Official Sony VPL-HW30(A)ES Owners Thread - Page 80

Sorry to hear some people are having issues, I'm upto about 400 hours and haven't had any issues. I have had quite a few 10 hour plus sessions on it and no overheating. I have been running in low lamp the whole time. It is in a dedicated room, and its the basment the temp in the basement is always cool.

The novelty of 3d wore off pretty quick for me but I do like the 3d performance.

I use the projector about 70/30 for xbox/movies and am glad I went for it.

sorry to hear your experience with Sony, I am surprised they asked to send in the projector for a simple lamp failure.

in regard to the boycott of Sony in particular, any of the projectors can have UHP lamp failure well before it's time. Considering how many HW30 and 95 owners there are on this forum and the french forum, I don't think early 2-3 failures is out of the norm. Look at the number of people last year who had issues with the JVC's lamps.

I would email 'SonyListens@am.sony.com' with your experience and explain how displeased you were with the support experience.

it sounds like Sony is certainly listening to it's customers.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/I-Have...V/182875766612

As zombie just said, the email address is sonylistens@am.sony.com

Long story short is that I expressed my disappointment in not being able to trust the lamps anymore and that if one failed so easily at 700 hours whose to say the next lamp will make it past 1000 or 1500 hours or the lamp after that, etc and maybe I should be looking at other brands if that is the case before I waste 1k on new lamps over a short period of time. Just the usual concerned customer type of mentality when your product exhibits a problem that others don't have.

I got a reply back within two hours from a Sarah Kepler who set up an Event ID # and gave me a direct number to call to discuss the issue. Just got off the phone with the gentleman on the other line and, after a few minutes of holding while he talked with a real supervisor, he said that I should go ahead and purchase a new lamp.....but should the new lamp fail prematurely (sub 1500-2000 hours normal usage) that I can call back and get a full refund. He said my information is saved in their computers so even if it's a year from now that I need to call back due to another failure it would all be taken care of.

Am I mad that I had to buy a new bulb so soon? Dang right. But I definitely feel a lot better knowing that if this happens a second time I'll be taken care of.

Agree that it's not time to panic, but I think it is a bit worrisome that these issues seem to be coming up now that people are starting to get some hours on their bulbs (and it's more than 2-3 if you read the last few pages of this thread). I could be wrong, but considering when this projector came out I doubt many people have more than 900 hours on it.

Could anyone tell me which tests I should run on the projector to make sure my unit is fine?

I'm completely new at this and I'd like to check it soon in case I need to return the unit.

For just a basic, and probably sufficient, analysis...

1) Display 100% white pattern. Does screen look pretty consistent from side to side?

2) Display 100% red/green/blue patterns (individually). Look consistent side to side? See any black spots?

3) Check your focus with a 1080p grid pattern. I highly suspect it will not be consistent side to side (like mine), but in practice it's not a huge deal

4) Calibrate brightness / contrast. Watch high quality movie. Enjoy.

... Altan

Thanks! I'll put up a white sheet on a wall and see what I can do today.

BTW I've been binging on Zen Pinball on PS3 lately, loving Sorcerer's Lair.

So my new lamp should be here in a few hours.

When I first got my projector I had it professionally calibrated........how much will a new lamp alter that calibration? Is it the lamp that influences color tracking, gamma, all that jazz or are all lamp models for a particular projector the same in terms of color, gamma, output, etc?

Basically, when doing a calibration is it the lamp that is being corrected or the actual projector internals/electronics?

Thanks.

I'm pretty sure even the same lamp model in the same projector will vary some from lamp to lamp...how much variance is the question. I think the biggest variance that one would see is the color temperature. If you set it back to 6500, most of the other calibrations should fall into place. Gamma may be slightly different though.

What Auto Iris does everyone lean towards? 1 or 2? Is there a big difference between them?

Auto 1. Copy/Pasted from the OP:

Got the new lamp in and warmed up. Contrast and brightness are exactly the same (used THX patterns). Color looks spot on to what my calibrated picture was on the first lamp. Guess I really lucked out

Did Sony pick up the tab for that lamp?

Not for this lamp but it's on record that if it fails prematurely again (sub 2000 hours on low mode) then Sony will fully refund me for the lamp and work with me on figuring out why my lamps aren't lasting long enough. So my mind is at ease knowing I'm covered should this lamp also suffer a similar premature fate.

I just got my hw30es all hooked up last night (I got the aes) and I have to say I fully realize what blacks are now, not that my hd33 was bad at all, but this thing throws charcoal black up on the screen...plus In my eyes this is a tad sharper of a projector, maybe I didnt have my hd33 dialed in like I did this one ( I was up till 3 am playing with my new toy and watching the buckeyes game) but to me True grit was razor sharp..I have no Convergence issues and the colors on this are fantastic! Its going to be Family movie night with the muppets tonight so we will really see what this projector can do!

Muppets is a great movie to show off the HW30. I am not sure what cameras were used to film the movie, but it's very sharp and colorful.

enjoy the projector!

Just replaced vpl vw50 with at least 10k hours with vpl hw30aes. Projector is fantastic. Family says vw50 never this bright nor colors this good. Trying to bounce 3d emitter signal off of Stewart Firehawk without success but still experimenting. Just ordered 3d blu ray player and looking forward to watching Tron and Cave of Forgotten Dreams. Out of box picture looks great. How much improvement can I expect with ISF calibration?

A VW50 with 10k hrs! and it still works, that is amazing.

Calibrate it, if you think it looks good now it will look alot better after.

Got my copy of Avatar 3D yesterday about 5w after mailing form to Panasonic rebate center. Going to watch it tonight on my HW30 tonight. I have purposely avoided watching this movie until I could see it in 3D.

Good call. I don't see that movie being all that interesting if not for the 3d.

I would purchase my own copy, if it was avail for standard/reasonable cost.

... Altan

Any chance Sony will release a new PJ this year or are they released every 2 years?

THey just really released three. I anticipate zip for a while. There might be some model for Christmas but really watch want? These are really good.

Any good referrals for ISF calibrator in Los Angeles/South Bay area for Sony VPL-HW30AES?

@MV3D/Optoma glasses user, I just got a tip from JohnHWman for finetuning the emitter/glasses:

First reduce the lens duty cycle to minimum and then adjust delay until no ghosting is visible. Then come back to rize the duty cycle parameter until ghosting start to reappear. Let the adjustments as is since the dongle will store them automatically.

Where does one get the software to make these changes?

you don t need software. you can do it with the emitter. check the emitter manual

Go here

Click on manuals and then get firmware update. The firmware will work with either brand of the RF emitter, Optoma or Monster. Monster and the Optoma RF glasses are just OEM'd BitCauldron RF glasses. Monsters package just comes with the IR receiver. I am sure the IR receiver would work with the Optoma emitter also.

I just ordered another set of the set of the Monster glasses due to the closeout prices. They are a lot more comfortable compared to the Sony glasses.

Awesome! Thank you.

Where are you getting "closeout prices"?

Check Amazon. Thefactorydepot thru amazon is selling the monster package for less than a single set of the Optoma branded glasses.

Just for my clarification:

1.
With the DEFAULT emitter settings, I FIRST press and hold the joystick (menu 2 of course) to the left until the orange leds disappear.

2.
After this I reduce the deplay to MINIMUM by pressing and holding DOWN the joystick until I have 0 (red) leds.

3.
From that point I raise the joystick UPWARDS until I see the least ghosting.

4.
After this I raise the brighness (joystick to the RIGHT) until ghosting start to re-appear and when this happens I put it a little back to the LEFT until I have no ghosting again.


Is this the correct procedure?