Will Low Lamp Lifetime Spell Trouble for DLP TVs?

Techno-Canuck asks: "Now that the DLP TVs have been in customers' hands for the last few years, there are problem histories that are begining to unfold. According to Toshiba's DLP TV User Manual: 'The average useful service life for the lamp is approximately 8,000 hours in LOW POWER or 6,000 hours in HI BRIGHT MODE.' However there were problems with certain 2005 Toshiba models that saw the lamp lifetime at only a few hundred hours or less. Toshiba replaced the lamps in these models at no cost and extended the lamp warranty to 2 years. According to an FAQ on About.com the lamps currently last an average of 1500 hours. Whether or not Toshiba has resolved the problem remains to be seen, as only time will give the real indication. There also seems to be lamp issues with some 2004 models as well, but Toshiba does not seem to be stepping forward to resolve the issues in this case. The customer ire is starting to rise, however. Will there be similar problems for the 2006 models once enough time has elapsed?" Most people probably would use the information provided by Toshiba to make a decision about what the lamp maintenance costs would be for DLP ownership. However if lamps only last for 1500 hours, then that's a 400% increase in costs over what Toshiba is presenting to customers. The cost of a lamp is $200 or more, and for a family household that averages 6 to 8 hours of TV viewing per day, this translates to a new lamp every 187 to 250 days. Strangely enough the Toshiba warranty on a replacement lamp not covered by the original TV warranty is 180 days.

It's possible that the death blow has already been struck. It appears that no longer carries DLP TVs in its product line."

Comments

Re:Havin' a funeral

[dch24]

I don't know that I agree with you. The Newton failed for other reasons in addition to the handwriting recognition problems.

As another counterexample, the slashdot article says: "It appears that no longer carries DLP TVs". Is that Toshiba? http://www.tacp.toshiba.com/televisions/dlp.asp Is that some big-name store that sells home theater equipment? But does that cast a pall over slashdot to the point that editors read the summaries before posting?

Re:6-8 hours of TV a *day*?

[kalpaha]

I was thinking the same, but if you consider a large family, where kids would probably watch a little TV before going to school, home mom would check something during the day, then kids would watch more TV before going to bed and parents would watch a movie after the kids are sleeping, I guess you can average 6 hours.

Morning: 0.5h
Daytime: 1.5h
Evening: 2h
Movie: 2h

Eight hours is sick, though. And of course, the argument about "wife" watching is moot with slashdotters, anyway.

I have one

[passthecrackpipe]

A tosh DLP that is. It sees very heavy usage in our household, and the lamp has been going for about 2 years now. It will probably die soon, the bulb that is, but hey, I knew bulbs were going to be consumables when I bought it. Most people that run short bulblives forget to switch on the "quick restart" feature that keeps the bulb on for about 10 minutes after you switch off the telly, and its the frequent on/off cycles that do more damage to the bulb then anything else.