Replacement bulb brand?

search "Replacement Lamp" in this forum. You might as well send me the $86 as to buy one of those lamps. The will not work or work for a few hundred hours very dim.. The only lamps worth buying are OEM lamps, in your case an official Sanyo lamp. Sorry, you get what you pay for when it comes to projector lamps. Figure for most projectors under $3000 you will pay right around $300 for an OEM lamp and for higher end projectors double that.. Do some searches, many, many post all the same advice I am giving you now.
If you feel luck, spend the $86 on lottery tickets or at a casino, maybe you can triple it to get the OEM!

do not buy generic lamps. Period. The percentage of disatisfied users is close to 100%. In fact I don't remember even once that someone was happy with a generic bulb.

Don't buy 'em, unless you like burning plastic smell, dimming yellow images, and exploded glass in your pj. My experience.

many use cheap bulbs,those that are happy wont care to post online about a replacement bulb that works fine.I have seen many cheap bulbs work fine.there is a reason there is a market for cheap bulbs... cause users buy them and they make money selling them.....most bulbs sold arnt for HT pjs anyway.

I have not seen even one positive review of a generic bulb here. Please refer me to even one good review. I see positive reviews of virtually every other product except bulbs. From projectors to cables to adapters. Ive yet to see a single review of a generic bulb that is of the same quality and lamp hours as an oem.

I,my brother and many others I know have used cheap bulbs with great success,Oh my.... we didnt care to go online to gush about them.
How do those non oem bulb makers stay in bizzness......just makin all them bulbzez that never work cause guyz sayz so on the inter webzz...

how many hours have you gotten on these cheap bulbs? What projector were they for?

I've heard many horror stories about cheap bulbs. My last two OEM bulbs have lasted longer than my projector (both over 2000 hours). Just because a company stays in business does not mean they make good products.

friends and family who service,install, sales and friends who work for a few of the comanys that make pjs.

some have been doing it with home film installs from way back when(los angeles area)I and my family have had lot o pjs(3 mounted in this house, 7 total in the house now) I have messed around with a lot of pjs.

I think if this thread is to be helpful, we need vendor that does sell china bulbs that work. Also, people sharing the hours they got on the bulbs and giving PJ names and positive experiences.

I have seen many discussions on china bulbs and practically all of them have given stories how bulb screwed up the PJ, bulb popped and shorted out the PJ.

I think many of us would love to save money on china bulbs, and was hoping they would work, but , there are no threads in here or anywhere saying they are "good". Instead many people who did buy them tell the rest of us to stay away.

If I had good experience with them I would be giving exact links and name the PJ I was using, how many hours I got on china bulb. I wouldn't be vague and not give the name of the PJ or LINK to bulb I bought. And just say "nobody writes the china bulbs work because they don't need to". Crap. If it worked I would be SHOUTING about it in here and giving company and type to get and giving my experience.

Even if someone does say "china bulbs" are good, they have to be wise enough to realize that not all "china bulbs" are made equal. I imagine some china bulbs are good and some are china-knockoffs. He should point to link and exact bulb he got and unit he used it on, and how many hours on bulb. If not, I would trust the guys that say "stay away from xyz company, I bought their knockoff for my expson 8530 and only got 200 hours on it and it ruined my PJ".

please tell me what brand bulb you bought? Do you know of any good generic brands for the Panasonic AE4000? I'm all for not spending $400 for a bulb if a $200 bulb does just as good.

I'm pretty sure that there are a dozen brands of generic bulbs. Which ones are good? Maybe if more people buy these generic bulbs it will force the OEM bulbs to drop their ridiculous price.

In my estimation there is only one reason why generic bulbs cost half the price. Its because they are half as good.

I think You'll find all bulbs of each type are made by the same manufactuer. These bulbs are tested and if the don't meet an OEM's specifactions they are sent to a reject bin and sold to the generic sellers. It doesn,t mean these bulbs won't work and be as good as an OEM bulb but its a gamble that thay are out of spec enough to fail sooner or damage a projector. The OEM have to charge more because they got the best of the crop

This info is incorrect.

The generic lamps usually have smaller internals (filament looking things) and are shorter and dim much faster, it's not the same bulb that was "thrown out". The internals of the lamp will usually look nothing like the original. There are replica bulbs that were made to look identical and are still NOT real OEM, but the other type that look different are more common. I do not know who makes all the generic bulbs, but there is more than only one maker of PJ bulbs...

The following are the major movers and shakers in the projector lamp industry -

Philips - The global consumer electronics company engineered the 100% mercury vapor metal halide lamp in 1995. Using 100% mercury vapor allowed traditional metal halide lamps to emit a brightness never achieved previously and for all practical purposes made digital projectors possible. Philips was the trailblazer in the projector lamp world and remains as a dominant force in the projector lamp industry. Some estimates have Philips controlling over 70% of the projector lamp manufacturing and sales market worldwide.

Ushio - Ushio is a Japanese company that started operations in 1964 as an industrial light manufacturer. The company is now a self-described "creator of light" and manufacturers hundreds of different industrial light formats. The company manufacturers projector lamps for Sony, Sanyo, Epson, and BenQ amoung others and is estimated to have a 20-25% share of the projector lamp market.

Osram/ Sylvania - Osram is a German company that claims to be the second largest lighting manufacturer in the world. The company specializes in producing the ARC tube found in metal halide lamps, but they also manufacturer complete OEM projector lamps for several projectors. Osram controls a 7-11% share of the projector lamp manufacturing market.

The Rest - A handful of projector lamp manufacturers are located in Taiwan, Japan and China. Most of them do not manufacture high enough quality projector lamps to be considered for mass distribution inside brand new projectors. However, there are some projector lamp manufacturers that have been successful and received work orders to fill lesser-known brand name projectors with their proejctor lamps.
Edited by coderguy - 7/5/12 at 6:40am

just had a 120$ lamp go past 1000 hours in a old 720p sharp ,oem are 300-400 for a 3000 hr bulb.
was it worth it ,yes.YMMV:)

They can last that long, but they are so much dimmer. I've had a few, and wouldn't buy another.

do you know any good generic bulbs for the Panasonic AE4000? Or what is a good website to buy generics?

it is a crapshoot -been geting them from mwave its close by for pickup for me and my brother.

I guess I am not comfortable with paying $200 on a crapshoot. Or worse if the generic bulb blows up and damages my projector. I will stick with oem.

i tried a generic bulb and ended up sending my projector in to infocus for repair and replacement.

i was properly scolded for the crappy bulb in there but all was returned in fine order a week later.

I'd only go OEM bulbs now UNLESS I had multiple projectors to play with and the risk met the reward.