Replacement Lamps - Advancements in DLP Technology

Multi-Media and Home Theater projectors have become an invaluable piece of technology for everyone. However, each projector on the market has a renewable light source, a projector lamp, that actually makes the images come to life. Advances in projector technology have traditionally been made in the hardware of the projector and not the lamp. With the introduction of DLP projectors, tech has made its way to the light source.

Now, the key behind any projector technology is the light source. It must be bright enough (measured in ANSI lumens) to project the images to a screen, and clear enough (no yellow) when beamed through the light processing system to produce accurate colors. The lamp that has been developed for DLP projection is a xenon gas lampwith a quartz envelope. Because of the rarity of the gas and expense in manufacturing the lamp, it is costly to replace. Even so, DLP lamps have improved to give, in most cases 2000 hours of lamp life and more.

Most projectors range from 650 to 5,000 lumens in brightness, and generally most are in the 2000 lumens range. Panasonic has just come out with a model that sports 12,000 lumens. More lumens, or a brighter light source is not always a good thing. Ambient natural light or artificial light in a room also affects the clarity of the images no matter what scale of Lumens are being projected.

Most projectors in general have a built-in lamp life saving feature. The terminology of this feature may vary by manufacturer, but most will be expressed as "economy mode" or "energy saving mode". This process allows the lamp to operate on lower voltages of 25%, 50% or 100% of maximum output. By operating in economy mode whenever possible, lamp life can be improved by 15% to 20% more than the expected lamp life.

As the tech behind DLP projectors and xenon light sources continue to become more mainstream, the cost of a xenon lamp should trend downward and be priced closer to traditional replacement lamps. Remember the energy conserving tips and replacement lamp buying should be a lot easier on your wallet.

For additional information on DLP Projector Lamps, visit http://www.projectorlampcenter.com or call 1-800-296-8420.

Projector Lamp Center: Online retailer of projector replacement lamps and related accessories. Serving the online consumer since 2001.

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