Talking about projectors and lamps, on the web there are many stories to be found on low cost alternatives, generally using relatively cheap, high wattage (400-600) and long burn-life (5000, 10000, 20000 hours) lamps in combination with relatively large lcd screens (upto 15"). One of the better laid-out ones is this story from the German guys at Tom's Hardware. http://www.tomshardware.com/howto/20041113/index.html http://www.tomshardware.com/howto/20041201/projector-01.html ----- Original Message ----- From: <jeroen.stessen@xxxxxxxxxxx> To: <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Tuesday, January 25, 2005 8:40 AM Subject: [opendtv] Re: Philips ClearLCD technique for motion sharpness Hello, Doug McDonald wrote: > This set uses a high pressure mercury arc lamp. Jeroen ... > are you aware what "RP-LCD" means? Oops... I must have been confused by the "40" in the type number. 40" is small enough these days for a direct view LCD panel. But a RP does not have a fixed screen size, of course. Okay, then the flicker is probably due to some modulation of the power supply. I seem to remember a story about an AC component on top of the higher frequency AC component in order to stabilize the arc. That might be your 300 Hz component. If you see flicker of any lower frequency, especially in a corner of the screen, then it is the arc position that wanders around. Sometimes the arc is stabilized by a magnetic field from a permanent magnet. I also remember from that same story something about the part where the arc hits the electrodes: the tungsten is actually liquid. A very small pool, of course. Gives you an idea of the violent nature of an arc discharge lamp, and why lamp replacement is so horribly expensive. Mercury discharge lamps are potentially explosive at working temperature, xenon lamps are explosive at any temperature. Tungsten lamps, or even LEDs, are not an alternative because their etendue is far too large. Only point sources (like a 1 mm arc) and lasers have a small etendue: high brightness from a small area and/or over a small angle. Hence these exotic lamps. Regards, -- Jeroen ---------------------------------------------------------------------- You can UNSUBSCRIBE from the OpenDTV list in two ways: - Using the UNSUBSCRIBE command in your user configuration settings at FreeLists.org - By sending a message to: opendtv-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word unsubscribe in the subject line.