Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: NEC Projector Firmware

This is topic NEC Projector Firmware in forum Digital Cinema Forum at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Steve Guttag (Member # 268) on 06-09-2018, 07:49 AM:

It looks like NEC has finally joined the ICP 4.5 club with their latest release of service pack 4.310.

The primary change is the inclusion of ICP 4.5. In lamp based projectors, additional lamps are now certified or some lamp parameters are updated.

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 06-11-2018, 09:33 AM:

I'll be sure to alert the media about this!

Posted by Steve Guttag (Member # 268) on 06-11-2018, 12:44 PM:

Mark...not everyone has access to those the various sites to know when updates are available and not all manufacturers are good about announcing updates.

Posted by Marcel Birgelen (Member # 6801) on 06-11-2018, 01:51 PM:

I'm not subscribed to any NEC mailing list, so I found this info useful already. [Wink]

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 06-11-2018, 02:20 PM:

I have been checking most of the sites I have access to about every two weeks just out of habit the last 10 years. Some of the sites have become irrelevant to my job since all my customers have had the same equipent starting 8 years ago. And although the ICP 4.5 is nice to have, I really don't think it's all that important to rush out and update them just because of that. In fact I replaced an ICP about three weeks ago, so that one would have been the first to get it had it been out at the time.

Mark

Posted by Marcel Birgelen (Member # 6801) on 06-11-2018, 03:31 PM:

I guesst there is no single reason to start a race to update NEC ICPs to 4.5-land. But don't regularly encounter a whole lot of NEC projectors. So I'm not checking their sites every fixed interval and neither am I subscribed to mailing list that do let me know there are new upgrades.

Still, I read a lot of topics here, even stuff that does not directly apply to me (yet), there isn't a whole lot of shared knowledge in this field out there, besides a few select forums and sometimes stuff turns out to be quite useful in retrospective, if you happen to run into a particular problem later...

Posted by Steve Guttag (Member # 268) on 06-11-2018, 03:36 PM:

Mark, least you think my postings are a call to update. On the contrary. Note, I merely noted what was included in the update. I wasn't advocating either way. We all have a reasons for or for not updating. As for ICP 4.5, you could run into subtitling issues with older versions. 4.5 is not very new (years old, in fact).

If you don't use Philips lamps or Osram ones, then that aspect of this update doesn't apply either.

Really, all I was hoping for this thread (and those like it) is a mere notification of an update available and a quick-to-the-point what is included. I've done so for other brands of equipment too.

Posted by Carsten Kurz (Member # 5396) on 06-11-2018, 04:30 PM:

I sure appreciate it. Had there been any major issues in NEC S2 software after the grey pattern issue that had been fixed around 4.216? Our NC900 doesn't seem to give us any headaches since then.

Subtitles, yes, with SMPTE DCPs coming, it is certainly advisable to have your projector subtitle engine as recent as possible.

- Carsten

Posted by Steve Guttag (Member # 268) on 06-11-2018, 04:46 PM:

4.217 was the last significant, non-lamp related updated for most of the S2 machines.

Posted by Gordon McLeod (Member # 33) on 06-11-2018, 09:55 PM:

Mark you had to replace something in a NEC shocked

Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 06-13-2018, 08:00 AM:

Thanks for the heads up, Steve.

Barco are good about proactively letting you know about software updates: if you to subscribe to updates for a given model in MyBarco, you'll get an email when a software, firmware, or documentation release is published. But I can't find this feature on NEC, GDC, or Dolby's websites.

These are the changes in 4.5 (incidentally, there is no copyright warning or instruction not to distribute in this document):

Based on this, my feeling is to recommend this update proactively to users of 4K projectors, and/or those who regularly play subtitled movies, and/or those who use Philips or Osram lamps; but for everyone else, to wait until the next planned maintenance and install it then if no significant bugs or issues have emerged with the new NEC package.

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 06-13-2018, 11:43 AM:

quote: Gordon McLeod
Mark you had to replace something in a NEC shocked

Yes, at a drive in that was struck by lightning. Sadly, everything else including both FM transmitters survived. Otherwise it's just life is boring as usual around here [Confused]

Mark