Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Barco Light Engine Boards

This is topic Barco Light Engine Boards in forum Digital Cinema Forum at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Marcial Feliciano Ramos (Member # 1989) on 10-25-2017, 03:58 PM:

Hi all,

Does Barco sells the boards of their light engines? (Red or Green Blue boards)

Thanks

Posted by Steve Guttag (Member # 268) on 10-26-2017, 06:42 AM:

NO!

Barco is notorious for not parting out their equipment. They like to sell modules, not parts. Even parts where you can get their part number (e.g. the formatter board cables, where the "Z" part number is on them) are not available.

Over time, I've seen some bits and pieces of the "light engine" have discrete components available. At point, the light pipe was only part of the light engine but it as well as the lenses around it have become available as parts.

But the DMDs or the formatter boards, not a chance. If they were, I'd think there would be a couple places in the USA that would take on repairing them for things like stuck pixels or the odd formatter that winks out. As it is, the ONLY Barco repair facility is in Belgium.

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 10-26-2017, 10:50 AM:

NEC on the other hand does supply their formatter boards seperately. Perhaps in the future consider theirs if you replace your Bar-ko.

Mark

Posted by Steve Guttag (Member # 268) on 10-26-2017, 11:24 AM:

Shilling Mark?

Posted by Marcel Birgelen (Member # 6801) on 10-26-2017, 12:39 PM:

Those boards are indeed not available directly from Barco. So, unfortunately, you'll need to buy an entire new light engine if one of them fails.

There are some shops that occasionally sell salvaged boards, I've also seen them hit Ebay on occasion. Obviously, those boards come without any warranty from Barco.

Posted by Steve Guttag (Member # 268) on 10-26-2017, 01:48 PM:

Remember too, the Barco warranty for PARTS is just 90-days anyway.

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 10-26-2017, 03:53 PM:

quote: Steve Guttag
Shilling Mark?

Merely pointing out there are indeed better companies to deal with.

quote: Steve Guttag
Remember too, the Barco warranty for PARTS is just 90-days anyway.

With NEC it depends on where the parts from and if refurbished or new. Typically 1 year on replacement parts.

Posted by Marco Giustini (Member # 4544) on 10-26-2017, 06:54 PM:

you don't need to buy a new engine. Barco will likely do a repair/exchange to your engine. You get a new/refurbished one and you return the faulty one for a 'small' price. The replacement engine comes with a warranty.

Posted by Steve Guttag (Member # 268) on 10-27-2017, 07:28 AM:

quote: Mark Gulbrandsen
Merely pointing out there are indeed better companies to deal with.

No Mark, that is shilling. He didn't ask about NEC (or any other brand). NEC isn't perfect either. They ALL have their high and low points. Barco definitely is weak on the granularity of their parts.

In the US, Barco has no RX program (I wish they did!!!!). You buy a new/refurbished light engine. You can then send yours back and for a (really) small fee they will evaluate it and tell you what it will cost to fix, repair it and send it back for you to then have a spare). That repair is only a 90-day warranty though. Barco is all about the extended warranty plan. Which works for singles/twins but gets progressively more prohibitive in the larger plexes.

Since Mark brought it up. NEC is similar on their prism repairs. You start by paying FULL PRICE for a new one and then some months later, when they fix yours, they deduct the difference between new and what your repair was so in the end you just pay for the repair but in the meantime you are out full price for months.

Posted by Marcel Birgelen (Member # 6801) on 10-27-2017, 01:00 PM:

quote: Marco Giustini
you don't need to buy a new engine. Barco will likely do a repair/exchange to your engine. You get a new/refurbished one and you return the faulty one for a 'small' price. The replacement engine comes with a warranty.

They will, as long as they don't consider the machine EOL.

I'm not sure what the warranty on their repairs is in Europe, I think for spare parts it's one year.

Posted by Steve Guttag (Member # 268) on 10-27-2017, 02:57 PM:

Go to mybarco and check under support>warranty. You can download the pdf file. It is in the "What is Covered/How Long" section. Spare parts, repairs are lumped in with Software.

Posted by System Notices (Member # 2357) on 09-02-2019, 10:57 AM:

It has been 674 days since the last post.

Posted by Parke Lie (Member # 10964) on 09-02-2019, 10:57 AM:

Hi...Not noticable in the bright room with the F90 that was only showing bright colored car advertising slides. I was told earlier that day that the F90 would do full Rec. 709 at the full 13K lumens, but then Residential told me that Rec. 709 was only possible with between 8000 and 9000 lumens max. Even the Standard F-90 does very nice REDS, so I didn't questin Barco's Rec. 709 claim.
When pixelpeeping at the F-90 there was the fine flickering line ínterference'pattern I also saw at the TI prototype and the Optoma HLD 4K prototype.
The non pixel shifting version (WQXGA 2560x1600) will be available first, that is the F-90 version. But Tim Sinnaeve Barco Residential's MD told me he is considering a swap programme setting people up with the WQXA version (with Mediaroom/HT modifications) replacing these with the 4K version when available. Hmm, 4K was what September and WXQXGA without shifting would be what June, from memory.

Posted by Marcel Birgelen (Member # 6801) on 09-02-2019, 12:39 PM:

The F90 isn't a DCI projector, so I think this somehow hit both the wrong topic and the wrong sub-forum.

Posted by Allen Arin (Member # 10988) on 09-05-2019, 06:55 AM:

A Simple NO !