Progressive performance degradation - Barco DP2k-32B

[Marco Giustini]

My room is sealed

If that means properly sealed as "the projector is venting IN the room and you have AC units which DON'T get air from outside to remove the heat, then your projectors are probably spotless inside.
Every time I serviced a "sealed" room, I was questioning the purpose of my visit as everything was spotless inside.

That said, a little dust will still be generated by day to day use, I'd still go with a service visit to assess the brightness you have and clean the optics. To clarify, the back of the lens/front of the prism is NOT a sealed are in a Barco S2 and WILL get covered in dust just because the projector will blow air between them to keep them cool.

Filters: shall we mention the big FAIL with the 10S where Barco finally added Hepa filters but forgot to seal a large gap around them and the projector was sucking in unfiltered air? They issued a fix for that if memory serves.
On the S2, I appreciate the engine is sealed so the purpose of the mesh filter, as Steve says, is to keep bugs out. Yet, a better filter would help in keeping things under control IMHO.

[Marcel Birgelen]

Typical drive-in screens... about what you'd expect. Corrugated metal surfaces with the whitest flat paint I can get.

Like I indicated, traditional drive-ins are a rarity at this side of the pond. Have any of you had any experiences with laser projection and corrugated screens in respect to speckle? Most screens seem to be painted flat-white, so I guess that should reduce speckle, but the metallic nature of the backing, plus metallic particles in the paint could be a source of nuisance, in regards to speckle.

[Leo Enticknap]

On the S2, I appreciate the engine is sealed so the purpose of the mesh filter, as Steve says, is to keep bugs out. Yet, a better filter would help in keeping things under control IMHO.

Well ... semi-sealed. Air enters it through the card cage air filter, past the chamber above the card cage (where the light engine connections land on the backplane), and is then pushed into the light engine compartment by a large fan. So if the card cage filter is compromised, contaminants will enter the light engine compartment via that route. I have seen the large fan (the fan on the bulkhead between the card cage and the light engine compartment) with dirty blades as the result of the card cage air filter either not having been cleaned often enough, or worn out and sprouted holes or tears.

An annoyance for me with those air filters is that Barco will only sell you a replacement set of all three: you can't buy them individually. The card cage filter takes a lot more abuse than the other two: many's the time I've found a card cage air filter with holes, tears, and beyond cleaning, while the radiator and lamphouse intake filters look almost factory new.

[Marco Giustini]

My understanding of "sealed light engine" has always been "there is no air gap between DMDs and prism" so any dust collecting OUTSIDE of the prism is irrelevant. Christie on the other hand had NON SEALED DMDs where a laminar flow of air was being used to cool down(*) the DMDs and prism, that's why they always had two filters, the main and the LAD. Which still won't be 100% effective over time.

Some years ago I was called to look at an NEC projector which had been abused during construction work and now a red "stairfield" was visible on a black image. The cinema complained that the projector was sold as "sealed" but the answer they got was more or less that the fact that the optics are sealed doesn't mean that you could do drywall work and have the projector covered by a few mm of plaster dust WHILE it's working! (yes, that was how I found it weeks before).

Same for Barco, yes, the DMDs might be sealed, it doesn't mean that the projector can live in a dumpster ?

(*) Christie claimed it wasn't a cooling issue but to keep the area clean - I just don't believe that! ?

[Steve Guttag]

I had a theatre, with an NEC NC1200C...at the top of the steps, nearest the popping area...the projector would suck in popcorn soot. The NEC filter, while not HEPA is a pleated thing and better than wire mesh. However, what it ended up doing was straining the popcorn soot and then sending the liquid remains into prism area where that pivoting fan that points down at the prism pumped the liquified popcorn soot right into the prism. Red got to "drink" it, over time.

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They cyan area at the upper-right is the result

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Oh...on the Barco...don't forget the UV-Blocker. I suspect that if you look at it, it now has a discolored area where the 6.5KW lamp has been burning through.

[Marco Giustini]

looks like the RED is the most affected with NEC

[Jay Glaus]

Hey Jack,

This is definitely a thing. I run a 7kw on my big screen. I used to get almost 14 on the screen, but now after 11 years I’m getting about 10.5. I’ve cleaned everything I can clean. I did hear of a company that would renew reflectors for these projectors like the film days, but I can’t remember the name. I believe that would help my situation. I also believe I would benefit from sending my light engine in for cleaning.

My only hang up is the fact of the looming laser conversion. How much money do I want to put into a 32B at this point? Good question. Although, I’d rather keep my 32B going than start converting to laser because I already went through a conver$$$ion once, not sure I want to do it again. But, Bezos hasn’t decided that he needs my property for a warehouse yet, so I guess I have to keep it chugging along for now.

[Marco Giustini]

losing 25% in 11 years - considering that if you say "almost" it means that you ran the projector at 100% from day one?? - is not much. I'd expect much more.

[Ryan Gallagher]

Our Christie CP2220 is coming up on it's 10 year anniversary. It probably had a little headroom at the time of install cause the screen was new at that time too, but we only reliably hit 14fL (measured during festivals and premieres) with a relatively fresh lamp these days (3K CDXL-30SP). We also run at 100% all the time now (perhaps always did).

Because of our festival needs, we used to put a new lamp in every year at the start of the big festival... but now we've got a small pile of ones that still have usable hours on them, and have switched to having a festival/premiere lamp that only gets used for that, and burning through the hours on the others the rest of the time. Like Jay, we also have a looming upgrade in the somewhat indeterminant future.

But plenty of studio techs have commented we were under-sold on our projector for our throw and output needs, back to that always preferring to have some headroom and not running everything at full tilt.

[Jack Ondracek]

plenty of studio techs have commented we were under-sold on our projector for our throw and output needs, back to that always preferring to have some headroom and not running everything at full tilt

My understanding was that this Barco, and one model from Cristie were the biggest available at the time. I didn't consider the Cristie model because filters were some $200/set and the machine didn't seem as well sealed against dust, which is a problem here, even with my closed-loop booth.

Bezos hasn’t decided that he needs my property for a warehouse yet, so I guess I have to keep it chugging along for now.

Know what you mean, Jay. He built a new distribution center at the end of our airport... about half a mile up the road from me. While that didn't do anything for my checkbook, it did speed up deliveries a lot!

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

Filters: shall we mention the big FAIL with the 10S where Barco finally added Hepa filters but forgot to seal a large gap around them and the projector was sucking in unfiltered air?

NEC S2 had a similar issue, but could be corrected by applying thin foam tape to the face of the new air filters...

[Marco Giustini]

well those NEC filters just lacked a gasket.

Barco left an opening between the lens and the filter, it was so obvious that air would have liked to go through there and not through the filter!

[Rick Cohen]

You would get a big boost in light output and image quality by replacing the 32B with a Barco SP55 laser on your big screen. Double the light output, 4K resolution, no more lamps, and a reduction on your electric bill. It's a nice chunk out of your wallet, but the improvement in presentation will be worth it over the long haul, if there is still a long haul in this business.

[Barry Floyd]

We're running the same 12 year old 23B's, and we're probably looking at doing a total projector replacements. Several years ago I accidentally broke the reflector in my Screen 2 projector while changing a lamp. The new reflector made a HUGE difference in light output. My picture on Screen 1 pales in comparison to the image on Screen 2.

Our hardest decision at the moment is do we really want to borrow another $200K to stay in the business probably another 10 years. Our place is completely paid for, making great money, and the attendance is finally starting to look like pre-2020 numbers again. However, the land value we're sitting on and our ages are definitely part of the equation to factor in.