Technomage, I too am having the same problem with my projector as you have discribed in your post. I see that there was no reply to you posting. I am just wondering if you would be able to update me with what you ended up doing to resolve your problem. Cheers Ryot

I have an NEC LT260. The yellow plate of the 4 color wheel came off and the other plates are faded. I have the part out and want to replace it. I called NEC who said that I can not buy the part from them. NEC said I need to go to an authorized service center. I called an authorized service center. They said that NEC will not allow them to sell parts to the end user. At this point I feel like NEC simply sees the end used as moronic and inept. I want to fix my projector. All I need is a color wheel. Does anyone know of the source of NEC projector parts that the relatively intelligent end user can purchase?

I currently use an NEC LT260 projector for home theater (ceiling mounted) with a 100 inch Da-Lite HiContrast Cinemavision screen. Contrast is good (but not great)--blacks are decent but the picture could be a bit brighter, color saturation could be better and there is some noise in the picture. I mainly watch DVDs from a Denon 910 DVD player with the occasional HDTV from my cable box. I have good ambient light control in the home theater--it is a basement room but the walls and ceiling are off-white although the wall that the screen is mounted in painted lamp black (my wife was willing to make that concession. I've enjoyed the projector for the last 2-3 years, so much so that I have a little less than a quarter of lamp life left. Rather than buy a new lamp at the (exorbitant) $500 price, I have been thinking about upgrading the whole projector to one of the new LCD projectors. The Panasonic AE900U or Sanyo PLV Z4 are about in my price range. Has anyone compared either of these to an NEC LT260 or LT240 projector? Will I see a significantly imprvoed picture--I am assuming so, if nothing else than from the improvement in the technology generally over the last few years, but I'd rather not outlay the extra cash but then find the picture to be about the same (or worse). I am assuming that the contrast of these LCDs will be at least as good (or better) as my older NEC LT260 DLP projector, but does anyone know for sure? The other alternative is to squeeze out some more life out of my projector by minimizing use or buying a new lamp and then eventually upgrading to the more expensive Optoma H79/H78--although I suspect it'll be a long wait before they get into my price range. I have read the informative reviews of all these projectors on this site as well as the shootout between the Optoma H79 and the PLV Z4 which was very interesting--but I was wondering if anyone had some specific comparison experience with the NEC LT260/240. Thanks in advance!