Well, unfortunately, what I thought were just dust blobs turned out to be scratches on the glass infront of the mirrors. So, I can't fix it. UGH!

Does the glass infront of the mirrors serve a major purpose or should I just break it to get a quality image with just the mirror?

I'm guessing repair would be too costly. I paid about $405 for the unit. I'm thinkining about breaking it off so it'll have a watchable image, but I don't know if it serves some important purpose or not.

Does the glass infront of the mirrors serve a major purpose or should I just break it to get a quality image with just the mirror?

How in the world did that glass get scratched? By breaking it off it seems as that glass would inhibit dust and other things that you don't want to get to the mirrors but what do I know, I still can't figure out how they get the little mirrors to make the picture. http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/images/smilies/biggrin.gif

Mike

I have no idea. I bought it knowing there was something wrong, but it look like dustblobs. This thing is sealed up like Fort Knox. I can't even imagine how it got so many scratches on it. Aside from all the light spots it looks great.

I'm not sure I have a choice though. The light spots show in all but the brightest of scenes and they show a little in plenty of bright scenes. I'm not too worried about dust getting in there. I have compressed air and that thing is SEALED up real good It would take a small miracle for dust to get in there. lol. I just wonder if the glass served any other puprose I'm not aware of. Hm.

I'm not too worried about dust getting in there. I have compressed air and that thing is SEALED up real good It would take a small miracle for dust to get in there. lol. I just wonder if the glass served any other puprose I'm not aware of. Hm.

Is there any way a piece of glass could be cut the same size so that way you could remove the scratched one and replace it with a new piece? (I'm sure you have thought of that already and ruled this out.) If it is clear glass and not deflecting the light in any way it sounds like it will be ok to remove it. When you got this on Ebay it peaked my curiousity as I almost bid on it. I'm anxious to hear how it turns out. Good luck. Keep me posted.

Mike

Is there any way a piece of glass could be cut the same size so that way you could remove the scratched one and replace it with a new piece? (I'm sure you have thought of that already and ruled this out.) If it is clear glass and not deflecting the light in any way it sounds like it will be ok to remove it. When you got this on Ebay it peaked my curiousity as I almost bid on it. I'm anxious to hear how it turns out. Good luck. Keep me posted.

Mike


WHOO FREAKIN HOO! It wasn't scratches like I thought. I scraped most of whatever it was with a knife. There are still some slight small smudges and excessive light spill (mostly noticeable with mostly black scenes (gone with my back lighting though or masking). I can no longer see anything wrong with an image, except on a fade to black and even then it's not nearly as bad. I don't think most people would've benefitted from buying this unit. I was going to do what ever it took to get the image looking halfway right. That crap wasn't just on the left side either, it was ALL over and it showed in all by the brightest of scenes.

The image on this thing is superb as expected. The HD resolution is a nice improvement over my 4805, but it's not night and day comparing the two from almost 2x the width with X-Box 360 HD trailers. I'd say the resolution improvement from my seating distance is about 20-25% with HD film material (about a 40-50%% improvement overall), about 10-15% with dvds (not just due to having more pixels) and about 100% better when playing with the PC. The contrast, colors, dark detail and black are all noticeably improved. This thing is a light canon. Luckily for me I'm moving up from an 8' wide torus to an 11.5' wide screen, so the resolution difference will become bigger. :D

I should be getting my Sharp DT-500 today. I can't wait to set it up and compare.

Good thing it worked out. I believe there is a special gas in there behind the glass to keep everything nice and clear. Like what you find in double-pane windows. It keeps haze and crap from building up on the shiny mirrors, like it keeps your windows clear. That's just what I believe, I may be wrong :)

I'm not a DLP projector expert, but I do have some experience with older 35mm slide projectors. One critical piece of these older machines - and I expect the same to hold true for these machines - was is use of a piece of special green-tinted heat absorbing glass to isolate the heat sensitive film from the heat generated by the lamp. Without that protection the film would be quickly damaged.

It stands to reason that the DLP module would be sensitive to the heat from the lamp and there would be a similar piece of glass to protect it.

Do not run a projector without that glass - and don't replace it with just any standard piece of glass.

Even if the glass on the DMD was scratched, you can't break it off!

It's a super expensive, super flat, super clear piece of Quartz glass that is used to protect the mirror assembly from particles sitting on them and clogging them.

Long story short, if Quartz glass is damaged, DMD is kaput.

WHOO FREAKIN HOO! It wasn't scratches like I thought. I scraped most of whatever it was with a knife. There are still some slight small smudges and excessive light spill (mostly noticeable with mostly black scenes (gone with my back lighting though or masking). I can no longer see anything wrong with an image, except on a fade to black and even then it's not nearly as bad. I don't think most people would've benefitted from buying this unit. I was going to do what ever it took to get the image looking halfway right. That crap wasn't just on the left side either, it was ALL over and it showed in all by the brightest of scenes.



Congratulations. You got a tremendous deal then.

Mike