Well... for reasons I won't bother you with, I'm considering a new lamp/bulb for my trusty Sanyo PLV60HT. This projector is rated at 1200 lumens ("typical").

Does anyone know what the light output is for the PLV60HT when calibrated? I did a search but couldn't find it...

Ultimately I'm trying to determine what lumen value I found acceptable (was it really 1200? Was it 600? Was it xxxx) and use this info to help decide whether a new 1080p projector will be similar (or much darker).

Thanks

... Altan

Hi,

I had an PLV-60 until 2 years ago when I replaced it with a Hitachi TX-200.

The PLV-60 is not really tweakable colorwise and the rated 1200 lumens are quite accurate. A german magazine measured it with 1100 lumens, so even to todays standards it's very bright with a new lamp. My experience with 4 new lamps was that after 1200 hours the picture became almost unwatchable because of fading colors and dark picture, every new lamp turned the Sanyo into a new projector.

Changing to the Hitachi was in so far a bit troublesome because overall light output was much lower (stated calibrated 500 lumens, eco mode), but the higher contrast made up for it. Colors were anyway better and noise much lower, so it was an upgrade.

I now switched to a Mitsubishi HC-6000, initially colortweaked with an optical filter (see cine4home). My screen is 3 meter wide, it simply is not bright enough. Without the filter it's barely enough in eco mode. Normal mode is brighter, but the noise rises as well, and I'm getting used to the low noise.
Sometimes I wish for more light, and there is no headroom left because it is already in the highest brightness mode. Overall contrast is again much better than that of the Hitachi, so that's making a bit up for it.

So IMO highest brightness is not that important. Better contrast can make a picture look at least as bright even though measured brightness is much less.

Of course ambient light plays a big role. Contrast is then determined by the ambient light and overall brightness is the key.
Personally I wish for an affordable projector with at least 1200 calibrated lumens with todays black level. That would be enough for a 3 m wide screen with ambient light and still be good enogh in the dark. But that projector does not exist yet.

Hey Ralph,

Thanks for the info... I should have my new bulb tomorrow. Now if only the price of the various 1080p projectors drops by the price I paid for my bulb in the next 3 or so months...

:)

... Altan

Personally I wish for an affordable projector with at least 1200 calibrated lumens with todays black level. That would be enough for a 3 m wide screen with ambient light and still be good enogh in the dark. But that projector does not exist yet.

The Infocus IN82 comes damn close …