Projector help!

[jamesbond007]

Hey guys! A buddy of mine helps run the lights and sound boards at a local church and asked me to help him out. Their ceiling-mounted projector has gotten dim -- all of a sudden -- and everything looks like junk. The menus, all inputs, etc we have tried messing with all look dim/grey. It's like the light bulb is a quarter as bright as it should be. According to the light bulb status, the bulb itself is measured to have another ~53% life remaining. Without buying a new bulb to test in the spot, what else can we try? There are no filters on the unit. He did not give me a model number, but the make is a NEC. They've hooked it up to two different computers and a camcorder, but no avail.

Any suggestions are welcome! Thanks!

 

[SearchMaster]

I'm about to buy a projector, so I'm no expert by any means, but I would strongly suspect that the 53% figure is based on the average life of that type of bulb. The thing about averages is that it means some will live shorter and some will live longer than that average. Your bulb probably falls into the former and needs to be replaced.

 

[jamesbond007]

Yeah that's what I'm thinking too. I just figured that the 53% means it has about half the life left remaining. Wouldn't a bulb just not work or do they get dim over time and eventually just pitter out? I thought a light bulb was kind of a 'work' or 'doesn't work' kinda thing with no in between business.

Ah well!

 

[SearchMaster]

No, they definitely get dimmer. In fact that's what they're usually rated for - 2000 hours before 50% brightness occurs for example.