What is involved in a projector? (1 Viewer)

[Justin_D]

I understand that you can just buy-and-forget like you can with a TV because it needs to have parts replaced after X number of hours. Exactly how does this work? What "dies out," and under normal conditions, how long does it take?

 

[ChrisWiggles]

There are different kinds of projectors, thus this question is really unanswerable unless we know what technology you're talking about...

Digitals burn out (lightbulbs).

CRT's wear over time.

CRTs are built like no tomorrow, so the electronics are usually easily fixable (depends on the unit). Digitals are much less resilient in this regard. If something goes wrong, it's largely throw-away.

 

[Neil Joseph]

Digital projectors (LCD, DLP, LCOS) have lamps that are rated anywhere from 1000 hours to 5000 hours depending on the projector. The cost of replacement can vary between a couple of hundred to six hundred dollars. CRT projectors, like Chris mentioned have CRT's that will need to be replaced after a longer period of time (~ 15000 hours or so) but the cost is significantly more.

For basic info on front projection, read this... Front Projection - How do I select one for my needs?

 

[ChrisWiggles]

Not true! Not only is the PQ value MUCH higher for the price, but retubing isn't that much $, and compared with how many bulbs you'd need to replace in a digital, it's cheaper per hour to run. Plus, tube wear happens over a long time, they don't just stop one day (except for catastrophic tube failure, which is very rare). Rebuilt tubes are quite cheap, depending on the unit, 8inch MEC tubes are about 500-600 (forget the exact number) i think, rebuilt, and a little more than that factory new from VDC (soon). The original tubes for certain projectors, if you can find them from the vendor, do tend to be quite expensive($1500 and up).

Considering how many bulbs you'd have to replace over the usable lifetime of a set of CRTs (keeping in mind you likely would not have to replace all 3 as the Red lasts damn near forever), they are very comparable in run costs, with the nudge going to CRT in $/hour. IMO, the repairability of a CRT projector is another significant bonus. If something fails it's usually fixable for a few hundred dollars, yourself. If a digital blows up, buy a new one.

 

[Leo Kerr]

Another consideration is one that I'm currently... observing.

A lot of the digital projectors are pretty cheap, where the replacement lamp cost represents up to, say, 25% of the total cost.

Mine allegedly will last 3k hours. At the current rate of consumption, I've got roughly 5 years left in the lamp.

In five years, where will projectors and their costs be? Where will I be? I may be ready for a newer, brighter, qHDTV projector by then. (Pigs might be making regular trans-Atlantic flights, too, but that's a different story.)

Leo Kerr
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