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Sony 50ES - flickering lamps normal or anomaly?

4K views 7 replies 5 participants last post by  The BigRalf 
#1 ·
I have a little over 1000 hours on my Sony 50ES (VPL-HW50ES) and the bulb flickers a good portion of the time (25% or so). If I go in and set it to Low bulb power and back to High power a few times sometimes it stops.


Is there a better way to stop this?


Is this normal? I thought the bulbs for the 50ES were the same as for the 30ES? You'd think they would have them down by now.
 
#4 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by pdoherty972  /t/1511583/sony-50es-flickering-lamps-normal-or-anomaly#post_24208004


No one else at 1000 hours plus on a 50ES that can comment?

Lamp flicker has been a common problem on many different brands of projectors for many years. To get rid of the flat spots on the electrodes, it has been said to run the lamp in a different mode for a few hours.
 
#5 ·
Also seems to be lamp/projector dependent. I had a 30ES that flickered right out of the box in low-lamp mode. Switching it to high and back to low would fix it, until the next time the projector was turned on, or the time after that. Was a minor nuisance. My 50ES has 140 hours on it right now, and hasn't flickered even once, and I've used it on low-lamp mode exclusively (except for one or two 3D movies where it auto-switches to high lamp).


Sounds like you're running high-lamp the whole time? If you received a second lamp with your projector as many of us did, it might be worth swapping out the lamp, at least temporarily. Then you'd know if it's the lamp or the projector itself..
 
#6 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by AV Science Sales 5  /t/1511583/sony-50es-flickering-lamps-normal-or-anomaly#post_24208401


Lamp flicker has been a common problem on many different brands of projectors for many years. To get rid of the flat spots on the electrodes, it has been said to run the lamp in a different mode for a few hours.

I ran it for two hours or so in low lamp mode and when I switched back it's good. Thanks for the tip.


How do these bulbs work? What are the flat spots you're referring to?
 
#7 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by WilliamG  /t/1511583/sony-50es-flickering-lamps-normal-or-anomaly#post_24211451


Also seems to be lamp/projector dependent. I had a 30ES that flickered right out of the box in low-lamp mode. Switching it to high and back to low would fix it, until the next time the projector was turned on, or the time after that. Was a minor nuisance. My 50ES has 140 hours on it right now, and hasn't flickered even once, and I've used it on low-lamp mode exclusively (except for one or two 3D movies where it auto-switches to high lamp).


Sounds like you're running high-lamp the whole time? If you received a second lamp with your projector as many of us did, it might be worth swapping out the lamp, at least temporarily. Then you'd know if it's the lamp or the projector itself..

I'll try that, thanks. I'm wondering how the projector could cause this?
 
#8 ·
My 1st bulb began flickering at around 800 h in eco mode which was fixable through switching to high lamp. The periods to use high lamp got longer and longer until it constanty flickered in eco mode. The light output then was getting too dark anyway to use in eco (Stewart Studiotek 130 G3, cih 1,6 m X 2,84 m/16:9 up to 3,86 m/2.4:1 w/h Prismasonic) so that I used it in high until 2000 h where also colors started to get odd. The new bulb is now at around 600 hours in eco mode without flickering.
 
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