Mitsu DLP for gaming?

[Insomniator]

Hey everyone a friend of mine wants to get rid of her 52 inch 1080p Mitsubishi DLP (about 3-4 years old) with a dead lamp... lamps go for 100 bucks on Amazon. She'd prob take 100 bucks for the tv... hell maybe just give it away to someone who will take it out of her house.

Are these any good these days? I currently have a 37 inch Olevia LCD that is obviously mediocre in quality... been meaning to pick up a new set for 600-700 but if this is a decent upgrade for 200 bucks or less I'd rather use this for another 2 years.

I see a lot of bad reviews on the set but that is from people that paid 2500 bucks for it in 2006. Are these any good for gaming? Any input lag or ghosting effects? How are the black levels? My Olevia's blacks are pretttyy pretttty grey.

thanks!

 

[NutBucket]

I have a Mitsu DLP purchased 2 years ago. Works great for the PS3. I've never heard a complaint from my friends/wife either.

 

[RavenSEAL]

Even for $300 that's a steal, hell yeah get it!

 

[sdifox]

should be fine. go for it.

 

[MagickMan]

Does she know it's just a lamp and a $100 fix?

 

[Matt1970]

I think the DLP and LCD Projection sets are the best bang for the buck you will find. They will rival LCD and Plasma all day long and even excell in some respects. I have a 56" JVC 1080p DLP and love it. When the lamp goes in it I will fork over the $ for a new lamp without batting an eye.

 

[Insomniator]

Does she know it's just a lamp and a $100 fix?

Yeah she just wants it out of the house. I offered her 100 bucks for it, will get the $100 lamp and will see how long it lasts. Its almost worth the 200 to me just to compare and be able to check out a DLP in real life.

Something tells me they aren't as bad as the reviews say... the people that get screwed are the only ones that review things.

 

[RU482]

my kids play Wii on our 60" Mitsu, works great

 

[slag]

fwiw, the 52 and 62 are the older, heavier, dlp technology and suffer horribly from bad cap disease. Once the TVs went to 60, 65, 73, or 82, the tech got better. Just saying....

I have an older 62 and think the pq is decent but it is much better in the newer ones.

 

[blackangst1]

My buddy has THIS Mitsu 73"DLP and his son is a huge gamer...games on it all the time. The TV this replaced is a 52" DLP now upstairs that is his son's main gaming TV.

Go ahead and get it!

 

[Insomniator]

She bargained herself down to $50... I gotta buy a lamp now.

Amazon has a Phillips lamp for $120 that has 2 good reviews and a bunch of knockoffs for 50-70 bucks with mediocre reviews. Anyone have experience with this? Should i try out the crappy ones and see if they really suck or just pick up the best available?

edit-- actually do I buy the lamp or the housing with the lamp?

 

[NutBucket]

Did you check bulb prices direct from Mitsubishi? The bulb prices for TVs made in the last 2-3 years are about $100-$150.

 

[Aikouka]

I'm not sure about that exact model, but I have a 65" (WD65C9) and it works rather well. Although, I always get the upgrade itch!

edit-- actually do I buy the lamp or the housing with the lamp?

It depends on how much work you want to put into replacing it. If you buy the lamp + housing, it's as simple as pulling the old one out, and putting the new one in. If you buy just a lamp, you'll have to pull the old one out, remove the lamp, put the new one in (YOU MUST USE GLOVES FOR THIS), then put it in the TV.

EDIT:

If you're curious about the gloves thing, it's similar to a car's headlight bulb. You don't touch them directly, because your hands will leave grease on the bulb, and the grease will get too hot during operation.

 

[soulcougher73]

Id probably buy a new bulb from mitsu themselves. That way you get the same model that is required etc. Usually they are not too much more than youll find on Amazon etc.

FWIW: Even though i own a pioneer plasma now i still think DLPs are great TVs and would concider a new mitsu DLP in the future. The tech is still good and the picture great (assuming you dont see the rainbow affect).

 

[Zargon]

I have a 65" from last year, and its awesome. even when compared to my 50" sammy plasma...

 

[Insomniator]

Thanks guys, I got the bulb from dlplampsource.com. They claim real Osram/phillips bulbs and come with a 1 yr warranty... for 80 dollars less than mitsu direct. Also got free 2 day shipping so it will arrive just as I pick up the tv.

I'm excited... hope it works!

 

[Insomniator]

This TV weighs ~80 pounds, are there any low profile lazy susan style stands that would work for it? This says it supports up to 500 pounds... i don't get how that is possible...

http://www.amazon.com/TV-Swivel-Stan.../dp/B004A9C4PQ

 

[Insomniator]

Got it, replaced the bulb and holy crap this is a nice tv for 200 bucks! Thanks everyone!

 

[Aikouka]

Glad you're enjoying it! The only other thing to be aware of is what's called the "white dot problem". DLPs are kind of unique as I'm pretty certain they're the only modern TV with moving parts in them. Well, as you can probably guess... things that have to move sometimes fail! The two things that could fail in that aspect are the color wheel or the mirrors.

The mirrors failing (usually at an individual level, not all at once) is what causes the white dot problem. A mirror will be stuck in the "on" position, which causes it to always reflect the light through all positions on the color wheel. If we recall our elementary school art classes, all colors mixed together = white! So, the pixel represented by that mirror will end up becoming a white dot on your screen.

I had it happen to my Samsung DLP, and the biggest misconception about it is the repair cost. Technicians when repairing the problem tend to just replace the entire Light Engine, which includes the DMD Panel, Color Wheel Assembly, Actuator Lens, etc. That's a rather excessive repair, and it costs about 4-5x more than just replacing the DMD Panel itself. The DMD Panel for my Samsung TV was ~$150 + $50 core charge (i.e. send your old one back, get the core charge back).

 

[NutBucket]

I've seen what I think is the "white dot" problem on my Mitsu set....but its very odd.

For example, for a while I would notice a dot on Seth Meyer's jacket during Weekend Update...but I never noticed it on any other content/channel. I didn't notice it last night, but maybe I was too tired to see it.

Point being, maybe I was just seeing things or perhaps its some strange artifact from the broadcast?

 

[Aikouka]

When it happened to my Samsung DLP, the white dots would be persistent regardless of the content. It also tends to be kind of "cancerous" as in it gets worse and worse over time.

 

[BurnItDwn]

I've got a Mitsu DLP Front projection system ... I have my old phenom 2 with 4870 hooked up to it, games look great on it IMO...

I can't speak for DLP rear projection, but I'd think that it would have at least a bit in common with front projection ....