DLP reality check

[Mr Peabody]

I was watching TV late last night and the lamp went out on my Toshiba DLP. When I bought the thing, and when shopping around, everyone down played the fact that you have to replace the lamp. "Oh, sure, we'll have the replacements available", they said. Well much to my surprise I can't find one anywhare locally. I checked all the big stores. I don't think any parts places are open on Sunday. To make matter worse, my Moxi (cable) box isn't working correctly and they were coming out Friday to fix it. It's connected to the useless $4k TV. I did find one at a place called American parts. They had it in stock and I ordered one. The guy got me thinking, he says "oh, we have a special on those, do you want 2?" I'm thinking good idea, I bet I can get one half price or something. NOT! They were so generous, they were going to give me free shipping on the second lamp. Free shipping on the entire order? "No". No price discount? "No". So I just took the one on principal. I plan to still look around and maybe I will get another lamp for back up. I still hope to find one by Friday but it looks like the only way to get one is to order it. Toshiba themselves couldn't help me. He didn't know if the parts department had them or not, they weren't open today.

So you DLP owners might want to be looking for that replacement lamp now if you don't want to be without your TV for a week to ten days.

Anyone else been through this yet? Anybody know of a good place to get these lamps?

[Grandpaw]

Mr Peabody, I am looking at DLP televisions to purchase in the next couple of weeks. I would be curious how long you have had your TV, how much you watch it and how much do the bulbs cost?

This is one of the sets I am looking at....

http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Samsu...oductDetail.do

Any advice would be greatly appreciated, Jeff

[Mr Peabody]

I've had my DLP about 2 years. It's not our main TV, it's in my HT set up. Just guessing the set may have gotten 10 to 15 hours a week. We'd watch some DVD's on the weekend, I might watch an hour or 2 some nights during the week. I have a Sony tube TV which gets at least 12 hours a day, it seems like they leave it on even when no one is paying any attention to it. If yours is going to be like that, I'd say get a LCD. The prices are coming down to a very competitive area. The Toshiba has 2 settings for the lamp, high and low. I have mine on high because I like a brighter picture. This could make a difference as well.

I paid $199.00 for the lamp, it came to $223.00 with shipping and tax. I think this is going to be a bigger concern than I originally thought. Especially if you can't go down the road and pick one up. Back when I bought my DLP though, the largest LCD was 42" and very expensive. Plasmas were priced way out of my budget. DLP had a much better picture than the old technology RPTV's and seemed like the best choice. I haven't shopped TV's in a while but from ads I've seen I think if I was buying today LCD would be my choice. Even if LCD was a thousand more dollars for the same screen size, you have to factor in the trouble and expense of changing that lamp.

I noticed you were looking at Circuit City. When I called them to see if they carry the lamps the guy mentioned if I had one of their extended warranties they would exchange the lamp for free. So that may be worth looking into depending on price and how long the warranty is.

[bobsticks]

Interesting.When I was investigating this I found that the "big three" (CC,BB,&HHGregg) all have warranty programs fpr three years tha will cover the replacement of one set of bulbs. The implication from every salesperson I talked to was that if it was a main tv, and if it were to be played a majority of each and every day then it might well require replacement at the three year mark. 10 to 15 hours a week sounds suspiciously low. Something seems amiss.

[Mr Peabody]

If they told you 3 years for a main TV, you have been misinformed. The lamps are only rated at 2,000 hours and that's not set in stone because the bulbs are unpredictable. Just like a regular light bulb, some may last longer than others. About.com has some FAQ on DLP you can take a look at. Check out some of the replacement lamps online and look at the hour rating. If you use DLP for your main TV, you are looking at replacement each year I'd bet. Just 3 hours a day for a year is just over a 1,000 hours. By the way, online prices on the replacement lamps were more expensive than what I paid. I think American and BB use the same parts house referral. Both quoted $199.00, the cheapest I found online so far was $294.00.

Suspicious? I have no reason to exaggerate. I'm not trying to sell you a TV. I'm just putting my experience out here. If you don't believe it, that's on you. If you get DLP, I have the satisfaction of knowing some day you will say, hmmm, that Peabody was right. It's not really even how long the lamp lasted that bugs me the most, it's the fact that all the stores said they would have them readily available and they don't. I had to make several phone calls and now have to wait who knows how long to get the lamp. If I can't find one at a parts house or repair shop this week I may end up ordering another anyway. Who wants to be without their TV for 10 to 14 days. It's not my main one but I like it to be there if I want it.

[bobsticks]

I know yer not sellin' anything and would therefore have no reason to doubt you. When I said suspicious I meant that given what I assumed to be the correct lifespan of the bulbs that perhaps you had gotten faulty bulbs and had cause for action or complaint. If there's a bad on me it's having trusted big-box salespeople without verification from an outside (read:competent) source.

[evil__betty]

Last year, Toshiba had NUMEROUS problems with the lamps going prematurely on their HM85 and HMX85/95 series of TV's. They found out it was a firmware issue that wasn't working well with the lamp and they offered quite the service to fix it - simply call the 1-800 number, give name address, etc, and they would send out a brand new one in about 2 days. You would simply install the new lamp and send back the broken one. They would take down your credit card number so they could charge you if you didn't send the broken one back. I would have contacted Toshiba about it, because you probably could have gotten a free one a lot faster than the one online. I would also try repair depots to get new lamps, they're often cheaper than the store. But I rarely see many lamp issues on TVs and most will last that 3-4 year mark with average viewing. I'm not sure who rated their lamp at only 2000 hours, but that is quite low. Most are around the 4-5000 life span with Sony rating theirs at 8000 hours.

[topspeed]

Mr. P,

You should be happy you got two years! Mine was sucked dry at the 8 month mark and AVMaster experienced just about the same thing. Thankfully, it was replaced under warranty, but it still meant 6 days without the main set working . I have the extended bulb warranty for another 3 years and have a feeling I'm going to be using that quite a bit.

BTW, bulb price was just about the same. LCD rptv's use the same halogen bulbs your DLP and my LCoS use, so they suffer the same problem.

Sorry to hear about your trouble.

Mr Peabody, I am looking at DLP televisions to purchase in the next couple of weeks. I would be curious how long you have had your TV, how much you watch it and how much do the bulbs cost?

This is one of the sets I am looking at....

http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Samsu...oductDetail.do

Any advice would be greatly appreciated, Jeff

Jeff,

If the reports from avsforums are anything to go by, I'd seriously reconsider that Sammy. Check the site for yourself, its reliability is less than stellar. DLP's big guns seem to be Mits, Toshiba, and even LG. LCD is lead by Sony (the Bravia's are quite nice) and Hitachi. Evil and AVMaster are dealers so they can probably tell you what's hot and what's not.

Also, you might consider checking tvauthority.com online. I bought my JVC there at a price that was literally thousands less than BB and it was delivered into my room (not curbside). It even came with a free Monster Power Conditioner. Just a thought...

[Woochifer]

Interesting issue because I'm starting to hear a lot more about it now (given that most DLP TVs have been sold within the last 3 years, now's about the time that a lot of bulbs start giving out). It seems that the bulb is what the sales reps at BB and CC use to try and sell you on the extended warranty. I've even read in Consumer Reports that RPTVs are one of the few categories where an extended warranty might be worth buying (laptop computers would one of the other categories) because of the bulb replacement.

One of the best bits of advice that I got in grad school was to always make sure that you carry a spare projector bulb when making a presentation. No matter what I've used -- a slide projector, film projector, or overhead projector -- at some point, I've had to replace the bulb. Even now, whenever I use a DLP front projector for PowerPoint presentations, the case always includes a spare bulb. I'm actually kinda surprised that stores like BB and CC don't have aisles stocked with spare bulbs, since it would make sense for consumers to have a spare on hand for the inevitable time when the bulb goes out. I can understand that it's not supposed to be a customer-accessible component, but with so many RPTVs out there now, I would guess that the demand for these bulbs will only continue to increase.

[Mr Peabody]

Bobsticks, we are cool.

Topper when I was recommending LCD, I meant LCD, not RP/LCD.

Now the way things are in the market, I'm feeling, what was I thinking, a TV that is going to cost me a couple hundred bucks on the average of every 18 months? Did I have temporary insanity? But going back to what things were when I bought the TV, it was like the most affordable micro display technology and even after replacing some lamps it was still cheaper than LCD or Plasma. I guess sometimes it is better to weight. I was in the biz around the early 90's and we sold Sharp. They were talking then about their LCD technology but it took years before it ever hit the market. It's a crap shoot. If I was buying now it would take a lot to convince me not to buy LCD.

[westcott]

Lamp life is always variable and seems to be much shorter than any stated time periods from the mfgs. They tend to test them on a continuous operation which is not realistic. Turning a lamp on and off is very hard on the lamp and reduces lamp life considerably. If you get over 1000 hours, you are doing alright. I would be very happy with lamp lifes in the 2000 hour range for the way we watch movies (2 to 3 hours at a time).

Lamps have low margins as far as profit goes and so, they generally are not carried by the retail stores. They are fragile and prone to damage during shipping.

Lastly, many of us have chosen to use two video displays to extend lamp life. A smaller display for standard definition programing and a larger display for HD video and DVD's.

[Mr Peabody]

One other thing about these lamps which is pretty scary is that they contain mercury and require special disposal. I didn't realize this until I changed this first one out. So far I have called my waste management company and they didn't take them, or should I add knowingly take them. I checked with a recycle company and didn't get anywhere. I left a message with the Dept. of Health and wait a response. Now what if I was a less responsible person or maybe lived in a more rural area where there may not be access to proper disposal? Heck, I'm in a city and yet to find where to dump mine. I'm afraid I am going to find this an additional charge. I hate to think about where the thousands of used up lamps are really going. The fact that DLP has been around this long and there's no easy disposal already set up makes one wonder. Oh, I also called the manufacturer and they just referred me to call the Dept. of Health. So there is plenty of irresponsibility to go around. I haven't researched to see how potentially dangerous mercury is yet, I'm not sure if I want to know in light of what I just said.

[spasticteapot]

One other thing about these lamps which is pretty scary is that they contain mercury and require special disposal. I didn't realize this until I changed this first one out. So far I have called my waste management company and they didn't take them, or should I add knowingly take them. I checked with a recycle company and didn't get anywhere. I left a message with the Dept. of Health and wait a response. Now what if I was a less responsible person or maybe lived in a more rural area where there may not be access to proper disposal? Heck, I'm in a city and yet to find where to dump mine. I'm afraid I am going to find this an additional charge. I hate to think about where the thousands of used up lamps are really going. The fact that DLP has been around this long and there's no easy disposal already set up makes one wonder. Oh, I also called the manufacturer and they just referred me to call the Dept. of Health. So there is plenty of irresponsibility to go around. I haven't researched to see how potentially dangerous mercury is yet, I'm not sure if I want to know in light of what I just said.

Mercury is nasty, nasty stuff. Projector bulbs are, however, more or less the same as mercury-vapor bulbs, and odds are that the city will get rid of them. Also, there's a very, very small amount of mercury in each bulb - it's in a vapor, along with a lot of other nasty things.