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"Great Picture With a Long Term Cost" on by jeremygizmo
Pros: Excellent Picture Quality
Cons: Abysmal Lamp Life
Summary: The HD-56G887 has an incredible picture that one can view up-close and far away with ease. None of the pixelation problems frequently noticeable in LCD's are visible in this TV. Color and brightness are great.
The reason for the low score is the incredibly short lamp life. Within 6 months of owning the TV the lamp burnt out. I called JVC and they referred me to a service center. Unfortunately it's going to be 3 weeks before the service center can get the bulb and install it so I am currently w/o a TV. The lamp lasted approx - 5040 hrs (this number derived by assuming 4hrs a day x 7 days a week x 180 days, which is a bit of an overestimate on my actual tv use). At $200 + tax & shipping for each bulb this quickly adds onto the cost of the TV.
Interestingly there is a lamp timer built into the TV which will tell you when your bulb needs to get changed, but nowhere in the documentation or on the box does it say what the bulb life is (I never did get a notice that the bulb needed to get replaced so I assume the bulb had not even reached the manufacturer expectations). Also interesting is the fact that you can reset the bulb life counter, but it never displays the actual hours that the bulb has been used. This would imply to me that the manufacturer knew they were releasing a product with an inferior bulb-life and were intentionally misleading the customer to sell a defective product. I am currently writing a letter to JVC and will try and update my review when I get their response (mistakes happen and it's all about the how the company deals with them).
- 6 replies to this review
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Your math is off by quite a bit here. You multiplied 4 hrs x 7 days/week x 180 days to get 5040 hours?? Don't know why you included the 7 days/week, because if it was just 180 days then all you need to do is multiply 4 hrs x 180 days = 720 hours. If it would have gotten 5040 hours that would be an exceptional lamp life, because most LCD/DLP TV's are supposed to get between 4500-6000 per lamp.
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jermemy has to be talking about the 886 model from last year. He could not have possibly owned the 2006 model for as long as he claims. The bulb life issues have been squarely addressed with the 787/887 series.
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4 hrs/day * 7 days per week * 180 days is not 5040 hours. You double-counted days. The correct answer is 720 hours (4*180). Days per week doesn't enter into it.<br><br>JVC actually says, on their web site, that the AVERAGE life is rated at 6,000 hours. However, there are a very large number of reports of failure at 600 to 1,100 hours, which is indeed unacceptable for a $200 bulb. [The number of reports is so large that some people think that the average is 1,000 hours or less.] Reportedly, JVC is covering the lamps under the warranty for the set (1 year), after that a lamp has a 90 day warranty, then you are out $200 (you can find them on E-Bay for $150).<br><br>From my research, this is the entire issue with JVC sets. There is no doubt in my mind that in terms of image quality, they have the very best microdisplay projection HDTV. But the lamp life issue is potentially catastrophic. It ***MAY*** have been fixed in their new series of 1080P sets, but it will be a year or so before there is enough information to draw that conclusion. In the meantime, if JVC wants to restore confidence in their product, they need to have some kind of a lamp life assurance program. I'd have no qualms about buying the set if they would simply give a 2,000 GUARANTEE on the life of a lamp that they state explicitly on their web site has an average life of 6,000 hours.
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You said "The lamp lasted approx - 5040 hrs (this number derived by assuming 4hrs a day x 7 days a week x 180 days, which is a bit of an overestimate on my actual tv use)"<br><br>No way. 5040 hrs would be great. You can't multiply by 7 then 180 days. Thats 180 weeks! If you had your tv for 180 WEEKS (3+ years) then that would be your total of 5040.<br><br>Let me fix your math. 4 hrs a day x 180 days = 720 hours. Thats a problem. <br><br>I know that samsung warrantys its bulbs for the first year to prevent this. I think it is just a fluke. No bulb should go that fast.
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After looking at several different HDTVs I had picked the JVC as the right one for me (Hell with my eyes I barely notice the improvment up to 780, so I really didn't need a 1080). Read your review before I bought mine, so I bought the extended warrenty (4 years and covers bulb replacement) for $200. Since I got a break on price for paying cash (TV, stand, and warrenty $2200 plus tax) ended up just slightly more than what Video Only wanted for TV and stand in the first place. One of the few times the extended warrenty is worth getting.
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This comment by jeremygizmo is completely misleading. <br><br>First of all jeremygizmo states that he/she owns HD-56G887 for 6 months. But the TV release date is 4/15/06, so at the time of the comment he/she could own it for 2 month max.<br><br>Secondly you can find out the bulb life time going to the Service Menu and pressing [4]. This isn't described in the manual but can be easily read on some HDTV forums, for instance on AVSFORUM.com
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