My projector is saying that the bulb is due to be replaced but I cannot find a dealer that has replacement bulbs in my area, only online merchants (selling for $250-$450) and I am afraid that the replacement bulb won't work and then I am out the cost of the bulb AND will have to buy a new projector anyway? Has anyone else had to do this and what would you recommend. Please feel free to add any horror stories or vendor recommendations. Thanks in advance!
You can also get the bulb at Matt Electronics or Encompass Parts online for a lot cheaper than what you stated. I doubt you would need to buy a new projector unless you're having problems with it other than the bulb. My husband works on tv's.
Time to upgrade to a Samsung 3D 52' flatscreen!
When we had a projector TV, we did replace the bulb (and yes, we bought it online!). It worked out great! The TV was just as good as new for the next few years. Then it had some other part (the "color wheel" break, which we bought online and replaced. We ended up selling the TV when we moved into a house with a smaller family room (and the 60" TV was a bit much :). $250 for a new bulb is a lot cheaper than a whole new TV, especially if your TV is rather large to begin with.
Casey, too funny. I think that's the one my husband bought last May! He LOVES it.
We had this problem, and just ended up getting a new projector. The old bulb would heat up during the movie resulting in a growing yellow spot on the screen. Unfortunately you will need to add an extra digit to the price of a projector vs a bulb. Our old one was quite outdated - 10+ yrs? Our new one is HD. You could try calling around for some place that will service them maybe.
We just replaced the bulb...the message was that the bulb would need to be replaced soon...but the picture was still great. It turns out that the projector is on a timer and after 3000 hours it automatically reads this message...then a stronger message was due to come on at 3800 hours. (No we do not watch that much TV, but we had been having a problem where the projector was not clicking all the way off...have it on a timer now so that after 5 minutes of TV-off then projector is forced off). We went ahead and had the guy replace the bulb...paid $345...so we could see and write down the steps of how to do it since he was already here with bulb in hand. And some steps (hold down 3 buttons at same time for 3 seconds then blah, blah) had to be taken to update the projector with new bulb. But we saved the old bulb since it was not all the way dead and can reinstall it ourselves in the future. There was also a setting that we had the guy change where the brightness is on standard instead of high, and that is supposed to get closer to 5000 hours out of the bulb...but mesaages will still automatically come on at 3000 hours and 3800 hours as I indicated above. -- Long story short, I would get the bulb replaced, but have someone come do it....but no rush unless you see the picture dimming.
We replaced the bulb on our projector. We bought it online. I can't remember who hubby used. If you take the bulb out of the projector you'll know which kind to buy, so you know you won't get the wrong one. Hubby replaces them himself. It cost us $275 total.
Depends on if you are in the market for an upgrade. We had the same fear the first time around. We have replaced a couple bulbs over the years. Not hard to do. We have also just replaced the projector.
We bought the last represent bulb from this place in irving. http://m.irvingtvcomputer.com/
Strange guy but had just what we needed. Cheaper than online.
Hope that helps. Oh yeah...if you decide to buy a new projector there are online companies that sell warranties that cover a bulb replacement. Can't remember the name of that place off hand but we did that once with a new projector amd it worked out great. No hassle replacement.
