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Author Topic: Flickering on Barco 2k Projector Steve Guttag We forgot the crackers Gromit!!! Posts: 12814 From: Annapolis, MD Registered: Dec 1999 posted 04-12-2014 09:08 AM                     You got lucky. I've been in this game for over 30 years...Osrams have sucked for at least 3 decades and heading on 4. As a chain, we were using Osrams...they blew up, they came with anodes rolling around in the envelope (no kidding), they came exploded...Osram blamed "in-rush current" for all of their failures, they blamed shipping companies for their stupid/strange and every changing packing...We switched to Christie (Ushio) and guess...what...all of our "shipping" problems and all of our "in-rush" problems all vanished! Will you find a Christie/Ushio lamp that doesn't perform well? Sure...they all have their bad batches...but as compared to Osram...they are not in the same ballpark, same state or same planet. Think you had good luck with Osram...I had (and still have) a customer that was using Osrams before we started servicing them...they were using Osrams and continued to use them after we started...see...they got a good deal on them...in one console they never got the hours like in the other one (there was a reason for that)...so I told them...let us have the "bad" console and will put in a Christie to run head to head on their Osram (same size lamp, same hours...etc.). In the "bad" console we lapped the Osram...that is, out lasted and got way beyond what the other Osram could do. No matter what you got, hours wise on the Osram, the Christie would have likely doubled it. While there are stanch defenders of Osrams, the number of people that will bank on the Christie/Ushio have got to double/triple or quadruple them. There is a reason...and it isn't because they are the cheapest...in fact, they are often the highest cost/lamp...but typically the lowest cost/hour...because they last and look REALLY good coming out. They also hold their brightness better...their envelopes don't darken like the others...the electrodes are designed better...they are just better than anyone else. Osrams are junk, it cannot be overstated.  |  IP: Logged Marco Giustini Film God Posts: 2713 From: Reading, UK Registered: Nov 2007 posted 04-12-2014 12:35 PM                     My experience is similar to what Steve describes. In fact, I was quite happy with Osrams till 2005-ish, then the 7kW lamps were never reaching their life and the 4kW were often flickering too early. But it looks like now things have worsened. I also had a detached anode, but it detached when the lamp was being replaced!  |  IP: Logged Justin Hamaker Film God Posts: 2253 From: Lakeport, CA USA Registered: Jan 2004 posted 04-12-2014 01:27 PM                        The only Osram bulb we had good success with was the 3K XBO. We tried the equivelant 2K in our Christie lamp houses, and those never reached their warranty life. Wound up always using the Christie 2K. Conversely, around 1999, we were not getting good life out of the Christie 3K, which is why we went to the Osrams. Although this will probably earn frowns, we were often getting 4000-5000 hours on those Osram 3K XBO's running at 75-80%. The reason we kept them in is because they still had a bright, stable light with no sign of darkening at 3000 hours. Over about a 10 year period, I think we only 1-2 of these Osram bulbs not make it to 3K hours between 7 Xetron lamp houses. That's a sample size of around 50 bulbs.  |  IP: Logged Steve Guttag We forgot the crackers Gromit!!! Posts: 12814 From: Annapolis, MD Registered: Dec 1999 posted 04-12-2014 05:48 PM                     I don't know why people would frown. Nobody is rooting for failure. Few things have consistently disappointed me as Osram has in 34 years. To tell stories...I changed out a 3K Christie with 15,000 hours on it. It was the most nervous I've ever felt changing a lamp. It was changed because it developed a flicker. I guess after how many years and 15,000 hours, it was entitled to flicker. At first, I was thinking someone didn't fill out the lamphouse card and that it had been changed...but no...it was the original lamp from when the system went in. There serial numbers matched. But as a dealer...honestly...Christie always got 2-3X warranty life...it was very consistent. People would be disappointed if it only made it to just past warranty. Often, there was extenuating circumstances. I alluded to one above in one of my Osram/Christie shootouts...I highly overlooked factor in xenon power supplies is the filter capacitor life. Electrolytics do NOT last for ever. They age even on the shelf. That is a reason there is a date code on them. If they are over 10-years old, change em. A big tell is to look at the lamp after it comes out...if the electrodes are all snotted up, odds are you have either incoming power issues or your capacitor(s) are not doing their job anymore. It is relatively cheap and almost always improves lamp life. OSRAM: On Shatter, Replace Another Mirror  |  IP: Logged Monte L Fullmer Film God Posts: 8367 From: Nampa, Idaho, USA Registered: Nov 2004 posted 04-12-2014 11:24 PM                     ..and I bet when you popped the Christie bulb with 15K hours on it, it just simply shattered instead of a good loud "pop!"  |  IP: Logged Marco Giustini Film God Posts: 2713 From: Reading, UK Registered: Nov 2007 posted 04-13-2014 04:54 AM                     Well, there is an upside with Osram then. Reflectors do lose efficiency over time. With Osrams, you get a new reflector every now and then!  |  IP: Logged Steve Guttag We forgot the crackers Gromit!!! Posts: 12814 From: Annapolis, MD Registered: Dec 1999 posted 04-13-2014 05:25 AM                     Only Sometimes Runs Another Movie.  |  IP: Logged

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