Color Wheels are STILL alive!

[RCAkid]

I have a DLP set and it would be nice if there was a more definite life to the bulbs.

On the note of the B&H projector bulbs. Yes, they are only rated for 25 hours but as a person who has 4 of these projectors and transfers a lot of film to dvd, they usually go for better than 100 plus full 1600 foot reels (I quit keeping track after that). That can translate into 100 plus hours and since the bulbs are only about 30 bucks or so, I keep extras on hand. But those are 500 watt bulbs so there may be a significant difference from the 1000 watt lamps.

Likewise in my family's old Kodak 8mm movie projector that uses a 500 watt bulb and rated for 15 hours. That bugger was about $50. I put that bulb in the projector in 1982 and snapped up two more new ones that my school was throwing away at the time. Up until about 1997, I would look at the home movies every year. We have roughly 12-14 hours of footage and that bulb is still in the projector and it still works and I am still waiting to use the spare bulbs. Go figure.

I really like the HD picture on my DLP set but it has been squirrely. After moving the set from my office to my home, I had to re-seat the lamp as the set would shut down without warning just after turning it on. It was suggested to re-seat the lamp and it has worked perfectly since. I worry about the colorwheel though and I am waiting for the colorwheel motor to crap out and goodness only knows how long the bulb will last.

I guess the manufacturer just figures the average time the bulb will last and then drops it by 500 or 1000 hours. I don't know, but it is frustrating and I would love to be able to get into the service programming for my Samsung and see just how many hours are on the thing.