Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners DLP getting dim?

To the best of my knowledge, Marcus, DLP bulbs do get dimmer as the approach the end. Mine is certainly getting dimmer and it's going on 3 years of usage. Don't really know the hours. I have a new bulb ready and waiting but I don't want to install it prematurely because I will likely have the TV re-calibrated professionally when I do replace it.

Wow, I'm glad to hear the dimming wasn't just me.

There. Run with it.

A new bulb installation would necessitate readjustment?

Dave. My understanding is that these are all HID (high intensity discharge) lamps of some sort and they are either on or off. Dimming just controls an iris. Bulb life on these lamps seems to vary a lot and can be as little as 2K hours and as much as 10K hours with the normal range being 4-6K.

I think I'll order a bulb.

I don't see myself getting anything new for another year or two, as my next one wil have to have real blacks and that's pretty pricey. It's unlikely this bulb will last that long and since I bought this in the Fall of 2004, I'm not surprised at all that the bulb might be failing...

Thanks guys!

I don't know if "necessitate" is the right word, but I know that a professional calibrator wants the bulb to have at least 100 hours on the bulb before he does a calibration and they recommend having the TV calibrated once a year. Yes, I know there is a financial incentive for such a recommendation. However, most calibrators offer recalibrations of the same TV at a substantial discount ($400 for the first; $250 for subsequent calibrations)

I last had my TV calibrated 3 years ago, so I think having it recalibrated again would be prudent. However, I don't want to have it calibrated with an older, dimming bulb so I'll wait until I put in the new one before recalibrating.

Instead of replacing a dimming bulb, why not just invest in night vision goggles?

OK, that's silly but admit it, you can't tell me you don't want an exuse to go buy night vision goggles.

OH! MY! GOD!

THAT.......WOULD....BE......SO......COOL!

But, er, uhm, wouldn't everything have a greenish cast? What would the calibrators do?

By the way, I'm into my 6th year of my Sammy DLP bulb, which surprises me. I checked the specs and my Samsung manual says it could last up to 8000 hours. Mine is the generation that had the HDMI input and a DVI input (2003).

Cheers,
Alan

Well whadaya spects when you watch TV only once a month. Sheesh!