Lamp Life on a Sanyo PLV-Z5??

**Chris D** · 20 July 2008, 01:02 Sunday

Yup... you can expect about 2,000 hours out of a modern bulb, if you treat it right and keep the unit clean. So I think you're lucky to have 2,900!

**M.Roberts8** · 20 July 2008, 07:56 Sunday

Yeah I kinda figure I'm lucky to get 2900 hours out of it.

I'm still looking for a place to get a good deal on bulbs. The place I got the pj the bulbs go for 295.00. 8O Is there a cheaper place to get one? If not I'll just get it from them.

**M.Roberts8** · 20 July 2008, 17:07 Sunday

Nevermind guys I just remembered I got a 3 yr service plan on the lamp. I called and 35.00 later I will have shipped out overnight tomorrow. So I should be back in business Tues. night.

**brendon** · 21 July 2008, 08:40 Monday

Wow 2900 hrs !I ve got about that on my Epson TW600 and it's on it's third bulb! I am lucky to get 1000-1200 hours out of a bulb.
My Epson in being repaired at the moment as the splines on the motor that drive the cinema filter in the optical block have stripped .
Starting to get a bit expensive as I have replaced two bulbs at about Aussie dollar $350 (.97 to the USD today) and now $550 AUD for the repair .
For us in Australia the cheapest option is Price Japan .com which shipped the last bulb to me in about 4 days over Christmas.
IN focus IN83 starting to look very good for upgrade .
On the epson at least noticable loss of output by 1100 hrs .
Brendon

**Lex** · 21 July 2008, 10:04 Monday

Frankly, I think the units are set to come on at a particular amount of hours use. I don't think they have any state of the art sensors that say, oh wow, it's time to do something!

My Z4 came on at a little over 2000 hours to replace bulb. I said, well I think not. It's performing fine, I reset the counter to zero, and am going again. I am going to use the bulb until there is visible reason to do otherwise. I have 1 new bulb for it. Will it explode. Well, I am seriously doubting it. That doesnt' mean it can't of course. But I have used 4 projectors now, and never had one explode yet. Honestly, never had one burn out yet. My Z2 did develop another issue though.

I also have a PLV-Z2000 1080p unit, I only use it for movies. The Z4, I load the hours on with TV, as it is my primary television.

Imagery on the Z2000 is exceptional for blue ray, or HD-DVD! I watched Gangs of NY in blue ray Saturday night, and I was so pulled into the film, I felt like I was there.

Brendon, you replacing because it tells you to? Or because it blows, or what? 1000-1200 points to using extremely high light output and strong contrast levels. Keep the brightness down, and contrast lower for longer life.

Mroberts, glad you got a new bulb coming, very good deal. While your issue is resolved, the thread remains a good discussion on projectors and bulb life replacement, so carry on guys...

**M.Roberts8** · 21 July 2008, 18:40 Monday

Originally posted by Lex

Frankly, I think the units are set to come on at a particular amount of hours use. I don't think they have any state of the art sensors that say, oh wow, it's time to do something!

My Z4 came on at a little over 2000 hours to replace bulb. I said, well I think not. It's performing fine, I reset the counter to zero, and am going again. I am going to use the bulb until there is visible reason to do otherwise. I have 1 new bulb for it. Will it explode. Well, I am seriously doubting it. That doesnt' mean it can't of course. But I have used 4 projectors now, and never had one explode yet. Honestly, never had one burn out yet. My Z2 did develop another issue though.

I also have a PLV-Z2000 1080p unit, I only use it for movies. The Z4, I load the hours on with TV, as it is my primary television.

Mroberts, glad you got a new bulb coming, very good deal. While your issue is resolved, the thread remains a good discussion on projectors and bulb life replacement, so carry on guys...

Thanks for chiming in Lex!
I was really tempted to just say hell with it and reset the counter but the thought of the lamp blowing and messing up the unit held me back. Though now after thinking about it maybe I should of and if it did blow up I could use it as a excuse to upgrade :twisted:
So how many hours you got on the ol Z4?
I didn't use mine as my primary TV for the first 10 months and have been using mine increasingly more all the time there are days its on for 12 hours or more between my daughter,gf and myself. Gaming online on 100" screen is sick!
You can change the thread title to bulb life or whatever just a general discussion on projector lamps maybe generate some more traffic in here. Maybe it will sway those on the fence about front projection.

My brother started in with the man 2900 hours isn't that much, around 20 months use and you gotta spend that kind of money, blah blah.

I am probably going to reset the counter and start using it again until the new one arrives. There was a screw up on there end when I called to check to see if it shipped so the bulb will be delayed til Friday at the earliest but probably early next week. I will still get it overnight after they sort it out on there end. :M

**brendon** · 21 July 2008, 19:16 Monday

Originally posted by Lex

Frankly, I think the units are set to come on at a particular amount of hours use. I don't think they have any state of the art sensors that say, oh wow, it's time to do something!

My Z4 came on at a little over 2000 hours to replace bulb. I said, well I think not. It's performing fine, I reset the counter to zero, and am going again. I am going to use the bulb until there is visible reason to do otherwise. I have 1 new bulb for it. Will it explode. Well, I am seriously doubting it. That doesnt' mean it can't of course. But I have used 4 projectors now, and never had one explode yet. Honestly, never had one burn out yet. My Z2 did develop another issue though.

I also have a PLV-Z2000 1080p unit, I only use it for movies. The Z4, I load the hours on with TV, as it is my primary television.

Imagery on the Z2000 is exceptional for blue ray, or HD-DVD! I watched Gangs of NY in blue ray Saturday night, and I was so pulled into the film, I felt like I was there.

Brendon, you replacing because it tells you to? Or because it blows, or what? 1000-1200 points to using extremely high light output and strong contrast levels. Keep the brightness down, and contrast lower for longer life.

Mroberts, glad you got a new bulb coming, very good deal. While your issue is resolved, the thread remains a good discussion on projectors and bulb life replacement, so carry on guys...

Hi lex,
One bulb replaced because it failed the other as it was rapidly dimming,
PJ always used in low lamp theater 1 mode and contrast set to factory defaults.Filters cleaned every month or so.
I suspect it may be due to the heavy usage this PJ gets with the kids gaming on it for a few hours then followed by a movie or TV for the adults.Not unusual to do 5 hrs plus in one session on a weekend.
Brendon

**M.Roberts8** · 21 July 2008, 19:56 Monday

Brendon,
I sometimes game 5 hours at a time. It isn't out of the ordinary to have mine on for 10-12 hours on Sat or Sunday. I also have always run mine in low lamp mode. 3 bulbs in 3000 hours seems high.
I see you had one fail and one that got dim. How is the current one holding up? Hopefully you will get more out of this one. I only clean my filters about every 4 months

ops: Probably should do it more. I have a smoke free home, I heard that is hard on the projectors too.

**brendon** · 22 July 2008, 05:27 Tuesday

Hi M.roberts8
There are a number of other TW600 users on the DTV forum site from Australia who have had bulbs blow or be too dim about the 1000 -1300 hrs .
So it could just be an Epson issue .We had a poll running on lamp life at one stage.I will see if I can find it.
Cheers Brendon

**Ovation** · 22 July 2008, 11:38 Tuesday

When people say "exploding bulb", do they mean a literal explosion? How often does such a thing happen? I've never seen any kind of bulb "explode" in my life. I've seen many break when dropped, I've seen even more simply make a "pop" sound and fail. But an actual explosion?

**M.Roberts8** · 22 July 2008, 17:42 Tuesday

Originally posted by Ovation

When people say "exploding bulb", do they mean a literal explosion? How often does such a thing happen? I've never seen any kind of bulb "explode" in my life. I've seen many break when dropped, I've seen even more simply make a "pop" sound and fail. But an actual explosion?

Don't know my manual for the PLV-Z5 makes it sound as though its a literal explosion, as in parts go flying and may cause additional damage to the unit.

I would tend to think Lex knows what he is talking about since he mentions having owned 4 different units and hasn't seen it happen yet or one burn out either.

My projector has no signs of anything actually being wrong with it just the "replace lamp" warning light.

**Lex** · 23 July 2008, 23:26 Wednesday

I think it's not beyond manufacturers to try to scare us into getting "blades" when we may still have a few shaves left.

My light came on at 2025 hours maybe, or maybe it had been on 25 hours and I didn't notice. But I expect it was 2025 or 2035, the pj has another week or so use on it, and looks fine. I put over 4000 hours on a Viewtronics PJ51 I think it was! In low mode, they advertised 3000 I think. I may have had closer to 6K, believe it or not, that bulb is still installed, it's shelved in the boneyard.

So, you see why I am not so quick to react?

My Z2 did physically mess up though, it would get to where you couldn't turn it off, when that happened and you have to restart. I also kicked the cord out once accidentally. Anyway I shelved the Z2 bulb still working, but obvious issues.

**Ovation** · 24 July 2008, 08:26 Thursday

Well, when I first looked into whether a PJ was a viable option (I have a small room), I borrowed a couple of PJs from my wife's office (one LCD, one DLP). The DLP was relatively new and clean while the LCD was at least 5 years old, NO MAINTENANCE at all had been done on it (judging from the condition of the filter) and the lamp showed over 2500 hours on it (a 3M model--don't remember which one). It fired up like a charm and did not overheat or show signs of stress. I presume the various bulbs are reasonably similar in design across companies and while a burnt out bulb would not surprise me (nor would a dimming bulb), I have a hard time believing that anything short of dropping the bulb (or PJ with bulb inside) would cause it to physically break, much less explode. And my PJ, unlike the office ones, doesn't move. The office ones get treated like that Toshiba laptop in the old commercial "I checked my notebook" (at the airport).

**M.Roberts8** · 24 July 2008, 17:19 Thursday

Yeah, I fired it up again last night and watched another blu. I'm not real concerned at this point.

I think it's not beyond manufacturers to try to scare us into getting "blades" when we may still have a few shaves left.

I think Lex is right with that comment.

Lamp Life on a Sanyo PLV-Z5??

Lamp Life on a Sanyo PLV-Z5??

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