A big thank You for all your videos and info Franky! It really pisses me off seeing people with 2000 euro projectors shopping for the cheapest replacement lamps. It is like having a Ferrari and replacing tires at Walmart. Ehhhh......... It just isn't right!
Hey Frank, thanks for posting all these videos. I did notice one of your comments that counterfeit osram bulbs are not very common but I see tons of osram bulbs on aliexpress with all the engravings and lettering on the back of the bulbs, the same as a genuine one. I did order one to see if they have the serial number engraving on the bulb itself as well as testing the resistance between the negative and positive terminals. I currently have a BenQ W1070 and the bulb it uses is "p-vip 240/0.8 e20.9n" and both osram shopyourlight and osram's only authorized reseller are both out of stock of this exact bulb. They do, however, have the "p-vip 230/0.8 e20.8" for $56 and in stock. I checked the specs of both bulbs and they both appear to have the exact same base with exact same arc length. The only difference in the spec sheet is that the 230w bulb runs at 76v nominal while the 240w bulb runs at 70v nominal. Since I'm planning to upgrade to the th575 anyways, I plan to order this bulb to see if it'll work as a projector in a different room. My W1070 bulb exploded a week ago, it probably had 2000-3000 hours non eco mode. Regardless, I'll probably report back on whether that 230w bulb works or not. It seems like it would use the same gasses internally as the 240w bulb as long as it's genuine?
A question about lamps - it seems like many are discontinuing replacement lamps for my projector - Vivitek HK2288. The only two more well known shops that have them the one that starts with a J and projectorlampsusa. I would generally go to Pureland but they don't seem to have them anymore - getting worried that I won't be able to find a replacement when it's time to replace the lamp - only about 800h now.
I see what you mean. thats a tough one. in your case, you may want to look for the bare lamp and keep the old housing. you can use the numbers on the back of the ceramic to find another. I'd get one soon and put it away so you have it for a spare. This particular model was not super popular and the housing is expensive to make so I can understand (partly) why its not available.
@@FixitFrank Thanks for the reply - I'll look into that. It's a great projector - I picked it up used for $500 about a year ago with only 250h and have been floored by the clarity and colors - the colors are right up there with my 6050UB but the clarity with high quality source content is on another level - of course contrast is not as good. The contrast is very good for a 4K DLP shifter at around 2000:1 native compared to most of the BenQ, Optomas, etc at 1000:1 or so. The image it puts out reminds me a bit of some of the the 1080p 3DLP models like SIM but with much higher resolution (obviously still has RBE though). I think the main issue was many had problems with signal dropping - I've seen it but after upgrading to a HDMI 2.1 optical cable it's been a non issue.
@@FixitFrank I finally found a supplier for original lamps - PSSAV. It was shipped directly from Vivitek and being that it's a binned original lamp from March 2024 it's very bright and hits the 2000 lumen rating of the projector (uncalibrated) and 1200 lumens calibrated (same as reviews). It's over twice as bright as my old original lamp with ~1500 hours.
Do you know a method to look for the right projector bulb based on a projector model? Often i need to order replacement bulbs based on a projector brand + model but it can be very hard to find the right bulb online. Is there some sort of database or a website that contains this info?
It's not entirely that simple. Replacing the bare lamp is always the best way to go. It is doable of course but there are more parts that wear out than just the bare lamp. Depending on the model, there might be a lamp meter IC that needs to be dealt with. There is also the lens of the lamp assembly. Those do wear believe it or not. If you reuse a bad lens, you can melt and damage the shape lens or polarizer depending on the model. The other issue is that there are lot of older bare lamps that are no longer made by Philips, Ushio, Phoenix or Osram. Osram in particular barely makes any projector products. Many have newer replacement options and wont be what is listed on the old bulb. Philips doesnt even make bare bulbs anymore. Signify is licensed to use the UHP name and hardware. All new UHP lamps come from Signify with Philips licensing. You might not really save much money by changing the bare bulb. Most housings only cost $20 or so more than a bare bulb and that saves you a lot of time and hassle. 10 years ago, replacing the bare bulb was well worth it. These days, not so much, in fact because manufacturers get cheaper rates on bare lamps the full assembly can even be cheaper than a bare bulb. But again, it does depend on the model of the lamp. Some can still save a lot of money. The Projection Design 400-0500-00 is still pretty expensive but the bare bulb is les than $100. You still have to deal with the lamp meter chip but that's also replaceable. A 5J.J7L05001 for a BenQ is not worth changing the bulb. The bulb is like $55(wholesale) and the whole lamp is $75. These days that's not even always true. Many times the bare lamp is the same as the full lamp. Using the W1070 lamp above: Full Lamp is $76.46, Bare lamp is $76.50 (from Osram direct). www.purelandsupply.com/benq-lcd-projector-lamp_5jj7l05001.html (using the exact same bare bulb as below) www.osram-shopyourlight.com/product/osram-p-vip-240-08-e209n Lamps that use Ushio or Phoenix, need to also use Ushio or Phoenix replacements, but the part #s will be different from the OEM. Phoenix has aftermarket part numbers that are the same specs but a different number. Same with Ushio. The main reason you don't see this data for free online is that it's valuable to companies. They do a lot of research to build up that info and just giving it away to competitors isn't in their best interest. I know the cross list I built took a few years and I constantly am updating and changing it to match what info is the newest. If you have a particular lamp in question, I'd be happy to tell you what your options are. You're best bet is to make some contacts in the lamp industry, if this is info you need often. Someone who deals with lamps regularly will know what your best options are. I do have an email listed on the about page.
7510 hours on this original bulb in an older hd27hdr. its in a totally black room so its sorta ok yet but its loosing color gradually. i cant seem to find this lamp (with or without the housing) in stock at the reputable sellers so its getting to the point where im goona have to go to amazon or ebay and likely get a knockoff and roll the dice on the ballast going bad. eh whatever i feel like i got my moneys worth out of it, but anyhow i took it all apart to clean and i find my color wheel is burning clear in sort of a swirl. is it common for the wheel to go bad before an optomas first bulb dies? thank you for sharing your knowledge
It's a weird lamp assembly. I actually tried to get them and the sample I was sent had the wrong lens. I hate to say it, but it might be time to upgrade. I promise that lamp is way more dim than you realize but its still working. The swirl you are seeing is probably dust cooked onto the glass. Usually you can clean it off and the color wheel will look good again. Its really hard to lose the coloring from the glass. It just gets masked if that makes sense? Time Projector has this lamp assembly but the lens is not the right one. you could use your old lens, but in all reality you got your moneys worth. Treat yourself to a newer used projector and save some money and get a brighter projector to enjoy. For $300~ you can usually get something that is 1080 native and over 2000 lumens.
@@FixitFrank thanks that sounds like a good plan. i may take it apart one last time to get a look at that wheel again. So im guessing its like the burned on dust messed with the glasses light diffraction to make it appear clearish? i should have taken a picture or held it in better light.
I had this projector a few years back. I did get a third party one off Amazon for £39.00. And I got over 4000 hrs on Eco out of it. But I do know it can be hit n miss with the cheaper bulbs 👍
Since these are arc lamps. They require a ballast to drive them. It's impossible to test them reliably with any meter. I use a repurposed projector ballast to test lamps when I need to. I think I showed the test box in one video but I can't recall which one.
I truthfully do not see counterfeit Osram that much. I think because they are so cheap to begin with they tend to just use real Osram. Their bare lamps are around $20-30 cost to the distributor/manufacturer. Philips tend to start around $35 and go up. They seem to be counterfeited much more often. The other thing I see is "re-tubes" where they use the old reflector and ceramic and then replace the arc tube. That is kind of obvious though. You will see 2 different colors of cement.
@@FixitFrank Even 35$ for original is very very cheap, for my projector generic (new original burner and old reflector) bare lamp is over ~450zł (is ~115$), original bare is ~500zł (~130$), my projector is old but new projectors have similar pricing, counterfeit lamps even with module is 5 times or more cheaper, if it is in US that cheap as you said I don't know why in US peoples even consider to buy counterfeit lamps
The US has a lot of people living here(too many). Sadly most of them are not all that bright/intelligent/think for themselves(as the pandemic has proven). They see things like "This works like the original but its $100 cheaper" and they believe it. They all think that if they say its OK then that means its OK even if it is clearly not OK. This goes for basically anything. Lamp or otherwise. Thankfully there are enough people to offset that for the most part. I don't know if you have ever seen the US movie "Idiocracy"? If not, and you like or can tolerate US films, I recommend it. It was meant to be a comedy but in my mind is a vision of the future.
@@FixitFrank I seen this movie many years ago (And today because I didn't remember that movie, I remembered after couple minutes, but I watched whole), the idea of society becoming dumber and dumber is not correct, peoples brain 10 000 years ago was capable of the same things as nowadays, the only difference was technology, so why in 500 (like in the movie), 1 000, 10 000 years or more should anything change? And stupid peoples don't have more kids than smart ones, just poor, uneducated people with lack of access to healthcare have, being poor and uneducated don't mean being stupid, if I should guess did peoples in future will be more smart or dumber I think that they will be a lot smarter, smart peoples are the nowadays rockstars, everyone wants to be like people like Steve Wozniak, Linus Torvalds, Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Nikola Tesla etc. nerds and scientist are the crude oil of these days, and all knowledge of mankind everyone have in own pocket (…and all stupidity of mankind …and lots of porn), common availability of knowledge and much better salaries in IT should economically favor smart peoples And I think that is not best idea to form a worldview on movies ;) And US movies is better than polish movies, 80% of polish movies is romantic comedy :D I hate romantic comedies, there literally just one romantic comedy that I like in total, there are more parodies of romantic comedies that I like than romantic comedies itself, even Czech movies are better… because 80% of Czech movies is porn, I like porn, and CzechHunter is the best movie studio :D
