Epson "Blank" button

[MidnightSensi]

My Epson 7500UB has a remote with a button on it that says "Blank." When you press it, the screen goes blank. Press it again, the picture comes back.

For when I'm using my Apple TV for music, is this a reasonable way to preserve bulb life?

The manual doesn't say anything about it other than that it is located on the remote. It seems to keep the projector on, but turn the blacklighting of the LCD off.

 

[BMXTRIX]

No, this is not a way to preserve lamp life. The blank button is typically for killing the display of inappropriate material. For example, when the kids come in during a horror flick or something.

It's more a slide over from the commercial world where company charts and graphs often should be hidden when a guest may come into a conference room or if food is being catered.

The lamp stays on at full brightness and undergoes normal wear and tear.

 

[Seth=L]

No, this is not a way to preserve lamp life. The blank button is typically for killing the display of inappropriate material. For example, when the kids come in during a horror flick or something.

It's more a slide over from the commercial world where company charts and graphs often should be hidden when a guest may come into a conference room or if food is being catered.

The lamp stays on at full brightness and undergoes normal wear and tear.

Is there anything you don't know about projectors?

 

[strube]

Is there anything you don't know about projectors?

I am gonna answer that for you, in case BMXTRIX is too humble:

No.

 

[MidnightSensi]

No, this is not a way to preserve lamp life. The blank button is typically for killing the display of inappropriate material. For example, when the kids come in during a horror flick or something.

It's more a slide over from the commercial world where company charts and graphs often should be hidden when a guest may come into a conference room or if food is being catered.

The lamp stays on at full brightness and undergoes normal wear and tear.

Cheers. They need to put that in the owners manual.

 

[BMXTRIX]

Is there anything you don't know about projectors?

It makes it easier for me to run a company if I actually know what I'm talking about when it comes to the product I am selling. The hardest part, which people just can't tell, is the reliability of a product from year to year. So, while one year the Panasonic or Sanyo or Epson may be a great, super reliable product - the next year they could mess it up and suddenly, while it still LOOKS great, it's a very unreliable product.

Reliability is my number one consideration in any product, because people will most often happily give up 10% (or less) in overall quality to get a big jump in reliability.

 

[majorloser]

The "blank" button is mainly used when teaching or giving presentations. It allows the speaker/presenter to turn off the bright light of the projector so they can stand in front of the audience to talk, give a demonstration or write on a board.

It is also handy when using multiple projectors throwing to one screen. You can switch between material without changing input sources or minimizing windows. Just blank the one you have off and un-blank the one you want projected.

All blanking does is either turn all the mirrors in a DLP to reflect away from the lens or all of the pixel to black on an LCD panel. The bulb is still running at full power and the projector stays warmed up with the fans running. So it'll waste bulb life and just crank out heat. But that's still better than shutting down the projector with the "cool down" cycle, then turning it back on and waiting for the "warm cycle" to complete.

 

[BMXTRIX]

The "blank" button is mainly used when teaching or giving presentations. It allows the speaker/presenter to turn off the bright light of the projector so they can stand in front of the audience to talk, give a demonstration or write on a board.

Hmmm... Good use!

I don't work as often in the school settings but it makes a lot of sense to use it the ways you've described as well.

 

[MidnightSensi]

The "blank" button is mainly used when teaching or giving presentations. It allows the speaker/presenter to turn off the bright light of the projector so they can stand in front of the audience to talk, give a demonstration or write on a board.

It is also handy when using multiple projectors throwing to one screen. You can switch between material without changing input sources or minimizing windows. Just blank the one you have off and un-blank the one you want projected.

All blanking does is either turn all the mirrors in a DLP to reflect away from the lens or all of the pixel to black on an LCD panel. The bulb is still running at full power and the projector stays warmed up with the fans running. So it'll waste bulb life and just crank out heat. But that's still better than shutting down the projector with the "cool down" cycle, then turning it back on and waiting for the "warm cycle" to complete.

Do heat cycles degrade bulbs faster than letting it run, or vice versa?

Like if I'm going to watch a game in the afternoon, and then a movie a few hours later.... Am I better to leave the projector on, or turn it off and back on again a few hours later?

 

[jostenmeat]

Do heat cycles degrade bulbs faster than letting it run, or vice versa?

Like if I'm going to watch a game in the afternoon, and then a movie a few hours later.... Am I better to leave the projector on, or turn it off and back on again a few hours later?

Turn it off, at least in terms of bulb life. The most common number of minutes thrown out there as the threshold for when it behooves you to turn it off is 20 minutes, and I think even BMX has said the same thing. IOW, "one strike" = "about 20 minutes taken off bulb life".

For me, however, I usually just leave it on if I'm back in 20 minutes. Even longer, perhaps 40 minutes, up to an hour. Few hours, I definitely turn it off.

I just like to baby the PJ away from unnecessary strikes. I'm sure it's all good.

EDIT: Oh. I know it's been answered already, but, NO . . . there isn't anything that BMX doesn't know about projectors.

 

[majorloser]

I would say that excessive start-ups and shut-downs can wear out the bulb prematurely. You're like me, living in Florida. Sea level, lots of humidity and lots of heat. Just run your projector in "high altitude" mode to keep the fan running at high speed most of the time. It'll help keep it running cooler and maybe last longer. When you have people over to watch a movie or when you're showing off your system, then you can run it in regular mode to keep it quiet. Most people won't know the difference anyway. I watch all of my television programs and movies on my projector. It's used almost every day for at least a couple hours in the evening. My plasma in the bedroom gets only used for the morning news or when the wife can't stand what I'm watching.

But honestly, I just plan on changing the lamp every year. They're not that expensive and it's a good excuse to do a full calibration. I save the old one as a backup in case I have a "burnout" before the end of the year.

 

[MidnightSensi]

I would say that excessive start-ups and shut-downs can wear out the bulb prematurely. You're like me, living in Florida. Sea level, lots of humidity and lots of heat. Just run your projector in "high altitude" mode to keep the fan running at high speed most of the time. It'll help keep it running cooler and maybe last longer. When you have people over to watch a movie or when you're showing off your system, then you can run it in regular mode to keep it quiet. Most people won't know the difference anyway. I watch all of my television programs and movies on my projector. It's used almost every day for at least a couple hours in the evening. My plasma in the bedroom gets only used for the morning news or when the wife can't stand what I'm watching.

But honestly, I just plan on changing the lamp every year. They're not that expensive and it's a good excuse to do a full calibration. I save the old one as a backup in case I have a "burnout" before the end of the year.

My room is air conditioned, so the humidity and temperature is cool. It's always 70 in there.

Yea, the bulbs aren't too expensive anymore, which is nice. I also have an extra bulb I got as a rebate/bonus when I bought the projector, so I have a backup if one goes out or gets dull.

I'm going to just follow the 20 minute rule of thumb and see how long it lasts.

 

[majorloser]

But it's always a lot hotter on the ceiling. Even with extra vent in my theater it can get warm after a few hours.