Laser Projector Vs Lamp

Lamp vs laser projector.

Laser projector vs lamp.

A quality laser projector can range anywhere from around 3 000 4 000 lumens on the low side to as much as 20 000 lumens or more. Without even taking into account the lower maintenance costs and electric savings the laser. While there is normally a single lamp in projectors lasers have many individual laser lightbulbs there can be as many as 24 and often 48 individual bulbs for output. Unfortunately high powered popcorn popping laser technology isn t widely available yet.

Disadvantages of laser projectors vs. If you have a fixed budget you might be able to purchase only 5 laser projectors of a given brightness and feature set compared to 7 or 8 or in some cases 10 lamp based projectors. A modern day dispute amongst home cinema owners. Most laser projectors start with blue laser light add yellow by aiming the laser at a phosphor that emits yellow when excited and then use filters to break up the yellow into red and green components.

Affordable laser projectors use blue lasers and a mechanical phosphor wheel to make necessary colors while very high end laser models use sets of red green and blue. There s still some variation from one model to another though. A lifespan of 20 000 hours is common for laser projectors whereas the lamp life on a lamp projector can be as low as 2 500 hours. Laser projectors come with a much longer lifespan and come with the added benefit of not having to regularly change the lamp.

This should be a fairly easy one to answer. The projector is rated to last for 20 000 hours of use so it can run for 12 5 years if it s used for 8 hours a day. The obvious disadvantage of laser projectors today is the higher upfront costs. Keep in mind that brighter isn t always better.

When you hear the term laser projection you might think of that scene from real genius where they shoot a high powered laser at a house that is filled with up popped popcorn. A laser projector priced at 1 200 costs several hundred dollars more than a comparable lamp projector. What primarily separates laser from led is that laser projectors can be purchased with higher lumen output up to and potentially beyond 30 000 lumens which means large venues can now take advantage of the long term lower cost of ownership that solid state light engines bring. That of course is a critical decision in some companies and schools.

However for the average consumer it is perhaps one of the most confusing debates.