Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: NEC NC800C Lamp

This is topic NEC NC800C Lamp in forum Digital Cinema Forum at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Richard May (Member # 2627) on 05-03-2012, 10:17 PM:

Our projector just hit 1950 hours on the current lamp. An error message came up saying LAMP OVER TIME. The book says it will say that when "lamp cumulative time is over". What the hell does that mean??? The light looks fine. I'm only at 90% power. I can't find any info on how long these lamps last. The lamp is an Ushio SOP19 1.25k lamp.

Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 05-04-2012, 12:06 AM:

Look on your bulb's paper work and you should see the warranty hours that the bulb is rated.

The projector is programmed by the installer to what the bulb installed is rated at warranty hours, and the error message to be displayed fifty to a hundred hours before the inserted bulb's warranty.

This warning is to let the operator know that the bulb is approaching warranty hours and bulb needs replacing.

There is an agreement between bulb manufacturer and projector manufacturer that if a bulb explodes prior to warranty, the bulb manufacturer will repair and replace any parts with the projector, but if the bulb explodes after warranty hours, the agreement becomes null and void.

And to secure the agreement that operator will commence bulb changeouts when this warning is displayed on the function screen.

If the bulb goes past warranty and then explodes, the agreement is null and void making the operator responsible for repair and replacement of damaged parts.

Light may look good and all, but the warning flag comes up, tail lights goes flashing red .. it's time to do a pull.

For your protection. Welcome to the $$-digital world.

Posted by Richard May (Member # 2627) on 05-04-2012, 06:24 AM:

Thanks Monte. I will check the communicator program again. I know the 1200 has the option to set warning hours but I didnt see it on the 800 program. Also, the paperwork for the lamp is in Japanese. Figures, nothing is made here anymore.......

Posted by Jock Blakley (Member # 6552) on 05-04-2012, 10:12 AM:

I tried to Google the lamp model to find the English datasheet for you, but this page is the only mention for "SOP19".

Ushio don't even list a 1.25k lamp on their website - the closest for NEC is the DXL-12SN, which is 1.2k rated for 3000 hours.

I know for a fact that Ushio ships its lamps with English paperwork.

It also happens, just as an aside, that Ushio actually do make many of their "Solarc" metal halide lamps in the USA.

Posted by Antti Nayha (Member # 4980) on 05-04-2012, 10:28 AM:

I think the NC800C only uses one specific type of 1.25 kW lamp. Those might be made by Ushio, but they’re not listed on Ushio’s web site – only sold through NEC as IS8LP4-E. No idea about the rated hours, though.

Posted by Steve Guttag (Member # 268) on 05-04-2012, 12:31 PM:

The lamp for the NC800C (and IS-8) is an OEM lamp for NEC and is only sold via NEC and in packs of 4! There are some NEC suppliers that will break the pack of 4 and charge a premium to sell in singles.

The Ushio part number is UXL-1003NE...but they won't tell you anything about it.

Since the projector only takes one lamp and I'm pretty sure you can't change the warning time on it like you can in a series 2 (where you can also specify what lamp is installed)...when the meter runs up on the NC800...that is it. I want to say it is just a 1000 or 1500 hour lamp.

Posted by Richard May (Member # 2627) on 05-04-2012, 05:55 PM:

Thanks guys. Sounds like it's going to be fun finding one.

Posted by Geoff Newitt (Member # 6663) on 05-06-2012, 01:55 PM:

In the UK - and probably the rest of Europe - theatres don't replace lamps in these, you get an exchange relamped module (i.e. lamphouse) from your 'systems integrator'. I'm pretty sure there's a chip on the module that has the lamp details on it (including hours used).

I quite like the NC800 - seems to be a relatively robust and stable machine for moderately sized screens. But the running costs are monstrous - we pay around £1100 per relamped module, the lamp is warranted for only 500 hours, and though it should last around 1500 hours, they are prone to failing without warning - usually about 6p.m. on a Friday, naturally. To add insult to injury, you can only automate 'lamp off' - effectively it shuts the projector right down. Inevitably, the lamps tend to get left on all day.

Posted by Daniel Morez (Member # 5787) on 06-06-2012, 02:03 PM:

Took me me a while got some info on these lamps in the US but did so earlier this year (Thanks to Lori at AYS!). Through 2011 I accumulated a couple of these that started to fail (unable to hold an arc) between 1000 and 1400hrs of operation. What I was finally told after I sent them in for warranty eval is they are in fact warranted for only 500hrs, and no prorating after that. The NEC timer chips (that are serialized to each lamp) simply gives the operator a recommendation of when to change the lamp. At present I go through about 25 to 30 of these a year and majority of them output stable light through 1800hrs just fine (running low to medium power range). On occasion I have needed to push them upward of 2000hrs and have not had any issues.

Another oddity some might notice is the timer chips that come with each new lamp tend to vary by +/-100hrs. Ive noted that the averaged life indication on a newly installed lamp is 1800hrs and as mentioend above cycle them around that figure.

Also, might be outdated by now, but for a time NEC(and their resellers) offered a Low Luminance version of the lamp. It had the same power rating but was claimed to output approximately 20% less light than the standard version. Handy in small installations when you have too much light and you don't want to sacrifice uniformity via lamp defocusing. There are/were prohibitive as they were more expensive for some reason.