[AndroidVageta]

Long story short ya'll!

First time projector owner so be gentle please!

Projector is an Optoma 360PROw with a "eBay" delivered-in-a-tube 100 inch vinyl screen. Did pretty well for my time round getting the projector, screen, ceiling mount, wireless Logitech K400, various cables, HDMI switch all for under $300!

Anyways, issue I'm having is that unless my viewing room is nearly ***** black the picture is no where near what I'd expect from a 3000 lumen projector. Now I can say that I believe the bulb is a generic one so I don't know if that makes a difference or not? The projector says the current bulb only has 127 hours on it and I have the settings on "bright" and otherwise correct.

So yeah, anyone have any examples of what I should be seeing or is this pretty typical? I mean, I don't know how light measurements are made but my 200 lumen flashlight is a ton brighter haha!

Thanks for any help you can give!!!

 

[ben38]

That projector is a business class projector with a color wheel designed to project much more white light than color light. This is a good arrangement for powerpoint presentations.
A home theater setting will primarily depend on the color light output to produce a picture. The high amount of white light is all but useless for home theater applications.

According to colorlightoutput.com, the Optoma pro360w puts out 3000 lumens of white light, and 820 lumens of color light at its brightest settings. So, for home theater use, your projector is actually outputting 27% of its rated 3000 lumens.

 

[AndroidVageta]

Double post

 

[AndroidVageta]

According to colorlightoutput.com...

How accurate is this site? Whites don't seem any brighter than colors and colors certainly don't seem dull or lack luster at all.

Plus every description I find of this projector says it's home theater based...Nothing really pointing to office/white board use or purpose. Multimedia projector.

Edit: Nevermind, I see what you're saying. It's 3000 lumens, sure, but that's just for whites.

So are there any cheap projectors with a high color lumens? All the theater oriented projectors I see are quite low on color lumens so is this just an issue that I have to deal with?

 

[ben38]

Any DLP projector with an rgb/rgb color wheel outputs much more color brightness. The cheapest are the benqw1070 and ht1075.

 

[dreamer]

According to colorlightoutput.com, the Optoma pro360w puts out 3000 lumens of white light, and 820 lumens of color light at its brightest settings. So, for home theater use, your projector is actually outputting 27% of its rated 3000 lumens.

Even 800 lumens should be blindingly bright on a 100" screen -- that is only 30sf so 800 lumens should result in 26fl. I suspect the generic lamp is junk and further contributing to a dim image. For it to appear really dim on a 100" screen in a dark room, I suspect he's only getting 300 lumens out.

 

[AV_Integrated]

Anyways, issue I'm having is that unless my viewing room is nearly ***** black the picture is no where near what I'd expect from a 3000 lumen projector. Now I can say that I believe the bulb is a generic one so I don't know if that makes a difference or not? The projector says the current bulb only has 127 hours on it and I have the settings on "bright" and otherwise correct.

What you are seeing is not at all correct.

While you may have thought you got a deal at $300, what you are finding out now is that you aren't actually getting the quality you expected. This is not typical, but is a regular occurrence with product which is bought used. You bought a gamble, and are finding out that it didn't pan out. So, you should get something else. Whether that is new, or used, is up to you, but the used route continues to be a gamble.

Worth noting that most lamp timers can be reset manually. So, 127 hours could really be 3,000 hours. Since the projector and lamp don't truly track hours, you have no idea what the true hour count is. The projector MAY have a total running time counter, which can't be reset at all, and this may clue you in to the true usage of the projector.

The projector itself is more certainly a business class projector. Not sure where you read anywhere that it was something other than business class. Just look at the sell sheet for it:
http://www.projectorcentral.com/pdf/projector_spec_6295.pdf

So, this would not be a model which would typically be recommended for home theater use and is part of why it doesn't look that good, but the real brightness issue is not related to this. This projector should be very bright on your screen even if it didn't look great, so any issues related to brightness are because of an internal projector issue. Most likely this is due to a very old lamp being installed in the projector. Lamps age heavily over time and dim by well more than 50% of what they are when they are new. Or, it could be a replacement lamp which doesn't measure up to the original lamp standards. Or... it could be something else.

A OEM replacement lamp for this projector runs about $100 or so. You can pick one up if you want, or you can use that money towards something else. But, at this point, since you have a used projector and a brightness issue, the choice on where your money goes is up to you. If it came from eBay you may try to return it.

At the end of the day, lamps, especially quality lamps, tend to run $200, so that price should always be included in the price anyone pays for a 'used' projector.

 

[AndroidVageta]

Here is a picture that I took that best shows what I see in my pretty dark room...what you see may vary depending on monitor. I'm using a calibrated BenQ GW2450 AMVA monitor.

I mean, it's not MAD dim or anything...just not as bright as I would think. The projector is ceiling mounted about 12 1/2 feet from the screen.

Thanks for the help guys! Still looks good, just not what I was expecting. Also, I haven't taken it out yet but looking at OEM bulbs I believe mine is original but the hour count...who knows. Projector could have been reset...who knows.

 

[ben38]

It looks like at 12 feet you're zoomed all the way out, which will cut your brightness down from 20-30 percent.

Let's say it's 20 percent. Your 800 lumens is now 640 lumens. If the bulb is old and has lost half its brightness, your 640 lumens is now 320 lumens. In a pitch dark room, 320 lumens will still give a very watchable picture at 100 inches, but may not be as bright as you want.

 

[AndroidVageta]

It looks like at 12 feet you're zoomed all the way out, which will cut your brightness down from 20-30 percent.

Let's say it's 20 percent. Your 800 lumens is now 640 lumens. If the bulb is old and has lost half its brightness, your 640 lumens is now 320 lumens. In a pitch dark room, 320 lumens will still give a very watchable picture at 100 inches, but may not be as bright as you want.

I'm about half way on the zoom. No real noticeable difference zoomed all the way in or out...is what you say true of all projectors?

In either case, does the photo above, to you, look about correct? I mean, like I said, it's not bad at all. Even 3D is OK with tinted glasses...I guess in the end I was just expecting it to be brighter I suppose...

 

[ben38]

Can't really judge from that photo, but if it looks good to you with 3d glasses on, it's probably running normally.