JVC 2011-2012 lamp measurement project - Page 12

I read from a few people on these threads that there was an 003 version released first without the flapper then I guess an updated version of the 003 with the flapper. I could be wrong but I read it on the Internet which means it has to be true.

Then I have Ver 3.5 because mine has the flapper.

How many hours do you have on the new lamp?

I think I have around 450-500 hours. I had a system board failure at around 280 and when it was returned the counter was back at 0. I think I have around 180-200 since then but I'm not sure. I'll look tonight if I use the projector.

By naked eye it doesn't seem to have dimmed.

Well that’s good news. Have you noticed anything else? Flashing, slow to brightness, color variations, waking in the middle of the night and realizing that the lamp took your car out for a joyride?

Here is my question: Since this could possibly be related to heat, has anyone tried adding some kind of fan assembly to push air through the projectors air vents? I believe there are vents in the front and back of these, so adding some air flow towards the normal exhaust direction could possible help? If I am way off base I apologize but I have read a lot of posts and have not come across any that even suggest something like this.

The Tech told me to turn High Altitude mode on. This ads a little more noise to the projector because the fans are spinning faster. This should help with the cooling but only at the expense of a little more noise from the projector. In my environment it is barley noticeable but in others they may hate it.

Right, that's is pretty much what I was thinking. For me I could setup airflow coming from a sealed box to the projector so there would be no fan noise at all. Then connect some tubing to the projector vent (input) to increase airflow through the projector. Would there be any reason to NOT do something like this? I don't know which end is the input and which end is the output on these projectors though.

Is the noise in High Altitude mode (running the lamp in Normal mode) as bad as when we run the Lamp in High mode ?

Pretty much. I have a small theater about 15' x 15' and the high altitude mode was too loud for me in my room.

Mike

The biggest problem for me in regards to the lamp so far has been the amount of green / yellow in the pre-calibrated image after the lamp wears in. It was there before, but at 600 hours it becomes a bigger issue. I've run in High-ALT mode almost the entire time, and lamp has dimmed a lot. That said, I can calibrate some of it out, but my lamp starts getting pretty DIM after calibration now. I am on a 106" HP screen (getting 1.7 or so gain from my mounting spot). I'm going to re-calibrate the old lamp in a minute with the C6 meter, and see what I can do, but I really need a CMS to fix it so I might have to finally break down and order the HTPC Bluray drive and install some HTPC CMS. I'm going to go take some new calibration measurements in a second to confirm what I already know.

I did get a new lamp from JVC, but haven't installed it yet, I want to run the original lamp into the ground first even if it means putting up with poor color.
Edited by coderguy - 8/21/12 at 11:07pm

Would running it in high altitude mode put more wear and tear on the projector itself? I figure running fans on high all the time would wear out the fans at a faster rate.

Nah, the fans should be pretty solid from a reliability standpoint, they don't put cheap fans in these things. My unit really isn't very loud in HIGH ALT mode at all, I can barely hear it even when no sound is playing only if I am pretty close to the PJ.

Has anyone talked to a higher level tech (not level one) about running the JVC in high altitude mode to help with cooling of the lamp to help preserve the lamp.

Well, I finally replaced my bulb last night because of the lumen output. The 3D viewing had been bad for quite a while and the 2D was suffering so much that I decided it was time. Only 946 hrs on my first bulb. My replacement bulb is the newer version with the metal flap. Hopefully this will be a little better on lamp life. Looking at the old bulb, there are a lot of cracks in the reflective surface on the inside of the bulb. I would love to send this bulb back to JVC for testing. It seemed to dim extremely early and didn't last the way I had hoped.

Now for the good news, with the new bulb my projector is "Alive"! I forgot how much I like the image from my JVC product. It is just a shame we can't get the bulb to be more reliable.

A very ad hoc notes. I needed to adjust my contrast after about 250 hours to bring fl from 8 back to 14, while keeping aperture all the way closed.

After the adjustment and calibration i watched Avengers on BD and was reminded how glorious this PJ could be, simply stunningly beautiful picture.

By the way this video and audio on Avengers are both of reference quality to me.

My Lux readings Replaced X90 Batcave.

iris open
standard/6500k/normal/other settings 0/
126"diag 1.2gain 2:35/16:9 screen/13`7" throw
Service menu white pattern
60 mins warm up
Center screen readings

Low/High lamp
106 hours
207/340 Lux 16:9 87" wide
124/208 Lux 2:35 117" wide

158 hours
207/325 Lux16:9 87" wide
124/197 Lux 2:35 117" wide

488 Hours
110/167 Lux 2:35 117" wide --- In 330 hours only a 30 Lux drop at high lamp.

680 Hours
Same readings as last time 167 Lux on High lamp 117" wide

I purchased my RS45 right after Christmas and have been enjoying it greatly since.

Last night my heart sank a bit when I got a generic "replace lamp" popup message on my screen. This was odd because I still have the brightness, contrast and other settings set at zero - in other words I'm not having any dimming issues with my projector in my light-controlled dungeon of a theater. My initial response was that the bulb had gone bad... however, I noticed that my lamp timer hit 2900 hours so I'm now assuming it is a simple timer like I had on my previous Sony VW60.

The lumen output is still good and I've had no issues of concern with the lamp otherwise. I'm assuming if I just use the "reset lamp timer" option that I can continue to enjoy this lamp until it dies...

I suppose though that it is time to order a new lamp since 3000 hours seems to be considered end-of-life for this bulb. If anyone has suggestions on where to buy a new lamp I'd be interested to hear it.

So, after 11 months and (obviously) heavy use (I don't use 3D much at all) I have no complaints about the bulb life. In fact, it has been superior to the Sony VW60 and other previous projectors bulbs as far as life and brightness. At least for me, I'm happy I didn't buy into the bad-bulb narrative that seemed to be prevalent when I purchased the RS45.

That's awesome, what version of the lamp is it?

That's 8 hours a day!!
Got another tv in your house?

Check that. More like 9.5 hours a day since it has not been a full year. That's being generous too. Not missing a day.

Yes, when you do the math there is no denying that we use the projector a lot! I actually have many more TV's in the house but this is projector is used often. We use it not only for movies and TV but I also use it as my computer monitor for work and entertainment. I'm using it right now in fact!

I also don't turn the projector off if I plan to use it within the next hour or so... I try to avoid striking the lamp as much as possible.

Well, for this reason I was very concerned about the lamp issue and considering the amount of usage it seems I've gotten my money's worth. That is a good question, I'm honestly not sure. It is the lamp that came with the projector when it was initially released I believe since I purchased it last December. I'm assuming it was the first generation lamp. Other than opening the projector is there a way to determine the version?

Mnn1265,

Thanks so much for posting your bulb like so far on the RS45. That's very encouraging!
I'm glad I found this forum...

FYI,
I have 450 hours on mine and also bought it in December '2012 and find my brightness hasn't budged very much.

3,000 hours !! I would be completely happy, that's give and take more than 1,000 movies. Thanks for the positive news.

I reset the lamp timer and was messing with the settings... no doubt there is plenty of brightness left in the bulb - in fact it's still set at about "zero" setting and I have no need to turn it up. The contrast has deteriorated slightly but that's no big surprise after this number of hours. I have noticed an occasional and intermittent dimming that lasts perhaps a second or so and then goes away. It may indicate the bulb is nearing end of life or perhaps it's just because I've been staring at the screen trying to see it... in any case it's only noticeable on very bright-white backgrounds such as while I'm typing this post. I watched two movies last night and didn't notice any episodic dimming at all - maybe it's my eyes playing tricks. To be safe I think I'll order a replacement bulb and use the current bulb as a backup... I may just keep using the current bulb for awhile and see how it holds up.

Honestly, I hadn't realized I was putting so many hours on the bulb and was shocked when the lamp timer warning popped-up with the 2900 hour timer. I'm thrilled with the bulb performance and life.

I do have a lux-meter but unfortunately I don't have a saved baseline setting to do direct measurement comparison between the new bulb and the readings now. However, I can get close and will take a reading and post the results. It may not be completely accurate but hopefully it will be useful nonetheless.

I will update this thread with my continued experience with the bulb.

Ok, Here is my measurement. My baseline brightness setting unfortunately was lost so I can't compare to the original measurement but here it is:

Measured today
RS45
service menu white field
3000 hours
lamp was only (and still is) used in Normal mode
Lens Aperture setting "0"
Warm-up time between powering-on projector and measuring brightness = 2 hours
Measurement of brightness = 62 lux center reading

Screen size 140"
Throw distance = 15'

I don't know how much this information will help since I lost the baseline measurement but it's safe to say I have plenty brightness for my black-treated (walls, ceiling, carpet, no windows) theater. Of course I have ideal conditions and don't require a great deal of brightness for my theater. In fact, when the bulb was new I had to considerably dim the brightness setting since it was way-to-bright at that time. Now it is at Zero setting and satisfactorily bright. Colors still look great in movies to my eye.

At this point is seems clear for me the bulb will likely go bad before it dims to the point it's no longer useful. Brightness has NOT been an issue for me and I continue to use Normal lamp mode. Of course my lumen-requirements are low as a result of my bat-cave and others may require more lumens. I'm assuming that since I've never used High Lamp mode and have kept the brightness output low that it has extended the life of the bulb - of course that's just conjecture since I have no proof of this!

Mnn1265,

I'm just taking this opportunity to thank you for the info you posted.
I have a same situation as yours as my theater is completely dark and have never used High mode.
It is plenty bright for me even in 3D!

I am super happy to hear the results you are getting with your bulb life...thanks so much for sharing!

Fifth measurement:

1) October 31, 2012 date of measurement
2) RS55
3) service menu
4) 132 hours on lamp
5) Normal lamp 100%
6) Normal lamp during measurement
7) 0 aperture during measurement
8) 120min warm-up before measurement
9) 130 LUX measured (center, highest point, LX1010B meter)


Lens Memory and Zoom Setting : 16:9
Masking : None
Picture Mode : Natural / Video / 6500
Calibration: Gamma NORMAL, Contrast +4, Brightness -1, Dark level +3, Bright level 0, Color 0, Tint 0. MPC 2.

Screen : 113 x 63 (throw distance 16', area 49.4025 sq. ft.)
Lux : 130
Lumens : 597

Is there a more recent chart than post #3 somewhere in this thread that includes results past Feb 2012?

Thanks

I would also like to know if there are any other compiled results available.

Jim, there aren't many other measurements being posted - are there many being PM'd to you? I would like to know, because if you aren't getting more info I will stop posting my results.

FWIW, my measurements today at 170 hours is 118 lux (same settings). My measured brightness is nearly unchanged from new. Also notable, in calibrating I have found I prefer a custom gamma of 2.4, however that appears to not affect my Lux readings at all (I've checked both ways).

Paul