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Projector Torture Test: LCD versus DLP

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the putting-it-to-the-test dept.

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 ;)

3 of 246 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Monitors? by apraetor · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The article mentions that TI believes the degradation is due to the intensity of the heat and light used in projectors. After all, a projector requires many many many times the candlepower of an LCD display's backlight. So I think we're safe :)

    --matt

  2. Long life is often needed. by sbaker · · Score: 4, Insightful

    > 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
  3. More a stress-test than longevity-test by Ra5pu7in · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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)