Led vs Lamp Projectors

[1KW]

My screen is 120 inches. When I bought my projector 720 P was the state of the art, blu ray was new and cable only offered 720 P. I have replaced my bulbs before they blew (3 times) out based on the timer on the projector because they apparently contain mercury and the manual says the bulbs may explode if not replaced. I would like to not have to worry about toxic light bulbs bursting and so I thought LED might be a option. I am open to suggestions and recommendations.

[chops-tube]

Don't get me wrong. LED is definitely the way to go, and it's what I'll get next time around. I wonder if that's true about regular bulbs exploding. I for one have never seen any kind of bulb explode when it dies. Strange.

There's certainly a lot of offerings out there now for decent 1080p LED projectors. It shouldn't be too difficult to pick a good one out of the crowd. I always look for the sharpness and cleanliness of the lens used, optical lens shift horizontal and vertical, contrast ratio and tweak-ability of color and overall calibration. Lumens isn't as important as most people make it out to be, though you don't want something really low obviously.

[figgie]

Originally Posted by Uberbrown

Not sure about that. The 3 LEDs are red green and blue, so it is not a single source of light like a bulb, and can be calibrated to any temp desired. I know Ivan prefers his 3 gun CRT to any bulb based projector.

What I mean is that if a LED and bulb based projector are both calibrated to the same specs, the LED looks different, apart from temp, contrast, etc . . .. It may be the bulb is warmer, and there is nothing that can be done to remove the warmth, even with a calibration.

In a DLP, Very doubtlful unless they are using 3 chip DLP instead of the color wheel (the 3 chip DLP have one each for Red, Green and blue). One chip DLP only have the color wheel for the RGB channel hence the LED being about 5k if used in a One chip DLP.

the CRT contrast ratio are still unmatched. The LCD/LCoS/SRXD are getting close but still not there. CRT still provide true black (ie no output thanks to the electron beam) unlike the other techs that block light.

[figgie]

Originally Posted by 1KW

My screen is 120 inches. When I bought my projector 720 P was the state of the art, blu ray was new and cable only offered 720 P. I have replaced my bulbs before they blew (3 times) out based on the timer on the projector because they apparently contain mercury and the manual says the bulbs may explode if not replaced. I would like to not have to worry about toxic light bulbs bursting and so I thought LED might be a option. I am open to suggestions and recommendations.

Depending on the projector... they might not let the bulb go past a certain time. The bulb system has more than the bulb and reflector assembly. In most Infocus PJ's, the bulb assembly has some sort of logic (could be a microchip or resistor/thermistor) that basically resets the bulb time when installed.

[Uberbrown]

Originally Posted by figgie

In a DLP, Very doubtlful unless they are using 3 chip DLP instead of the color wheel (the 3 chip DLP have one each for Red, Green and blue). One chip DLP only have the color wheel for the RGB channel hence the LED being about 5k if used in a One chip DLP.

the CRT contrast ratio are still unmatched. The LCD/LCoS/SRXD are getting close but still not there. CRT still provide true black (ie no output thanks to the electron beam) unlike the other techs that block light.

Figgie, I am not sure what you are saying is very doubtful.

The Sim2 LED DLP projectors do not have any color wheel at all. As I said, they use a red, green, and blue LED to produce their light, and a DLP mirror device as well. There is a great amount of info online if you would like to research it. Also, your description of the function / nature of a color wheel in a DLP device does not seem to be correct either.

I offer no argument against your claim for CRT and absolute black level, however, the rise of non-CRT devices evidence that most would be willing to trade off absolute black level for convenience, size, weight, brightness, etc . . .. Im not sure how any debate about the trade offs between CRT and other tech is related to David's inquiry about LED vs. bulb tech. I only mentioned a CRT device to illustrate previously, namely, the fact that an LED useless a red, green, and blue light source, which is similar to a CRT light source. I dont think David is wanting to buy a CRT device at this time.

[Uberbrown]

Originally Posted by chops-tube

Lumens isn't as important as most people make it out to be, though you don't want something really low obviously.

Not sure what people are being referenced here, or how important they are making it out to be, or how low 'really low' is, so I am not sure what kinda numbers you have in mind. Lumens are not the only thing, but they are important and affect everything else.

I have noticed lumens isn't important until you don't have enough. Think of the absurdity of the man with a pair of Mcintosh MC1.2kw amps with JBL speakers at 98db/1watt sensitivity amps saying that watts isn't as important as most people make it out to be, when he has more watts at his disposal than he could ever need. Many applications will only require a low lamp mode on a projector, and thus the fan noise is lessened, etc, but every application has to be treated individually.

If you have a low output projector being used with a) a low gain screen, b) a room without light control, c) reflective surfaces in the room, d) a long throw to the image, e) a large screen, etc . . ., then you will need a high number of lumens to compensate.

I have noticed that most people have never seen a high quality projection device with a large light output, but it is very impressive. So much so that many videophiles will even change the bulb every 500 hrs to keep their lumen count up because of the difference it makes.