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Projector Torture Test: LCD versus DLP
An anonymous reader writes "A ten month torture test of five LCD and two DLP projectors shows LCD images deteriorate during extended use." Not surprisingly, if you run an LCD projector for 4000 hours, it deteriorates... of course, if you're staring at a projecter 8 hours a day, for 500 straight days, maybe you should go outside ;)
In other news...
most materials react in unplesant ways when exposed to 4000 hours of consistant bright light.
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From Ape to Man: Evolution
The LCD isn't deteriorating after 4000 hours, your eyes are.
TLoM: Nerds + DDR + Rednecks for the win!
I go outside plenty. Just because a projector is run 8 hours a day doesn't mean I don't. The pool hall I hang out at has gone through dozens of projectors in the couple years I've been going there. It doesn't take long before a new one starts looking like crap.
Does this happen with LCD monitors as well?
Ten months...500 days...something's wrong here.
This space intentionally left blank.
So after 4000 hours per projector, and seven projectors, was it the actual image or the researcher's eyes that deteriorated?
You know, if I ran a research company, this would be the kind of thing I gave to interns.
"Don't worry, interns don't have feelings, they're made of rubber!"
If you stare at a CRT for that long, the radiation will most likely cause an inoperable brain tumor...
Dude! That's why they call it a "torture" test!
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I experienced this myself 20 years ago... only with conventional slides. I was doing a slide presentation, and forgot to turn the projector off when I was done. When I came back a week later, that slide was completely bleached out.
> if you run an LCD projector for 4000 hours, it deteriorates... of course, if you're staring at a projecter 8 hours a day, for 500 straight days, maybe you should go outside ;)
But there are plenty of applications for these things where the display is permenantly turned on - think of a store display - or an airport information system - or high end adverts. In those cases, running 24 hours a day is very likely - and having the damned thing fail after a mere 166 days would suck badly!
It would have been nice to see the lifetime of large plasma panels in the survey too.
www.sjbaker.org
then again if you think about it, most educational places (schools, colleges, uni's) usually use projectors alot.. So.. figure that projector is in use for 8 hours a day for a year its going to die off pretty fast..
Then again, anything that displays gets a bit.. dirty after a few years of use..
I've left to find myself. If you happen to see me, please, keep me there until I return.
How did they fair in the "drag them behind the truck, and dip them in raw sewage" test?
My old goldstar has yet to be beaten, but the MAGs have generally held a strong 2nd place.
-If you would like to report a giant panda sighting, press 9, and give the name of the laundromat
Compared to war, all other forms of human endeavor shrink to insignificance. God, how I love it. - Gen. George Patton
If I leave one image sitting on my LCD projector too long, yes, it will burn in a bit. But the burn in goes away after other images are shown. Typical desktop use gets no burn-in, while long bouts of Shadowbane will leave little yellow pock-marks when the fixed menus are. This goes away after browsing the web a while.
The problem with DLP projectors like the one my roomate bought is the "screendoor" effect that makes it look like you are viewing the image through a screendoor: little black boxes around every single pixel. This is an effect that is there from day-one and never goes away!
Will my LCD eventually get permanent burn-in? Perhaps. Still it's better than the screendoor.
Ink jet printers have very different running costs due to different costs for replacement ink cartridges. Does anyone know of a breakdown of running costs for different projectors or at least can share some experiences?
we also have a DLP project or aswell.
the company, actually the whole industry would like to switch from film to digital projection to save cost.
Guess who is pretty much the only player in HIGH powere digital technology, you guessed it TI. TI makes the DLP projectors we all enjoyed watching StarWars/Disney animation on. Now you say that some project running for more than 5000 hrs is never going to happen at your housse, or maybe at your office but consider this.
our current project with bulbs, can go for about 8000-10,000 hours before the bulbs needs replacement. so we got through about 2/3 bulb a years per projector.
but only switch the bulb.
now the problem is that if after 8000 hours we have to switch more than just the bulb
(which is the case when a digital project goes bad if you ever owned one)
then this could really hurt TI in getting the theathres to switch over.
According to the article, they weren't constantly watching the projectors. They left the projectors running, probably with a system to notify them when they needed to change the bulb. At certain intervals, such as every couple of hours, they ran tests to determine how they projectors were holding up.
Does anyone have a page that lists the technical details of how DLP works? The picture of the slide wasn't very technically detailed. I'd like to see how these work.
based on the same technology?? like these products are?? Here and if so.. what does this mean for the market that is flooded w/ these products... oh wait.. people will still buy them
It's not working... Oh, crap. Well, my LCD was deteriorating anyway.
I am flabbergasted that this story is not plastered in the headlines of every major news outlet. I mean c'mon, the excitement level of such a study, a comparison between LCD and whatever screened projectors! This is big news!
This article is a content-free rehash of marketing material from Texas Instruments, the makers of DLP coponents and systems. There may be a slight bias.
and the "bright light" is really the paramedic's flashlight as he checks your ocular dilation.
You can't judge a book by the way it wears its hair.
Annoying eh Jimbo ? whatever TI's motives, maybe you expected to grab marketshare with slightly crummy cheap projectors, not telling anyone about the flaws, then sell everybody new projectors after the old ones have become obviously tainted, pretending you didn't know about the defects in the first generation ?
It almost sounds like what a certain OS manufacturer has done years back.
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
outside n. that big room with the high gray ceiling (some also report a big room with a high blue ceiling and a bright yellow light, but these remain unconfirmed).
150 Opening BINARY mode data connection for slashdot.sig (129323052 bytes).
Breakfast served all day!
And miss getting f1rst p0st?
of course, the study forgets to mention that single-chip DLP projectors (read: affordable DLP projectors) have a horrible rainbow problem, even at 2x. I have an infocus X1 sitting at my house right now, and the thing is barely usable. Everytime your eyes move at all you see rainbow patterns everywhere.
I've been through a few projectors, and I will certainly be sticking with LCD until DLP reaches 5-10x or three-chip DLPs become reasonably priced.
If you stare at a CRT for that long, the radiation will most likely cause an inoperable brain tumor...
Only if it's a color CRT (which, even with modern designs, generates a non-trivial amount of soft X-rays due to the electrons slamming into the shadow-mask).
Black-and-white monitors make much less X-rays, due to the lower accelleration voltage, lower beam current (i.e. fewer electrons) and lighter target. Meanwhile, the charge on the screen tends to suck the dust out of the air in front of the user's face. There is still some X-ray from the screen. But some studies have estimated that the reduction in risk of lung cancer from radioactive and/or chemically-reactive particles of inhaled dust more than compensates for any increase in risk from the small amount of X-rays from a B&W CRT.
Of course who uses a monochrome monitor these days?
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
According the to article, "TI and Munsell ran the projectors continuously 24/7, replacing bulbs as needed. Each projector was stressed continuously for thousands of hours."
There really wasn't much information provided on the methodology in this article. Did they leave just the one image or did it shift thru? Were any of the projectors shut off at any point (besides changing bulbs)? What were the conditions of the room/area in which the projectors were stored - ventilation, sunlight, etc.?
How many purchasers of projectors are going to use them non-stop? Just imagine such a stress-test of your Intel or AMD processor - 8000 straight hours of 100% CPU activity. I'm sure that could burn out a processor that would survive 8000 hours of activity without a hitch. The longevity of the LCD monitors may be much better than this implies -- which could be better tested under "normal" conditions.
My last thought is that I don't completely trust a "scientific" test done by a company to show the advantages of their own system.
I was taking one day at a time, but then several days got together and ambushed me. (from a Rhymes with Orange comic)
I'm in college and I see projectors used in large lectures ALOT.
So these projectors are used all the time. 4-5 days a week for a school day.
Any ideas?
-Grump
Is it true that more people vote for the winner of American Idol, than vote for the president? -Ali G.
OT: did any subscribers see the "Microsoft DVD standard" article that was posted in TMF? It caught my eye and I refreshed the main page and it was gone, replaced by this article. Do the editors revoke certain articles before they go live? Was there a major factual error or something?
Does anyone know if there's a DLP system that'll display 1080 lines as it's native resolution? Most DLP systems I've seen have 720 lines as their native resolution. I'm holding off on an HDTV system until I can get the max resolution with the best picture technology.
If it's for-profit but free, you're not the customer -- you're the product (e.g., the Slashdot Beta's "audience").
Isn;t this a voluntary effort, fackass?
I can understand the dyes bleaching out of the LCDs but on the other hand the DLP technology uses little mirrors that reflect light much the same way a Boy Scout uses a hand mirror to send a signal. The mirrors are small and light but the mechanism is mechanical. The amount of time the mirrors are reflecting are controlled electronically. After so many hours, I would expect the mirrors to wear out. Yet I saw no dead mirror reflected in any of the pictures after the 5,000 hours of 30 or more frames a second of being twisted in and out of reflectivity. Does anybody know how long the mirrors are supposed to last?
If the DLP mirrors are lasting so long, why not DLP TV's?
Has anyone here used any of these high res projectors to put movies and TV in their homes?
[I'm not talking about rear projection TV's, but rather where you hang one of these down from the ceiling, point it at the wall/screen, and get a big picture.]
My brother had a friend that said it works great, but had two drawbacks: price was still kind of high, and you had to tolerate the low ambient lighting necessary for the projected image not to appear washed out.
"Provided by the management for your protection."
One, DLP is made by TI, and TI did the test.
Two, I've owned a DLP and I couldn't stand the damn thing (headaches, rainbows...), so I have an LCD now. DLPs are probably going to win out on other merits like contrast ratio, or a large lumen advantage when the new scroll wheel color wheels come out. However longevity sure as heck isn't going to be the deciding factor.
The average purchasor of a projector doesn't really care about longevity as most projector owners sell or upgrade their projectors either before or right after they need to replace the bulb. I'm willing to bet that its because they see what's out there while shopping for a new bulb.
Also, if you're ever thinking about being in the market for a big screen or a plama, then you'd be a fool not to check out a projector. Yes, they're about ten grand over at the botique stores that sell the electostatic speakers, however the projectors for real humans are starting these days at around $1200.
if you're staring at a projecter 8 hours a day, for 500 straight days, maybe you should go outside
I'll go outside if you get a spellchecker.
If you mod me down the terrorists will have won
http://www.samsung.com/Products/TV/ProjectionTV/TV _ProjectionTV_HLM507W.htm
I bet there are others out there, but this is the first one that came to mind.
MoH
I wonder what it'd take to use 3 lasers, a couple of oscillating mirrors, and a timing circuit to make a full color projector.
"Derp de derp."
The article claims that Dell is selling the MP2100 DLP unit at 999 US (gimme one of those at that price!), however, on Dell's website, they go for 1299$. Or is this one of Dell's usual tricks where you first have to figure out how to get it cheaper?
But there are plenty of applications for these things where the display is permenantly turned on...or high end adverts.
...
having the damned thing fail after a mere 166 days would suck badly!
Well, it might not suck so badly. At least this may curb the intrusion of certain types of advertisements into real-life.
Do not read this sig.
We used to have LCD projectors for big status displays in our network control center. Running 8 to 10 hours a day, they'd fail every three months or so. Without exception, the LCDs would crack or leak somehow, with huge colored bubbles covering the whole screen. I forget who made the projectors (Infocus, maybe?) but they sucked big time.
we have 5 of these LCD beasts at work to monitor datacenters 24/7/365 and the average life of a lamp is 2200 hours... The projector's quality tends to get seriously worse after 3-4 months and then a colour goes... most need maintenance after 9 months. All the same, they do hold up fairly well.
Hell no, its free to us, but make no mistake the editors do get paid.
And, they are right.
The lamps degrade over time, as well as the panels.
I see so many projectors fail due to non-cleaning.
panel overheats are an issue... because no end user really owns a projector, they usually use one at work and none of these people bother to clean the units filter.
This just adds to the speed of the failure. most projectors I see have failures of the lamp and ballast units before the panels, probably because I get these downed projectors, find them filthy, clean and repair them before it kills the panels.
I have seen many, many kinds of projectors in both LCD and DLP, and the ones that seem to last longer are DLP units.
LCD units start biting the bullet after 3-4 years and usually after 2 years the image quality is starting to degrade.
My recommendation to anyone that has ant of these projectors is to clean them regularly, allow them to cool properly (another BIG problem) and, replace the lamp after the recommended usage.
some are 3,000 hours... some are 2,000...
If you do not replace the lamp after the usage limit, you risk an exploding lamp, damaged ballast, or main power supply. if its a DLP unit the color wheel can be shattered by an exploding lamp. I have had to replace quite a few of these because of this.
The projectors I find that fail the LEAST are made by Sharp and Toshiba. these are well made units that have lifespans of 10 years or more.
I see 10 year old sharps all the time. altho, the panels are about wasted.
Remember, keep the filters clean, allow the units to cool properly and change the lamps when recommended, and your unit should function for many years before needing service.
I hope that someone finds this infoarmation informative and useful.
Our Net Ops Center used to have a projector displaying OpenView. After a while, we were replacing a $200 bulb every week. We finally went out and bought two BIG flat panel LCD monitors. These things can only do 800x600, but they are like 52" or better.
Now the LCD is only used on weekends to display the most important thing in a NOC...movies!
I'd rather you do it wrong, than for me to have to do it at all.
My comment is more about the website that is hosting the article more than the contents of the test.
That website is just short of being 'porn' annoying when it comes to trying to find the content among the adds.
--caw
If they hadn't been changing the bulbs in these things regularly you might have had a point...
autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
I hate to moan[0], but this is _really_ not news!
My flatmate got a DLP projector on eBay.
Before he bought it he did a little research on it, and I did too. We both came to the same conclusion - DLP is better than LCD.
If you look this up on Google I expect you'll find what we did - every retailer I checked said DLP was better (and that what small shortcomings it does have in comparison to LCD are being rapildy overcome with some new 'magical' rev 2 chipset[1] which seems to eliminate them).
I think that even after 5 min research on the web (or by asking your retailer) you'd know the answer to this question - and that all retailers and projectionists seem to be largely in complete agreement - so I don't think this article is newsworthy.
[0] That's a lie - I like to moan.
[1] The name of it escapes me.
In Soviet Russia, the projector torture tests you!
No, really, I'm sure this would have been an Iraqi form of torture, if they could afford it.
Imagine being forced to stare at the same LCD pattern over and over...
For some pretty honest feedback from projector owners and experts, check out avsforum. Check out comments from owners of dlp, crt, and lcd projectors. The folks in the forums are not afraid to either praise or pan a particular projector (or manufacturer or reseller), and they have been a great help to me in sorting out the various factors during my seemingly endless quest. (Actually, I'm just a bit too chicken to drop the $$$ right now.)
And there are quite a few factors worth noting. For instance, some people may be bothered by the "rainbow effect" that is generated by dlp projectors. Others may not be affected by that, but may be bothered by the "screendoor effect" of lcd projectors. Still others may be affected by the "pocketbook effect" of purchasing these things. I may well end up purchasing an LCD for around $2000, and then throwing it away after 4000 hours. (Which for me would be many years, since I watch less than 10hrs of TV per week.) Or I may spend around $4000 on a DLP and plan on keeping it a bit longer. In any case, I don't think I can make a bad choice since South Park will be kick-ass on 100" screen.
Something worth noting is that Sony does not produce any DLP projectors. They do produce CRTs and LCDs. While I'm not a huge fan of Sony, they do kinda have a decent reputation in the consumer electronics field. So to me, their presence in the LCD market lends a bit of credibility. (The HS-10 is getting killer reviews, and it's only around $2500.) Also worth mentioning is the fact that DLP projectors can suffer from image burn-in, while LCD projectors do not. It doesn't mean that LCD is better than DLP. But these are some of the differences worth knowing before dropping several thousand $$$ on a projector. Again, check out avsforum for lots of insight into the different technologies.
If you are interested in purchasing a projector, do your research. You'll probably find that there isn't any one "best technology" to go with.
> of course, if you're staring at a projecter 8 hours a day, for 500 straight days, maybe you should go outside ;)
:)
Unless you're playing Halo on that projector, in case it's perfectly acceptable.
..Jeff Keegan
seven syllables explain TiVo: kee gan dot org slash ti vo
Perhaps I'm entirely ignorant, but what does DLP stand for or mean, or whatever? I read the article and most of the posts, but didn't see a definition... a quick web search hasn't helped either. Maybe I'm just blind...
Splotches are actually particles of dust blocking some light on one of the color panels. Take the projector far out of focus and the dust particle will come into perfect view. Just attack it with a can of compressed air. Also, really old projectors are going to look like hell if for no other reason that the new ones look really good.
Well, except for CRT projectors. Those things are still cherished even if the unit is 10 years old.
..since you mention that you've worked with LCD projectors.
I picked up an old Eiki LC-7000 from a University of Washington auction a month ago. The unit appears to be in good condition(a slight buildup of crud on the air intake, which I cleaned out). I pulled out the bulb assembly to check, and it looked like it was still in good shape(bearing that I know little about metal-halide lamps).
The unit starts up OK, with fans going, and audio playing through great. However, there's no picture at all, not even a warm-up(unfortunately, the "BULB DEAD" light is strictly timer-based). Does this sound like a dead bulb or a more fundamental part going south(ballast, main power supply), and is there a way to test it outside of schlepping it to the local projector repair?
And, just to make the conversation useful to other readers, are there any things to be aware of for people buying used projectors at auctions?
--
We've had a real problem with some brazen fsking thieves. They have pulled some shit right out of lame caper flicks. Property theft isn't a high police priority so we're pretty stuck. We SHOULD be crushing the perps under cement rollers, but instead we're just trying thicker cables to anchor.
Why are replacement lamps for these things so damn expensive?
Hence, 8760 hours in a non-leap year.
Big displays run continuously in control rooms and advertising applications. There's thus a market for long-life displays. Unlike home and conference room environments, silence isn't as critical. So aftermarket cooling solutions might actually sell.
but not that you can afford. Here's who makes them. Expect to pay over a $100,000. Note that only the first 2 have full 1080P resolution, not that you'd ever see the difference, unless you've got a bigger than 25 foot screen at home.
-- It only takes 20 minutes for a liberal to become a conservative thanks to our new outpatient surgical procedure!
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(Are we supposed to add "you insensitive clod" now that somebody else is running the polls?)
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
We have a few on our campus and quite a few of them are starting to wear out. I think this is mostly because people forget to turn them off and they end up running for a very long time.
One thing I notice is that some of them get like pink spots on them when displaying white backgrounds. Although the most common problem is that the image just starts flickering like it can't sync to the laptops video signal. Anyone know what causes this?
Tektronix 6xx series scopes used a sequential RGB system. They used a mono display with an RGB shutter in front of it to make color. Also, the first Mac Classic prototypes were like this (never shipped).
Motion can look a little strange in these systems, especially with extended viewing.
But mostly it works great.
Thanks to the lameness filter, YOU FAILED IT.
USTED LO FALLÓ!
May 1, 2003: 140 years later the Negroes have won and YOU FAILED IT.
I just purchased a dell 2100mp svga projector even though I need xga resolution. I just can't afford the extra $1000.
The svga supposedly give a good compressed picture all the way to 1600x1200.
I only need xga resolution. Anyone used this projector at xga resolution? It is a dlp model.
Thank you for any info.
Does 10 months equal 500 days.
Your hair look like poop, Bob! - Wanker.
One way to get a stereoscopic 3d image is to use two projectors, both aimed to the same place on a silver (polarization-preserving) screen. Each projector has a polarizing filter in front of the lens. You send the left image to one and the right image to the other. The viewer has to wear glasses that have perpendicular polarizing filters so each image gets to the correct eye.
If you want to experiment with using two projectors do this, you will have much better success with DLP.
I played around with it and found that the light coming out of my LCD projectors was somewhat polarized. I worked out a way to put the perpendicular filters in place on my LCD projectors, but the light level was cut significantly by the filter. Any decrease in intensity is supposed to be unnoticable using DLP.
Maybe it doesn't matter though... it was such a pain keeping the images from the two projectors properly registered that I gave up on it after some experiments. Also, there's not much in the way of software that works out for 3D this way. I tried it using the two projectors logically connected using Xinerama and a Java applet that let me choose to show 3d images side by side. It was fun but if the images don't register well you'll quickly get a headache.
I have a DLP projector - Infocus LP330 - that I use for movies. It only cost me $900 used, and I use it to project an image about 75" (or so) wide on my living room wall. Image quality is good, but not great, and there is a halo of light that surrounds the projected image. A cloth-bezeled screen setup would solve my problems; right now it's just on my wall.
... ahem ... friend) is over, nothing beats an entire living room wall worth of screen real estate. Toss in a decent surround sound system, and you've got yourself maybe $6 worth of the $10 a movie ticket costs. I haven't been to the theater in months.
Any consumer who uses a projector to watch TV is, in my opinion, not focusing their monetary efforts in the right place. A substantially-sized HDTV these days is less than the cost of a projector, and will undoubtedly look better in the middle of the day.
However, when it's dark out, your friends (or
Using the XGA input is also great for parties and mp3 visualizations, displaying music videos, whatever.
The dangers of knowledge trigger emotional distress in human beings.
I said NO TEXT. Taco!!!!!
Seems like LCd's are more suspect to this according to this ti funded study. Did you see the images?
2. No accurate color reproduction!
3. Not bright!
4. Refresh artifacts.
5. Pixels can go bad.
6. Fading over time
PROJECTION TV's
1. Heavy
2. Can be out of focus
3. Phosphors fade after time.
I hope DLP totally overtakes the market. I hope everyone sees it as revolutionary as i see it. LCD is rubegoldberg machine in complexity and Costs suck.
dlp
InFocus tell me this is a problem inherent to all LCDs, and that DLPs tend to be better.
Can anyone pass on their experiences with this?
In short, it is a very, very fast RGB strobe sequence that has no equivalent that I know of in any other display technology.
Some early color movies (filmed with the Kinemacolor system, before the Technicolor sandwich approach became feasible) had the same sort of strobe effect, except it was RG not RGB.
Will I retire or break 10K?
InFocus tell me this is a problem inherent to all LCDs, and that DLPs tend to be better.
Can anyone pass on their experiences with this?
I notice the flicker, particularly in the end credits of films. The light flickers at 48 fps/hz with the film advancing 24 times a second. Part of the flicker may be due to the projector not moving the film smoothly [and keeping it centered] rather than the flicker of the shutter
Fucking bullshit. [comparison of modern color monitor X-ray emission to other sources deleted]
Yes, modern color monitors are a lot less "hot" than early-model color TVs. It's pretty hard to get a "deep sunburn" off 'em now. (But even the new ones are still hot enough to raise, rather than lower, your radiation exposure - even if they're now trivial compared to other sources.)
But I think people would trust your posted stats a bit more if your sig line wasn't:
Did you know you can fertilize your lawn with used motor oil?
B-)
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
You aren't going to see theatres with a staff of geeks, modding projectors. If you think there is a market for reliable projectors, you need to manufacture the projectors, feature-complete, and provide massive warranties. Companies don't pay several times as much money for some feature, they pay the money for the assurances of the reputable brand-name that this will do exactly what it claims.
How many companies could easily use $200 walmart PCs, but instead, buy lower-end computers for $1000/piece from Dell/HP/IBM? They want the assurance from the company that they have been tested, and will work perfectly, as claimed.
Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
You don't need fancy mirrors
Bar code scanners (laser) produce a raster from a flat mirror. Rather than oscillate a single flat mirror, get a hexagon, stick flat mirrors on the sides, and spin it around.
You really need to see it in action to appreciate the simplicity.
RGB is no problem, but 2D requires a bit of thought.
"... not to mention the life of any of its customers :)"
That's why it's divied up into burning and non-burning sections.
Notice how what's old is new again? The early days of television were moving parts like wheels. Now we have the modern day version. Moving mirrors, moving color wheels.
Slashdot had a thing on FEM which is basically modern day "core".
IBM has Millipede which is a modern day version of the punch card.
And even tubes are still with us in the form of CRT's and Plasma screens.
For all you looking for the next big thing, find something old, and bring it into the 20th century.
I dont know what DLP is, but that is probably dying too.
I'm smarter than the average bear.
A little arctic silver, a big heat sink, and a quiet fan; right on the LCD panel. Then turns on projector....
Don't forget to factor in the per person costs, which weigh heavily in favor of the home theater.
..
Other factors:
Convenient start times.
Pause. Replay. Loop.
Lack of other peoples screaming/crying/talking children . . . oh, that was Two Towers . .
No annoying cell phones or pagers (apparently nobody considers their own cell phone or pager to be annoying...)
I've been selling software for years - and using and buying projectors (mostly the low end portable 1024x768 variety) regularly for years. Here's my observations:
* NEVER LOOK INTO THE LENS OF A PROJECTOR DISPLAYING A BLACK SCREEN. 1200 Lumens of BLACK LIGHT will make you see spots for a long time.
* DLP v. LCD - Doesn't matter unless you are going to jack in NTSC or other non VGA signals. LCD seem to do better with video and DLP appear to have a "shimmer" int the white areas. The rainbow effect is somewhat overrated. The reps that have DLP projectors seem to whine just before the superbowl about wanting a new one
* Care: Cleaning is critical. Dust burns and those bulbs are hot. The problem isn't a fire hazard, but the soot and residue that builds up.
* BUY and KEEP a SPARE bulb WITH the PROJECTOR! Don't ever cancel a meeting or presentation because the bulb burnt out! Bulb = $400 20 managers at $30 per houre = $600. Do the math bulbs are cheap.
* Two year useful life. Projectors seem to get a lot better every 2 years. Plan on replacements (unless for home theater) every 2 years.
* Brands are less relevant than who makes the unit. There's a limited number of OEMs. Warranties matter.
* Lumens matter. Get lots of them.
-- $G
The study contends that so far the weakness of LCD displays (they don't age well with hours of use) didn't matter that much, because for many usages (such as projecting slides in corporate or other meetings), the projector is considered obsolete for other concerns before the LCD panel has aged.
This is probably true. LCD projectors have had tremendous improvements in the field of resolution, size and weight. Projectors bought 8 years ago for a premium are now dinosaurs, probably not in use anymore.
Furthermore, as hardware ages, there are more things that can go wrong than just the LCD. Projectors used in meetings here and there get moved from room to room, building to building; they are far more likely to endure failure from repeat mechanical stress than from LCD burning.
So the question is: provided that the evolution of resolution, weight and size slows down significantly (probable soon for weight and size), which rules out obsolescence, do projectors designed for occasional use fail because of LCD burning before failing for other reasons?
Obviously, a very different issue is projectors set in fixed locations (little stress) but used constantly or at least very often, for long stretches.
anyone have the new Samsung DLP TV? I hear its great but that blacks dont show too good. The one Im looking at has a 50 inch screen and wieghts only 80 pounds http://www.samsung.com/Products/TV/ProjectionTV/TV _ProjectionTV_HLM507W.htm
I hate to jump into this, but has anyone considered that this journal just described a particular role at /. and not all the work they do? Also - I don't think it says there are 18 shifts a week - just an 18 shift rotation. Since they have to be up just about 24x7, wouldn't it make sense to have a rotation which worked out to less than a week so your job would rotate between weekdays and weekends?
I seriously doubt that a small organization like this gets by with their main personnel working 15 hour weeks...