Anyone know about home projectors?

[tomd999]

Hi All,

I need some help. The blub on my projector died, 2ed one in 3 years. So far this "free" projector" has cost me $820 bucks in blubs. It's a Infocus 110, I guess it's a good one, 1080i but the friggin blubs are killing me.

Can anyone recommend a decent one for a home theater that can be seen in anything other than pitch black and won't kill me every year and a half with $420 dollar bulbs.

I looked at a couple and I got more confused, what can I say, I'm a Luddite, I play P basses through tube heads into single 15 cabs, the only thing in my rig solid state is my pacemaker. ;-)

Tom

[Jim Campbell]

Originally Posted by tomd999

Hi All,

I need some help. The blub on my projector died, 2ed one in 3 years. So far this "free" projector" has cost me $820 bucks in blubs. It's a Infocus 110, I guess it's a good one, 1080i but the friggin blubs are killing me.

Can anyone recommend a decent one for a home theater that can be seen in anything other than pitch black and won't kill me every year and a half with $420 dollar bulbs.

I looked at a couple and I got more confused, what can I say, I'm a Luddite, I play P basses through tube heads into single 15 cabs, the only thing in my rig solid state is my pacemaker. ;-)

Tom

i've heard that they can get up to 10,000 hours on a bulb depending on the type you have....could it be that it's set too hot......maybe time to scan the ht rags as new advances seem to happen daily,and are obsolete before you get home

[T-Bird]

Hi.

I have no experience about the projector in question, but if a DLP with its peculiarities is a satisfactory option, I have nothing but good things to say about the ViewSonic PJ551D (http://www.projectorcentral.com/ViewSonic-PJ551D.htm) I've had for a year or so.

Granted, it's an old model and obviously shares the "features" of all DLPs. For the money the contrast is good though and also the lumen rating is adequate, even by todays standards. For me anyway.

The lack of HDMI is a dealbreaker for most though, but as these "older" devices are usually paired with DVD players or computers or even VCRs, I for one don't see any problem with that.

The lamp life is 4000 hours in the economy mode IIRC and the bulb costs about 200€, IIRC again.

Edit: Just looked at Your current projector (http://www.projectorcentral.com/InFo...enplay_110.htm) and seeing that it's also a DLP makes You aware of the technology.

BTW what's Your lamp cost/viewing hour ratio? That's the bottom line after all IMHO.

Regards
Sam

[XtreO]

Projectors themselves are frankly not that expensive, but as you say, the bulbs is what costs. I've no idea how much you use your projector, but be sure to buy a projector with bulbs of 3000 hours of runtime at least. On the projector here we have yet to change bulb in about 4 years, though I watch films and play games on it.

If you want to invest in a new 1080p HD projector I'd do that as you can get bulbs lasting a really long time on them. I'm not very updated in that scene at the moment however

If you want to be able to view in a semi-light enviroment, get a (I've no idea what the word in English is, so bear with me) 'white blackboard-thingy that is made of some canvaslike material' to project the picture on. In the upstairs livingroom the even wall is simply painted white, so we project directly on the wall. But a canvaslike thingy will reflect the colours better, making it better in a not all dark room.

You should perhaps tell us something about your budget, roomsize, if you want HD or not and what you mean about not so dark room if you want a satisfactory answer

[MD]

Check the AVS forum.
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/