[usualsuspects]

My Pearl had 571 hours on the original bulb, and I decided it was time to get a new bulb, and keep the old one as a spare. I did not do this because I had any complaints about the image brightness (it was fine), but just so I would have a spare bulb.


Thanks to this great thread on measuring your projector brightness:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=755705

I decided to get the CA813 light meter - below are the measurements of both the old and new bulbs. Measured image size is 50.5 high (16x9 image = 31.49 sqft) with a throw of 17 feet. Pearl set to low color temp. The Panel +20% refers to the panel driver settings in the service menu. The FTL numbers are for a unity gain screen (1.0). Note also that the "contrast" slider in the Pearl menu is set to 80 for these measurements. Note that this is NOT the maximum lumens the Pearl will generate for three reasons - contrast not set to 100 in pearl menu, not at shortest throw, and not in high color temp.

Code:

Old bulb - 571 hours:   Lumens  FTL
Panel normal - Low      187.30  5.95
Panel normal - High     263.39  8.36
Panel +20% - low        215.10  6.83
Panel +20% - High       292.66  9.29

New Bulb - 1 hour:      Lumens  FTL
Panel normal - Low      380.46  12.08
Panel normal - High     585.32  18.59
Panel +20% - low        441.91  14.03
Panel +20% - High       661.41  21.00

New Bulb - 50 hours:    Lumens  FTL
Panel normal - Low      324.85  10.32
Panel normal - High     491.67  15.61
Panel +20% - low        386.31  12.27
Panel +20% - High       570.68  18.12

New Bulb - 100 hours:   Lumens  FTL
Panel normal - Low      321.92  10.22
Panel normal - High     488.74  15.52
Panel +20% - low        374.60  11.90
Panel +20% - High       561.90  17.84

 

[scottyb]

Thanks for this info.

How do you increase the panel driver?


Scott

 

[usualsuspects]

Panel drivers:

exit the pearl OSD

remote: enter - enter - left - enter

asks if you want to turn on service mode (or words to that effect) - say yes

press menu - a new option at the bottom of the OSD appears called "Device"

go into Device - the option is called "Panel drivers"

For reference my panel driver settings from the factory were R = 85 / G = 85 / B = 45

Note that when you change the panel drivers, it throws off any calibration you have done - you need to recalibrate.

 

[usualsuspects]

Added 50 hour mark measurements.

 

[wildfire99]

Wow... another sign of 50% brightness drop at a few hundred hours compared to the first hour.

 

[PerryD]

These number match my experience which is when I first purchased the unit, the projector was eye-searingly bright for the first couple months, but just recently (at around 500 hours) became dim. I set it to High lamp and am extremely happy again, but hopefully the brightness won't drop in half again so soon.

 

[Ralph Potts]

Greetings,


It funny but I did the same thing at almost the same point. My original lamp 577 hours on it and I bought and installed a new one and kept the original as a spare.


I noticed a definite increase in the unit's brightness which I would certainly say seems to coincide with your measurements.



Thanks for posting.



Regards,

 

[usualsuspects]

Added 100 hour mark measurements.