Lamp Lifespan - Where Are You? - Page 6

I'm on my 4th bulb on my Sharp XR11C. I seem to get 1500-2000 hours on each. The first two of them exploded rather loudly and scared the crap out of me since the projector was sitting on a coffee table right next to my chair then, ceiling now. Costco replaced the entire projector after the first one, back when they had that nifty replacement policy.

I won't be buying any more. I've decided to wait and get a better projector after I can get a good price on one with LED bulbs. No more $275 bulbs for me.

- Tom

6,200 on my InFocus SP4805 in 3 1/2 years.

Ordered a replacement bulb under CC extended warranty on Monday. I'll have it tomorrow. No hassle at all.

What was your usage like? Hard or soft power offs?

3,200 hours on my Infocus IN72 on high power mode. I can tell it has dimmed, but still works great. I have about 2 years left on my warranty, so I am hoping it pops around 4,000 hours.

Just passed the rated 3000 hour mark on my second bulb for my HS20 which is operated in low mode. First bulb lasted somewhere around 2100-2200 hours (more on/off cycles than the second I suspect). It's dim at this point, but still watchable ... trying to stretch it to last until Nov/Dec when all the PJs announced/shown at CEDIA are generally available.

I'm kind of disturbed about your experience with the IN72 bulb life. I'm at 1700 hours on low, though the vents weren't cleaned for a LONG WHILE so it was huffing and puffing trying to get some air from the dust that was caked on each vent hole. It was truly disgusting and amazing at the same time.

Anyway, I'm disturbed because your hours are so high and we're waiting (actually hoping) that the bulb blows so we can get a new, fancy HD projector. If it's going to last 3200 hours then we still have at least 2 years left! ARGH! ;-)

Hard power on and off. Once it's turned it on, it stays on until I go to bed (which can be > 12 hours on a Saturday). Low power on the bulb (because I can't take the fan noise on high).

I've heard of the IN72's lamp lasting close to 6,000 hours on low power, but I'm sure it's VERY dim at that point. I want mine to go so I can get the new bulb from my Best Buy warranty, then sell it to upgrade. I am hoping it goes before 4,000 hours, it should since I have it on high power all the time.

Little over 2800 hrs, HS20, 2nd bulb, low power mostly, high altitude mode. Some shots on the page here,
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...965178&page=25

I have some questions regarding lamps:

1. Why are people buying spare lamps? What happens if, in 2 years' time, when you replace it you find the 'new' one is faulty?...What I'm really asking is - Do lamps for brand new PJs quickly become discontinued/unavailable? (I have a Panasonic PT-AX200, released in Oct '07)

2. After 2hrs of use my Panasonic PT-AX200 makes a very high-pitched tickling noise, it's not the fan (that was replaced), is that noise a lamp fault? (It occurs more on 'Eco Mode')

Thanks for any help.

People buy spare lamps since it covers them from being stuck if/when their original lamp goes out. Unfortunately they don't all make it to their rated life and sometimes die without advance warning. Imagine it goes out on the morning of the Super Bowl and all your friends are coming over...

If I were to buy a spare lamp for a PJ, I'd do it something like this:

- run PJ on original lamp through its warranty period (typically 90 days)
- order spare so it arrives somewhere near the end of the original's warranty
- take original lamp out, put it on a shelf somewhere in the spare's box (now you've got a known-good 'spare' in your original - typically lamps don't go bad sitting on a shelf)
- run spare lamp until it dies/dims too much - if it were DOA or died during its warranty period you'd be covered

This way you'd take advantage of warranties on both original and spare, as well as (assuming no problems) having the piece-of-mind of having a working spare on hand.

Availability of bulbs seems to go beyond 2 years - I can still find bulbs easily for my almost-5-year-old HS20.

I should note that I personally don't have a spare on hand at the moment - despite my PJ's second bulb being at its rated lifetime - since I'm potentially going to upgrade Real Soon Now(tm).

I can't offer any advice with respect to your question #2, sorry. Is the PJ still under warranty?

X1 Infocus ceiling mounted in 2 different houses 3600 on original bulb. Still enjoy the projector but like most people I will not buy another bulb will probably just reset the timer and let it go till it pops then buy a new projector. P.S. the projector is 4 years old.

My Optoma H31 has about 1900 hours on it and is 2 years old. I am getting the "bulb may fail soon" message. I'm assuming the message is tied to the counter and not to the bulb itself?

I would estimate about 500 hours in bright mode. My theater is 100% light controlled. I'm now thinking of upgrading instead of getting another bulb, not sure yet.

My ph530 is around 2,510 hours, original lamp. And the Optoma HD70 is at 2,161 hours, original lamp. My projector before that, which i gave to a friend, is currently running at 3,100 or so hours.
The ph530 is using a 200w uhp, hd70 200w shp, and the old projector is running a 150w uhp.

Yes, that is just the counter, the lamp may go quite a bit further from the counter's warning. It is only "recommended" to change the lamp by the counter, because the risk lamp explosion increases with age, but generally exploding lamps don't seem to harm the projector.

A little over 2 years and 3408 hours on my Infocus 4805. Low power mode all of the time. When I turn it on it stays on unless I am leaving the house for more than 2 hours. I use it for all of my tv viewing. If I turn it on at 1 pm on a saturday it may stay on until 12 midnight. Picture brightness is still pretty good especially when there are realy bright scenes, I'm waiting for it to go so I can get into a new pj

Five year (and 1 month) old X1. Bulb life advertised at 4000 hours. Bulb popped at 3975 two weeks ago. Great looking picture till it went although definite dimming in the last 6 months.

Imperfect planning on my part. I don't want to buy a replacement for $300 on a projector with a color wheel this old (or be doomed to non-HD for another 5 years if it still works). So my plan was to use this for another couple of months and hope for price drops after CEDIA. I'm too cheap to buy top-of-the-line, so I'm looking at a 720p replacement. Being happy with an X1, I should be very happy with any of them.

around 20 hours

just got my Pj last friday

Just put third bulb in the mits hc3000. Always operated in eco (save the first half life of the very first bulb) and Ive always replaced when the projo shuts down at 3k hours. I bought two replacement bulbs within the first six months of ownership, and Ive owned it for about 2.5 years now. Its been my only display in that time and has been pushed hard that whole time. This projector has also seen hard time traveling in a carry on about 20 times (thats been dropped by airport employees at least once), and has been transported between two different screens in my house regularly as soon as the bulb cool-down has elapsed and I can unplug it. Its seen hard time, and lots of it, but all bulbs have gone to term...this third bulb only has about 200 hours on it.

Just got the sanyo z2000, already 20 hours in about a week. That will most likely be a weekly standard (mostly on the weekends), as Im still using the mits whos now permanently homed in the bedroom. Within the next month or two Ill probably get a couple of replacements for the sanyo, and probably reset the counter when this current bulb is up in the mits. Ive still got the last used bulb also, might throw it back in just for fun...

z5 at 960 hours on high power (low is too dim)

Crossed 800 hours on my VP4001 last night in eco mode. Even though the bulb is still bright, I changed it from eco to normal mode last night as I bought a 3 yr or 2 bulbs Mack warranty so I wanna make sure I make use of that

Frag

My roommate's PH530 just lost its bulb a bit short of 300 hours last night. We had power outages Sunday night which gave us three hard shutdowns before we called it a night. Turned it on last night and it seemed to be working as we aimed it to tape off an area for painting a screen, but after shutting it off to rewire it never came back. On the second try at starting it, the bulb popped.

Of course on the flip side of that, my old HD70 lived through at least five hard shutdowns (power cord was apparently vulnerable to drunks) and is still going at my ex-roommate's place with over 3500 hours.

Had mine hooked up less than 15 days and I'm at 126, lol.

I have a circa 2002 Sharp M20X and it also gives a warning at 1900 hours. Supposedly it stops when the lamp counter hits 2000 hours.

I knew I wanted to upgrade to one of those new-fangled widescreen projectors, so I just 'lied' to the projector and told it I put in a new lamp. It's still running about 900 hours later. I guess it's dimmer now, and it flickers in low-power mode, but it's still looks basically as good as ever.

It has started displaying all red for a while, but I think that's the projector itself. The image displays, but it's like all the red bits are on for all the pixels. I have a fan blowing on the projector and it goes away after a few mintues.

At this point,I'm just waiting for it to die to buy something new like the soon to be released Epsons.

My Sharp A10X purchased in 2003 has 1646 hours and still looks good. I have had to adjust the brightness and contrast a bit but that is all. I have it paired with a High Power screen so it is still plenty bright. I figure if I get the full life of the bulb in low power mode, 4250 hours, I will have to replace it in 2016

4000 hours on my in72 use it every day as main TV. Do I have to worry about the bulb exploding? Mounted on celling and have kids.

There are a lot of encouraging stories on this thread. I just purchased my first projector this week, and reading all of the negative threads, I just about scared myself into getting a bulb warranty. I still might, but after reading this, I might take my chances and cross my fingers.

I got 2005 hrs on my pan ax200. This is my main TV and I love it.

Did I jinx myself or what!!!!2 weeks after I posted here and changed my bulb from eco to normal, the bulb went out!!

Mack's warranty replaced it (I had to order though) under warranty and I'm now back to 23 hrs on the new bulb.

This one, I'm running on eco till it dies.......from my experiance, I think running the bulb on eco is the key to long life span.

5 years running projectors and I have yet to see a bulb that outlasts my addiction. I think the most I got was 1500 hours out of my h31. I just get a new pj every year or year and a half. I can save up 1000 bucks every year or so preaty easy and there is always a much better pj out there than what was there a year before. I'm still running the mits hc1000 right now though. Nothing has really jumped out at me. Pluss that pj fulfilled what i had always wanted from the start. It just took 5 years for tech to get there. At this point i'm committed to wait till 1080 dlp is around a grand. And it will have to be at least as bright and calibrate at least as well at the hc1000 did. For now I am committed to finish my last commitment a sonosub. The $1000 worth of crap I bought 4 months ago still sits boxed. My balls await being blown off.