Spiky

Do they still output any decent amount of light? My Panny lamps would be way down in lumens by the time they quit, and that was always around 3000 hours. I'm at 2895 on my LG, still pretty good, although it does seem dimmer than when brand new.

RichC2

Looks pretty good to me, but I have my projector in a bright room so maybe I'm just adjusted to crap.

Numanoid

Still plenty bright. In fact, I still have mine on the "Low" brightness setting.

Sdallnct

The bulb in my Espson 8500ub (refurbished) is out. WTF? Right at 11 months old!!

Yes, son falls asleep with it on, on occasion. But been less than a year. I can't believe there are 500 hours on that bulb. As a refurbished model, might they have put a cheaper bulb in it?

Also, when I hung the pj the power cord looked exactly the same as my previous pj, so I didn't run another one. Mistake? I'm no electrician, but I'm assuming the pj does the regulating of power.

We have had several storms recently including the big ice storm where we lost power for a few hours. We do get a surge from time to time. I have it plugged into a power strip that should offer some protection.

Least I have plenty of time to shop before Super Bowl....

Sdallnct

Damn...$250-300 for an OEM. Aghhhh....

FYI I did read that excessive heat can shorten bulb life. I realized son or someone had fully opened a ceiling vent in media room. Bad. The unit is right there in the attic and that was making that room hot. Plus blowing hot air on the projector. I shut that vent completely (there is a 2nd vent in the room, far from the projector).

Spiky

All of those can be issues. But that's still really short. I had the Panny forever and that was the big annoyance to me, the Epson versions supposedly last longer!

Sdallnct

Found a site (bulbs.com) that has a bulb/housing for $185. It is an OEM bulb but "compatible" housing. Never seen that before. Though if I can find a true OEM for $250 probably worth the difference.

Spiky

Assuming they aren't just blatantly lying.

Sdallnct

Still haven't ordered a bulb, but need to as I'd like to have for the Big Game. Oddly, least I hope oddly, many places are out of stock. I may have to try one of those OEM bulbs w/generic housing.

soundman2

This is a good site

http://www.rivervalleyelectronics.net/c-368-epson.aspx

Not sure if they have what you need.

I bought my bulb for Hitachi RPTV from them, bulb was sylvania good quality. Came with One year warranty. TV looks like new.

Norm de Plume

Have you guys ever seen The Lightbulb Conspiracy? Planned obsolescence. It makes the blood boil.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/AfzQzGNYaiU" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Spiky

Do they bring up the light bulb that's been on for 100 years? But forget to mention that it now puts out enough lumens to almost see your hand if you wave it in front of your face?

Norm de Plume

Yes, the lightbulb that has been blazing nonstop in a California firehouse since 1901. My major bone of contention is this notion of "planned obsolescence". In that instance, a cabal of corporations convened and decided, "No, an eternal lighbulb just won't do for our bottom lines; we have to limit lightbulbs' lifetimes to 1000 hrs". So the upshot is our current disposable society. Buy something, throw it out after a few years, and buy a new thing, just to keep this fraudulent system running.

kvrdave

Norm, thanks for posting that. Just watched the whole thing. Honestly, it has never bothered me to pay $300 for a new bulb for my projector (back when I had one), because I used it for everything, and all the time. I didn't just watch movies on it, but also tv and internet, never even feeling bad if I fell asleep with it on, as I often did. Anyway, my bulbs would last approximately a year. I hated the projector making me get a new one before the old one died, but found ways to work around that. But I just looked at it like a $300 annual expense that I was willing to make because the pleasure of the projector was absolutely priceless to me.

But the idea that all these things were designed like this (the printer with the chip that makes it fail after 18,000 prints is the perfect example), also makes my blood boil. I think what bothers me the most about that is that they apparently do not have to advertise the fact. I would think it would be mandatory to advertise it as a disposable product.

Now, I do understand and am generally okay with the planned obsolescence that technology brings in the fact that things are improved on all the time, making them more desirable, but that is likely a different thing all together. We can imagine better things, but don't always have the ability to create them.....yet. But all the other things......yeah, fuck them. If you are going to sell me a product, but the fucker with absolute best practices or disclose how you are fucking people over.

Norm de Plume

Exactly. "Natural obsolescence" and "planned obsolescence" are two different things, though. As you said, we see improvements in technology all the time because people invent or discover new, better ways of doing things. That's natural obsolescence. But this planned obsolescence, like with the lightbulb and the printer, and who knows what else, is just nothing less than a scam and a despicable business practice.

Sdallnct

Well wasn't comfortable ordering a $200 bulb with a generic housing, when full OEM was less than $300. But I wanted a bulb for big game...so I went opposite direction....lol

I ordered a $50 cheap knockoff from China off Amazon that had received a good number of positive reviews. I figured if it didn't work out of the box, Amazon good for return. If it failed in 30ish days, again, Amazon good for return. If it works, I can use it thru Super Bowl and buy an OEM when in stock and use this cheap one for a back up.

Down side? It explodes, destroys my projector and burns my house down.

I installed it today. It actually looks fine. I mean no issues with install and the despite a few marginal reviews, I didn't immediately have to "crank up the brightness" or anything. Looks good on the settings I had with original bulb.

Sdallnct

Yes, an interesting watch. However, I think a key component is missed. That of the consumer. I'm a believer that companies/corporations only provide what people what. If people wanted something else, it would/is available.

For example, just before I was married (25 years ago) I started getting into cooking. For a wedding present we got a set of Magnalite commercial pans. These are heavy, with no coating of any kind. In the next few years I bought many more, till they went out of business. I still use every single one to this day. And I use them regularly. They are my main cookware.

I've done research on the company. The best I can tell, they went out of business because of their lifetime UNLIMITED warranty. No, not because they couldn't sell them, but because people wouldn't learn to cook properly so the product would become slightly discolored. Not damaged or effect cooking or food, simply sightly discolored. So people would return them for a new pot and so many did this, it put them out of business.

FYI, I think the name has been sold cause there is some crap cookware out there with the Magnalite name. I found this once, when looking for more pans on feabay,

http://www.ebay.com/gds/MAGNALITE-PR...7573558/g.html

People wanted a easy to use/easy to clean "non-stick" cookware. They didn't care that it wouldn't last.

Yesterday, I just got in from Amazon a Lodge 5 quart Cast Iron Dutch Oven. It was $30 shipped. It will last a 100 years. People that know how to cook, even buy them used or find them rusted and restore them. But the majority of people want nothing to do with them (wife won't use any of our main cookware due to the weight). Most want easy to clean, non-stick, crap. Even if they pay $75 and have to replace it in a couple of years.

I appease wife (and get her to cook some) I have a few non-stick pans and a set of non-stick cookware. I thought is was decent (certainly popular), but some you can't even put in the oven? What kind of non-sense is that? Some you can put in oven but only up to certain degrees....crazy! Some are warping or the lids no longer fit. Crazy compared to the 25 year old stuff that is amazing.

Anyway, totally off topic, but interesting.

tik4w4ti

Sony Bravia VPL-VW90ES 3D SXRD $9,999

kvrdave

and????

Spiky

some other stuff...then.....

Profit!!!

Spiky

So, my PJ lamp was getting old. I knew that, its life is 3000 hours per spec. And the CF181 just simply puts up a message saying, 'it's over 3000 hours, change the lamp'. But it didn't explode or anything and I just kept using it. It's been getting dimmer, and I just dealt with it.

So, finally, I changed it tonight, at 3701 hours. Wow! Really should have done that sooner. Now I remember what is so freaking awesome about this PJ.

Colors...so perfect. Black, and white, and color...all at the same time. My computer screen is going to look like shit tomorrow. Maybe I should stay home.

DVD Josh

Multiple accounts fail.

mattysemo247

So after all of this time I finally did it. I bit the bullet this morning and ordered a BenQ W1070 for $729 at Amazon. I'm nervous and excited at the same time. It's my first projector I've ever had, so I'm not sure what exactly to expect getting it all hooked up. We just finished our basement about a month ago, so I figured now was the perfect time. So yeah, looking forward to it and all the fun movie and game times to come with it

Spiky

I hope you own a level.

mattysemo247

Why?