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Topic: who has installed SONY SRX-R515P

Mark Gulbrandsen
Resident Trollmaster

Posts: 16657
From: Music City
Registered: Jun 99

posted 12-06-2013 12:40 PM

Since each lamp has it's own reflector you should shoot colors each time you change one out. Life in NC-900 is warranted to be 3K hours. I have 2 units over 1500 hours now. I also have one location that gets by with just running on one lamp! You can select which lamp or both to have on in DCC. You can also safely change out a lamp while the projector is running if one of them dies.

You already know about lamp life and Sony... While the NC-900 is without a doubt the least expensive projector to operate on the market Sony has certainly killed any chance of benefittng running the UHP lamps just by having six lamps. They may as well run a pair of 2-3 KW xeon in there instead.

Mark

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Carsten Kurz
Film God

Posts: 4340
From: Cologne, NRW, Germany
Registered: Aug 2009

posted 12-06-2013 02:36 PM

I know quite a few locations running the Sony with only two lamps. Some even with only one. They can keep the remaining lamps as spares, or enable them during 3D showings.

Sony (and NEC) talk about LOST SHOWS. Do you send people home during a running show because one lamp blows and the colours may be slightly off for the rest of the show with another lamp? No, you are glad you have that redundancy. Aside from that, running six lamps eases out variations by individual lamps.

Not that we are talking about a common issue anyway, as you say yourself, these lamps operate rock solid.

Do you shoot colors multiple times over the lifespan of a Xenon? Who does that, other than grading suites and the like?

- Carsten

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Mark Gulbrandsen
Resident Trollmaster

Posts: 16657
From: Music City
Registered: Jun 99

posted 12-06-2013 03:52 PM

I can tell ya one thing... if this lamp system hadn't been previously prooven in other projectors I'd have never sold all the 900's I did. I was very leery of the whole idea at first. Pat Moore sent a loaner... actually came out with it and we made a bunch of measurements in operating theaters with one and became more impressed. I have been monitoring a couple of NC-900's that are relatively close by... The color has been very stable as has the light. We'll see in another 500 hours when they hit the 2000 hour mark... Six lamps in the Sony is still ludricous, you'd have to store multiple color sp. measuremants there! The hassle is likely not worth the bother. But I hope the Sony's make the 3000 hours but past Sony model's never make warranty hours. If they do that says a lot for these lamps.

Mark

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Carsten Kurz
Film God

Posts: 4340
From: Cologne, NRW, Germany
Registered: Aug 2009

posted 12-07-2013 11:31 AM

You do not store 6 individual color measurements in the Sony. You choose a lamp set that suits your screen size/brightness combo, shoot the colours for that lamp pattern, that's it. Same as with the NEC. Just that you have more choices for larger screens and 3D.

- Carsten

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Mark Gulbrandsen
Resident Trollmaster

Posts: 16657
From: Music City
Registered: Jun 99

posted 12-07-2013 05:07 PM

In the case of the NEC if you are running just one lamp you have to shoot and store colors for both lamps. That is easy to store those in DLP though. Then when one lamp goes and your customer switches over to the other you already have it's color set in the projector. No need to go to the site. I can plug in the other color space setting remotely to the appropriate titles.

Mark

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System Notices
Forum Watchdog / Soup Nazi

Posts: 215

Registered: Apr 2004

posted 04-20-2017 10:50 PM

It has been 1230 days since the last post.

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Alan Gouger
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 501
From: Bradenton, FL, USA
Registered: Jul 2000

posted 04-20-2017 10:50 PM

Now that the 515s have been around for a while I am curious if anyone has measured their contrast recently, how are they holding up. Any alternative filters being used or recommended and has the software advanced.

Thank you!

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Ioannis Syrogiannis
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 147
From: Reykjavík, Iceland
Registered: Jun 2005

posted 04-21-2017 03:19 AM

The projector's contrast in a well-used and well-serviced projector is not degrading. Yet, the color and light calibration is necessary in regular intervals that are shorter than the ones for DLP light engines.
As for alternative filters, I can't help you. I should mention that Sony issued some new filters itself, a long awaited action. If you want to go for alternative filters, be cautious.
I can't commend on software advances since 2013, since I first met the Sony 500 series late on 2014, when the concurrent software version was 1.22.2 and the most recent is 1.53.4.
There were improvements. Some of them, like swapping 2D/3D lenses while projector on, would need (small) hardware revisions/alterations. Others, like enhanced content transfer speed or playing a CPL with the lamps off would not (need something else). Sony servers are behaving better with third party TMSs and the other way around. That is an issue that you'll have to check individually, though.
If you don't use TMS but you use automations, you 'll have to use nested SPLs (playlists within playlists) in order to add and remove content without having to calculate cue offsets again. A Sony peculiarity that one gets used to in a short period of time.

The more peculiar thing, though. The thing that I find hard to understand on its GUI, is why on earth a projectionist or a show manager has the ability to save (even more, over-write) a function (where "function" read: "preset", "macro", "title" etc.) and the "save" button that can do such a thing is (just) by the "load" button, that has to be used to manually change functions. What goes beyond me, is that it seems, after so many software releases, that no one cares to as much as add a confirmation window (when one is logged in as user1 or showmgr or with similar privileges) that says:
"You are about to save the 2D/3D function by the name "FLAT" to the 2D/3D function by the name "SCOPE" and that action can not be undone. Are you certain that you want to do this? Would you like to take a minute, drink a sip of coffee or a beverage, think about it and press OK or CANCEL?"
And, then, when one hits OK, to be greeted with another pop-up warning window that says:
"Did you press OK for wanting something to drink, or for overwriting a function? Please choose:
A) I 'll take the drink, thank you, cancel the saving of the function
B) I had too many drinks, please cancel all, show the exit to the patrons, turn off and cool down the lamps, shutdown the equipment and call me a taxi.
C) Overwrite the function, the person that did the settings is within a five-minutes-drive-distance and I 'd love to buy him a cup of coffee, if something goes wrong."

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Alan Gouger
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 501
From: Bradenton, FL, USA
Registered: Jul 2000

posted 04-21-2017 08:44 AM

Nice report Ioannis thank you. I no longer have the 515 but miss its efficiency. Using only one 330 lamp would outperform a 2000watt xenon in brightness it was amazing. The contrast was very nice.

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Ioannis Syrogiannis
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 147
From: Reykjavík, Iceland
Registered: Jun 2005

posted 04-21-2017 10:23 AM

You are most welcome.

Yet, I am not certain what you mean by "Using only one 330 lamp".
You mean one kind of lamp, more units, or a lighting scheme with one of the 6/4 lamps on?
If it's the later, I would be reluctant to agree. I would begin to seek for faults (dirt or other) in the light path from the lamp to the screen.

Other than that, one does have to asume that the same amount of Watts on one (or many, in combination) lamp, would give a brighter image when a larger area is used to carry, homogenize and form the image.
Meaning, a DLP projector with a 2kW lamp and a 0.98" DMD would be brighter than one with a 0.69" DMD and the same lamp. (Contrast is not the issue here.)
Now, with Sony 500 series, we have a 1.48" pannel that certainly does better in light efficiency than the DMDs mentioned before and relate to 2kW xenon lamps. Not to such an extent, I suppose though.

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Alan Gouger
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 501
From: Bradenton, FL, USA
Registered: Jul 2000

posted 04-21-2017 12:33 PM

I had the 320watt 6pack.
It has been a while so going by memory it was def no more than two of the lamps 6/2 in the lighting scheme "on" that compared to the 2k xenon lamp in a Barco 4k and lot less heat. The size of the imagers in both projectors are close in size.

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Marco Giustini
Film God

Posts: 2713
From: Reading, UK
Registered: Nov 2007

posted 04-22-2017 04:51 AM

quote:
The more peculiar thing, though. The thing that I find hard to understand on its GUI, is why on earth a projectionist or a show manager has the ability to save (even more, over-write) a function (where "function" read: "preset", "macro", "title" etc.) and the "save" button that can do such a thing is (just) by the "load" button, that has to be used to manually change functions. What goes beyond me, is that it seems, after so many software releases, that no one cares to as much as add a confirmation window (when one is logged in as user1 or showmgr or with similar privileges) that says:

I believe this has been addressed by software, the SAVE button is disabled when logged as ShowManager.

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Carsten Kurz
Film God

Posts: 4340
From: Cologne, NRW, Germany
Registered: Aug 2009

posted 04-22-2017 08:44 AM

That was there right from the start, there are different roles/users, simply use one that e.g. allows to ingest content, KDMs, build playlists, etc., but disallow projector tuning. The 'Save' button under projektor function control is greyed out then, and you can only load functions.

- Carsten

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Sascha F. Roll
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 140
From: Berlin, Berlin / Germany
Registered: Sep 2015

posted 04-22-2017 09:33 AM

Until one of the last software updates one could also save functions as showmgr etc. Glad they fixed this bug, i had several customers that managed to overwrite Functions by accident.

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Ioannis Syrogiannis
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 147
From: Reykjavík, Iceland
Registered: Jun 2005

posted 04-27-2017 09:32 AM

quote: Marco Giustini
I believe this has been addressed by software, the SAVE button is disabled when logged as ShowManager.

You are right, Marco. As far as I know, as of S/W version 1.52.1, the Show Manager account has the "SAVE" button grayed out. And that is a good thing, since the majority of the users I know, use exclusively that user account for their daily work.

Yet, once again, I find it most inappropriate for the "SAVE" button to be next to the "LOAD" whether it is for a user or an administrator account.
There is a configuration tab on the user interface, and that is a more proper place to secure your settings. If someone wants to do it super simple, they would be better off, not allowing a user to overwrite, but to create new functions instead.
(Until all 65 of them are full, to the joy of the user who has the spare time to play and experiment around.)

Thus, I find it not all right to keep the aforementioned "SAVE" button active with the "user1" account.

Sascha, I doubt that this is/was a bug.
It seems to follow some kind of reasoning (or overlooking) that we (or me alone?) fail to pin-point.
I also had some urgently planed trips I had to do in the past, due to finger slips by the users, in the line of running between auditoriums and booths and taking correcting actions like switching functions manually.

I am not aware if the issue still stands in 1.53.4. I sincerely hope not.

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