| Author | Message | ||
     RAGEdemon Rating: N/A |
Hi, I have seen some very good projectors, from which i believe the best for the prce is the Infocus X1. The only problem in the lamps for the projectors. They last for about 2000 hours, which works out to about 180 days with 12 hours of use per day on average, till a new one is needs to be bought for $300. Thats $600 worth of lamps every year... totally unacceptable for the majority of us. So, i was thinking: Why not use incandescent light bulbswith the equivelent luminosity. A normal 150W should cover it, and would cost about $2. I realise the picture will be yellowish instead of white, but that is a very small price to pay for such a saving. So my questions are: 1. Why hasn't anybody tried doing this? There HAS to be some real disadvantages... right? (something along the lines of catistrophic failure on interfacing, or burning out the DLP etc?) 2. Would it be feasable? If it cannot be directly interfaced into (any) projector in its regular place instead of the metal halide lamp, wht is to stop is from just manually wiring an incandescent lamp in the same position? ANY input would be greatly appreciated... especially from the technical elite. --RAGEdemon | ||
| ku Rating: N/A |
where are you gonna find a bulb that gives off the same brightness? I think you would open up a can of worms even doing so.. I watched my projector more then you really should almost like 4 to 5 hours a day here and there and the bulb lasted me the first year and a half.. They don't really get to the 2000 or so anyways, I saw mine get hard to see good around 1700 to 1800, but that might vary.. My bulbcost retail around $300 but as everyone I found someone selling one new off Ebay for $180.. Are you really gonna use the projector that much playing and in 3D. Figure on 10 to 20 hours a week, that will last you awhile... Well this is all just my opinion.. ku | ||
| RAGEdemon Rating: N/A |
hehe i wish it were that simple. The 1000 lumen bulbs can be bought quite easily. It does not have to be exact. I will be using the projector for atleast 12 hours per day :-( --RAGEdemon | ||
| Anonymous Rating: N/A |
The real problem is not the total lumens, but the quality of the light. Even if you could substitute one somehow, cheaper bulbs must use a light source that occupies a much larger area, and therefore you will end up with a much fuzzier image. Joe | ||
| Anonymous Rating: N/A |
One more idea, I don't know your situation, but try to explore other options. If you can darken the room significantly, then you might be able to get by with a different projector with less light output and perhaps a cheaper bulb. Joe D. | ||
| Peter Baron Rating: N/A |
Xenon lamps used in fluorescencemeters produce a very bright, completely white light. I don't know the lifetime of such lamps, but I do not think they are not as expensive as the projector lamps are. | ||
| RAGEdemon Rating: N/A |
Thanks for ur input... Being an electronics engineer and a scientist, (in half year more anyway) i cant resist a good experiment... I will give it a go with a few different types of lamps and post the results... hopefully my not-yet-bought projector will survive. The main problem is going to be converting the most likely incoming DC signal into AC for the lamp... perhaps i can manually wire an ac cable from the mains into the lamp box, and see where we can go from there... Anybody know if the projector will still work if it detects the bulb is "not connected"? Another factor i am concerned about s the heat... i do not know how much the halide ones are designed for, but i fear the incandecent lamps will produce it in vast quantities and end up damaging the DLP system... this is the catastrophic failure i was referring to in my first post. Also cheap projector anyone? I will be willing to pay £700 for an infocus x1. In the UK, it costs atleast £800, which is about $1350... a sad fact of how expensive things are over here. -- RAGEdemon | ||
| John Billingham Rating: N/A |
Faced with the prospect of a 200 dollar replacement bulb for an old EIKI digital projector, I took a quick "stab" at this "re-bulbing" solution (I am NOT an electrical engineer!) I even left the old bulb wired as "bait" for whatever "senses" that the bulb is there. My "replacement" was a halogen 'pod" mounted in a spare EIKI reflector. Anyway, whether the projector was smart enough to know it was not a legit bulb, or I was dumb enough to try and fool it......... it didn't work! I wish you better luck, and hope to hear about it! John Billingham | ||
| RAGEdemon Rating: N/A |
Thanks for the try John. I have been at it for a few hours now. The projector is open, and all screws are off. From what i can tell, there are 2 "buy our expensive bulb, not your cheap one" mechanisms. The first one is simple enough to bypass - a push switch that detects if the bulb is in place. The second one is alot more complex. It seems there is wiring that is part of the bulb starter that will tell the projector if the bulb is on or not. If the bulb does not come on - fused or removed, then the projector will not start. The starter curcuitry is very complex, and i have been unable to ascertain which line goes high to tell the projector when the bulb is fully unctional. I was therefore wondering, what if we put a simple equal impedence resistor across the load, where the bulb is meant to be connected? This would work for a normal incandescent, but these metal halide's have special starters which detect ignite the light. Will something simple as a resistor be able to fool it? I ask before trying as i do not wish my new projector to go up in flames. The starter is giving out 85V, 1.4A. This translates to about 120W lamp and a resistance of 60.7Ohms. As always, any help will be well appreciated. --RAGEdemon | ||
| John Billingham Rating: N/A |
Well, if I had paid full price for a new projector I would probably be "cowed" into buying a "real" bulb (I was lucky and found one cheap on e-bay) Yes, even on my old Eiki, the starter/ballast circuitry was intertwined! which is why I tried using a "shot" bulb wired in to fool it. Best of luck, but don't forget common sense! John Billingham (can you get a look at a "service manual" for the projector, I assume it my have a schematic?) | ||
| RAGEdemon Rating: N/A |
Projectors (or any such device such a video recorder etc) do not come with instructions such as these as 1) a person is not expected to utilise the equipment at that depth, 2) they do not want you to mess with their components at that depth. Never the less, i have managed to determine the needed infrmation and successfully attempt a bypass. I have used 2x 100W 33-Ohm resistors, bringing the total up to 66-Ohms, 60W dissipated in each. The heat is quite extreme thus i have had to attatch 3degreesC/W heat sink's to each. It works perfectly, though i can not say it will work for you. The high current in the lamp makes it very dangerous to work with - be careful! Total price, £10 + 10 for heat sinks. £25 for 12000Lumen mercury lamp with 6000hour life. Total: ~£50 + £25 every few years for replacement lamp. If yo decide to buy from manufacturer, £300+ every few months. On a side note, if you still plan to buy a bulb; open up the bulb abd read the markings. Chances are, you ill be able to get the bulb far cheaper from another supplier than the manufacturer's model. From where it is assepbled i could get my lamp for £180 whereas for the same lamp the manufacturers and distributers were asking for £475+ Wish everybody the best of luck, if anybody needs any help with lamps, you know where to ask :-) As stated by John above, Common sense, and BE CAREFULL! -- RAGEdemon | ||
| John Billingham Rating: N/A |
Good Job! I salute your success! Now, If I only had a DECENT projector to "hack" a bulb for! Best Wishes, John Billingham | ||
| Anders Malmgren Rating: N/A |
What kind of glasses do you use with your X1? I use a X1 and they dont work with shutters (DLP never do?) | ||
| RAGEdemon Rating: N/A |
They are meant to work with X1's without any problems apparently. Mine is the Compaq MP2810, where it only works at 2810x1024 only. I do not have experience with anything else. | ||
| LC Rating: N/A |
If you guys are still interested to bypass the lamp circuit for infocus projectors, here might be some useful information... There should be two electronics boards, one is the DLP and video signal control, the other one is the power supply. The two boards are connectted via a connector.. which is probably 12 to 18 pins. That connector has the usual voltage supplies, such as 5, 12, -9, gnd connections. THere are also two very important pins on that connector that interlocks the lamp control.. One pin, signal comming from the digital board to the power supply, tells the power supply to ignite and keep the lamp on. If this pin is 5 V, the power supply keeps the lamp on. The other pin is the feedback from the power supply to the electronics. When the lamp is happy, this pin is at 3.0 to 3.3 volts. So.. all you need to do... is short the feedback pin to 3.3 V supply on the power header. That way, the electronics will presume that the lamp is all happy, and the rest of the electronics will be running just fine. THis way, you can do away with the big resisters and heat sinks. The lamp can be completely removed and the projector will run just fine. | ||
| RAGEdemon Rating: N/A |
Thabks LC, I will be going through this procedure with the Compaq 2810. The electronics will be a little different, but i should be able to find the pin that goes high when the lamp is powered on. I have tried this in the past, but ould not find the right connection. Now with University finished, i will delve into it much more deeply. I have found widely available ballasts, igniters, and lamps for very low prices, what outperform typical DLP projector lamps in light intensity and usually colour too - pretty mush the same fittings for the bulb. Initial cost is around £100 for the entire setup, with 6000-10000 hours of use on the bulbs, and then ~£30 there after for consecutive bulb replacements. As usual, wishing everyone all the best. Please post expeirences of such hacks, im sure we would all be most interested :-) --RAGEdemon | ||
| Steve Veloso Rating: N/A |
hi all, having a degree in Electrical engineering and being a production engineer at Sharp (phils) corp for 3 yrs and also owning a dlp infocus lp400 I have also tried this substitution thing as an alternative to a cheaper bulb. lacking the schematic diagram of the projector, I decided use the old bulb as dummy enclosed in a box to contain the light it emitted and use a halogen bulb used in automobile headlights.I used a reflector I bought as an auxiliary light and fitted it in the original bracket of the metal halide bulb. the results are not so good, light distribution on the screen is uneven and light output is very low. It seems no matter how hard I try to find a higher wattage halogen bulb, it does not suffice the light output of a metal halide bulb. anyway, the way I see it, I have to find a cheaper metal halide bulb substitute as rage demon proposes that will be in the same size as the original bulb, but not as expensive. | ||
| bigbadbob Rating: N/A |
A year after buying an X1 your telling me the bulb ain't going to last 4000 hrs, or are the last 2000 hrs at 10 candela! The rate at which i'm using my bulb life i won't be able to tell if the bulbs getting dim or if my eyesights going with age! | ||
| RAGEdemon Rating: N/A |
Hi, As far as i am aware, the bulb life actually the bulb "half-life" - the time it takes for the bulb to degrade to half its performance. Steve, have a look at www.rswww.com under metal halide lamps. I believe the most suitable Metal Halide's would be: 1) The single ended "Ceramic Discharge Lamps (4) " 2)"Compact T (HQI-T/WDL) Lamps (2)" The ballast and ignitor can be otained from the same place for around £15 each, the the bulbs themselves ~£25. You will need a business card/identification to buy either. I am glad you were able to fake your bulb. Mine is more cmplex - the projector does not switch on unless the bulb is powered on, and is functioning correctly. To make matters worse, the line that goes high does not actually go high, it seems to give out a varying PWM signal through a chip and optocoupler. I guess this is how these companies make their money. They don't want people messing with their income, similar to when people get ink cartridge refills for a fraction of the price instead of buying the whole cartridge from them. Still, it makes you wonder. A completely superior bulb will cost £25, and they will let you have one of lower quality with a probably deliberate low life for £475. Mine has a life of 1000 hours - few months of use. Best Wishes -- RAGEdemon | ||
| itsikw Rating: N/A |
Halogen lamp cannot be a substitute to arc lamp. The lamp temperature is the crucial parameter in determining the light output of the projector. Temperature of metal halide lamps is around 7,000 deg, and temperature of halogen lamps is around 3,000 deg. If you are lucky, you may get with a halogen lamp 5% of the light output compared to a metal halide lamp. There is absolutely nothing you can do to improve this situation. Itsikw | ||
| zachary g Rating: N/A |
I have just purchased a infocus 755 projector without a bulb. Should anything happen when i press the power button without a bulb, led lights blink fans starts ect. I would like to know if this works befor I send hours hacking the system for another bulb or paying $420 for a standard bulb. Thanks zac | ||
| RAGEdemon Rating: |
Alright, I'v Done It. I have used a 150W Metal Halide lamp rated at 11000 lumens, and 9000 hour lamp life, which will last 3 years with 8 hours of use a day. The lamp is made by Osram, and costs £80 inc VAT. Beats £475 for 1/10 the lamp life  You will need propper Ballast, Ignoter, and some circuitry to hack the internal signals of the projector. Now, as always, there are some problems. Firstly, the Ballast HAS to be the new digital types that operate at >120Hz over conventional 50Hz ones or the output light will be flickery (Imagine monitor screen at 50Hz). Second, the lamp that i'm using is the only one I have found, after weeks of research, that would be practically usable as a projecter lamp - the main problem being that It is difficlt to focus all light into the very small hole. This particular lamp focusses light to about 25mm wide, but the light intake of the projector is ~10mm wide. Most of the light, therefore, is going to waste, though satisfactory results are still being achieved equivelent to ~900 ANSI lumens. [[[Is there anyone who could give ideas on how I could focus the light further into this 10mm gap? A simple lense dows not work as the incoming light is not parallel or uniform. Perhaps a specialised optical cable 25mm+ to <10mm converter, if such an affordable solution exists. As always, ANY help in this matter will be well appreciated. ]]] As for the Circuitry, the required design is projector dependent. For the Compaq/HP MP2810, it is 2 voltage dividers being switched at the right moment: One to start, and the other to maintain. Most projectors should just have ie a single 5v line telling the projecter that the lamp is on and functioning properly - pretty straight forward t manipulate. If circuitry cannot be "reverse engineered", THERMAL resisters with the same resistance as the lamp can be used in the lamps place. These seem to work just fine, though obviously generate ALOT of heat. A Word of caution: The voltages generated can easily be lethal. The lamps get extremely hot (200+ degrees Calcius) and there is always the risk of fire or the High Pressure making the lamp explode. Encapsulation of the lamp is a good idea. Ultra Violet radiation is also a problem, though most lamps nowadays come with coated in UV blocking glass. As always, If there are any questions, I'm here to help. On a side note, I have recently graduated with Elect. Engineering degree etc and looking for an interesting place to work: Virtual Reality, R&D - Our kind of thing. If anyone knows about anything in this field, I would be very grateful if you could share the information with me. --RAGEdemon | ||
| Anonymous Rating: N/A |
Why didn't you just build a DIY projector for $400. hell for $700 you could have built a 1280x960 passive stereoscopic projector. John | ||
| RAGEdemon Rating: N/A |
Thats LCD projection - Does not support sterecopic display. Also, the quality is somewhat unsatisfactory, and the portabbility... well you know where i'm going with this --RAGEdemon | ||
| Anonymous Rating: N/A |
Rage, You should check out diyaudio.com. In the video forum you'll see the level of quality picture that can be obtained. I have a 1280x1024 panel and would like a second one just to try my hand at a stereoscopic variant. BigBadBob, It is nessesary to clean the color wheel when you clean the bulb screens every 600 hours or so. Once you remove the bulb assy. you will see the color wheel. Using a q-tip moistened with distilled water gently wipe the wheel from the center outward. the wheel will turn with the strokes. use a dry q-tip to finish. You'll be amazed at the amout of "crud" that comes off the wheel and how much mor vibant the picture will be. Check out avsforum.com in the under $3500 projector forum for some great tips to enhance the X1's capabilities. I sound like a commercial... BUT THAT'S NOT ALL... John | ||
| RAGEdemon Rating: N/A |
Thanks for the info John. I already have thoroughly cleaned the flywheel and the light intake. You are right, the quality of the DIY is very good. My only concern is its suitability with stereo. I know that Passive stereo setups are the best, but the problem would be the low brightness from the silverscreen. I would be very intrested to have your thoughts and experience on the brightness issue of passive with 2x DIYs. Also, I have seen in many places that the DIY uses a 4000lumen lamp. I can easily recomend quite a few 14000 lumen metal halides with pure white 4200K light emission, and the required ballasts and ignitors. Perhaps these would be much better suited? When I get some money, I would like to try this DIY projection. Just have to wait for the job thing to take shape now Best Wishes, -- Shahzad | ||
| Anonymous Rating: N/A |
I believe a DIY passive stereo setup is very doable. Basically build two identical projectors with polorized filters. With the price of some 1024x768 native LCD projectors in the $1000 range now that the DLP projector's are getting popular I wonder if the cost of a DIY setup would be that great of a savings. Not to mention the effort to get it aligned properly. I'm looking into buying a used X1 as they're starting to hit the market as people upgrade to higher resolution units. Nvidia's stereo drivers now work with AA and aniso filtering turned on . The picture quality when running the X1 in 1024x768 with 2X or 4X AA on is virtually "jaggy" free. Some guy in one of the projector forum sold his for $500. I wish I would have seen the thread before it sold 'cause I'd be doin' passive stereo right now. John | ||
| pumukel3 Rating: N/A |
Rage, do you still own the MP2810??? Because I got the same one but my power-converter for the lamp the osram PF-VIP 300DCH blow up some weeks ago. I nearly got all pieces together again, but i´m missing the value of 2 resistors which blew up. Could you please help me with these??? i can sent you an picture and mark the resistors i just need the values... thanks in advance! here my email: jo.huber@epost.de | ||
| Anonymous Rating: N/A |
Hi Rage, I got a MP2810, but with some problem, not sure if you can help me to identify what is the reason: MP2810 turns on, and the fan only run after half a min or so, but after that, the projector shut off with the standby button lit... the fan will continue to run for couple of seconds, adn also off then...if you wait a while and turn it on, again, this will repeat, but if you try to turn it on like right away, the projector will make some noise and all button flases 2-3 times and nothing will happen after that. I suspect there is a thermal issue, but don't know where to start, and not sure how to open the case... I don't want to deassemble it without hearing from you first :-) can you reply to my hotmail? thanks a lot. Lin zhulin_can@hotmail.com | ||
| Anonymous Rating: N/A |
I have a X1 with over 2000 hours on the bulb. Hopefully I'll see 4000 out of it before I upgrade to a higher res unit. My brother gave me a Infocus LP725 that the bulb buned out in. I was thinking of using the projectors existing lamp housing and installing a MH bulb in it. If that doesn't work then I have a 7" 852x480 lcd screen from a Visteon hig res vehicle roof-mount that I can use. I can make a DIY using the projectors lamp housing and lens assy. I would rather get the LP725 working though. John | ||
| RAGEdemon Rating: N/A |
Hey, sorry for not updating for a long while. OK, the people who have asked for help, I will be happy to,m please check your emails. I have had it working well for a while now. I used a 150W metal halide with arc reflector to focus light into a 25mm diameter. I further narrowed this down to 10mm using an optical taper. This, I glued to the projector light input. The MH lamp has to be used with a digital ballast with OUTPUT frequency of atleact 100Hz, or there will be heavy flicker. The tricky part: the projectors internal ballast has to be hacked to make it think that the bulb is there. I believe all projectors have this, as this will be where the manufacturer will be making their money, and they dont want you messing around with their proffits :p On the MP2810 and probably MP2800 as well, there is a 2core cable connecting to the processing part of the ballast. one link is ground, the other is "signal" and +5V The signal is the one we are interested in. Splice all 3 wires, and make a potential divider using simple resisters, so it gives the following voltages: 0.13V, 0.3V. Make a switch to toggle between these two. Power on the projector with the 0.13 voltage at the signal. 0.13 is the ignition voltage, which lets the projector know that the bulb is on. This will kick start the colour wheel. When it has started, toggle the switch to 0.3V, which is the working voltage. Thats it, everything works well, and I am happy with the result. I hope that this will help anyone who finds the projector bulb prices extortion. 475£/800$ fora lamp is just outright ripping people off. If anyone wants any more help, please email me at "ragedemon at ntlworld.com", or you can catch me at my daily lurkings at stereovision.net. -- RAGEdemon | ||
| Unclebob Rating: N/A |
Brillient Rage I went the strip down an LCD and dump it on a second hand overhead projector route. Then I bought an X1 for £500. That was a year ago. 3D is perfect in native mode fed a 1024 signal but the projectors max res is 800 so you get a cropped image. People have said the X3 works very well so I may go that route. All the best Unclebob | ||
| Wraper Rating: N/A |
Hi RAGEdemon This is a very gut idea. Have you any website with this theme? Any schematic, foto and experience from other people on one place? I mean... this would be effective. (sry I can only reading english ) | ||
| matt Rating: N/A |
hello RAGEdemon really interesting stuff, perhaps you can help me ?...i'm trying to use 16no 80 lumen leds in a similar fashion to what you've done (though i accept that they may not be bright enough or there may be some serious polariser ripping out or adjusting), but i'm not so smart with circuits - i was thinking that perhaps the original bulb could be stripped down by a relamping company, so the arc gap is retained and housed in a little safety box, with a resistor to simulate normal lamp operation - but would that resistor run very hot, or reasonably cool ? here's my two threads on similar ides http://www.avforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=298216 http://www.bigscreenforums.com/forum_topic.cfm?which=1263 anyways, congratulations ! matt | ||
| RAGEdemon Rating: N/A |
I don't hang around here much because of all the marketing, bickering, and general stupidity and unprofessional conduct. You can find me at www.stereovision.net forums Christoph my friend, I do not know how you manage to put up with it LEDs are great, but from what I calculated, you would need about 500 10000MCD pointing directly into the light intake to get about the same lumens as a 7000 lumen metal halide, which is about 70 80lumen LEDs? You don't need an arc reflector, as the light coming fromt he LEDs is already focussed forward into a small ~30 degree angle. You can see the problem. Thelight intake tube will be about 10mm in diameter, and to get the 30 degree light into the 10mm diameter inlet, the LED will have to be pretty close to the intake, and you have to fit 70 in this small space. What I recomend doing is buying an optical taper - It narrows the beam of light from a large input diameter to a small output diameter. the biggest problem will be trying to get the projector to stay on when the bulb is not functioning. I don't know how your projector works but mine has a signal switch where th eprojector will only go on when the lamp has been ignited as explained in my post above. Perhape your projector will switch on with only a resister. You will need special resisters from an electronics shop, ones which are rated at the wattage of your lamp. These will eb quite large, and housed within heatsinks, which will gt very hot. these will be about half the size of your projector, so portability will be an issue too. These resistors do work with my projector after i put the curcuit in. I used 2x 60W resisters in series. I will be happy to help if you post in the above mentioned forum. If you post here, It might take me a month of six ;p Best of luck to you my friend. | ||
| paul kep (Paulk501) New member Username: Paulk501 Post Number: 1 Registered: 4-2006 Rating: N/A |
ragedemon, if the 2 resistors are half the size of the projector, why not just use a 120W lightbulb or 2 60w as a resistor? will the ballist kill it/them? | ||
| Shahzad Ali (Ragedemon) New member Username: Ragedemon Post Number: 1 Registered: 4-2006 Rating: N/A |
There is no 120W resistors rated that high power available. I had to 2x60Ohms from what I remember. If you read my post again, you will see that i dumped the resisters and hacked the projectors circuitry to make it think that the lamp was on, so i didnt need the resistors in the end. Now, I just toggle the switch to initiate the the colour wheel. When it is spinning, i flick it again, and the projector comes on, and stays on. No resistors needed etc, accept for voltage dividing at the hacking bit ;) Christoph my friend. Thank you for upgrading this forum and forcing registration. -- Shahzad Ali Cambridge UK | ||
| paul kep (Paulk501) New member Username: Paulk501 Post Number: 2 Registered: 4-2006 Rating: N/A |
ok I now have a projector!! its a proxima LX1 that needs a bulb... well I had gotten an ENX bulb and tryed putting it in WITH NO NEED to trick the projector, and behold it WORKS GREAT. but im conserned about the heat comeing from it. I dont have much experence with how hot these projectors get. can some one please inform me. btw the bulb it came with looks good to me. the bulb dident explode or look black. is it possibly good and do I have a bad balast? | ||
| paul kep (Paulk501) New member Username: Paulk501 Post Number: 3 Registered: 4-2006 Rating: N/A |
Sorry for dubble post but I opened the beast and found that the lamp power supply was unpluged. I pluged it in and it works great WITH THE SOPOSED TO BE DEAD BULB!!! the bulb only has 300 hours on it out of 4000!!!! IM THE BEST EBAYER EVER!!! pics here!!! http://s7.photobucket.com/albums/y258/paulk501/?sc=1&multi=1&addtype=local&media=image (Message edited by paulk501 on April 22, 2006) | ||
| Shahzad Ali (Ragedemon) New member Username: Ragedemon Post Number: 2 Registered: 4-2006 Rating: N/A |
Projector bulbs generate ALOT of heat, its pretty normal... unelss you are talking about insanely hot? If I was worried about insane amounts of heat, I would position it in a safe pace, ie with a fan blowing on it, or even integrate a PC fan onto it to cool it. Nice one on the ebaying | ||
| wangxiao (Sklnkl) New member Username: Sklnkl Post Number: 1 Registered: 8-2010 Rating: N/A |
A couple of posts ago, I talked about the need for a new A/V receiver. The basic problem is that I now have a fair few input devices and two of them have http://www.thomassaboschmucksale.com HDMI outputs, whereas my TV only has one HDMI input. It¡¯d be nice to route the video and audio signals through the same place. Problems solved: 1. Mismatch of what¡¯s being shown to what¡¯s being heard. You know the problem - you hit ¡®TiVo¡¯ on the universal remote and you get the TiVo http://www.thomassaboschmucksale.com coming out of the speakers and the AppleTV on the display. The Logitech remote handles that nicely with it¡¯s ¡®help¡¯ button, but it¡¯s still a pain. 2. If you don¡¯t use the remote you¡¯ve got to switch both the TV and the receiver. 3. My TV only has one HDMI input which means that the TiVo is plugged into that so that I can watch HD content (HDCP being required). This means that I can¡¯t watch HD content from the iTunes Movie store as it also requires HDCP - having the receiver route the video signal solves this problem. 4. I http://www.thomassaboschmucksale.com wanted outside speakers and to have different things playing inside and outside. I.e. the kids can watch Dora on the TV while we¡¯re listening to music outside courtesy of the AppleTV. |
