Boland 8.4 HD problem

[Norbert von der Heidt]

Hi all

 

This week I became the proud owner of a Boland 8.4 HD monitor :D ....that is until I put it on my rig. It was displaying everything as negative images starting with the Boland startup screen to colour bars (which are reversed left to right) and live camera which looks like a film neg. :(

 

I can stand and watch over 3 minutes as the screen slowly shifts colour, loses contrast, does a couple of flickers and then flips into a proper screen display. Obviously this is not acceptable from a Steadicam operational viewpoint.

 

I have contacted Boland who was going to get a tech to contact me but that hasn't happened yet and I'm not thrilled with their lack of concern for my problem.

 

Has anyone else had this problem and was it an easy fix? <_<

 

I'm off to Beijing in two weeks for the Olympics and that's what I got the Boland for. If this is not going to be fixed I'll send it back and get a Transvideo instead with an AJA downconverter. Any other ops experiences would be appreciated.

[Lawrence Karman]

Have you tried powering it independent of the rig and sending it video both independent of the rig and through the rig? Perhaps your rig is not sending enough voltage or a weak video signal?

[Norbert von der Heidt]

Have you tried powering it independent of the rig and sending it video both independent of the rig and through the rig? Perhaps your rig is not sending enough voltage or a weak video signal?

 

Hi Lawrence

 

No, that's definitely not an issue. I've had it on both sled and mains power, the video has been checked through my waveform monitor. I have 25 years tech experience in TV and the more I test, the more I'm sure this is a temperature dependent component problem. My next test will be the sure fire, tried and true "whack it and see if it changes" test. I've made a MP4 of the monitor as it started up this morning and I'll be sending it to them. It took almost 9 minutes to stabilize back to a normal display.

 

On that note, I'm still waiting for someone from Boland to get back to me, but I guess the weekend got in the way. I'll give them till Tues here in Australia before I get too upset but gee, it would have been nice if I'd had some tech help Friday.

 

I've read a lot of posts where you guys give kudos for the fast response, in some cases the same day a replacement is sent from manufacturers. I'd hoped Boland would have been in that class but I guess not.

 

Cheers all

Norbert

[Norbert von der Heidt]

Hi All

 

Just goes to show, all those years of techie experience was good for something. After letting the monitor cool back to room temp for a few hours, I turned it back on where it promptly went into negative image display. I waited a minute to be sure it had settled and then gave the top of the case a light rap with my knuckles and sure enough, the picture flipped into a normal display and was fine for the next 4 hours that it was on. :D

 

I suspect it's either a loose connection (cold solder joint) or a chip that needs to reseated in it's socket on the PCB. I'll have to wait till I get someone from Boland to give me the okay to open the case (don't want to void the warranty!) and do a check.

 

At least it's not a problem that can't be easily rectified on location now, but I think for the long term it should be fixed.

 

Cheers

Norbert :)

[Lawrence Karman]

Glad to hear you've got it figured it out.

[Norbert von der Heidt]

Hi All

 

Had a phone call from Mike Boland this morning regarding the problem and he was very apologetic. We discussed the problem and in his opinion it wasn't something where I could open up the case and fix so he is sending out a replacement monitor. :D

 

My many thanks for his concern and decisive action.

 

Cheers

Norbert