement. I have the same warranty.

I wonder if Owen would pronounce my city as "san-jo-zay" or "san-hose-a" - LOL.

Hi guys, i got my 700 a month ago and so far loving it. Its my first projector and i got a nice big screen all working remotely.

The problem i have is when i get to dark scenes in TV or DVD playback, i can hardly see what is going on. I know you have to play with all the settings and ive had contrast whacked all the way up and still dark shadowy scenes are so dark. Normal light scenes are fantastic though. Im running DVI to HDMI from a geforce 2 6200 card at 720p 1280x something. As far as im aware settings are basically default.

Any advice on what to change, or what program to get to calibrate it would be a big help. thanks

Well, on July 3rd, my lamp failed at 102 hours. It took me several weeks of yelling at Toshiba and Topps to get a replacement. Toshiba was totally inept. They might know what to do about TVs and laptops, but they don't know D#%K about PJs. Anyway, thanks to CT's suggestions, I am running the lamp as much as possible with the goal to get 300 hours (10%) on it as soon as possible.

Now, as a warning, I decided to spend the extra bucks just to have a spare lamp. I tried to buy a lamp from an Internet source called:
http://www.projectorlampcenter.com

Steer clear of these people. I found that they were in Atlanta and had the lamp listed at $369.00 and "in stock". So, to play it safe, I called in my order and spoke to a live mutant who confirmed verbally that the lamp was in stock. That was on 7/29. So, I gave them my credit card order and they informed me that I would get it the following week. When I saw that the very next day, they had invoiced my account for the amount, I waited until the next week only to be informed when I called that the lamp was on backorder. BTW, the site still says "in stock". I told them to cancel the order, then had a change of heart and decided to wait it out.

Here's the excuses I got:
8/4 - "We are so sorry, but the vendor just flat out lied to us. We are working to get the lamp shipped to us. We should have it after 8/12."

8/15 - "The vendor informs us that the lamp will be shipped and we should get it by 8/22." (I told them that I didn't want anymore smoke blown up my ass and that they had one week to get it to me.)

8/23 - "Toshiba is shipping the lamp to us. We will have it by 8/25"

8/25 - "It will be in today. We will FEDEX it to you."

9/1 - FEDEX tracking confirmed.

9/7 - Product arrives at my home. Invoice shows "Replacement Lamp for TDP Mt700". The box under the invoice says.......drum roll please......
REPLACEMENT BALLAST ! ! ! !

Until that evening, I have never "dropped the F-Bomb" when leaving a voicemail. I dropped it about 5 times. That next day, I had the poor customer service mutant bleeding from every opening. I got an RMA and a FEDEX account number. Hopefully I can get these bastards to re-credit the account without too many hitches.

Still looking for a lamp source. Any suggestions????

I'm at 197+ hours and counting. No one has a response to my noise post?

nothru,
I briefly had mine running on its feet when I first got it and noticed no difference when hanging it upside down. But it was a pretty limited time, so not really much help. Even with mine set to 5x on the wheel and being about 4-5' from my head, I can't hear it over the show and the Tivo and the A/C and people walking upstairs and.....

I have this weird occasional clicking I have to research. Not from the PJ, from my rack. Don't know what it could be. Even that drowns out the PJ. I'm going to experiment with setting the fan to High to see if that helps and to see it if is too loud.

If you really want to check, put it back on the chair. Maybe you just didn't notice it at first.

chazmo,
I don't know if I'm just lucky in my service dealings or what. But I've sent it to Tosh twice now. First time had 3 day turnaround, 2nd time had 2 day turnaround. I was smarter the 2nd time and sent it to them Priority Overnight so they'd have it in the morning. Worked, they fixed it and sent it out the same day. (still waiting on details, keep getting voicemail) So, apparently they have lamps.

The way I'm going, I'll never need to buy a lamp. Just keep replacing them under warranty every couple months.

Still looking for a lamp source. Any suggestions????

Look at post #1638 and #1661. This has been discussed before. You can order one for a Benq PE7700.

Is anyone here waiting for parts to fix the unit? How long have you been waiting?

Other than the obvious lamp issues, what other problems are we waiting for?

It doesn't seem that the PE7700 is having as many lamp issues, maybe there is a running change between units causing the issue ( ballast, main board?)

I just wonder if the lamp issue needs a supporting fix, it might be a deeper problem

I had sent my unit in for repair and replacing of the "main board' but before i sent it in I had signs of an imminent lamp failure as well, drastic flicker and pulsing....

hmmm?
Thanks,
TJ

Chazmo, I had the same exact experience with Projector Lamp Center. To add insult to injury, I even had to pay return shipping for their mistake. So I am out shipping expenses both ways and I never even got the lamp. They also told me that there would be a 15% restocking fee for cancelling the order. I wrote a negative review over at www.projectorcentral.com and someone from Projector Lamp Center read it because I got a phone call the next day. She apologized several times and said that she would credit my card immediately and there would be no restocking fee. I haven't gotten my statement yet so I don't know if she did.

I called Visual Apex and ordered a lamp for the Benq PE7700 and it arrived in 2 days. It is a direct replacement for the Toshiba MT700.

Spiky,
Eagerly await your post. Would be nice if Tops would just slip a copy of work order on its way back to you. Hmm :(
They called back. New lamp and the ballast wires were loose. Probably had something to do with the lamp failure, I imagine.

They called back. New lamp and the ballast wires were loose. Probably had something to do with the lamp failure, I imagine.


So there is some evidence that the ballast could be the the culprit (or at least related)... Have others who have received a replacement PJ heard feedback re: the ballast? Does Topps provide feedback on root cause by default or do you have to ask?

Thanks all for the helpful suggestions. It's ironic that the part that was mistakenly sent to me was a ballast.

For those who haven't been paying attention:

What's ballast? (In a PJ)

Spiky,
If I read an earlier post of yours correctly, didn't Tops replace the ballast on a previous repair? Now it is found to be loose ballast wires?

Nonetheless sounds more and more like power-voltage problem with PJ, along with possible poor technical service at Tops. Seems MT-700 owners are the training ground for repair without the full support from Toshiba. Consistent with Toshiba exiting the FP HT market.

Very sad as have been a loyal Toshiba customer for about 20 yrs. Could be it for me. Toshiba needs to step up to the plate so to speak. Either fix it or issue refund! Heck the inner sleeves of the box have broken down from use and really don't want to ship it again, lest any damage. Not an unreasonable request heh.

Nothru22. My projector's hung upside and it's very quiet -- no different that before it was mounted.

At least you are getting projectors back. I have been without my BenQ 7700 for almost 7 weeks now. They are still waiting for new ones. Are they not making them anymore or do they just sell them all and screw us who already bought them.
Warren.

Ballasts regulate current to the lamp, they keep the energy at the lamps power source at a predefined long term operating level.

If they were to be bad that can cause premature failures, but in newer ballast circuits the current is also regulated with the help of transistors or both.

This is why I suggested if another component was failing it could provide erroneous info to the "gate" on a regulating fet and bring the system out of spec causing early failures....


Who knows?

TJ

wnielsenbb,
How long does BenQ expect you to wait before replacing unit with next model up as an alternative. May want to give it a try. 7 weeks is a long time.

For those who haven't been paying attention:

What's ballast? (In a PJ)



Stanger89, my understanding is that the ballast system is what powers the bulb . If there are voltage fluctuations (e.g. too high) this wil cause the bulb to go bye bye.

Ballasts regulate current to the lamp, they keep the energy at the lamps power source at a predefined long term operating level.

Thanks.

Tried to call Toshiba to get the unit evaluated and "joe in central illinois" said that based on what I was telling him that it was the lamp and the service center would charge me for an evaluation. He also said that the lamp was backorderd and had no idea when one would be available. He said that these are new projectors and that's why lamps weren't available (not sure what that means). When I asked to speak with a manager, he refused and said that they would not tell me anything other than that. This is so frustrating!!!!

Spiky,
If I read an earlier post of yours correctly, didn't Tops replace the ballast on a previous repair? Now it is found to be loose ballast wires?

Yeah, I thought about that, too. :(

The more I think about it, the more I'm convinced this noise wasn't here before. It sounds like a grrrrr sound, about three times louder than the normal fan, and it starts about three seconds after I get a real picture. Am I going crazy? I can hear a gentle humming when I first turn it on and then once the picture is up, it starts going. Is this normal? Do I just have a bad memory? My dad even asked what that sound was when we were watching Firefly last night.

Well, unfortunately we've joined the blown bulb club last night during the last two minutes of the Texas-OSU game.

No noises. Just black screen.

I haven't checked in a while but I think our bulb had about 175 hours on it. Not exactly the experience I was hoping for with our first projector.

Oh, lamp was on standard mode the entire time and not once on high altitude.

I have been here on these forums for a long time now but have never posted.

I was about to buy the Toshiba 700 or BenQ 7700 but am having some serious reservations now.

I have a friend that bought the 700 and he just recently blown his bulb at approximately 170 hours. Since he is not on this forum, I thought I should point this out.

This really disappoints me as I require a "short-throw" projector and the these units really come in a good price point -- especially considering that I can get very good pricing on the Toshiba.

I guess it would be even more disappointing to have already bought and have early bulb failure.

Now I dont' know what to do. I have my home theater room ready and no projector and screen. Getting anxious. Maybe I'll look at the new D5 720 LCD units announced Cedia.

Make sure you take a look at the Optima H77.

Tried out the high altitude for a couple days. Wow, is that baby loud. I should've grabbed the SPL meter for some comparisons.

I will say that I did not notice it once I was into a show. I am used to louder fans at work. But if I was sitting there flipping in menus or something, it was quite loud. I have a feeling that when watching a quiet drama I would find it distracting.

Nothru,
Are you sure you aren't in High mode?

After watching my 7700 for a while I visited a friend with an X1. Wow is it loud. I think they named it after the Bell X-1. Chuck would be proud.
I finally got my temporary 7700 in after seven weeks. Still no idea when new ones get in. At least I can put some hours on this refurb for free. Doesn' t make up for missing a projector for so long though. The Menu button on this remote doesn't work. I wasn't looking forward to setting it up with the on projector buttons since it is ceiling mounted. Luckily all other buttons worked so I just had to push menu on the projector and used the remote for setup. Weird. The BenQ support girl asked if I wanted to exchange the remote. I told her not if it would take seven weeks to get another one. :)
Warren.

Postive. I can turn it on high mode and the fan noise increases, but it's not the same noise as the grrrr. It's the same noise that's on when I first turn it on and when I turn it off.

Well I called and it's off to Maine for a little vacation. Hope I get it back in relatively short order. If not, what's Best Buy's return policy on their infocus projectors? :D

In the Benq7700 part of the forum Miltimj has gotten a reply from Benq that his HDMI hardware interface is gonna be replaced with an upgrade. This would be very interesting for me since I have tons of HDMI issues with the MT700. Anyone heard something about this from Toshiba?

Since Toshiba is quiting the HT projectors market I am kinda worried about their service at this point.

Reminds me of a song...

This here's a story about Billy Joe and Bobbie Sue
Two young lovers with nothin' better to do
Than sit around the house, get high, and watch the tube
And here is what happened when they decided to cut loose

They headed down to, ooh, old El Paso
That's where they ran into a great big hassle
Billy Joe shot a man while robbing his castle
Bobbie Sue took the money and run

Go on take the money and run
Go on take the money and run
Go on take the money and run
Go on take the money and run

Billy Mack is a detective down in Texas
You know he knows just exactly what the facts is
He ain't gonna let those two escape justice
He makes his livin' off of the people's taxes

Bobbie Sue, whoa, whoa, she slipped away
Billy Joe caught up to her the very next day
They got the money, hey
You know they got away
They headed down south and they're still running today
Singin' go on take the money and run
Go on take the money and run
Go on take the money and run
Go on take the money and run
Go on take the money and run
Go on take the money and run
Go on take the money and run
Go on take the money and run

Got home early this AM and to my surprise I had a package waiting...............holy s@#t, it's the lamp!!! Just wanted to let everyone know that I FINALLY received the replacement lamp (ordered through 3rd party warranty service). The entire process took 4 weeks. Hopefully anyone else who's been waiting should receive theirs soon.

Well, it should be reaching the service center this morning. According to Spiky, his unit was only in for 8 hours before heading back out, so maybe I'll have it back tomorrow (yeah right.) Hopefully a fan was failing or something easy to fix. Here's hoping they update the damn firmware. }:P

FYI....

Thanks to Spiky :) who pointed me to Visual Apex. I ordered a PE7700 lamp from them and got it in two days. It works just fine in my MT700. Still trying to get my money back from Projectorlampcenter. They have one week before my credit union files fraud charges.

You're thinking of ssragtop, not me. But congrats.

Spiky,

You are right....I am having a senior moment. :)

FYI - Visual Apex was on a backorder when I called two days ago. BUT, they said it could just be a very short one and to call back. (I haven't yet). Just FYI for anyone looking to buy from them, they *may* not have them for the quick 2 day shipment.

Just put my new lamp in and having some picture issues. On the top right of my screen there's an area that looks like a shadow (darker than the rest of the picture). It starts from the middle top and is in the shape of a sword blade and goes to the top right. I cleaned the lens, made sure there was nothing on the lamp, reseated the lamp 3 times and it's still there. Never had this issue with the previous lamp. Any ideas? Thanks.

Inside the bulb housing to the forward wall there is a focusing/polarizer/lens that protects the light engine if the lamp explodes, I would GENTLY clean that with compressed air first then a qtip with some good 99% alchohol.... I cleaned my colorwheel this way an was safe, but YMMV

Do the same thing on the bulb's focusing lens, BE CAREFUL if you use zero pressure and good qtips, letting the cotton do the work you will be fine.

No warranties, but I bet the failed bulb deposited something there or some debris is there, because it is the only area I can think of during a bulb swap, that can affect the picture on the screen..

I bet it's a hair...

TJ

Well Tops just has amazing and wonderful customer service. I sent it out wednsday (technically) and they got it at 10:30 am on thursday and Fedex was trying to bring it back to me at 10:30 am today (Friday.) Apparently they replaced the fan, color wheel, and bulb. I didn't realize anything was wrong with the bulb, but maybe it was about to bust. I'm hooking it up in an hour or two.

BTW one of their technicians lurks in this forum. He responded to my post up there and said "Enjoy your teatro" in the letter back. Thanks Tom, you guys make me feel good about a manufacturer's warranty and that has happened... never!

Glad to hear they took care of you quickly. I haven't had any problems with Topps, just when they weren't able to obtain parts/bulbs. Otherwise, their service has been excellent.

BTW, when I spoke to Toshiba at CEDIA, they said they were committed to continuing to provide service for all their HT projector products, even if they are getting out of the HT projector business. Hopefully, they'll continue to follow through on that commitment.

I agree that Topps has been very good at "getting the job done". Now, Toshiba on the other hand, is another story. :)

While my projector was at Tops I received great service from them, I unfortunately never got to experience their efforts due to a parts issue from Toshiba.

Ultimately, I never got my projector back, just a refund from Toshiba corporate for my full purchase price due to a huge parts delay in my specific senario.


Toshiba came through in the 1.5 week ordeal finally

But it was Toshiba delaying it not Tops

Now I have to decide on a replacement....good and bad :)


TJ

Does anyone have an SPL meter? Can you measure the amount of noise your projector makes in normal mode?

No, it's too low. The RS SPL meter (the new model 33-4050) only goes down to 50dB. AFIK, only the, super expensive, professional models get down to the 20dB to 30dB range.

BTW, I'm up to 378 hours, as of last night, with no lamp (or otherwise) problems.

Update on lamp situation...

Called Warrantech on Tuesday morning. The woman who answered the phone said that my warranty would not be in effect until the 3rd year. After a 10 "discussion" she said they would change the "record" and call me back in two days. Still waiting...but will call them back on Monday. Should I expect a different service level or is this normal?

In the mean time, called Visual Apex. They didn't have a PE7700 lamp in stock but said they could order one dropped-ship. She said to expect about 7-10 days. I received an email today indicating the product was shipped with a tracking number.

Who can I send the projector to look things over to make sure the fan is working correctly? My wife and I are nervous about our investment being operable for only 200 hours at a time and costing $400 each change.

Any feedback would be appreciated.

Update on lamp situation...

Called Warrantech on Tuesday morning. The woman who answered the phone said that my warranty would not be in effect until the 3rd year. After a 10 "discussion" she said they would change the "record" and call me back in two days. Still waiting...but will call them back on Monday. Should I expect a different service level or is this normal?

You should definitely expect a different response. If you had a projector warranty, that would pick up after the 2 year Toshiba warranty. With the lamp warranty, it picks up after 90 days, which is the Toshiba lamp warranty. Call them back on Monday and if you get the same story, ask to speak to a supervisor.

The person you talked to at Warrantech, is full of BS. Their warranty starts after the MT700 LAMP warranty ends (90 days or 500 hours, whichever comes first). I just re-read their manual (their contract with you). That is the LAMP warranty, isn't it? Not their extended projector warranty?

Therefore their warranty should be in effect (I'm assuming that you have had the MT700 for more than 90 days, and less than 180 days?). If you have had the PJ for more than 180 days (about 6 Months), then it will pick up, again, only after you have replaced the lamp on your own nickle.

NOTE: This is my interpretation. Mike, is this what you think? Warrantech also provides the extended PJ warranty. If so, then the person that Michael_Truong talked to may have confused the two warranties.

Michael_Truong -- Just another thought. Did you get both warrenties (projector and lamp)? If so, you have to register both of them, not just one. Or, on the other hand, did you register the wrong warranty?

Sorry for the confusion, I was posting at the same time as MikeSRC.

Update on lamp situation...
Called Warrantech on Tuesday morning. The woman who answered the phone said that my warranty would not be in effect until the 3rd year. After a 10 "discussion" she said they would change the "record" and call me back in two days. Still waiting...but will call them back on Monday. Should I expect a different service level or is this normal?


I have a similar situation. I first contacted Warrantech via a web chat on September 8th, minutes after my bulb dies (approx. 120 days & 200 hrs). The contact there indicated their internal systems did not correctly reflect the lamp warranty vs the projector warranty and that he would submit a form to get this corrected. Only after the internal systems were corrected could service be arranged.

I called this morning (Sat, 17th) and the case is recorded as above but no progress was made on fixing internal systems. No one else to talk to till Monday so I need to call again on Monday. If anyone has got a lamp out of these guys for this projector I would really like hear how they did it and possibly get their "validation number" that the rep could look up and then know how to enter the service request.

I looked up Warrantech and they are a large, public corporation & so far they answer the phones quickly so I am still hopefull this is just a glitch that will go away as soon as someone enters the correct data on the OEM lamp warranty.

I happen to know that the person in this post (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=6195837&&#post6195837) had the Warrentech lamp warranty.

Well, I guess I'm not the only one having lamp issues. I took the plunge and bought the MT700 after much reading of this forum (thanks to all of you who post such great info here!). When I got it all hooked up, I couldn't have been happier...amazing picture and brightness!! Then, in the middle of SW, Attack of the Clones, the lamp died...after just 60 hours! :eek: It took a few weeks, but Toshiba eventually got me a new lamp. Guess what? Last night that one died!!!! (dunno how many hours, but I'm gonna guess ~40 hrs).

Could there be a defect with this projector that kills lamps? One thing I noticed: When I turned the brightness up (lamp still in standard mode), the brightness of the picture would waver a bit...barely noticable, but still there. I have not called Toshiba yet as it is Saturday, but I am affraid they may not honor the 90 days on the replacement lamp...guess I'll find out on Monday.

From reading this forum, sounds like I may have ballast problem? If anyone has any advice, I would greatly appreciate the info so I have some ammunition when I call Toshiba on Monday. Thanks!

I would tell them that since you've had two lamps go out in less than 100 hours, that you believe there's something wrong with the projector and you want to send it in for repair under the projector's warranty.

I am one of the original people who had a bulb failure and then finally got a replacement back in July.

I recently started playing w/ the troubleshooting screens on temperature, and I am wondering what others have done. I also have been monitoring the High altitude vs. Normal altitude setting that others have recommended.

When I am in normal altitude mode, my inlet vs. ballast temp seemed to be about 30 degrees C delta. I am assuming the numbers on the screen are numbers in C times 100.

So in normal mode my ballast temp ran about 50 degrees C, and in High Altitude mode it ran about 35 degrees C, which is a big difference, which I think can only increase bulb life.

The only issue is that in this mode it is very loud and it never seems to slow down even though the temp is not very high.

Are there any adjustments that you can make to play w/ the fan speeds and when it slows down? I notice you can cursor over to many of the fields and there is a debug/manual/auto option but I have not wanted to mess w/ this too much until I asked around.

My firmware is dated 2/22/05.