My 4800 blew it's first bulb on Sunday. Scared the heck out of me. Then I bought a new bulb from Infocus since I couldn't find one cheaper. Yeoow! That first bulb only lasted 1975 hours. The dust screen wasn't very dirty, but I had never cleaned it, due to ignorance. Does using a hard on/off help bulbs last longer?
Huh? 2000 hours, for most projectors, is a typical number; I don't know what InFocus rates them for, but we've a number of so-called 2000 hour projector lamps at work that we're lucky when we get over 1600 before the light level falls off so level you have to stare down the lens to see it's on. Generally, you should let it do its own cool-down cycle, and, depending on how you're set up, don't move it while it's still cooling down! One of the things that's good for killing a bulb is a lot of on/off cycles. I'd say, if you're going to watch, for example, two movies, semi-back-to-back, (say, a 20 minute break for bathroom, drinks, et cetera,) leave the lamp on. Maybe not with a black screen (if it's LCD,) but it's better for it than turning it off for those 20 minutes. Leo
consider yourself fortunate, however. Most of our lamps float around $600/ea, with the arc-lamp projectors costing about $2200/ea. Granted, when it comes time to buy my $300 home lamp, I'm gonna cringe...
