Anyone know about projectors?

[Andy100]

I thought I'd got a bit of a bargain on a NEC LT150 DLP projector but it seems like I might have been sold a dud.

Yesterday I hooked it up to my pc with a vga cable and after pressing the auto adjust button had everything up and running nicely. Watching a movie the picture was excellent with no problems at all.

Today when I turned it on something seems to have gone very very wrong with it.

http://static.flickr.com/130/323632532_3f3aa24cd3.jpg

As you can see it looks like it's reverted to 16 colours or something :(

I've tried connecting it to 2 different pc's with both a vga and s-video cable and nothing seems to help. :'(


Please tell me there's something simple I've missed as watching that first movie has got me hooked and if I can't get this working I know I'm gonna end up spending a ton of money on another one.

[Garp]

That seems a little odd.. bulb failure usually results in strange patterns or distortion around one edge. Grab a look at the bulb though and see if you can see any obvious cracks. Projector bulbs are good for 300 - 500 hours depending on projector and manufacturer and it may just be that the bulb has gone. However they are expensive to replace and I'd be cautious about purchasing one without being confident that the bulb has failed.

[Andy100]

Thanks mate,

I might take it to a shop then and see what they say. I've had the bulb out but can't see anything obvious with it.

I guess that's the risk you take buying something second hand...

Just gutting as the first film we watched looked absolutely amazing. :'(

[Zirax]

Just thought of something.... is that 16 or 256 colours?
Windows can be funny with this stuff, you have to turn the projector on first, then turn the machine on. I wonder if windows thinks this is a lousy monitor so drops the res and colours down?

Sorry I didn't mention this before, just remembered something similar happening when I played with projectors in the past

[Mark]

Looks like 256 to me but it's impossible to tell for sure from that pic. It's definitely posterised (i.e. low number of bits), so that's a possibility.

[Nutcase]

I've got a DLP proj that does the same thing. From what I can tell it's overheating. I got mine to work a bit longer by stripping it down adn I found a headshield had slipped. Still only works properly for about 30 mins though, so probably some heat damage to one of the pcb's.

[Andy100]

I've got a DLP proj that does the same thing. From what I can tell it's overheating. I got mine to work a bit longer by stripping it down adn I found a headshield had slipped. Still only works properly for about 30 mins though, so probably some heat damage to one of the pcb's.

Yup, pretty sure it's something similar now.

I stripped it down and I can get it to work perfectly if I bend one of the PCB's so I'm guessing the heat has warped it.

I'd imagine it'll cost more than the 200 quid I paid for it to get it fixed :(


I guess this is the perfect excuse to go and buy that 40" lcd tv I've had my eye on then :evil:

[Burble]

If bending a PCB gets it working then it could just be a dry joint. Pull the board out and have a look at the solder joints, if you're lucky you may be able to fix it.