Projector lamp suppliers

Forums › Home Theatre (incl HTPC) › Projector lamp suppliers - be careful

surfisup1000

4366 posts

Uber Geek

# 100090 3-Apr-2012 07:17

I needed to replace a projector lamp for my projector. I bought a bare bulb from ....

http://www.projector-lamps.co.nz

I think these guys run a couple of different web front-ends in NZ and Australia, but , not sure where they are actually based. That was probably a good initial warning signal but I thought what-the-hell.

They assured me it was an OEM bulb (without housing) and I saved about 1/2 the cost from an official supplier. But, when it arrived I was dubious that it was an OEM.

The bulb failed after just 1000 hours (they are rated to 2000 hours)

I complained and they told me that the age of the projector means you get less lamp life (I've not heard this before). And then requested me to buy another bulb - but if they stood by the quality of their products I'd have expected them to offer a 1/2 price replacement.

This is just my first experience of trying out these guys. I'm not really out of pocket , since it costed half and lasted half the time of the OEM but it is an experimental purchase that I will not repeat.

I've now ordered a new lamp from my projector supplier :)

johnr

19282 posts

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Inactive user

# 604269 3-Apr-2012 07:34

Half price straight away shows its not quality or OEM

stevenz

2785 posts

Uber Geek

# 604270 3-Apr-2012 07:35

Unless the power supply to the bulb has become unstable due to the age of the projector, then an identical bulb should last a nigh identical time. Sounds like they're trying to feed you BS.

@KnightNZ

surfisup1000

4366 posts

Uber Geek

# 604288 3-Apr-2012 08:10

johnr: Half price straight away shows its not quality or OEM

A cheaper price can indicate quality issues. But, equally there are plenty of examples of products where the NZ price is far more costly than the Asian/US prices.

This was for the bare bulb only. It is logical that a bare bulb would cost less that a full housing+bulb. I also asked myself how they can sell bare bulbs but JVC do not.

I'm interested in their comment that the age of the project affects lamp life though.I can understand dust build up having an effect, but the projector age itself?

surfisup1000

4366 posts

Uber Geek

# 604292 3-Apr-2012 08:14

stevenz: Unless the power supply to the bulb has become unstable due to the age of the projector, then an identical bulb should last a nigh identical time. Sounds like they're trying to feed you BS.

I believe it is BS too. Although, I guess dust builds up over time, but that is a dust problem not a projector problem.

I tried my old original lamp and that works just fine.

Anyway, I'm sticking to trusted suppliers from now. The world of projector bulb resellers is very murky.

geekiegeek

2228 posts

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Trusted

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# 604297 3-Apr-2012 08:29

http://www.projectorbulbs.co.nz is the place I buy my replacements from. Always OEM. Other sites sell after market bulbs that use recycled housings with cheaper bulbs - hence the lower lifetime.

Basically with projector bulbs you get what you pay for. Also check this page for more info on this issue - http://projectorbulbs.co.nz/compatible-vs-original-lamps.html

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My thoughts are my own and are in no way representative of my employer.

surfisup1000

4366 posts

Uber Geek

# 604317 3-Apr-2012 08:54

geekiegeek: http://www.projectorbulbs.co.nz is the place I buy my replacements from. Always OEM. Other sites sell after market bulbs that use recycled housings with cheaper bulbs - hence the lower lifetime.

Basically with projector bulbs you get what you pay for. Also check this page for more info on this issue - http://projectorbulbs.co.nz/compatible-vs-original-lamps.html

These guys do look reputable.

But, I note the following....

"Projector Bulbs Ltd aims to provide quality original lamps and diamond lamps at the lowest prices in New Zealand"

ProjectorBulbs sell my bulb for ... Part#: BHL-5009-S $741.89 incl. GST

JVC.CO.NZ , sell the bulb for....

BHL-5009-S$ 649.00 (inc gst )

I'm surprised they sell this for more than JVC themselves.

Dunnersfella

3594 posts

Uber Geek

# 604350 3-Apr-2012 10:14

I'm nor surprised at all.
On-line retailing and expensive pricing is quite common. They often run the most popular items as loss leaders in order to create a market perception of them being cheap.
Brick and mortar retailers do it - everyone does.

A lot of retailers simply use PriceSpy (or similar) to create their pricing... some will then use expensive freight / exclude GST to claw back some margin. Others only check competitors pricing once in a blue moon, so fall off the pace pretty quickly.

xpd

Chief Trash Bandit
10027 posts

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# 604382 3-Apr-2012 10:52

geekiegeek: http://www.projectorbulbs.co.nz is the place I buy my replacements from. Always OEM. Other sites sell after market bulbs that use recycled housings with cheaper bulbs - hence the lower lifetime.

Basically with projector bulbs you get what you pay for. Also check this page for more info on this issue - http://projectorbulbs.co.nz/compatible-vs-original-lamps.html

+1 for these guys, we use them at work and have met them in person a few times, always straight up with us - we're happy to pay a premium for reliable and honest service TBH.

XPD / Gavin / DemiseNZ

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Radiotron

139 posts

Master Geek

# 605883 5-Apr-2012 20:27

3rd party burner (lamp guts only) assemblies are hit and miss, recommend reliable OEM sourced lamps, the cheapies don't last, and if they draw excessive current after striking, the projector will shut down - ballasts tend not wear out so much as simply fail, I doubt a dodgy burner would cause premature ballast failure.

703

73 posts

Master Geek

# 607060 9-Apr-2012 14:51

Sometimes even original OEM bulbs don't gurantee quality. Plenty of reports of JVC lamps loosing its brightness earlier than expected.

What I do recommend is using a good quality surge / UPS on your projector. And clean those dust filters on your JVC. Excessive heat does wonders to reduce lamp life.

surfisup1000

4366 posts

Uber Geek

# 610084 16-Apr-2012 15:45

Just got my new OEM lamp housing from pricejapan.com. Saved around $300 for little effort.

PriceJapan are very good , i've used them a few times now.

I clean the air filter reasonably often. Heat is the enemy.

Radiotron

139 posts

Master Geek

# 612590 20-Apr-2012 20:33

quite right, excessive heat is the enemy, in 3LCD pjs, usually results in toasted LCD plates - the blue one fails first, it already gets a hammering from lamp UV, heat buildup speeds up the failure, resulting blacks getting less black and thoroughly bad white balance, in extremis, the blue plate fails to work at all, leaving pretty blue patches on image... Moral of the story: keep it clean