Fyi

tonyb

For those who don't know........Keep your LCD,DLP TV'S away from your fireplace or if you smoke,quit or get a damn good air cleaner.Here's the situation...my bulb blows on my 60 in. LCD.For god's sake man,it's football season.Took Tweeter a week to get the bulb and come out to install.Nice older guy who used to own his own shop but decided to work some retirement years at Tweeter.So after asking him a bunch of questions,here is the result.....if you start to get little spots on your screen,mostly noticed with a white background,it is dust.LCD,DLP'S have a fan that sucks everything in the room in.Now to clean it,they need to take your set apart to do so,a friggin 3-week process.Not during football season pal.The bulb,while fairly easy to install yourself,he tells me the ballast will usually go around the same time.Not so easy to install.If you change the bulb and not the ballast and 6- months later the ballist goes,guess what..it will blow that new bulb you just put in.Oh,and then there is the cost,bulb-220.00 ballast-180.00,cost of tweeter to come out,300.00.That is some serious cash.Even though I had the extended warrenty,it only covered the ballast.So I still outlayed 500 clams,never again.Many internet sites will ship the bulbs to you for 220.00 and don't call Tweeter,300.00 bucks the guy was here for half an hour,WTF,are they getting lawyer rates now?Pissed me off,just wanted you guys to beware.

amulford

Good point. I need to look into getting some spare parts for my DLP.

Poee7R

Seems im going through the dust problem now. I have a Mitsubishi 62" dlp. Have had it for about a year now, and im noticing two dull round spots on the screen. Even though no one else that has watched it has mentioned it, i still see those two stupid spots everytime i turn the tv on. Really annoying. I've been reading a bit about it lately. Luckily its covered by the place i bought it at, they should be out sometime next week. I HOPE it doesnt take long to clean as i would go nuts without my HT TV.

Dave

cfrizz

Thanks for the post! I will happily stay with my big old heavy as concrete CRT!!! About 10yrs old & still looks as good as the day it arrived!

danger boy

as cool as they flat panel displays look.. when you add the cost of bulb replacement, service call costs, down time during footballs season or NASCAR... wow.. maybe it's not worth it afterall.

I'm with Cathy.. i'll keep my HDTV CRT 300 lb gorilla for at least another 10+ years. these things last forever. no bulb replacement needed.

bobman1235

No bulb replacement needed, but hte biggest they get is 36".

Sorry, that just doesn't cut it for me nowadays. If I'm gonna drop 1500 bucks it better be bigger than that.

xsmi

anonymouse wrote:

So DLP's have expendable bulbs and Plasmas have burn-in. What do large format LCD's suffer from?

Same as DLP re-read the original post. You probably just missed it.

brettw22

If i were you, I'd tape an Air conditioning filter to the back of your TV and let that keep the dust out. I'm keeping my 10 year old 40" Mitsubishi TV until the thing dies, because when I buy it's replacement, it's gonna be no smaller than 60".

VR3

This thread pretty much made me want a CRT... lol

peteran

Tonyb... How long had you had the DLP TV?
Are bulbs on the new models suppose to last longer?
I'm glad that I own a Hitachi RPTV HDTV, YA baby...

scottvamp

Ya, my 65" Tosh (bedroom TV) is a beast, but you can't beat CRT reliablity. The picture is stunning also. Funny, people are just figureing out the DLP's and LCD's rear projection TV's have bulbs to replace. Weird how the dealers/salesmen left that out. I have heard many experiencing early bulb failures. That is why front projection is the way to go with those technologys - you can go as big as you want for the same price or cheaper. Many FP's come with an extra buld deals now. Scored my second Sanyo with extra bulb for $1200 in the door. Nothing like HD football games on the 10.5 footer.:D

cmy330go

Poee7R wrote:

Seems im going through the dust problem now. I have a Mitsubishi 62" dlp. Have had it for about a year now, and im noticing two dull round spots on the screen. Even though no one else that has watched it has mentioned it, i still see those two stupid spots everytime i turn the tv on. Really annoying. I've been reading a bit about it lately. Luckily its covered by the place i bought it at, they should be out sometime next week. I HOPE it doesnt take long to clean as i would go nuts without my HT TV.

Dave

Shouldn't be a big deal. I went through this about 10 months ago on my 62 Mits. I helped the service guy remove the screen and clean the mirror in the bottom. The whole process took maybe an hour to hour and a half. I didn't have any issues with dust in around the bulb just on the mirror. If I have anymore trouble with it I'll be easily able to handle it myself now that I've seen it done.

Later.

F1nut

cfrizz wrote:

Thanks for the post! I will happily stay with my big old heavy as concrete CRT!!! About 10yrs old & still looks as good as the day it arrived!

Amen, TUBES RULE!!!

TheReaper

The joys of a rear projection 3-crt hdtv:

I adjusted convergence 3 times the first year as it broke in. In one spot where I removed a bad pucker, the image is a little grainy (if you look close). The hot and cold spots on each tube never align, so there is a slight tint variation across the screen (most notable on desert scenes). After 4.5 years, it is getting around time that I am going to have to open it up and dust the inside.

tonyb

ON the older model projection beasts you can pop the front screen off and just wipe it down,not so on the new thin LCD or DLP.NOW....those spots you barely notice now,will only get bigger over time until it gets to a point that it will bug the crap out of you.Can't imagine what the cost is to tear apart the whole thing to clean it out,since it costs 300 bucks for the thieves to replace a bulb.Next time,no tv with a fan in it will grace my family room.When you start shelling out 3000 clams on a tv,damn it,you want it to last awhile.I had
2.5 years on my bulb before it blew.So your at an additional 2000.00 over 10 yrs.Bulb and ballast and thats if you do it yourself.Double that if you want to have tweeter do it.Not includeing the cost of cleaning it out every 3 or so years.I was well aware of the bulb thing before I bought my tv, but not the ballast thing,or the cleaning thing,or the cost.I like so many of you,long for the day they made a tv,fridge,stove etc,that lasted 20 yrs.Those days are long gone,no money in it.Make no mistake about it,the parts bisz,is alive and doing very well in the ol' USA.I know I sound like a cry baby,but it sticks in my gut when you are constantly reminded that everyone is out there to relieve you of that dollar you bust your **** for all week.

mrbigbluelight

Yep, tubes do rule !

Also, a CRT is the only video device that gives you true color.
Want true black ? Get a CRT.


.....gawd, they're heavy, though.