Plasma TV (and the death of projectors)
-
When I built this house, I set up a media room with a 70" projector screen with a short throw (10 ft), so the picture was big and the quality acceptable. I've replaced two bulbs thus far (not cheap: ~$300), and I can live with that. However, what they don't tell you is that these bulbs die with an explosive bang loud enough to make you think you're taking mortar fire. Quite exciting. Best of all, when the second one went, it spewed powdered glass across the room. Yep. Actual glass, fine as grains of sand on the beach, all over the couch, carpet, and had I been sitting there at that precise moment, me. Having replaced the bulp, the color wheel now makes a grinding, whining noise, no doubt from an internal coating of glass as well. To say that I'm through with projectors would be an exercise in understatement. So, looking at a large screen to hang on the wall. Looks like 65" is tops for plasma, and they've come down in price quite a bit since I bought the projector system (at the time the biggest screens were $8-10k). What's the thinking on large, wall mountable TV technology these days? I'm not sure what features to look for, or what pitfalls to avoid. I just want something that doesn't explode.
Christopher Duncan www.PracticalUSA.com Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes Copywriting Services
TOP TIP: Save money on those Huge TV's! Try sitting slightly closer to a smaller one! :)
------------------------------------ To eat well in England, you should have a breakfast three times a day. W. Somerset Maugham 1925
-
When I built this house, I set up a media room with a 70" projector screen with a short throw (10 ft), so the picture was big and the quality acceptable. I've replaced two bulbs thus far (not cheap: ~$300), and I can live with that. However, what they don't tell you is that these bulbs die with an explosive bang loud enough to make you think you're taking mortar fire. Quite exciting. Best of all, when the second one went, it spewed powdered glass across the room. Yep. Actual glass, fine as grains of sand on the beach, all over the couch, carpet, and had I been sitting there at that precise moment, me. Having replaced the bulp, the color wheel now makes a grinding, whining noise, no doubt from an internal coating of glass as well. To say that I'm through with projectors would be an exercise in understatement. So, looking at a large screen to hang on the wall. Looks like 65" is tops for plasma, and they've come down in price quite a bit since I bought the projector system (at the time the biggest screens were $8-10k). What's the thinking on large, wall mountable TV technology these days? I'm not sure what features to look for, or what pitfalls to avoid. I just want something that doesn't explode.
Christopher Duncan www.PracticalUSA.com Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes Copywriting Services
Christopher Duncan wrote:
plasma
Christopher Duncan wrote:
what pitfalls to avoid
Avoid plasma screens, there's a reason they are much cheaper than LCD's. The quality as absolutely crap IMHO. And another thing, be sure to get an LCD that says "Full HD" instead of "HD ready"
Harvey Saayman - South Africa Software Developer .Net, C#, SQL
you.suck = (you.Occupation == jobTitles.Programmer && you.Passion != Programming)1000100 1101111 1100101 1110011 100000 1110100 1101000 1101001 1110011 100000 1101101 1100101 1100001 1101110 100000 1101001 1101101 100000 1100001 100000 1100111 1100101 1100101 1101011 111111 -
What's the difference between Plasma and LED technology?
Christopher Duncan www.PracticalUSA.com Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes Copywriting Services
AFAIK the energy consumption and the brightness of the LEDs are better. But the LED TVs are relatively new so you need to ask someone who actually owns one.
The narrow specialist in the broad sense of the word is a complete idiot in the narrow sense of the word. Advertise here – minimum three posts per day are guaranteed.
-
When I built this house, I set up a media room with a 70" projector screen with a short throw (10 ft), so the picture was big and the quality acceptable. I've replaced two bulbs thus far (not cheap: ~$300), and I can live with that. However, what they don't tell you is that these bulbs die with an explosive bang loud enough to make you think you're taking mortar fire. Quite exciting. Best of all, when the second one went, it spewed powdered glass across the room. Yep. Actual glass, fine as grains of sand on the beach, all over the couch, carpet, and had I been sitting there at that precise moment, me. Having replaced the bulp, the color wheel now makes a grinding, whining noise, no doubt from an internal coating of glass as well. To say that I'm through with projectors would be an exercise in understatement. So, looking at a large screen to hang on the wall. Looks like 65" is tops for plasma, and they've come down in price quite a bit since I bought the projector system (at the time the biggest screens were $8-10k). What's the thinking on large, wall mountable TV technology these days? I'm not sure what features to look for, or what pitfalls to avoid. I just want something that doesn't explode.
Christopher Duncan www.PracticalUSA.com Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes Copywriting Services
Has the super-size TV set become an object of vulgarity?[^]
I hope you realise that hamsters are very creative when it comes to revenge. - Elaine
-
TOP TIP: Save money on those Huge TV's! Try sitting slightly closer to a smaller one! :)
------------------------------------ To eat well in England, you should have a breakfast three times a day. W. Somerset Maugham 1925
Or just don't buy one and go outside instead.
I hope you realise that hamsters are very creative when it comes to revenge. - Elaine
-
Christopher Duncan wrote:
plasma
Christopher Duncan wrote:
what pitfalls to avoid
Avoid plasma screens, there's a reason they are much cheaper than LCD's. The quality as absolutely crap IMHO. And another thing, be sure to get an LCD that says "Full HD" instead of "HD ready"
Harvey Saayman - South Africa Software Developer .Net, C#, SQL
you.suck = (you.Occupation == jobTitles.Programmer && you.Passion != Programming)1000100 1101111 1100101 1110011 100000 1110100 1101000 1101001 1110011 100000 1101101 1100101 1100001 1101110 100000 1101001 1101101 100000 1100001 100000 1100111 1100101 1100101 1101011 111111Harvey Saayman wrote:
The quality as absolutely crap
How so? Most of the plasma screens that I've seen lately have just as good picure quality as LCDs. For some programs (e.g. fast action stuff like sport) they seem to be even clearer than LCD. You still hear of the occassional problem of plasma screens "burning in" a network logo etc, but those issues seem far less common than LCD-specific problems like dead pixels. That said, I don't have any major hang-ups about either plasma or LCD. I was really just wondering why you think plasma screens suck?
Harvey Saayman wrote:
be sure to get an LCD that says "Full HD" instead of "HD ready"
If you're going down the LCD path, that's good advice!
-
Christopher Duncan wrote:
plasma
Christopher Duncan wrote:
what pitfalls to avoid
Avoid plasma screens, there's a reason they are much cheaper than LCD's. The quality as absolutely crap IMHO. And another thing, be sure to get an LCD that says "Full HD" instead of "HD ready"
Harvey Saayman - South Africa Software Developer .Net, C#, SQL
you.suck = (you.Occupation == jobTitles.Programmer && you.Passion != Programming)1000100 1101111 1100101 1110011 100000 1110100 1101000 1101001 1110011 100000 1101101 1100101 1100001 1101110 100000 1101001 1101101 100000 1100001 100000 1100111 1100101 1100101 1101011 111111Harvey Saayman wrote:
Avoid plasma lcd screens. The quality as absolutely crap IMHO.
FTFY. I have a 50 inch Samsung plasma. The contrast ratio cannot be matched by an lcd. If bold, vibrant colors are what you are looking for then plasma is the way to go. Plasma does use more power, and California is tryign to have them banned...which i consider another good reason to own one.
Ennis Ray Lynch, Jr. wrote:
Unpaid overtime is slavery.
Trollslayer wrote:
Meetings - where minutes are taken and hours are lost.
-
Harvey Saayman wrote:
Avoid plasma lcd screens. The quality as absolutely crap IMHO.
FTFY. I have a 50 inch Samsung plasma. The contrast ratio cannot be matched by an lcd. If bold, vibrant colors are what you are looking for then plasma is the way to go. Plasma does use more power, and California is tryign to have them banned...which i consider another good reason to own one.
Ennis Ray Lynch, Jr. wrote:
Unpaid overtime is slavery.
Trollslayer wrote:
Meetings - where minutes are taken and hours are lost.
Shelby Robetson wrote:
...which i consider another good reason to own one
:laugh: +5!
Harvey Saayman - South Africa Software Developer .Net, C#, SQL
you.suck = (you.Occupation == jobTitles.Programmer && you.Passion != Programming)1000100 1101111 1100101 1110011 100000 1110100 1101000 1101001 1110011 100000 1101101 1100101 1100001 1101110 100000 1101001 1101101 100000 1100001 100000 1100111 1100101 1100101 1101011 111111 -
When I built this house, I set up a media room with a 70" projector screen with a short throw (10 ft), so the picture was big and the quality acceptable. I've replaced two bulbs thus far (not cheap: ~$300), and I can live with that. However, what they don't tell you is that these bulbs die with an explosive bang loud enough to make you think you're taking mortar fire. Quite exciting. Best of all, when the second one went, it spewed powdered glass across the room. Yep. Actual glass, fine as grains of sand on the beach, all over the couch, carpet, and had I been sitting there at that precise moment, me. Having replaced the bulp, the color wheel now makes a grinding, whining noise, no doubt from an internal coating of glass as well. To say that I'm through with projectors would be an exercise in understatement. So, looking at a large screen to hang on the wall. Looks like 65" is tops for plasma, and they've come down in price quite a bit since I bought the projector system (at the time the biggest screens were $8-10k). What's the thinking on large, wall mountable TV technology these days? I'm not sure what features to look for, or what pitfalls to avoid. I just want something that doesn't explode.
Christopher Duncan www.PracticalUSA.com Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes Copywriting Services
What's the life span of plasma tv's these day's? I remember it used to be less than 5 years but that was quite a while ago.
-
What's the life span of plasma tv's these day's? I remember it used to be less than 5 years but that was quite a while ago.
I think mine is rated at 60,000 hours till half life. Which is over 6 years if you left it on 24 hours a day.
Ennis Ray Lynch, Jr. wrote:
Unpaid overtime is slavery.
Trollslayer wrote:
Meetings - where minutes are taken and hours are lost.
-
TOP TIP: Save money on those Huge TV's! Try sitting slightly closer to a smaller one! :)
------------------------------------ To eat well in England, you should have a breakfast three times a day. W. Somerset Maugham 1925
... or buy a pair of these http://www.collette-optical.com/atelevisionglasses.php[^]
-
Christopher Duncan wrote:
plasma
Christopher Duncan wrote:
what pitfalls to avoid
Avoid plasma screens, there's a reason they are much cheaper than LCD's. The quality as absolutely crap IMHO. And another thing, be sure to get an LCD that says "Full HD" instead of "HD ready"
Harvey Saayman - South Africa Software Developer .Net, C#, SQL
you.suck = (you.Occupation == jobTitles.Programmer && you.Passion != Programming)1000100 1101111 1100101 1110011 100000 1110100 1101000 1101001 1110011 100000 1101101 1100101 1100001 1101110 100000 1101001 1101101 100000 1100001 100000 1100111 1100101 1100101 1101011 111111Harvey Saayman wrote:
HD ready"
Considering that "HD ready" meant "Dear consumer, please lower pants and bend over", I wonder now what "Full HD" means... :cool:
Personally, I love the idea that Raymond spends his nights posting bad regexs to mailing lists under the pseudonym of Jane Smith. He'd be like a super hero, only more nerdy and less useful. [Trevel]
| FoldWithUs! | sighist | µLaunch - program launcher for server core and hyper-v server -
When I built this house, I set up a media room with a 70" projector screen with a short throw (10 ft), so the picture was big and the quality acceptable. I've replaced two bulbs thus far (not cheap: ~$300), and I can live with that. However, what they don't tell you is that these bulbs die with an explosive bang loud enough to make you think you're taking mortar fire. Quite exciting. Best of all, when the second one went, it spewed powdered glass across the room. Yep. Actual glass, fine as grains of sand on the beach, all over the couch, carpet, and had I been sitting there at that precise moment, me. Having replaced the bulp, the color wheel now makes a grinding, whining noise, no doubt from an internal coating of glass as well. To say that I'm through with projectors would be an exercise in understatement. So, looking at a large screen to hang on the wall. Looks like 65" is tops for plasma, and they've come down in price quite a bit since I bought the projector system (at the time the biggest screens were $8-10k). What's the thinking on large, wall mountable TV technology these days? I'm not sure what features to look for, or what pitfalls to avoid. I just want something that doesn't explode.
Christopher Duncan www.PracticalUSA.com Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes Copywriting Services
-
When I built this house, I set up a media room with a 70" projector screen with a short throw (10 ft), so the picture was big and the quality acceptable. I've replaced two bulbs thus far (not cheap: ~$300), and I can live with that. However, what they don't tell you is that these bulbs die with an explosive bang loud enough to make you think you're taking mortar fire. Quite exciting. Best of all, when the second one went, it spewed powdered glass across the room. Yep. Actual glass, fine as grains of sand on the beach, all over the couch, carpet, and had I been sitting there at that precise moment, me. Having replaced the bulp, the color wheel now makes a grinding, whining noise, no doubt from an internal coating of glass as well. To say that I'm through with projectors would be an exercise in understatement. So, looking at a large screen to hang on the wall. Looks like 65" is tops for plasma, and they've come down in price quite a bit since I bought the projector system (at the time the biggest screens were $8-10k). What's the thinking on large, wall mountable TV technology these days? I'm not sure what features to look for, or what pitfalls to avoid. I just want something that doesn't explode.
Christopher Duncan www.PracticalUSA.com Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes Copywriting Services
I just recently purchased both an LCD TV and a Plasma TV. The first thing you want to make sure is that it is full 1080p. The plasma does use more power and it also gets pretty warm compared to the LCD. For a larger TV I would suggest going with either an LCD or the new LED TV's as they will use less power and also not put out as much heat; but for the difference in price you may want to go with the plasma.
-
When I built this house, I set up a media room with a 70" projector screen with a short throw (10 ft), so the picture was big and the quality acceptable. I've replaced two bulbs thus far (not cheap: ~$300), and I can live with that. However, what they don't tell you is that these bulbs die with an explosive bang loud enough to make you think you're taking mortar fire. Quite exciting. Best of all, when the second one went, it spewed powdered glass across the room. Yep. Actual glass, fine as grains of sand on the beach, all over the couch, carpet, and had I been sitting there at that precise moment, me. Having replaced the bulp, the color wheel now makes a grinding, whining noise, no doubt from an internal coating of glass as well. To say that I'm through with projectors would be an exercise in understatement. So, looking at a large screen to hang on the wall. Looks like 65" is tops for plasma, and they've come down in price quite a bit since I bought the projector system (at the time the biggest screens were $8-10k). What's the thinking on large, wall mountable TV technology these days? I'm not sure what features to look for, or what pitfalls to avoid. I just want something that doesn't explode.
Christopher Duncan www.PracticalUSA.com Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes Copywriting Services
Christopher Duncan wrote:
Best of all, when the second one went, it spewed powdered glass across the room. Yep. Actual glass, fine as grains of sand on the beach, all over the couch, carpet, and had I been sitting there at that precise moment, me. Having replaced the bulp, the color wheel now makes a grinding, whining noise, no doubt from an internal coating of glass as well.
Was were the bulbs past their maximum number of design hours? You're supposed to replace them when they hit their design lifetime hours (the projector should keep track of this) instead of waiting until they fail because they're operating at a high enough power that, as you discovered, they can take the projector with them when they catastrophically fail. IIRC the problem is that to get a better color balance from the light (and what ends up being projected) they have to use bulbs that operate at significantly higher temperatures than a normal incandescent bulb.
The latest nation. Procrastination.
-
Christopher Duncan wrote:
what they don't tell you is that these bulbs die with an explosive bang loud enough to make you think you're taking mortar fire.
Is this common or does it happen only in certain conditions? Depending on bulb quality or environment in the room, things like that. Best warn my brother just in case though, his has been in place for a year or so now.
- Rob
-
:-D ...must ...hide ...credit cards...
Christopher Duncan www.PracticalUSA.com Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes Copywriting Services
-
This was an InFocus projector, and it happened 2 for 2 on the bulbs. Only the second explosion caused powdered glass, but once is enough for me. Can't speak to any other brands.
Christopher Duncan www.PracticalUSA.com Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes Copywriting Services
I can attest to this. We had a teacher almost have a heart attack due to one of these going while she was doing a presentation in a lab. 2 students were showered with the dust. Not a happy day for our IT director who had to explain why his projectors were suddenly time bombs. It happened again the next week (that one gave a grade school kid nightmares) and I quietly replaced every bulb the week after that on all the remaining projectors of that shipment. I wonder if any of them remember all this. Heh, might be fun in that place soon since I figure they will start going in November.
-
Christopher Duncan wrote:
plasma
Christopher Duncan wrote:
what pitfalls to avoid
Avoid plasma screens, there's a reason they are much cheaper than LCD's. The quality as absolutely crap IMHO. And another thing, be sure to get an LCD that says "Full HD" instead of "HD ready"
Harvey Saayman - South Africa Software Developer .Net, C#, SQL
you.suck = (you.Occupation == jobTitles.Programmer && you.Passion != Programming)1000100 1101111 1100101 1110011 100000 1110100 1101000 1101001 1110011 100000 1101101 1100101 1100001 1101110 100000 1101001 1101101 100000 1100001 100000 1100111 1100101 1100101 1101011 111111Yes, but in the winter that plasma tv lets you save on heating costs just by running it. ;)
-
I can attest to this. We had a teacher almost have a heart attack due to one of these going while she was doing a presentation in a lab. 2 students were showered with the dust. Not a happy day for our IT director who had to explain why his projectors were suddenly time bombs. It happened again the next week (that one gave a grade school kid nightmares) and I quietly replaced every bulb the week after that on all the remaining projectors of that shipment. I wonder if any of them remember all this. Heh, might be fun in that place soon since I figure they will start going in November.
I wired an Electrolytic Capacitor in backwards once, it was a big one too. The Boom from that was like a bomb going off.
------------------------------------ To eat well in England, you should have a breakfast three times a day. W. Somerset Maugham 1925