Hello from Sunny San Diego! - Discount-Merchant

[Discount-Merchant]

Hi All!

I'm new to this forum, but not to forums or the Internet...I remember the good old says of newsgroups, telnet, irc, gopher, and lynx (how many of you guys were around back when lynx was introduced

Anyway, my name is Ali Irani-Tehrani. As you can see from the title, I'm writing out to the world from Sunny San Diego, California...beautiful city, beautiful weather, and beautiful eye candy

I'm involved in the consumer electronics and computer business. My company offers a variety of products and services for consumers and business partners alike. Relative to this forum, we sell projection TV lamps, and we sell them at very attractive prices thanks to our buying power.

If I can get one thing across on this forum that I think is important, if would have to be: Never go with a generic or third-party lamp manufacture! Stick to the original...the company that has done the R&D and has worked with the manufacture of your TV set for that optimal picture! If Philips makes your lamp inside, stick with them! If Toshiba makes it, don't use a Philips...and never use the cheap knockoff brands...you will be sorry!

Enough of my rant, I hope of the friendly folks well introduce themselves!

Ali Irani-Tehrani

[lcaillo]

Good advice. Welcome to the forum. Have you actually tested the LTI replacements? I have heard from other techs that they are not very reliable, yet they are showing up in lots of sites as replacements.

[Sonnie]

Hello Ali and welcome to the Shack!

We hope you will enjoy it here...

[Discount-Merchant]

Hi Sonnie, Hi Leonard!

We have actually given LTI a test...as well as APO (another vender). There is also another thirdparty vender that comes to mind but I cannot remember the name right now. All failed our QC.

I can only recommend Philips for Samung, RCA, LG/Zenith, Philips....pretty much I'm a Philips fan But again, a good rule of thumb, use whatever can in your TV originally. Just open a few screws to physically check the lamp or look it up online. There are a lot of resellers out there that try to fool consumers into thinking OSRAM is the original manufacture of their TV models. I can tell you that 95% or both Samsung and RCA TVs used the Philips as the original lamp. If you buy a replacement from Samsung directly, there are only two lamp codes that ship with Osram. To my knowledge, I don't know any RCA, Philips, LG/Zenith rear projection TVs that shipped with the OSRAM as an original...we have to get rid of this myth!

[lcaillo]

I can tell you with certainty that Mitsubishi and Optoma, for two examples use Osram lamps, and in general the Osram lamps have been superior in consistent long life than the Philips lamps used in the Sony sets that we have sold. Samsung did use Osram lamps in some cases, but most of their lamps have had Toshiba or philips labels on the lamp itself. There have been some batches of bad Philips lamps in several vendors sets. Overall, their quality has been very good outside of the groups of problems that Sony and others had. Unfortunately, the problems have created a fear of lamps in general. Most have lasted quite well and beyond the average life expectancy stated by the set manufacturers.

What kind of QC did you use to evaluate the lamps?

[Discount-Merchant]

lcaillo,

The following Samsung TVs use Philips lamps in the original TV enclosure and as replacements...

BP96-00224C
BP96-01099A
BP96-01472A
BP96-00608A
BP96-01073A
BP96-00677A
BP96-00826A
BP96-00837A
BP96-00224B
BP96-00224J
BP96-00224E
BP96-00224F
BP96-00224G
BP96-00224H
BP96-01415A
BP96-01578A
BP96-01600A
BP96-01074A
BP96-01653A
BP96-01795A



The following uses Toshiba Lamps:

BP96-00224A

I know there are a few lamp codes that use the OSRAM lamps...

[lcaillo]

According to Samsung

Models HLM507WX, HLN4365W, HLN4365W1X, HLN437W, HLN437W1X use or at some point used the Osram E23 lamp, Samsung part #BP96-00224D

The HLR4667W used an Osram E22 lamp Samsung part #BP96-01403A

According to Samsung, the following sets also require changing the ballast to go from the Toshiba lamp to the smaller Philips lamp:
HLM4365W, HLM437W, HLM5065W, HLM507W, HLN4365W, HLN437W, HLN507W

Always check the actual lamp code rather than going by the model number. There have been numerous parts changes in production.

[Discount-Merchant]

I second what lcaillo says...YOU NEED TO check your lamp code...and more importantly, it's better to check the lamp code on the enclosure itself. Every once in a while we get a customer who has some weird combination...the model tells us it should be one type of lamp, then the lamp code on the outside says something else...only way to figure out which lamp their usings is by physically opening the door and pulling out the enclosure. You may regret it if you don't!

And Samsung seems to be the only manufacture with this issue...

[nova]

Hello,... and Welcome to the Shack!

I suppose I'll add my two sense
I can't even remember the lamp that came with my Sony GWIII,... I think it was a Phillips,... whatever it was didn't even make it six months, was replaced with another from the place I bought the TV (under warranty),... that one made it almost six months . Then I called Sony and they sent an Osram replacement, (also under warranty)... it is still working almost three years later. I guess I'm not sold on the argument that OEM is always better,... I think it is generally, but not always.

At least thats my take.

[Discount-Merchant]

Mark,

there's a lot of factors that go into lamp failure... We've got a list of a few things you can do to help promote long life...everything should read it...

http://fixyourdlp.com/blog/?p=30

[salvasol]

Discount-Merchant wrote:

Mark, there's a lot of factors that go into lamp failure... We've got a list of a few things you can do to help promote long life...everything should read it...http://fixyourdlp.com/blog/?p=30

I have a question for you: I read this .....[quote]"Surge protectors are important as sudden spikes in voltage can fry your ballast and/or lamp. If your lamp made the infamous “pop” noise, recall seeing if you had a surge protector inline"[quote].

Is this pop noise different than the pop you hear when the box contracts or expand due to heat build up????

My Tv has that popping noise, I read somewhere that you can loose the screws, I did and helped me, but from time to time I still get that noise .... sometimes is disturbing, I really want to find out what is exactly causing this noise to fix it.

[Discount-Merchant]

No...not really...

[Discount-Merchant]

Leonard,

I just got back in town...I heard you had a chance to test the sample Philips Lamp Adapter I shipped you a while back. Hope you ran some extensive tests on it!

We're actually in touch with Samsung trying to work on something together...we've got our fingers crossed! Again, take a look at the BP96-00826A enclosure which features both the "big" and "small" philips lamps.

So far so good...with over 1,000 installs in our own refurbishing, more than 1,000 wholesale orders, and hundreds more to retail clients...it's a stable product!

[lcaillo]

As I told you last, I don't do much samsung and have not had a chance to test the lamp. You have not heard this from me nor from anyone that I know, so do not attempt to suggest something that is not true. I have not tested the lamp and do not make any claims to how they work in the application that you suggest. As I have said several times, the only meaningful test will be to measure the spectrum that it produces compared to the larger lamp, for which I will have to have a set and two working lamps. Otherwise, the lamp seems fine as a replacement, since it is a Philips lamp rated for the same power, but that is only speculation on my part. We do not know anything for sure about the long term reliability in this application.

As for the popping, many lamp based sets do this and it is usually thermal cycling, expansion and contraction of the plastic parts. Surges will not likely damage a lamp, though they might damage a ballast. The likelihood of the latter depends on whether the supply to the ballast is regulated or unregulated. The regulated supplies in most modern televisions, including the ballast in most, will not allow a significnant surge to pass to the secondary. Most surge damage is in the primary, including the switching and regulation components, or comes over the ground side of signal lines. Lamp damage due to surges is rare, IME.

[Discount-Merchant]

CORRECTION to post #13:

lcaillo has not tested our Philips Lamp Adapter. I was given this information incorrectly, and I apologize for it. I did send lcaillo a sample because he is technically inclined and capable of analyzing the spectrum of the original small lamp versus the original big lamp.

Again lcaillo, I hope there are no ill feelings. From what I've seen skimming these forums, you're a very instrumental part of Home Theater Shack and I didn't intend to spring up any controversy.

______________________________________________________________

Something else that I want to clarify...you guys out there with lamp code BP96-00826A

Some of you have a small Philips lamp inside your enclosure housing while others have a big Philips. When the time comes to purchase a replacement lamp (assuming w/o enclosure), make sure that you know which type of lamp you have by pulling the enclosure out of your TV and spot checking the lamp...otherwise you might have problems when your replacement arrives. I've seen this happen dozens of times.