Travis, do you know anything about how long the average life of the bulbs are in these projectors (or any projector relative)?

Can we drop the "true HD" stuff? You give Sony's marketing department a stiffy every time you say it. Is 720p not HD, too? What happens when we have 2160p displays? Will 1080p still be "true HD?"

My 720p is true HD. The technology will always get better with time.

@TheTofuFactory

It varies greatly, but for a ballpark range for HD projectors I would say anywhere from 2,000 to 5,000 hours. It all depends on how the projector is used. There are a lot of good tips on making a bulb last here.

Thanks alot. Ive been looking into getting a projector and have a huge worry about the bulbs burning out. Then again i guess I could get a bulb coverage plan on that as well.

Thanks for the Link!

No one that I know of sells a bulb coverage plan. I don't know of one if you do please let me know I buy about a lamp a month, (at $300.00 they are too expensive to be called bulbs), for work.

Tofu - If it's for home use you shouldn't be going through bulbs that quickly, esp. if you're just using for movies. For many 720p home projectors, 3000 hrs is fairly typical, as are street prices of $250. For me this will mean about 3+ years of life, or about $5 month.

Given that the bulbs 'give out' quite predictably, I doubt you'll find a coverage plan for less than $250. It's like having a coverage plan on razor blades.

1700 hrs in normal mode, and 3000 hrs in economy mode.

http://www.projectorcentral.com/epson_cinema_1080.htm%22

ProjectorPeople and many others sell bulb replacement plans for $99 (3 years, 2 replacements). This comes in handy, and should ease the pain.

Eric and Deepdish haven't read the HD standard...

1080p is the defined upper limit for the current HD broadcast standard. Much in the same way 480i 4x3 was the broadcast standard for "old" TV.

Anything more than 1080p is great for a PC monitor, but useless for broadcast, because it can't be broadcast beyond that. Anything less than 1080p is at less than the full resolution supported by the standard.

Sounds like "full HD" versus "less than full HD" to me.

720p looks great, but don't be pissy just because you were an early adopter and got a set that can't display full resolution.

Its true that replacement bulbs are expensive items, but its worth examining that the cost of replacement bulbs are typically much lower for the Epson projectors than their competitors.

I have the HomeLite 10+ at home for just that reason, decent 480p picture and cheap replacement bulbs.

Yeah, I am sick of this "true HD" crap as well. Especially when in many cases, "true HD" is indistinguishable from... "false HD," 720p.

Very cool but where are the LED lamps?

Man at $300 a pop I'd go to an office supply place and buy a desktop fan and point it right at the bulb vent to jam more airflow into it. Also limiting the number of times you turn it on and off has got to help, I only blow a light bulb when turning it on it seems. Of course if you can buy it somewhere retail and they offer an extended warranty and it covers the bulb I'd grab it!

Actually there is a significant difference in amount of content in a 1080p (1900x1200) screen versus 720p (uhh 1348x768?). So in the rare case you have a full blow data stream of 1080 going to a true 1080 based machine it crushed various upconverting and downcoverting that goes on with 720 source to 1080 or down converting to a 720p projector from a 1080i signal.

sony can DIAF in any case...but if you have the content, this projector will rock...if you dont have the source material its just upconverting.

to edit my errors above:

1080 = 1900x1080p = 1080p60 being the holy grail in current HD format

720 = 1280x720p = 720p60

sorry lack of coffee