Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater VP150 question, and some ranting

let me guess. do you have the consumer panny w/ the dreaded shutdown problem?

wow, just made the change... THANKS! very noticalble especially the blending in the front.

i don't remember the model number... it's a pana. 50 HD.
What's the dreaded "shutdown" problem?

it's the panasonic 50... i forget the model... PT50PHd-50... something like that. I was surprised at how many people will service. I'm hoping it will be as painless as your experience, sometimes these things can linger.

Hi all,

Here are a few interesting points I've picked up over the years. No-one know how long some new display technologies will last under typical, casual day-to-day use in a home. But because CRT is a very old, "mature" technology, we do know quite a lot about those sets.

Direct-view CRT picture tubes last an average of 14 years. Some will go longer; others shorter. As phosphors age on the inside face of the tube--it's an on-going long-term process--the contrast and colors gradually become less vivid, but we don't notice until it becomes extreme because we look at it every day, and the changes are subtle over the long term.

Rear-projection CRTs (or CRT front projectors) have a much shorter life--an average of 7 years or less--because they burn very bright in order to throw a magnified image of reasonable brightness and contrast onto a big screen.

ABC news reports that its plasma flat panels monitors, left on 24 hours a day on its news sets, typically last about 6 years.

No-one know about DLP longevity. In theory, the chip should last a long time but we'll know better after a decade of consumer use. I don't have any data on LCD panels, whether direct-view or those in projectors. The Texas Instruments study is obviously biased, so I'd question the results, which suggested changes in color values on the panels and deterioration because of heat from the projector bulb.

Regards,