Large Screen TV's

[rdwj]

I was a little disappointed in my projector's bulb life--but that goes with the territory I guess. I paid 750 for my projector, and the bulb lasted 15 months on a pretty bright setting.

How heavily was the projector used? With my kids, my family room TV is on almost all the time. The stat sheets for most projectors seem to use 2000 hrs as a benchmark. That doesn't seem like a very long time. And aren't those things like $300 each?

 

[NitrouStang96]

Mine was $400, but it's rated at 4000hr in economy mode. Mine lasted about 2000hr in its brightest possible setting, averaging about 8hrs of use per day.

 

[shafferpilot]

I just picked up a 37" sharp aquos for the bedroom from a dude on craigslist. Silly me, I just thought he was moving or something since he had 3 tv's listed. After going to his place and finding about 30 tv's and half a dozen "customers" I'm just glad I made it out of there without getting arrested.... Damn nice tv for an outrageously good price, though..... I know: i'm goin to hell, but not today!

 

[Bobby_M]

I've noticed that LCD TVs are coming down in price faster than the front projectors of the same resolution are. Over the past few years, I've only gone FPJ because 90" of 720p was only $1200ish. As we see 50" 1080p flat panels approach that price, it's going to be a tough decision for casual family room type applications. I would pay a small premium for the flat panel because the replacement bulbs for a FPJ would cause a break even in about 2 years. I'm just so spoiled with screen size that going to a 65" would be such a perceived downgrade for me.

 

[AnOldUR]

We've had our Panasonic AE900 front projector for a couple of years now. Lots of use, same bulb. We made a small screen for everyday use and have a pull down for movie night. The projectors 2X zoom makes both sizes possible with the same setup. Very happy with it (although I am starting to look at the next generation projectors.)

BTW
For this post I just now snapped the second picture during day time (it is overcast today) with no curtains drawn but turned the flash off. It's a good representation of size (133" diag) but not quality.