projector help?

Question

i have a sony vpl hs10 cineza i only bough it 3 months ago i have watched a lots of movies on it .the projector lamp has 3000 hour life but now its gone to dull very dull picture shows on the screen i dont think i have used all of the hours so please help i have also ordered a new lamp.

Answer 1

Unfortunately it sounds like you have indeed worn out the bulb.

The rated "life" on bulbs is an estimate, and should always be considered a maximum. Various factors can shorten bulb life ... the most important being inadequate cooling and improper shutdown.

For maximum life follow these guidelines:
- don't obstruct cooling ports
- use in a dust free area
- if available, use the low power setting
- be sure to turn off the bulb and cool it down with the fan for several minutes before turning off the power
- never "short-cycle" the lamp (if tuned on accidently. let it run for at least 5 minutes before turning off, and then cool down properly)
- keep the cooling filter clean (remove and clean or replace per manufacturers instructions)
- put the projector on a UPS (it has been estimated that a single power outage during operation can cut lamp life by 20%).

Finally, some projectors are better designed than others. For example, -- not that it is relevant to your Sony -- but the AVS forum reports the Optoma HD79 as being an example of a projector with a high incidence of premature lamp failure. It is supposed to be related to inadequate cooling capacity. In this regard you may wish to monitor the AVS forum thread for your projector to see if there are any lamp life issues being reported.

Good luck.

Answer 2

I hate to say it, but I think you have answered your own question: "i have watched a lots of movies on it". Those 3000 hours mentioned go by VERY quickly. I can't speak of the Sony but in general LCD and DLP projectors eat up lamps rather quickly, especially in a HT situation.
Are you sure it is a projector issue? I mean have you checked the connections downstream to make sure it isn't some sort of termination or impedance thing? Just a thought.