Bought a DLP TV on Black Friday, did I screw up? (1 Viewer)

On Black Friday, I saw the WD-60638 television for sale from Dell.com for $599 with free shipping, and I bought it, after calling another friend to ask if he thought it was a good deal.


However, when I went to work and mentioned my purchase to people, I got a lot of flak for my decision - everyone is telling me DLPs burn out really quickly and I'll be regretting my purchase soon. I'm not really sure to believe, though, since my dad's had a Mitsubishi DLP in great working condition for years and years now with absolutely no issues.


I know DLP is an older technology and all, but it's still a 1080p 120 HZ TV claiming 3D Ready status on the box, so this particular unit can't be that old - but, I haven't been in the loop on televisions for awhile, so I'd like some second opinions. Thanks.

I can't comment on the specific model, but in general your friends at work don't know what they're talking about. I'm in my fourth year with a 72" Samsung DLP unit. Best set I've ever owned.

I have both in my house. I will say this: I love the color quality and look of the DLP far above my 52" 1080P LCD (240hz). The big knock on DLP is the same: You'll get a few thousand hours of life.. this isn't changing bulbs all the time. I have never on mine, and it's 3 years old. BUT, if you use it every day, 24 hours a day, it's a bad deal. If it gets say, 6hrs or less a day, the bulbs last long enough you should not notice... hell, by the time they go, you'll be thinking about replacing anyway. JMHO, and YMMV.

A quick browse at BestBuy.com shows the cheapest 60" LCD at $1300. You bought a 60" HDTV for under half that. That's a great price judging solely on size!


If it looks good to you, then be enjoy, take satisfaction in having an extra $700+ in your pocket, still having a big honkin' TV, and ignore what might be merely jealousy from your coworkers

Well, the TV arrived today and it was DOA. It just plain won't turn on.


Sigh. Spent 3 hours on the phone with Dell and Mitsubishi and I still don't know what's going on. I think I'm just gonna get my money back and go to Fry's and buy a plasma or LCD after all. I'm not set against a DLP or anything, but there's no particular reason to shoot for one now either since this was a special price.


It's really too bad, it's a nice looking TV and the price was incredible. Too bad the damn thing won't turn on.

Can't you just a get a replacement from Dell? Doesn't say a whole lot for Dell service, if they won't replace a DOA unit for you.


And Mits wouldn't replace it either?


Unless total cost of ownership is comparable for essentially equal screen size, I wouldn't bother considering LCD at all -- and that's assuming the LCD is actually up-to-par in PQ fidelity, which I kinda doubt. And I wouldn't want to pay too much of a premium for plasma either.


FWIW, I paid ~$1300 for my 61" Samsung LED DLP ~2 years ago (when comparable size 1080p plasma still cost almost 2x as much on top of consuming more power), and I'm still very happy w/ the set after putting probably 8-10 hours per day on it as our family's only TV set.


The LED-based units (from Samsung) have bulbs that should effectively last the entire lives of the TVs (much like LED-based LCDs) vs the regular bulb units (like the non-laser Mits) which may require a couple bulb replacements during their lifetimes -- and bulbs can cost anywhere from $150-300 depending on various factors. The other caveat w/ regular bulb units is the use of color wheel, which is one extra (mechanical) part that can fail (and do seem to fail easily enough at least in Samsung models after a few years, if not Mits, and can cost $100-plus to replace).


As others noted, if you don't like the idea of replacing bulbs (or possibility of the color wheel failing), you can always consider buying a brand new set w/ newer, better tech (and/or at substantially slashed prices) a few years down the line instead. That's probably better than paying 2x the price for an LCD that's likely inferior in PQ right now -- and it's not like the LCD (or plasma) would offer substantially greater guarantees of durability/reliability either (unless you were getting a now-obsolete Samsung DLP w/ color wheel that seems to have rather high failure rates after a few years).


One thing. If you really must have the best 3D PQ, then you should probably just go for a plasma, maybe from Panny. That would probably offer better 3D PQ than the 3D DLP RPTVs -- 3D DLP RPTVs only yield 1/2 res in 3D mode. I probably wouldn't bother w/ LCD for that either though.


_Man_