I recieved my new DLP TV about 5 days ago, and boy is it fantastic! I read on Samsung's website that turning up the brightness will not effect the bulbs life, so what im wondering is if I leave my TV on 'vivid' will that not shorten the life of my bulb, or will it? Im kinda confused on this because I have heard different things from different people. Right now I have my 360 on 'game mode' my satelite and dvd player on 'standard' i took them off of 'vivid'. Is there a recomended setting for TV and Movies that makes it look better? Sorry for all the questions. Thanks in advance.
Unless you watch tv in the daytime in a highly lit room full of windows I don't know why you would ever use vivid mode. If your lamp is a Phillips 100/120 watt it may be running at 120 watts while in vivid mode. The contrast and brightness has no effect on the lamp.
What looks better is what looks better to you. The ballpark can be attained by using the THX setup on a THX recorded DVD, like Star Wars, The Incredibles, Ladder 49, etc. That or an Avia or DVE calibration DVD.