Replacement Bulb decision

[TheForce]

My front Projector is due for a new bulb soon. I'm over 3000 hours now.

The bulb with cage assembly is quite expensive. I can save 50% of that price by buying an exact OSRAM bulb from a supplier in N.C. Installing the new bulb in an older cage assembly seems simple enough.

Has anyone ever tried these off the shelf bulbs with matching numbers? How long by comparison to the original bulb do they last?

 

[styxfix]

That's what I've done twice for my Philips Lcos. Just replace the bulb and reuse the same cage assembly.

 

[dfergie]

Moved to TV... I've read elsewhere about people getting lamps that were 1/2 the actual rating that they needed...

 

[TheForce]

My projector actually has a dual wattage setting and I've always operated it on the 200 watt setting as opposed to the 250 setting. Reason is as suggested in the manual: The 250 setting is mostly for daylight viewing and since my projector is in a Home theater room with controled lighting, I always watch it with lights out. I assume the 200 watt setting saves burn time cost. No actual data to submit as evidence this is true, though.

 

[dfergie]

I ran my first lamp on my Mitsubishi HD 1000 on low light mode and am doing same with the replacement lamp and my HC1500... (had 2300+ Hours on the first bulb, it's my spare)

 

[dfergie]

My first projector a X1 I have over 3,330 hours on but it developed light engine problems (white lines on Left side of picture) bulb replacement wasn't an option as I managed to scratch some of the reflective material in the housing...

 

[jayn_j]

My first projector a X1 I have over 3,330 hours on but it developed light engine problems (white lines on Left side of picture) bulb replacement wasn't an option as I managed to scratch some of the reflective material in the housing...

I recently replaced the bulb on my Toshiba DLP (over 4k hours). I grabbed the wire handle to take the old one out, and the plastic simply disintegrated. Spent the next two hours fising plastic out of the back of the set and getting the old connector seperated. It had gotten very brittle from all that heat, so I was glad I had bought a complete assembly.