Page 1 of Projector on the cheap...

Can anyone suggest where I might pick up a decent second-hand projector, if that is not a contradiction in terms? I have scoured the net, called every AV retailer in the area, and bought every magazine on the shelf, and so far bupkis! I only have about £1500-2000 to spend, but would like to get something with a 16:9 feature, and I know these begin at about £3000 off the shelf. Also I live in Cornwall, which makes anything other than mail-order a bit tricky. Please tell me - is this gonna happen? Coz I really need a decent night`s sleep!
Tom T.

I went through this when I was after a projector (I live in Plymouth) - I found that Sharp made some cheap projectors (around the £1000 area) - I think one of then is discontinued now - but here`s the bad news - our nearest dealer who could give a demo is in southampton - and when I rang them they weren`t interested in anything less than about £2000 - try phoning some projector hire companies and see if they`ve got any that they want to upgrade and would like to sell on thier old one`s - make sure you check how much the lamps are though - some of them can be very expensive.
In the end I got one from the company I used to work for - it`s old but still works - it was goignt o be thrown in a skip until I asked if I could have it for spares !

Ta for the advice! Yeah, I did find that a lot of the places I contacted fobbed me off when they found out how much/little I had to spend. I too started off looking at the Sharp models, but as per usual, I keep raising the bar on myself. I have used a projector at work (I`m a media technician in the local college, and I often take my DVDs in to play for the students), but it`s in pretty bad shape - InFocus LitePro 570 about six years old. It suffers really badly from what I believe is known as `combing` - I`m guessing because it`s primarily a data projector. Also, when I run my Wharfedale 750 through it playing region 1, the brightness levels drop so badly that I can barely see a thing. I think this one`s probably on its way to the skip, but I`m not sure if it`s worth me fishing it out!
Incidentally, at the risk of sounding naive, when they refer to lamp life, do they mean the lamp, or the bulbs? I know that the latter can be very expensive, but I can`t believe you can pay a matter of hundreds for a bulb. Can you?

Lamps = bulbs but the term lamp is usually used for projectors. Usually you will find (like on my Sharp) that the actual `bulb` is part of a `lamp module` - the whole of which needs to be replaced at about 300 quid! Now I wonder if Reviewer can get hold of a bulb `review unit` ;-)

This item was edited on Thursday, 21st December 2000, 07:46

But the lamp in my 10+year old epson costs me £11-00 + vat to replace - I think this is an exception though - the only projectors which don`t use lamps are CRT (based on the CRT technology of a TV but changed - don`ttry taking a hammer to your TV and aiming it at a wall - it won`t work !) - these are normally a few £?,000 but are much better quality.

At a guess I would imagine this was for a halogen lamp Simon. The newer units use Metal Halide lamps which are more expensive. Halogens have shorter life but stay at full brightness until they `pop`, whereas Metal halides have longer life but slowly dim over time. That is why the projectors themselves have lamp times that cut off after 2000 hours before the dimming gets noticeable.

I think it was the first model not to be powered by a candle it`s so old !!

I think I would personally prefer the lamp to keep going until it goes - I`m timing how long the lamp I`m using now is lasting - I don`t use it a great deal though - I`d be well happy if it lasts 2000 hours !!

Go to your local C**rys store, ask if they have an end of line model, make sure you consider the extra cover , which will save you buying lamps.

i got 1 vcheap a toshiba 40" for 1600 + 399 for 5 year cover, i have used them b4 and found the very good, it even covers u against accidental damage(remote and all)
ask for a coupla dvds as a "sweetener"

trust me
cheers >:o)
£2 grand u got a 40" projector guaranteed for 5 yrs

U must mean a rear projection screen TV Brock - they are a difference matter all together - Currys don`t generally sell projectors (not down here anyway) and even then warranties don`t cover lamps because they wear out (like an ink or toner cart on a printer)