JVC DLA- X30, X70 and X90 (UK specs) discussion/owners thread - Part 3

Ok so from responses so far, the repair cost is better than it used to be. My initial question stands though, can I expect any other issues after getting the ballast board replaced? I'm still mystified that my original bulb outlasted a crucial part in the projector.

I do love this projector. In days gone by it used to be about whether you could see the individual pixel in your image. For me, once that's gone and with this projector, I'm more than content with my movie viewing experience.
 
The thing with the X3/ X30 is they all had the troublesome ballast, and short lived lamps, your lamp might still work, but ill be very surprised if it anywhere near the color saturation and lightoutput needet for a reference calibration, my experience is around 700 hours on these models mostly 500 hours hitting good calibration. Ill think most of the reason is that people run low lamp mode, and the not very good lamp blower in these models, from the X35 and forward it came with a significantly bigger lamp blower, so going with the X30 ill recommend high lamp, and high altitude mode, to try get some life out of that lamp.

400£ is half way to get you a X500 with low hours, wich is a better projector due to updated processor, with significantly better motion, and panels with higher pixel fill, and almost dubble native on off contrast. actually superior to the last X5000-5500-5900 if the lightoutput suits your screen size.
 
Sontec used to be the pj repairers I wonder if and when that changed. I see on the JVC website Decam are shown for pj repairs while Sontec for audio...

Decam are now the official Service Centre for JVC projectors. The guys that work there are all ex JVC engineers, so they know their stuff. I used to be their boss when they were at JVC.
 
Hi Gary

Thanks for the info, I remember when you were at JVC we met a couple of times at Alan's (Ideal) and when I was on the AVF stand at the NEC a few years ago :hiya:, I thought it was a real shame when you left JVC, their loss mate.

I hope you are still in the AV industry as it would be a shame to lose someone with your experience and knowledge of projection and the trade in general
 
Thanks for the info, Gary, I agree with everything KBF said, it was certainly JVC's loss when you left.

I now await further info from Stridsvognen, assuming there's an upgraded ballast board to test.

My X7 (received from Gary as a replacement for a 750 with the dreaded pink stripe) is still going strong, but I realise I might well have to replace the ballast board eventually, so an upgraded one would be good news.
 
Hi all.

Has anyone that's had their ballast board replaced had any other issues after that? Mine's gone and wondering if it's worth the cost of the fix. It's been a great projector up until it stopped working so happy with the image. I've been quoted £408 with courier costs on top.
I suggest looking elsewhere.. many folks have had this failure as it's very common on this family of projectors. I have found them for sale on ebay and from a seller on aliexpress for about $100US... if your not replacing it yourself your looking at 2 hours labor to have someone handy do it. I'd say at the very least have someone you know who's handy at least try to get the old one removed and decide them if you want to replace it.. you can clean the optics while in there which may improve picture quality.
 
408£ is that changed , or just for the ballast, remember you will need a new original lamp for about the same price on top, and a good calibration, i would look for a X500 or newer model, and mount a new lamp and a calibration.
just going to chime in and point out the lamp does not need to be an "original" lamp... its not like the original lamp prevents the ballast from failing or warranties the projector ..case in point. My x90 projector has had a $50 ebay Phillip's lamp in it since the week I bought it with zero issues.
 
just going to chime in and point out the lamp does not need to be an "original" lamp... its not like the original lamp prevents the ballast from failing or warranties the projector ..case in point. My x90 projector has had a $50 ebay Phillip's lamp in it since the week I bought it with zero issues.
I tested those cheap lamps, they normaly perform very badly, to see ull have to measure, ill guess you have very low lightoutput or will have shortly, the better alternatives normaly cost around 150£ up. I seen some of these ebay lamps that did not even have the vent cutouts, so u need to know what your looking at.
 
I tested those cheap lamps, they normaly perform very badly, to see ull have to measure, ill guess you have very low lightoutput or will have shortly, the better alternatives normaly cost around 150£ up. I seen some of these ebay lamps that did not even have the vent cutouts, so u need to know what your looking at.
there are many different aftermarket lamps out there I simply purchased mine based upon feedback. It actually very bright. I have the lamp on low power mode. I've had many projectors over the years and I'm aware there are some poor quality lamps out there as well as some great deals.
I am also aware there are a few revisions of the lamp housing and the older oem lamps are missing a metal deflector which could cause the lamp to get too hot. The lamp I just bought does have it.
 
there are many different aftermarket lamps out there I simply purchased mine based upon feedback. It actually very bright. I have the lamp on low power mode. I've had many projectors over the years and I'm aware there are some poor quality lamps out there as well as some great deals.
I am also aware there are a few revisions of the lamp housing and the older oem lamps are missing a metal deflector which could cause the lamp to get too hot. The lamp I just bought does have it.
Could you measure lightoutput and post a picture of it, i might have one of them here, very bright im comparison to what? a candle light or a stadium light? Problem is if you been looking at 4fl on screen with ur old lamp and now have 7fl ull see it as bright, even its surposed to be 12fl.
 
I do not have a light meter or tool to measure the light output other than the ones that its calibrated for in the first place which are my eyes. I can tell you the original lamp claimed to have 482rs on it when I bought the x90.. that lamp was bright and I am keeping it as a spare. The lamp I just put in was noticably brighter enough were my GF who did not know I changed the lamp complained the picture was hurting her eyes so I dialed it down with the iris a bit... (106" white screen) I have a handful of other projectors for reference including an hd350, an optoma 131xe with just over 200 hours on the factory lamp and an hd20 with a new aftermarket lamp which was much dimmer than this projector.
Like I mentioned earlier this new lamp has both philips branding on the box and the lamp itself.. Ive read numerous thread posts where people claimed they had great luck with the philips brand bulbs including a post from someone who kept detailed logs I only paid 860 for the x90 and that was with a 2 year warranty through ebay.. I wasnt going to pay close to $300 for a spare light bulb. I know what these things cost to make vs markups and the rebranding game as I repair UV printers for a living.
 
the one I have is like this one but the sticker was slightly different .. the philips logo is hidden under the imposed warranty label likely for legal reasons perhaps its counterfiet? I dont know.. but I know I paid $74 for mine including shipping. I bought mine from limelight surplus liquidators.

the ballasts have gone up since I last looked and this is repaired but $250 US is still better than 400 pounds this same persons been offering repaired ones for a while.
 
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I do not have a light meter or tool to measure the light output other than the ones that its calibrated for in the first place which are my eyes. I can tell you the original lamp claimed to have 482rs on it when I bought the x90.. that lamp was bright and I am keeping it as a spare. The lamp I just put in was noticably brighter enough were my GF who did not know I changed the lamp complained the picture was hurting her eyes so I dialed it down with the iris a bit... (106" white screen) I have a handful of other projectors for reference including an hd350, an optoma 131xe with just over 200 hours on the factory lamp and an hd20 with a new aftermarket lamp which was much dimmer than this projector.
Like I mentioned earlier this new lamp has both philips branding on the box and the lamp itself.. Ive read numerous thread posts where people claimed they had great luck with the philips brand bulbs including a post from someone who kept detailed logs I only paid 860 for the x90 and that was with a 2 year warranty through ebay.. I wasnt going to pay close to $300 for a spare light bulb. I know what these things cost to make vs markups and the rebranding game as I repair UV printers for a living.
Do you have a picture of the box and the lamp? markings on the lamp, then ill check if its the same one as i have here, these projectors were never bright to start with so everything is relative, what screen size and gain are you running? normaly the original lamps die out fairly fast, and the flap in the intake of the unoriginal hounsings normaly done move frely, so often stuck in some odd possition, i seen a USHIO lamp that measured perfect, and a Philips, but the philips one dimmed down very fast, so that was money wasted as it was a amazon lamp, and they sent me a replacement wich i never recived, and they stopped replying. I bought a new original lamp to compare with, so if you could link to the one you bought ill try buy one and test / compare it.

What kills the lamps in the X3 to X90 is the way to small lamp blower, wich is often filled up with dust, so basically dont supply any cooling at all, worse at low lamp mode, wich is also seen calibrating, they never get stable colors and gamma will drift around forever, run it in high lamp mode and high altitude mode and you have a significantly more stable projector, and i bet the lamp will last longer.
 
I recently bought a non genuine replacement lamp for my X3.
I had the same dilemma most have at this end of the market. Spending £300+ on a bulb that will probably outlive the ballast board on a £100-£300 PJ.
It was suggested by some that cheap lamps were the cause of the ballast to fail, when in fact a genuine bulb didn't guard against it either. (I could believe that very cheap lamps could go taking the whole PJ with it though)
Mis information like this really doesn't help the end user, and JVC have never been upfront about this and other issues. (yes i too had to have the front IR sensor capacitor changed round...at my expense!)
My PJ is a stop gap which i plan on upgrading soon, so if it dies, it will be no great loss.

However, in the meantime, the new bulb is performing beautifully.
No i haven't measured it, i don't need too. The picture is significantly brighter and zero flickering.
How long it will stay this way, who knows?
I'm running in high power, with the fan on normal mode. (On a 95" React 3 Screen)
(I had the PJ cleaned when it was in for the IR capacitor swap £99)

My lamp came from these guys.
Supplied by AV Partsmaster for £89.59 delivered.
 
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I recently bought a non genuine replacement lamp for my X3.
I had the same dilemma most have at this end of the market. Spending £300+ on a bulb that will probably outlive the ballast board on a £100-£300 PJ.
It was suggested by some that cheap lamps were the cause of the ballast to fail, when in fact a genuine bulb didn't guard against it either. (I could believe that very cheap lamps could go taking the whole PJ with it though)
Mis information like this really doesn't help the end user, and JVC have never been upfront about this and other issues. (yes i too had to have the front IR sensor capacitor changed round...at my expense!)
My PJ is a stop gap which i plan on upgrading soon, so if it dies, it will be no great loss.

However, in the meantime, the new bulb is performing beautifully.
No i haven't measured it, i don't need too. The picture is significantly brighter and zero flickering.
How long it will stay this way, who knows?
I'm running in high power, with the fan on normal mode. (On a 95" React 3 Screen)
(I had the PJ cleaned when it was in for the IR capacitor swap £99)

My lamp came from these guys.
Supplied by Partsmaster for £89.59 delivered.
A X3 can trow a very nice image on the condition its calibrated, and a 95" screen is a perfect size, they develope a huge gamma drop wich result in a gamma average around 1,7-1,8 making it far from performing well, so if its not properly calibrated its just another projector with a odd image.
 
If the aftermarket bulb is not the correct wattage it can in fact cause problems like ballast failure.
 
If the aftermarket bulb is not the correct wattage it can in fact cause problems like ballast failure.

Obviously fitting an incorrect part to any device could cause it to fail. People still have to be wary of what and where they are buying from.
I was referring to often repeated advice on here that unofficial bulbs were "causing" the ballast to fail. When the cause was more often unrelated to the bulb and more down to a bad board design.
This was often proven when people were buying the official bulbs and still getting ballast failures.

I don't know many people who buy OEM original toner cartridges for personal home use for example. Manufacturers like to spread horror stories what will happen if you use copy toners. Obviously you have to avoid the stupidly cheap stuff and read some reviews.
£80 versus £260 for originals makes the risk that little be easier.
Most people (including myself) manage just fine with them.

On a more expensive PJ, I too would be more inclined to stick with a OEM original bulb.
This would be more for peace of mind and the hope of a more stable product.
The question still remains why JVC bulbs are so expensive in the first place.
Other manufacturers seem to be able to supply quality bulbs at a fraction of the price.
 
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the bulbs sold as oem bulb on ebay, amazon, myprojectorlamps.eu is in all differnt qualities, from good to very bad, so its important to have the proper equipment to check lightoutput and color saturation, and know how your projector behave with the right bulb, think i have bought around 10 different bulbs for the X3/ X7 now and not found one that maintained lightoutput more than 50 hours or so before it dimmed to much, and that was a philips brandet bulb, seen a USHIO one that performed perfect new, also seen USHIO ones that was for sure not made by USHIO, dispite it was quite expensive and from someone claiming it was highest OEM quality, even missing the vent cutouts in the reflector.
So guys, if you play with these aftermarked bulbs, please go get a meter, and calculate your lumen output as a minimum, and return the bulb if its not performing as advertised.
 
My X30 ballast board fix is still working 3 years later, but my original JVC lamp it came with finally went noticeably dim at about 1800 hours over a year ago. (Or was it over 2000 hours, I forget). It had a good bit of extra life after the ballast fix. Anyway, I'm afraid that against all reasoned advice on here, I also opted for an unofficial lamp this time. Maybe it would have been different if I had spent £400+ on a ballast repair/replacement, but at a relatively cheaper £10/20 home fix, I didn't think there was so much to lose trying a cheaper unofficial one out. I went a bit more skinflint though, and bought one of the £35 ones from China off ebay uk:
Delivery was free back then and I also somehow had a £5 voucher for ebay, so £30 I paid. I think the title is supposed to say Generic, not "Geenric"!

At almost 350 hours it's been absolutely fine for me as a replacement lamp... so far. Plenty bright for me on my 120 inch screen in my room environment, and though memory can't be a trustworthy indicator, it appears as bright an image to me as my official JVC one was at the beginning. Using normal lamp mode I still have the aperture stopped down to its lowest setting, and it gives a nice balance of brightness beaming through with even less washout on the solid blacks in my room environment, but not over-bright emphasising source noise. It gives the film projected look with acceptable brightness I'm after. Of course, I don't have a light meter, nor have I ever bothered to have a go at proper calibration, and I only use it for movie viewing (no gaming or general viewing) so expectations and aims will be different.

It hasn't wrecked the ballast board yet but I was alert to a couple of things at the beginning: It had a slight burn-off smell and made a mild tinny rattle vibration sound after starting up. However, it appears to have all worn in now. I can't remember what the official one was like in that regard. I wonder whether these cheaper unofficial lamps and housings are better designed/copied than they used to be for the ballast board. They also now have a cooling fin, compared to the earlier ones accused of destroying ballasts. Or perhaps as Paul D mentions, unofficial lamps have never been any worse at stressing the ballast.

Since my ballast board fix I decided to take the precaution of no longer using high lamp mode, in case this and/or overheating as a result puts too much stress on the weak ballast over time. I only ever used high lamp mode for 3D anyway, but this is now catered for better using a DLP projector that cost less than the ballast board repair with new lamp price on the X30. The 3D no longer has the X30 cross-talk problems as a result. No parallax tweaking settings, like the X30, at that price, but its single setting is great enough depth and pop-out on the best 3D blu-rays. Its economy lamp setting is brighter than the X30's normal lamp mode, so I happily use that for 3D, meaning its fan noise is less than the X30's high lamp mode.

For 2D on the X30, high lamp mode for me would be an unnecessary and unwelcome fan noise. Someone above mentions you can have high lamp mode with normal fan mode (didn't realise you could do that) but I would be worried then about less adequate cooling leading to more stress on the ballast board.
 
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Obviously fitting an incorrect part to any device could cause it to fail. People still have to be wary of what and where they are buying from.
I was referring to often repeated advice on here that unofficial bulbs were "causing" the ballast to fail. When the cause was more often unrelated to the bulb and more down to a bad board design.
This was often proven when people were buying the official bulbs and still getting ballast failures.

I don't know many people who buy OEM original toner cartridges for personal home use for example. Manufacturers like to spread horror stories what will happen if you use copy toners. Obviously you have to avoid the stupidly cheap stuff and read some reviews.
£80 versus £260 for originals makes the risk that little be easier.
Most people (including myself) manage just fine with them.

On a more expensive PJ, I too would be more inclined to stick with a OEM original bulb.
This would be more for peace of mind and the hope of a more stable product.
The question still remains why JVC bulbs are so expensive in the first place.
Other manufacturers seem to be able to supply quality bulbs at a fraction of the price.
I dont disagree with you, however As I mentioned I repair uv printers for a living... one of the common repairs I do is replace inverter power supplies (lamp ballasts) which fail for two common reasons... One the bulbs have been used for beyond thier 500 hour useful life and when bulbs like these (including projector bulbs) are beyond thier rated lifespan they draw more current when lit and often cause the ballast or starter to fail (or bulb to explode). The other scenerio is they bought aftermarket lamps for the printers and got bulbs that arent the correct wattage to begin with which stain the ballast more. That said I have customers that run some aftermarket lamps with no issues too... Its a risk and one thats best taken after checking reviews and company credibility.. I use aftermarket lamps in my projectors but I try to buy lamps which have good reviews.
 
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The ballasts in these JVC projectors mostly fail on the controle/ comunication Daughter board, so nor related to the lamp load, not that lamps cant blow the ballast, the cheap ebay lamp is for sure a super cheap chinese copy product with very bad quality, would be much more interesting with pictures of the actual lamp an lightoutput measurements.
 
Just to be clear, i'm not saying none original bulbs are the best choice.
Decent projectors aren't cheap and it makes sense to protect it in any way possible.

It just at some point, a projector value drops so low that spending £300+ on a bulb for a projector that is worth less than £300 doesn't make financial sense. Especially if it has a known design fault that even buying a genuine bulb wouldn't guard against.

Then there is the gamble that the cheaper bulb will perform correctly and at the right temperature and brightness.
In my case it is/was worth taking the risk. I'm very much taking the stance that i'll enjoy it while it lasts. I wouldn't feel the same when i upgrade.

Stridsvognen, has the right idea. We could do with more people reporting how they have got on. Measurements would be even better.
Sadly, the lower end of the market tends to be people who don't have the measuring equipment required..
 
I looked up JVC projector repairs in UK and contacted Decam Electronics. Breakdown below.

Labour: 3 Hours £180.00
Parts: Ballast Board £160.00
Firmware update, Full service test and clean all included.

Subtotal : £340.00
VAT Total : £68.00
Total : £408.00
If the price has come down it will be a welcome change. Perhaps they weighed up their costs after realising folks were flogging them on rather than repairing.
Ok so from responses so far, the repair cost is better than it used to be.
3 years ago Sontec were charging total £420 inc. VAT, so it's only gone down by £12 since then.
The ballast board has been available on and off to import from encompass.com for ~£150. It's saying not available for export to the UK at the moment though. Whether that's due to the current situation or permanent ... They may be currently out of stock too.
My initial question stands though, can I expect any other issues after getting the ballast board replaced?
The lack of replies on this is hopefully a good thing. I had my ballast board fixed rather than replaced, but 3 years later I've had no other issues with any of the rest of the projector components. Other than the ballast board, or at least the ballast-lamp system design, these projectors appear to last well. You could possibly have further issues with the ballast board further down the line depending on how well it was repaired, and/or how you use it. It may always be the weak link in this projector, no matter what the improvements in lamp-ballast. I myself haven't had any more issues with the ballast 3 years on, but I have only restricted it to normal lamp mode, and perhaps more regular usage.
I'm still mystified that my original bulb outlasted a crucial part in the projector.
You're not the only one. JVC really dropped the ball on lamp-ballast design in this otherwise excellent projector. (The X3 too.)
They also stated "its an improved upgraded version to the previous ballast boards, with a 12 months warranty".
Will be interesting to know if Decam have designed a new compatible board, or even found a way of using the ones in later machines. The ballast boards were one component not made by JVC so I'm wondering if Decam have just modified it - in which case it would be interesting to see what they've changed/replaced.
 
I calibrated my X30 again last night and I have to say this projector really is holding its own even after all these years. My ownership hasn't given me any trouble at all. I'm on my second genuine lamp which is now on over 1800 hours I think. The first I swapped out around 1600 hrs. I do clean it out internally at each lamp change and stay on top of cleaning the basic filter.

I was able to get the calibration almost ruler flat using some great advice in these forums using the free HCFR software, free AVSHD709 patterns, and my i1D3 meter. The image on my 3.62m wide anamorphic DiY screen is really satisfying. I'm probably at the lower end of the lumen minimum for such a size screen but my room is well light controlled, grey ceiling, deep red walls etc.

I'm in the mind of shall I buy a new lamp, or upgrade the projector?. Being at the cusp of new tech such as possibly laser light source it's hard to decide whether to wait. I do tend to keep my gear a long time.
 
Will be interesting to know if Decam have designed a new compatible board, or even found a way of using the ones in later machines. The ballast boards were one component not made by JVC so I'm wondering if Decam have just modified it - in which case it would be interesting to see what they've changed/replaced.

I'm really interested in this possibility for my X7.

Perhaps someone can check this out, please?

Yes, I know I could do this myself, but my ballast is OK at the moment and, being very superstitious, I don't want to tempt providence!
 

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