These things have a problem with burning up the blue polarizing filter due to the heat of the lamp.
Are you anywhere near Ohio ? If so, since your's works somewhat I can determine the orientation of the filter and not only fix your's, but mine as well, and another a guy has a 52" of the same thing.
Unfortunately another tech completely removed the filter from this one here and I don't want to go through trial and error, it is simply too damn hard to disassemble.
Another thing I'd like to know is if the polarized light is still polarized once it exits the lens, if so the orientation could possibly be determined that way. If I got my hands on one of these $5,000 sets that has not been gotten into I might be able to save a few of them.
The manufacturer (who knows who these days) wants you to replace the light engine for about $2,000, I think it is ridiculous for a $4 piece of plastic. They like the situation and would love to get another $5,000 for a new set.
And LCD projector is a poor investment, a DLP would be better, but then anything that shines the light full blast all the time and just deflects or reflects it to make black is a loser design. If plasmas didn't burn out so fast they would be a good alternative, but only up to a certain screen size. Today, CRT based projos are the way to go, if you can find one for cheap enough.
I have nothing against LCD TVs and monitors, the inefficiency is alot less, but anything is going to burn up when you put a high power light bulb right up to it. Even my boss'es DLP projector warped the case so bad the color wheel couldn't turn. If it ain't one thing it's another.
Thinking strictly of business, it's a damn shame they are widescreens, otherwise we could scrap them and sell the screen. It is all they're worth unless they can be fixed, and mine has sat there for almost a year looking for a fix. I am VERY experienced in this field, and understand how it works and what must be done, yet it sits there for a year, why ? Because it takes two people and a whole day to R & R components in the light engine. Let me give you a business translation, well over $100 an hour ALL DAY on one set. So it sits until I have a viable solution with reasonable assuredness of working.
These pieces of shit are an engineering triumph, you can't even really use the stand. And the stand was like $400 ! So there it sits.
JURB