Projectors have many advantages over conventional big screen TVs. For one thing, projectors can give you a truly big screen, as in movie-sized. Some projectors are even portable, so you can take your movie nights with you. They are also more economical than other types of large screen TV. There is one major drawback of projectors compared to other types of television, however: they have limited bulb life. Unlike other types of TV, you will actually have to change the bulb on your projector from time to time.
LCD and DLP projectors have a great picture, but in order to keep that great picture going, you have to change the bulb from time to time. LCD and DLP projectors have a lamp life that falls in the range of 2000 hours to 4000 hours. Unlike the light bulbs in your light fixtures, this is not an estimate of how long it will be before the bulb burns out completely. This is actually an estimate of how long it will take before the bulb is reduced to half its original brightness. This is referred to as ‘half-life,’ similar to radioactive materials. The lamp will continue to work at its half-life. It will, however, contuse to lose brightness gradually until it no longer burns at all, eventually.
Bulb half-life is something you want to bear in mind when choosing a projector. It actually varies quite a bit from one model to the next within a manufacturer’s product line, let alone from one manufacturer to the next. If your projector’s purpose is to replace your TV, you will need to estimate your family’s TV usage and budget for replacement bulbs when you purchase your projector. Typically replacement bulbs cost somewhere between $200 and $400. If you only use your projector for special event, bulb life isn’t nearly as important, as you will be running it a lot fewer hours than you would otherwise. Also, you will need to clean your lamp regularly as per the manufacturers instructions; as well maintained bulbs last longer.
If you buy a spare lamp to go with your projector, one thing you may want to do is run it for a few hours before you store it in a cool dry place. Lamp warranties begin from the time you purchase them, not from when you start using them, and lamps typically fail within the first four to ten hours of use if they are faulty.
If you were buying a camera, you’d be sure to ay attention to what kind of lens it came with. Projectors are optically based too, and the quality of the lens determines the quality of your image. Zoom lenses are just about standard on today’s projectors. The real question is how much the lens’ f-number changes as you zoom in. Making lenses that don’t get a lot darker as you zoom them is really difficult, so this is something you will want to test when you try out projectors.
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