Sanyo XE-30 projector

[lazkopat]

Hi guys,

Can anyone give me advice? should we purhcase lamps for these projectors or is it better off buying a new projectors.

currently the lamp for this projector in about £175 inc vat! and we need 3 lamps!

Am i better off recommending a new projector for the school? or stick with the old one. These were bought couple of years back, i think 2009 or before.

Help please

[CPLTD]

Have PM'd - hope it helps.


Chris

[steveg]

That is only a 1500 lumen unit, even with a new bulb its likely to be fairly dim still. I think becta guidlines were for 1500 lumen projectors in classrooms, but we always find these to dim and go for around 2200 - 2700 you can always run them in eco mode if they are too bright, and gain another 1000 hours bulb life.

I'd go for a new LCD based projector with a 3 year bulb warranty.

Steve

[lazkopat]

not really, there is a projector in the ICT room and its a bit distanced from the whiteboard and the quality/brightness is great!. Its not dim in anyway.

thanks anyway

[elsiegee40]

We decided not to replace bulbs any more and are replacing our projectors with Casio LED projectors when the bulb fails or they become too dim.

The Casios have a 5 year warranty, don't need filters cleaning (yippee!) and don't have expensive bulbs to fail... At around £750 for a unit they're expensive, but over 5 years (hopefully more) of life, it works out cheaper.

[lazkopat]

Is the casio projector suitable for educational purpose? i.e. school?
and what's the model no?

thanks

[elsiegee40]

The last one we bought, last November, was a Casio XJ-M130EDU

They come with a five year guarantee for educational use... so yes, they are suitable for schools The price I gave you was including VAT (we're private so have to pay VAT) btw... you should be able to get one for under £650 ex VAT

[Achandler]

A lot of projectors now come with atleast 3 year warranty on both projector and bulb, all education Hitachis do as far as I am aware.

Try to get projectors that are going to be around for a few years though, as in you can still buy the model in a few years. Nothing better then having a lot of the same projector in the school, then in makes sense to keep some spare "stock" parts. Having every room with different makes and models makes your job impossible.

[ToyHeartsFan]

I replaced 4 Sanyo XE31s with Casio XJ-M150-UJ-EDU earlier this year; the sanyos were end of life: the picture quality was very poor, they were not bright enough and the bulbs were the best part of £200.

If they really were only purchased in 2009 (ours were from 2006) and the teachers are happy with the image quality (even on a bright sunny day) then it might be woth buying 1 set of lamps which would give then a couple of more years life but then I would replace them. The casio projectors are expensive but should pay for themselves over time.

One thing to remember is that Sanyo have the lens on the opposite side to almost every other manufacturer so its not a simple swap. You may well have to move your pole even if the throw distance is correct; With some DIY I managed to fit a universal bracket onto our existing pole and offset it enough so the pole did not have to be moved saving us at least £200 per room on installation costs. If you decide to move the pole yourself or modify the existing mount as we have done you need to be sure you know what you are doing because a projector falling from height has the potential to cause serious injury/death.

[Marc-Engineer]

I would recomend the Epson x11 less than around half price of Casio and 5 year cover on it and 5 year lamp (Typical lamp cost £120) Higher res than the casio and NO green tint.

Marc
Engineer

[biggjb]

As an installed and support of AV installations I would happly recommend the Casio projectors over most other. The A range is definately better than the M series. Also the Zoom function is fantastic making it very easy to swap for projectors with the lens on the same side.
The cost does put people off but I like other suggest this is far outwayed as no lamp replacement no filter etc.
Most school I support dont bulk at the price as they are fed up replacing lamp after lamp

[Marc-Engineer]

Also as an installer and repairer (City & Guilds qualified electronics engineer) specialising in Projector repair for over 12 years even though we sell Casio i can not recomend them over some of the other makes as cost for cost with new cheaper lamps (just over £100) and new 3 to 5 year cover on lamps there are no savings to be had, and the lower quality of the image (side by side comparesen) and reliability still leads me to recomend others over Casio, dont get me wrong casio are doing a great job its all progress in the right direction and i am sure LED laser will get there soon but its not quite there yet, ALL projectors still have to be serviced if they have filters or not makes no differance to the need for deep clean but it does save the IT person having to clean the filters.
So at the moment i must on the grounds of what i have seen in the repair shop and on site still (unfortunatly) recomend other units over Casio
As i have mentioned in other posts the new (not yet on sale) laser projectors will be streets ahead of what is currently available in quality and logevity and cost.

Marc
Projector Engineer

[lazkopat]

thanks for the information guys, very helpful

However I don't think the school will be willing to purchase new projectors as they are allocating budgets for other stuffs plus new projector means adjustment to the pole or even moving it around! will check if the brackets are universal though because I'm not sure.. Might go with a new bulb then for another couple of year life. I'll put it this way, the image quality is good when you unfold the blinds in the classroom thus making the room dark. when you let sun or light go through the quality of the image in some classes is very dim, so they need to stay in darkness

guys, also our poles are quite distanced from the whitebaords, I would say the length between the whiteboard and projector is about 3.5 or 3 metres in every class, will measure though. Is this normal? because the previous guy told me, "try finding a way to bring the projectors closer to the whiteboards, this will improve the quality", his saying.

Do you lot agree with this saying?

I can't bring them forward because they are on the pole!

[Marc-Engineer]

3mtr is the Older standard for projectors to a 79" screen most are now 2mtr or closer, closer does not mean better quality there will still be the same number of pixels visible on the screen but they will be smaller so may apear sharper, the main benefit of closer is reduced shadowing from the teacher. Moving a projector closer is often required but not often a problem as cables come from the board so only made shorter and most brackets are easly moved forward (check your asbestos book first).

Marc
Projector Engineer

[ToyHeartsFan]

As Marc said it will help with shadowing, it should also help a bit with ambient light conditions if the projector isn’t very bright.

I think Becta might have been pushing shorter throw projectors as it supposedly reduces the risk of users looking into the projector beam which can damage eye sight. But unless you are buying the ultra short throw type (wall mount) I’m not convinced they are any safer than a projector at 3 meters.

@Marc – I found that quite often the data cables come from the side it just depends on the layout of the room a number of our classes don’t have the space due to original fixed furniture at the front of the classroom for a PC so they are on a side wall (Victorian building) but in most cases a short male to female extension for the vga cable is all that would be needed.

Our step ladders are about 5 foot high and you just wouldn’t be able to reach the ceiling with them to change the pole position in our school so if I needed to have a pole moved it has to be outsourced.

I’m a bit wary of suggesting that people move poles themselves in case anything goes wrong. I’ve seen some bad installations some that I would consider dangerous i.e. a projector bolted to a suspended ceiling tile which you should never do.