PLV70/20HD Shuts down immediately upon power up

Some people have reported that this scenario has been caused by the projector not getting enough electricity to start up the bulb. I have mine running off a UPS/Line Conditioner and only have that problem maybe 1 in 20 starts......You may want to try and connect the projector either to a different electric circuit or thru a good line conditioner/UPS.

Possibly your bulb is headed for the Big One. Does your image appear less bright than it used to be? I had continuous mis-fires and got a new bulb after speaking with Sanyo tech. The guy there implied that my one instance of overheat (filters were blinded w/dust - my bad) may have taken the life of my 320 hr. original bulb. Of course, after getting the new $400 bulb, the old one started working again, but seemed dimmer to me. I put the new one in and am saving the old for backup. I'm now cleaning filters at least once/week. There have been lots of theories I've read, but no definitive answer that I'm aware of. I've heard that some early units had a controller glitch that caused failure to start up. You may want to call Sanyo.


Since going to the new bulb, I've not had the problem. It's a bitter $$ pill, though.


Gordon

Gordon,

Along with all my other issues, I too experienced a mis-fire. The bulb was new, the filters were clean, the projectors on it's own circuit. I simply removed/reset the bulb, and it's worked fine ever since.


I can honestly say that the purchase of this projector has been one of the worst experiences I've ever had as a consumer.


I expected many hours of enjoyment in my intimate home threater.

WRONG!

Gordon -


Thanks for the info. I have a HiPix/HTPC that will be my viewing source for HDTV. I've installed a DVD drive into the computer and am looping the ATI VGA out into the HiPix for movie playback. I've thought about uprgrading the video card to DVI but I've read the HD20 won't go above 1024 X 768 via DVI. Is this really true?


I'm still constructing the home theatre in the basement and at first, the screen will be a white muslin sheet as I'm trying to determine what screen size will best fit my 17' 1/2" 16' room. I've read the DaLite HCMW screen is the way to go. My guess is I'll go with 106" X 60" (119" diag.) sitting about 8' - 10' back. What are your home theatre and screen dimensions?


Andre'

Thanks for the various suggestions (different power circuit and re-seating the bulb). I'll try the power circuit first and see what happens. So far 3 starts without trouble.


If that does not work, I'll move on to the bulb suggestion. I did call SE about the problem and they too suggested re-seating the bulb although they claimed to have not heard of this type of problem before.


Aside from dust blobs and this start up issue, the projector has not had any other problems since I received it a few months ago. The cleaning tips offered here have always cleared the dust, so I expect similar results on the power up problem too

SE can claim ignorance, but they know what's going on.

I can confirm that the PLV-70 will do 1360x768 via DVI, however I have yet to find a cable that can get the signal from HTPC to projector without problems. Approx 30' apart. I use a VGA cable and am quite happy. Did not see much if any difference between the VGA and DVI connection anyway during the limited time I had the cables to try.


James

Quote:
There are lots of posts on the benefit of High Power in the monster PLV-70 support thread. I had to be talked to quite sternly by Brandon, JHouse and others to give it a try. I know it is counter-intuitive and flies in the face of conventional HT wisdom, but it works and works very well. I don't want to hijack this lamp issue thread any further, but it's greater brightness allowed my to significantly lower the brightness setting and raise the contrast settings when I calibrated it to the screen (AVIA). Very punchy picture with apparently great blacks. It was a BIG improvement over the HCMW screen that I started out with.

Gordon

That was one of the cables I tried. And to give BetterCables credit, it came closer to working than any of them. Still had sparklies though. But at least with this cable I could compare VGA and DVI at the same resolution and with VGA properly adjusted, there was little to no difference for me. I will admit I was and am running a Radeon 7500 which is not up to the specs of your 9700PRO by a wide margin. Might even be the diference as to why the cable did not work for me. The 9700 might have stronger DVI drive and got through the 30' cable better. Donno. I am likely to stick with the 7500 until a solution for HD recording exists for cable HD and then upgrade my entire HTPC which is just a P3 1GHz and would never support HD resolutions.


Thanks for the info, I had thought that perhaps the card might have been part of the problem, glad to know the DVI CAN work with the right combo. Will likely need it in the future.


James

Quick update for the record---

Changing to a different power circuit had no impact with miss-starts. I continue to experience them. I am now trying the original power circuit but have reseated the lamp. Time will tell...