Epson Projectors BEWARE!!!

[katie.lawe]

Hello

Just wanted to warn everyone about Epson Projectors and thier bulb warrenty!!.

We have had an EMP-62 installed for 13 weeks and the bulb has blown. The bulb has less than 1000 hrs used on it but Epson only put a 3 month warrenty on their bulbs.

If you purchase a projector from Epson do not let it sit in stock for 3 months as if the bulb is broken when you come to use it Epson will do nothing to replace the Bulb.

I think this is out rageous, other companies I have dealt with have replaced a bulb no questions asked if it has blown short of if life but not Epson.

[Paul_L]

Sorry to say but my understanding is that a vast number of projector manufactures only offer a 3 month bulb warrenty!

Even if you buy a replacement it still only comes with a 3 month warrenty, Epson (not that I am defending them) are only doing what most other people are doing.

Paul

Yeh if you can always get a PJ that comes with some kind of bulb warrenty. I use RocheAV and their Hitachi PJs come with 4 years unlimited bulb warrenty. It has been worth its weight in gold.

[bossman]

Just bought 7 promethean packages £1995 each with 4 years bulb and projector warranty plus fitting not bad eh! as sysman_mk points out they are hitachi units. should make you aware that they come in bright orange colour to prevent theft.

you know when youv'e been TANGO'd hehe!

Not bad at all. Usually pay £2200 for the same but SMARTBoard plus wall mounted speakers and DVD/VHS combi.

[Ravening_Wolf]

I have recently had contact with Dabs.com who claim that Sony are offering a 3-years no questions asked warranty on their projectors for educational establishments. Just a heads-up for those of you who like Sony kit


As for the Promethean boards, in my experience the initial cost-saving will be far outweighed by the amount of your time you now spend maintaining them!

[Geoff]

I avoid Sony on principle

[webman]

As for the Promethean boards, in my experience the initial cost-saving will be far outweighed by the amount of your time you now spend maintaining them!

The ACTIVboards? What time maintaining them?

[Ravening_Wolf]

Disappearing software, endless firmware updates, incorrect drivers, file permissions, ACTIVote configuration......

AAAARRRGGGGHHHHH!

[webman]

Never had any of those problems, and upgrading the firmware isn't that much hassle. Then again we've always used serial port connections which have been found more reliable than USB.

[Geoff]

Our teachers laptops don't have serial ports.

[Ravening_Wolf]

I also forgot to mention the User Factor

[webman]

We don't use laptops on IWBs On the one time we did, we just used a Keyspan USB => Serial port adapter.

Our users love ACTIVstudio with all the resources. Of course, if they read the PDFs we gave them they'd understand it even more :P

[BKGarry]

On Our Teacher PCs I find if you use the serial the machines seem to get stuck in a resart loop on the logon screen just as you press CTRL+ALT+DEL but you unplug them then they are fine and you have to redectect then in the active driver bit but thats it. On the boards which we can we use the USB (but everytime you reimage you have to manually assign the driver because is not a Microsoft Certified Driver so windows automatically sets is as a HID. Where it is only the serial that is long enough we are in the process of using a USB to Serial Adapter to use it on which fixes the problem.

Gaz

[pete]

Apart from a couple of POS Hitachi boards, all of our iwbs are Activeboards.

We've never had a problem with them. Well, my users are occasionally baffled if they get turned off