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Check the warranty - the PC world price seemed to be a 1 year warranty only. Sometimes they're sold as EB X11 EDU model. I haven't checked the AVpartsmaster website, but just bought one from projectors.co.uk at £295 including 3 yrs bulb, 5 yrs projector. They also sell a "standard" model for £3 pounds less which doesn't have the extended warranty.
I've also made a note to check requirements between June and September - this seems to be when all the deals are on.
1 year cover is a none EDU model different serial number, all EDU are 5 year but its if your supplier will pass it on some only pass on 3 year, dont ask me why?????
Marc
Projector Engineer
I keephearing the viryues of the Casio units - but dont you find the image dulland lifelessin comparrison? Also I dont really see this "no lamp" thing as any major advantage - all the standard units have a three year lamp warranty anyway and the casio unit is twice the price of the epson entry level unit
Simply put, if they have only a few "preferred" items then they can't possibly be able to offer you the best value for money.
That aside, the X11 anyday. Lovely little units.
I have had a look at Epson EB-X11LMP Projector with Lamp Warranty on avpartsmaster, but can only see reference to a 3 year projector warranty, so where are people getting a 5 year projector warranty from?
Also does anyone know if the bulbs/pictures fade as the bulb life gets older? One of the big problems I have found with bulb projectors is once the bulbs have passed half their life span they just get so dim, whereas the casio bulbless projectors dont seem to suffer from this phenomenon- they get slightly dimmer after the first few hundred hours of use, but still remain nice and bright.
The only other thing that concerns me is that while the bulbs are about £125 now (cheapest genuine I could find using a reliable supplier - ILGS), they could go up in price after the projector becomes discontinued and becomes old. I have been looking at bulb prices for some older Mitsubishi and Epson projectors and the bulbs are £200+ each - of course its better to replace the projectors as the prisms are also starting to go, and even with new bulbs these old projectors seem to become dimmer over time. With this and the costs of deep cleaning, Also taking into consideration bulb projectors need filters to be cleaned, which costs time (and therefore money) and also time when replacing bulbs - I am just wondering if the Casio Bulbless projectors offer just a good deal, providing they remain reliable and can reach their 20,000 hour life expectancy.
To summarise:
Casio XJA-131 = £630 (From IDNS AV) = 20,000 hours life with little maintenance
vs
Epson EB-X11 = £289 + 3x 5000 Hour Lamps (20,000 total same as Casio Above) = £375 = £664 + Filter Cleaning + Time taken to Change Bulbs + Bulbs dimmer when nearing EOL + Deep Cleaning
Looking at the above, I really don't think there is much in it, unless the Epsons keep going and bulb prices keep down so you can get more than 20,000 hours out of it. From previous experience Epson projectors deteriorate as they get older and bulb prices go up. I think we live in a world where things are now built to break so you buy new items to replace the old items.
*all* lamp based projectors dim and a good many will suffer lensburn/fading after time. Mileage varies between units, between locations etc too. We've got some positively ancient things still hanging around despite getting good use, whereas some rooms have projectors used less often, are few newer and die far quicker because of atmospherics, ambient temps etc.