dlp lamp replacement

auggybendoggy wrote on 2/1/2009, 3:10 PM

Guys,
is it better to get the lamp with the whole housing? I can also buy just the lamp?

Also is OEM perferable vs. compatible?

any good stores to buy from?

Comments

Laurence wrote on 2/1/2009, 4:25 PM

Just making sure that you know that any dlp TV should have a UPS on the power. This is because in the event of a power failure, the UPS will keep the fan that cools the bulb running. Otherwise when the power goes out, the residual heat in the bulb and bulb assembly will burn out the bulb pretty quickly.

Chienworks wrote on 2/1/2009, 4:52 PM

Not exactly an answer either, but it may be worth a try ...

Our church had an old beast of a projector that started showing the 'lamp life' warning indicating that we should buy a new lamp soon. The really annoying thing is that the warning fills the whole screen and makes the projector useless, even though the lamp is still working. Well, they decided to ditch the projector instead of buying a new $480 lamp, and use that towards buying a new, nicer projector. They gave me the old projector to play with.

Just for the heck of it, i pulled out the lamp assembly and then reinserted it. That reset the lamp life timer back to "new". The warning message went away. I've probably put another 400 hours on it now (lamp's only rated for 600 hours) and it's still going fine.

Not sure if DLP will handle this as well as LCD, but i'd say it's worth considering.

DrLumen wrote on 2/1/2009, 10:30 PM

Personally I would get the OEM lamp. The term 'compatible' concerns me. A 'replacement' should have the exact same specs as the OEM whereas a 'compatible' lamp may only match some of the OEM specs. If you can get the full specs (including photometric data) for the OEM and the compatible lamp you can compare them and see how they are different. For projection lamps the filament shape and LCL (lamp center length) are probably the most critical after the voltage and wattage specs. Lumen and color temp would be next and only you can decide if the difference warrants the extra costs for the OEM lamp.

If you go with the OEM you could replace just the lamp as long as the housing is not discolored or in bad shape. A compatible lamp may only be compatible if the housing is replaced also. The photometric data should give a hint as to if the housing will need to be replaced with the 'compatible' lamp.

I don't have any recommendation for vendors as the ones I deal with primarily only carry the more common stage and studio lamps. You could check out Camel Traders (cameltraders.com) or Bulb America (bulbamerica.com). B&H is probably your best bet though.