Official Panasonic AE2000 thread - Page 123

I did it. It is very easy.

One has to lift the white plastic lever which locks the flat flex cable (FFC). The lever is located at the very end of the FFC and socket. It must be lifted towards the FFC. Then the FFC must be pulled out very gently without applying any force.

Read my book, it doesn't sound good.

Image won't display on screen, so I'm not sure if thats cause the lamp is gone or something else broke inside.

Anyone have info to help me out there, thanks.

Sorry, I skipped your post.
Remember to mark as accurately as possible the position of each polarizer because the marks will be used for resetting them.
Fernando

How many hours?
You can try taking the lamp off and install it again. Also check it to see if it is cracked or the bulb is dark. If resitting the lamp doesn't works, probably you will need a new one.
Fernando

Thanks Ferbal,

I opted to buy a bulb locally, $399 Canadian, the momoent I put the new bulb in it started to work. I was able to reset the bulb hours, it was at 898hrs but I'm the 3rd owner of this unit since 07. So I'm guessing either it was time for the bulb to die, or one of the previous owners had the lamp hours reset.

Once I put the new bulb and reset the hours I put the old one back in and yep.. still no go. The cheapest I could find a replacement was from a guy on ebay for $288 (US?) he is out from Japan so if he pays in US$ after shipping / Cnd conversion I'm only out by $70.

Hey guys, I have never posted before, but I was hoping someone could help who has experienced a similar problem or just may know by this description. I bought my Panasonic 2000u in Sept. 2008...it has about 300 hours I guess. Well starting about a week ago, I began having difficulty turning the projector on. I would press the power button on the remote (as usual), the front LED light would turn green, then it would turn yellow, then it would turn red. During this process, I would NOT hear the usual sound of the lens focusing (or whatever it does) right before the lamp starts and projects the Blue "Panasonic" Screen. For a few days, I was able to get the projector started by simply turning the main power off and back on...then trying to power up again. I am not sure if this process had anything to do with it at the time, but it does not work anymore. I have tried turning the projector on about 30 times now, and I get nothing. Just the green - yellow - red light sequence...also I hear a "click, click" noise followed by a muted grinding sound. It sounds like the lens motor is out or grinding on something like it is stuck.

Just wondering if this is a unique experience?

My current ceiling mount is driving me nuts. It constantly shakes out of place when playing DDR. That combined with its tendency to collect dust even with the filter taped over the input has me thinking about making a "box" and screwing it to a joist in the ceiling, and just setting it in there.

My hope is that it will collect dust less easily and be less likely to shake out of place by either vibrations, taking the air filter out to clean or plugging something in.

I have some ideas for the design, but it's not final yet. Would anyone be interested in me cataloging it?

I think you have to be careful about th size of the box you are thinking about because you don't want it to get to hot. It states in the owners manual about build up of heat when placed to close to something. I do not have the manual near or I would quote it, just look into it or maybe someone will chime in.

Cnd Joe
If you want, you can know the total hours of your PJ by entering in the Ext. Option Menu:
1. When the projector is power ON, press "POWER" button to display "POWER OFF" confirmation screen.
2. Press the right-arrow button to select "CANCEL" in the "POWER OFF" confirmation screen.
3. Press the buttons in order of up-arrow, down-arrow, up-arrow, down-arrow and "ENTER".
(When the "ENTER" button is pressed, "EXT OPTION" menu is displayed.)
Select the Self Check Display and you will see the info.
Fernando

Well it's not really going to be a box so much as a platform suspended from the ceiling. I think the design I'm going to do is just 4 2x4" screwed together in a rectangle, screwed to the ceiling, with plywood attached to the inside bottom. So it will be mostly an open-air deal.

I just returned from a two week overseas trip yesterday. My house was
basically locked down, with heating system set at 60 degrees and all the
water/gas and non-essential electrics turned off at the fuse box.

Unfortunately, I may have overlooked one item....

A few minutes ago, I went to my basement and discovered that my AE2000
was still on. It wasn't getting any signals because the HD-DVR and A/V
receiver were not turned on. The projector was basically just projecting
a black image on the screen, with the small blue input guide blinking....

This means my AE2000 was on continuosly for 350+ hours!

What kind of damage, if any, has I done to my AE2000? It is currently
showing a little over 1000 hours on this lamp. (a couple of weeks ago, I
believe it was somewhere between 600 to 700 hours)

The basement was only 53 degrees... not sure if the cold is good or bad....

The only good thing, AFAIK, is that the two dust bunnies on the lower half of the
screen have disappeared.... (the fan running 350 hours probably kicked them out)

I have just turned on my HD DVR and AV receiver.... the picture look alright.... but....

Speaking in regards to the above post. I have my projector set in Cinema 1 and Eco-mode. I did the Eco-mode because I was afraid to use up the bulb. However, I only watch maybe 1 or two movies a week on it.

Am I doing myself a disservice by not putting the bulb in Normal-mode and getting all the quality I can get out of it?

Do you find the Cinema 1 mode and eco mode is too dim? If so then why not just enjoy the brighter picture with the lamp in normal and/or the mode in Normal too? If you find Cinema 1 is bright enough, then fair enough, not need to dazzle yourself with a brighter mode until the lamp dims to much for Cinema 1 mode. I'm not sure how true it is that the lamp gets more hours in eco as others have reported problems running in eco such as flickering, that in some cases resulted in buying a new lamp anyway.

I used to run my PJ in Cinema 1 mode with an ND2 filter to give better blacks and convinced myself that the picture was good. However I recently did a D65 calibration and don't use the ND2 filter and enjoy the picture much more.

I just realised this is the AE2000 thread, but I'm a former AE1000 and AE2000 owner, plus the AE3000 works the same anyway regarding the various modes and lamp settings. I also prefer Cinema 1 mode to Colour 1 mode and found that they were both off from D65 out of the box anyway with my example (so much for Colour 1 being almost spot on). I find the shadow detail is better with Cinema 1 than Colour 1 so it tends not to 'flatten to grey' so easily....the shadow details helps fool the eye into not thinking it's just an expanse of dark grey.

Fernando,

I read your tutorial on how to fix color uniformity problems. The procedure is simple, but I'm having problems with the white plastic molex connectors on the A-P.C. board. Some of them seem to be jammed and I can't unplug them. My fingernails are not strong enough. Did you use a tool to disconnect them or is there a special trick to do this? Is there some kind of lock? Your advice would be appreciated. I now know how to disconnect the LCD ribbon cables as I mentioned above in post 3661. Also, I do have a copy of the service manual.


I read a lot of posts on how to clean the polarizers. I have yellow stains when projecting white, light grey screens. They are almost in the middle of the screen. They are not dust blobs and I can see them on all sources and modes. They were there from the start, but since my projector was an import, I simply lived with them. It looks like my blue polarizer might be the culprit and would like at least to try and clean it, just in case this would be a simple fix. It's probably just dust and we know that some people had dust problems from the very beginning with the AE2000. My projector only has 280 hours of use.

Bartok
Use a magnifying glass to see if there are any locks (don't remember).
Try carefully with a small screwdriver. Put a little pressure on each side of the molex. It is a good idea to write where goes the colors of the wires of each connector.
If you are seeing yellow stains on a white image, then yes, you have to clean the blue polarizer (in RGB, the absence of blue makes yellow).
Tell us how it went

Many thanks.

I'll try again this week and I'll make sure to report back.

My picture shows a big yellow stain like the one on this picture from Andyswof, an avsforum member. The yellow stain was there from the very beginning when I turned on the projector for the first time. On my screen, the yellow stain is near the center and runs across the picture horizontally. Andyswof bought a AE2000 unit which had this color uniformity defect. He returned it and saw the same defect on his second unit. Both units were new (see posts 2538 and 2570 on page 85 and 86 of this thread). I'm sure other people have this problem but haven't noticed it.

I've been able to unplug all the molex and ribbon connectors and remove the A-P.C. board. I unscrewed and examined both the blue incident polarizer and its related phase difference board, and everything is very clean. No dust, no burning visible. Everything was done without any adverse effect on the picture. The stain is still there, of course.

Besides, the stain is visible on all picture modes and on all video sources. It is not a dust blob and I can't bring it into focus. I doubt it is a dust problem because the projector only has 300 hours and everything looks very clean in there.

1) It could be a minor defect in the polarizer which is not yet visible on visual inspection (I doubt this because I couldn't see any problem).
2) It could be dust anywhere in the light path (I doubt this because the projector is pretty clean and only has 300 hours). I did blow compressed air directly on the LCD panels and polarizers. Nothing changed. The picture is the same.
3) It could be a mirror/reflector alignment problem. This could be fixed easily I think. See Section 7.4.3. of the Service Manual on page 25.
4) The PBS array looks well seated and very clean.

What is your opinion on hypothesis number 3? Can a misalignment of the mirrors/reflectors produce such a stain in the middle of the screen or would this happen only on the sides?

Unfortunately, that doesn't mean much. It's possible to have a dust blob out of the box. Definitely not what your issue is though.

I've only experience of taking apart my original AE1000 (my AE3000 hasn't needed it yet, luckily ), but I did manage to adjust my polarizers to improve uniformity on it. I found that misalignment would show yellow (or other colours depending on which polarizer) at the sides, top or bottom edges. I don't think it is possible to get a patch in the middle without having one side ot other coloured also.

It may be related to the surface of the mirrors/polarizers, but it seems that you've already tried that. The only other thing I can think of it to cross over two of the ribbon cables for the blue and green LCD panel and see if you get a pink patch (which means it is a circuit board fault) or if the patch remains yellow, meaning it's a light path issue.

Many thanks. I'll check again the blue polarizer, this time with a magnifying glass and more light on a pure white background. May be it just has a very slight uniformity defect out of the box. May be pure, even polarizer surfaces are not a given, and you get several defective polarizers out of a batch. If this is the case, I'll order a new one and replace it.

I'll also closely inspect the rest of the light path (reflectors, dichroic mirrors, etc.) to see if there is dust.

Reading the Service Manual, I think you're right. They discuss reflector/mirror adjustments for the left/right, top/bottom sides only. I guess patches in the middle wouldn't be corrected by this procedure.

I'll try to swap the ribbons and see if it is an electronic problem.

I can also send it for repair and pay.

I am personally inclined to the option #1.
Ever since I had to clean my red polarizer, a very subtle red stain can be seen on a black image. I think that when I cleaned it, I could have scraped some of the coating and that is the reason of the stain I am seeing now.

Ok, weirdest thing is happening.

I just picked up a new cable box for my HT room. Since Ive had my projector Ive only used it for Blu-ray and DVD movies. Everything has looked absolutely fantastic.

Bring in the cable box and now I have this green line going vertical on the right side of the screen. Its friggin annoying and I cant get rid of it.

Its on every channel but it goes away when I go into the cable box menu(trying to see if a horizontal shift would help). And comes back when I go back to watching a channel. This is happening on regular DT channels and also on the HD channels.

I swapped out cables and its still happening. Im going to swap boxes with my one downstairs tomorrow to see if its actually the box itself.

Has anyone else ever experienced this?

Don't forget to look for vertical and horizontal image size adjustments in the cable box - just adjust them symmetrically, so you get round circles!

If the green line is right at the edge you may be able to push it off the screen by using the projector's own electronic (as opposed to manual) horizontal position control or its horizontal overscan control (that adjusts the size of the image - the vertical controls can be used to push off the screen control signals at the top of the image that are sent during the vertical blanking interval).

If you're directly connecting the cable box to the projector you can make these adjustments without affecting the other inputs, since the projector maintains separate settings for each input.

If you're feeding all video through your receiver, these settings will affect the blu-ray and other inputs unless you go to the trouble of creating memorized presets that you remember to call up when you change inputs - too much trouble to my way of looking at it - I just plug all video cables directly into the projector and choose video signals with the projector's remote control. (I've assigned the three inputs I use most often to the three macro buttons.)

I see that line as well. Not on all channels, though, I don't think. My screen isn't perfectly 16:9, so to fill the screen vertically I'm over the left/right edges under an inch on either side. So the green is there, but it's on the black border, easy enough for me to ignore.

If your cable box outputs at a different resolution to BluRay, ie at 1080/60i or p as opposed to 1080/24p then you can use the electronic H shift control to crop the edge of the image. This function retains the 1:1 pixel mapping it just moves the image across the LCD and makes the opposite edge row of pixels black.The AE2000 will remember this setting for each input resolution, so you may have to think laterally how to set up your sources to make sure that only the cable box gets 'cropped'. This setting isn't saved in memory either, so you can't apply different settings and then save them to a preset IIRC. Don't use overscan as this will just lose the 1:1 pixel mapping and make the image softer (not sure if this is a global setting that might then apply to any BluRays which you won't want to do).

I might have to try this. I have my picture perfectly within the borders of the screen. Maybe Ill expand it a bit more so its on the felt.

Thanks for everyone elses ideas too!

I'm going to buy a new blue polarizer and install it. I'll report back next week. Many thanks to everyone.

HyperM3
If the green line comes with the signal, you can use some of the position controls that are located in the Main Menu -> Position (like Position or Over Scan).
Fernando

For some reason the green line is ONLY coming on with the HD channels. Any other channel(even on demand) then its gone. This one really befuddles me.

Yes, some channels have it and some don't. I have it in the black area around my screen, and I sit pretty close, so I don't really notice or let it bother me. You could try zooming or offsetting the screen a few pixels with the controls in the projector.