DLP and Power Outages

[itschris]

This weekend, we found out our street had a bad power transformer. The power went out twice for about a minute or so a few hours apart, then the transformer blew and we were without power from 8pm to 3am while they fixed it.

Of course, the TV happened to be on each time. I have the Mits 65833 DLP, but I"m sure all DLP's have the fan to cool the lamp down after you turn the TV off. How serious is it to lose power and not have the fan to cool down the lamp?

I thought about getting this small backup from APC:
http://www.samsclub.com/shopping/navigate.do?dest=5&item=328284

I posted it awhile back, but there didn't seem to be a lot of postive reaction to it... something about sine waves and tv's ... basically technical stuff I don't know a lot about.

I'm thinking this has to be better than nothing (assuming it's not a good thing to lose power while the DLP is on).

Other thoughts and suggestions are welcome.

 

[bandphan]

i ran a ups on my dlp, as you know florida has plenty o power outages. Ive heard of blubs going due to the fans not cooling the bulb down.

 

[itschris]

Where you using something like the APC unit I linked to? Does it matter if it's for a PC vs audio/video equpement?

 

[MDS]

Does it matter if it's for a PC vs audio/video equpement?

I have two similar APC units that are 750 VA. It will work fine as a battery backup for the TV, just make sure you get one with a large enough VA rating to give you the runtime you need.

These use a 'stepped approximation' of a sine wave. Look at the stepped wav vs sine wave debate for video devices like the topic of power conditioning. Some people will spend thousands of dollars for device that supposedly regenerate the AC to a perfect sine wave, keep the voltage within 1% of a perfect 120, etc and yet they rarely do much of anything to improve the picture (unless your power is abysmal in the first place). Surge protection and in this case runtime on battery for a few minutes to let the bulb cool down is what is important. If the battery backup kicks in, you'll be shutting off the TV, not trying to watch a full length movie and hoping the picture is absolutely perfect the whole time.

 

[itschris]

Thanks for the explanation. All I want is to know that my lamp will have a few minutes to cool off. I already have a decent surge protector, I think I'll just plug the APC unit in seperates and just attach the receiver, TV, and speakers to it. Everything else, like the DVD, router, and cable box can stay on the existing surge protector.