Reviews of Marantz VP4001? - Page 85

Just wanted to revive this thread.......620 hours now thanks to my new HTPC build and racking up hours like crazy almost night. If I didn't see this thread back in Nov last year, I would have jumped on the AX200, which was my original plan till I ran into this thread. Been running this baby in low eco mode from day one. No flickering, no dust blobs, no IRIS issues and thank God, no rainbows

Love the PJ and it hurts me when I see people jump on newer 720p PJ's while clearly these older yet high-end PJ offers so much more, especially in overall picture quality.

I'm holding on this one till it dies or I win a lottery and I'll buy out my local theater.

Frag

Amen, Brah! The Olympics look outstanding on this PJ. I think I am about the same hours as you, but i have not checked in a while.

Great PJ all around.

Could my lamp have died?

I'm only at about 500 hours (mostly eco mode), but when I tried to project the volleyball finals tonight, I just got the red lamp light blinking - and no light output from the lens -
and the PJ wouldn't turn off (the fans were still running) until I unplugged the power cord.

Any chance my lamp is still good and I just need some type of reset?

Thanks
PS PJ throws an awesome image - I've used it regularly for about a year and I'm still thrilled with it.

According to the manual, a blown lamp should make the red light solid, not blinking. If your red light is blinking, that indicates that either the lamp cover is open, or an "abnormal" condition. Assuming it's not the former, then trying the internal reset button wouldn't hurt. If that doesn't work, it probably needs a pro to look at it.

thanks much Scooterboy...
I'm going to take a crack at opening it up, cleaning out the dust, and trying the reset...
Will report back with results

David

No Luck...

I removed the lamp assembly, cleaned the screens (they weren't really that dusty), then removed the case and cleaned out the side fans (neat rubber mount frames - good design!). And I found the candy red thermal reset - but it didn't seem like it had "tripped" so it didn't really do anything when pressed.

Re-assembled and I'm getting:
the "STANDBY/ON" indicator staying on green; and
the "LAMP" indicator blinking slowly about 14 times, then pausing, then going on momentarily (slightly longer than a blink), then repeating the cycle over again (all in green).

I guess I'll have to call Marantz service - unless this makes sense to someone.

Thanks!

Double Red Indicators - This pretty much means I buy a new lamp, correct?

After a few repeated cycles of unplugging and trying to restart, projector eventually settles on both indicators going to red. Ebay's got some guy selling the a brand new sharp 100lp for under 4 bills.

Is this a good way to go?

Thanks!

Solid red lamp indicator does mean you need a new lamp. But before buying one on eBay, how old is the projector/lamp?

I ask because my lamp blew 4 months after I bought it. I called Marantz to see if they could do anything for me, and the frontline CS person said they couldn't. Then he transferred me to Parts so I could order a new bulb, and I told the Parts guy it had only been 4 months. He put me on hold, talked to VP of Parts, and he agreed to cover my bulb and sent me one for free.

So if the bulb isn't too far out of its 90 day warranty, you might get lucky like I did if you call Marantz.

That is good advice indeed - It might be worth trying to escelate a call at Marantz.

PJ is just under a year old - purchased September 07. I think it had less than 500 hours or so on the lamp. (The timer read something like 85% remaining). I'll call them Monday and make my best case - I'd be thrilled if I they gave me a bulb at half price!

Thanks!

David

Alas, no luck with Marantz. In fact, they demonstrated almost no consideration at all. Even after I tried to escelate and leave messages for the Mr. Bigger, no one got back to me - and I'm usually pretty good at getting some attention with all my whining.

SO... I bought the Sharp bulb - brand new AN100LP on ebay for about $40 to $60 cheaper than the Marantz. It's the EXACT SAME BULB - and it works perfectly.

I posted here too just in case you want to see pics:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...2#post14638492

Almost 800 hours on mine now (still running in eco mode on the stock bulb and so far so good).

Anyway, the manual doesn't really state a lot when it comes to general maintenance. I know on the LCD PJ's, u have to clean certain parts.

What kind of user maintenance is required (if any) after this many hours. I had a look at the side vents last night and didn't really see any dust buildup (well...nothing major). Do I need to pop the hood open for a thorough clean?

Thanks
Frag

none really..they recommend you may need to suck out the vent with a cloth, I think...but nothing about vaccuming that I recall. DLP's are quite a bit more "hands off" than LCD projectors used to be (I am not sure if the current models still require dusting off the LCD panels or changing air filters).

Make sure the lamp housing screens are free of dust...the one side was caked with dust after about nine months on mine causing the pj to shut off after about thirty minutes,which required me to do the thermal button reset routine.

I would suggest checking the lamp screens every three months or so...YMMV.

I posted about this several months ago...it is strange they don't mention this in the manual.



Tom

I haven't posted in a while. Yes, I agree this is an outstanding PJ. The picture is just fantastic at 1365 hours and going strong. At around 900hrs I started to get some flickering of the image. Put bulb on normal for a couple of hours and then back to Eco and it has been working great.

The colors, black level, contrast are well, I do not think I could buy an currently available model that would beat it.

After months of ownership and playing around with the settings, I finally settled down on these (I like the picture much better now and even PS3 games have more 'pop' now). Dont get me wrong though as it already looked pretty good with minor tweaking out of the box but this is my personal fav settings.

Contrast=10
Brightness=-3
Color Temp=6500k
Brilliant Color=2
DNR=off
IRIS=wide
HDMI=normal
Lamb Setting=normal

H Overscan=-30
V Overscan=-30

Frag

Well I think I may have figured out why my VP4001 didn't seem any quieter than my old 4805 - I think I have a bad fan.

In the last month it's gotten increasingly more "rattley". When the PJ is first started and the fan slows down after a minute, it sounds ok. Then (apparently after the heat of the bulb heats the fan up), it will intermittently give a "rattle" vibration sound, like the fan is out of balance or a blade is just hitting the fan case.

I took a look inside, and there are 3 fans along the side of the case. The one closest to the front (and the bulb) is the one that's rattling. I got all the info from the fan label.

Here's my dilemma: Using that info (model #, etc), I can't locate the exact replacement fan online. I could send it into Marantz for a warranty fix, but I really don't want to go weeks without it. If I call their parts department and order the fan, it will likely invalidate my warranty because I'll be opening it up to replace it myself.

What to do? Anyone have a website that might stock this exact fan?

For those interested, here's the info from the fan label:

NMB-MAT
Model 2810KL-04W-B39
12W 0.19A
MINEBEA-MATSUSHITA MOTOR CORPORATION
+ Brown -Black

The pain with sending it back to Marantz is, of course, who knows what the heck will happen to it once they get it.

The pain with replacing the fan yourself, and indeed these are probably off the shelf parts, will be in finding one that matches the airflow....even if you find one that has the same specs of 12w to drive it and .19a.

See if you can find a comparible Panasonic Panaflo, they're extremely quiet..but at reduced airflow..you just dont want to skimp out on airflow...and they come in standard sizes.....

Google that fan and see what you find, also look for replacement fans with those same specs.

I found this one, with the same dimensions (70X70X25), voltage, and amps:
http://www.coolerguys.com/840556068709.html

What I don't know is the CFM of the original fan. This one is 34.78 CFM. The online spec sheet for the 2810KL series only lists the following models and their CFMS:

2810KL-04W-B10 19.0
2810KL-04W-B30 25.0
2810KL-04W-B50 31.0
2810KL-04W-B70 40.6

The B39 model is not listed, so I'm not positive 34.78 CFM will meet or exceed it.

Well I think I verified the heat theory mentioned above. I opened it up again, and moved the noisy fan that was in the front (next to the bulb) to the back, and vice versa. This was trickier than it sounds, because the two fan connectors were different. Though the fans themselves are identical, the one in the front has its 3 wires going into a 4 pin connector (one pin blank), while the back two fans have a 3 pin connector. So using a needle I removed the two connectors and swapped them.

I wanted to make sure that if the 4 pin connection did anything special to the front fan, it would continue to do so after swapping fans.

It's much quieter now (no rattling vibrations), but I still think the original front fan is noisier than the other two and I may order the fan from my previous post above to replace it.

I really wish I could find the exact specs on these fans...

Same here. I've had mine since September 2007 and I'm at almost 1400 hours. I am running my bulb in normal mode now, as eco mode seems faded and washed out. It definitely isn't nearly as bright as it was out of the box, which is to be expected at this stage in the bulb's life.

I'm probably going to look into replacing the bulb very soon. It's getting hard to watch football in the daytime and get any "pop" to the image. Movies at night are still great, but that's with the iris wide, which tells me the bulb has dimmed a lot.

So, from what I've gathered, I can safely purchase the Sharp bulb rather than the Marantz bulb and expect exactly the same thing except for my saving $50-$100? Is that right?

Going from that chart, it looks like the cfm increases as the Bnumber goes up, probably higher rpm. Your replacement candidate has a higher cfm than the B50, which likely has a higher cfm than a B39. I'd go for it. If you do, please post back your noise results. I'd replace the fans in mine if it would reduce the noise level.

I had extrapolated the same conclusion, though it's not 100% certain.

I've ordered two of those replacement fans, and will first replace the one original fan that was making the rattley noise. I'm confident that the PJ will be quieter after the replacement, just because that original fan is still noisier than the other two, even after being moved out of the "hot spot" (though it's not rattling anymore it has an "out of balance" sound).

After that, I may replace one of the other fans to see if it seems quieter, though I don't have a sound meter to measure it with so it will be purely subjective.

One week without my beloved VP4001 (damn bulb) .........AccessoriesForLess finally shipped this out today with 2nd day air so I should have it by Sat...if not, then another weekend without a PJ. And I have Ironman, Fall, Stealth ..all on BR for the grand moment :-(.

It appears since the VP4001 is a closeout PJ, bulbs are not widely available. Even AFL (authorized Marantz dealer) had to order it from the manufacturer before shipping it to me.

So glad I have the bulb warranty as the bulb cost $399+shipping.

Frag

Just curious, what happened to the original bulb? I didn't see any mention of you having issues, did it just up and die?

Where are people gettng BK on disc already?

I guess good things don't last forever!!!

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1070368

Well, I just tried the replacement fans I mentioned above and...no joy.

I connected them up, and it started ok. The new fans seemed good and strong, but after 5-10 seconds, the PJ would shut off with a blinking orange light which usually means the bulb door is open. After verifying that it wasn't, the same thing happened when I tried it again.

I put back the original fans, and it ran with no problem.

Soooo, for some reason it doesn't like the new fans. Both are 12V, with the same amperage (.19A), but the new ones cause some sort of fault. The lead wires of the new fans were 1 gauge thicker than the originals - maybe that caused some sort of resistance problem. I'm no electrical engineer, anyone else?

So I'm back up with the original fans, no better off but no worse off either.

Anybody using the VP4001 on a larger screen? I have a 120" DIY screen right now but I'd like to redo my HT room which will give me more throwing distance between the PJ and the screen. I'm thinking Id get somewhere between 140-150" with the new throw distance.

Would be VP4001 be capable of doing this without losing too much details/brightness? Anyway using this on a larger (>120") screen? I have a 90% light controlled room too and the 10% is from ambient surround lighting...no sunlight.

Thanks

PS: I'm now back up and running with my replacement bulb. Thank God I had the Mack's bulb warranty to cover for the $399!!!

Well, that blows! So much for making mine quieter after the warranty period. I don't think it's a current draw/resistance issue. Instead, I'm guessing it's an RPM issue. Quieter fans usually turn slower. Without knowing the RPMs of the originals, it's not likely we can test this theory though. I wonder if Marantz would be kind enough to assist in this matter?

I have a 144 inch screen. I'm no expert but it looks great to me. My bulb still has less than 200 hours but I have no complaints