Official Sony KDS-XXA3000 OWNERS THREAD! - Page 497

Bought my 50" A3000 November 2007. The original bulb burnt out last May. Replaced it and did a mirror cleaning. It needed it. New bulb is fine but I went and replaced it anyway @ 4700 hours and did another mirror cleaning. To my suprise the mirror was not bad at all. TV is a smidge brighter but not much different. Picture still looks good but I'll be honest....I went with a friend last week to help him pick out a TV and he went with the Samsung 720p 50" plasma for $559.00. The picture is awesome. Maybe my eyes are getting bad but it was very impressive.

The last few days I've noticed and occasional minute fluctuation in brightness level. I have only about 1500 hours on a new bulb, but I did recently turn the energy saver off. It doesn't flicker or anything like that, it just seems like the brightness bumps up a little.

Same here. I'm wondering if it's auto iris though I never noticed it before changing the bulb a couple months ago.

Anybody know if this could be caused because I turned off the energy saver?

Try flipping it back on and see what happens.

I haven't noticed anything bad since I flipped it off 5 hours ago. I'll see how it does tomorrow.

Update. Watched the Steelers Falcons replay on the NFL Network last night and the picture was outstanding! Back in love.

Turning the power save option seems to have fixed the problem.

The lamp warning appeared on my 60A3000 last week so is there any reason why I shouldn't order this lamp?

http://www.amazon.com/Sony-KDS-60A30.../dp/B0038BEBVC

And this means I have 8173 hours on the current lamp, right?

Many owners of SXRDs (myself included) have reported problems with flickering with power saving mode set to on and it goes away of set power saving mode to off.

I'll give you my experiences. When my original lamp started going dim I came here and looked around for others who had bought replacement lamps. At the time there were 2 sources that were talked about most...Advanced Lamps and Electrified. I bought an "OEM" bulb from each of them and both flickered almost as bad as a fun-house strobe light. If I played with the power saving mode I could get it to go away for a short while but it would always come back. I ended up buying a branded Philips bulb for a little more and had none of these problems....except it didn't last but half as long as the original. I'm now on a 3rd bulb which is a branded Osram...so far so good.

I'm not sure why my TV didn't like the OEM bulbs while many others have no problems with them but it's something to watch for. Good luck!

There's a world of difference between 'OEM' which is a Sony lamp which might say Philips or perhaps Osram on it, and what the sellers call an 'OEM-equivalent' lamp. The term 'OEM-equivalent' is a matter of opinion. Most 'OEM-equivalents' are cheap Chinese knockoffs that might last three months.

Sellers do us no favors by playing games with these terms. Some of them sell both OEM and 'OEM-equivalent' and shade the difference between them. An OEM-equivalent will sell for around 70% of what a Philips will, yet it will only last 10-20% as long. Terrible economics.

So would this be an official OEM lamp? And has anybody bought one of these from Sony before?

http://www.amazon.com/Sony-KDS-60A3000-KDS60A3000-Housing-XL5200/dp/B0038BEBVC

If you trust some of the reviews, then that is a philips lamp which is indeed OEM and looks like a very good price. If, on the other hand, there really is no indication of the manufacturer anywhere on the bulb, then this is a cheap knock-off that you should avoid. I get my lamps from rivervalleyelectronics on ebay which are OEM Osram (Sylvania) which are very good lamps.

Looks like a knock-off to me. I don't see anywhere that it says it is a Philips or Osram. The price is another tell, too cheap for a bulb and housing.

Can any current Plasma owners tell me how the brightness compares to an A3000? Please see my post here. Thanks!!

Found that out the hard way, it's too bad at the time I made the purchases that no one really was saying that.

I need a new lamp. I found rivervalleyelectronics on Ebay, but they have no items for sale. How do you buy from them? Is there another way to contact them?

I ordered a replacement from Advanced Lamps last week, but it is backordered. And given the price (about $70 before shipping), I expect is is one of the cheap knockoffs from what I read here.

This is where I got one recently...

http://www.ebay.com/sch/niosales/m.h....c0.m270.l1313

I got the $99 one. Philips bulb in new housing. Works great, made a much bigger difference than the last bulb I bought a few years ago. It didn't seem to be much brighter than the old, original bulb it replaced.

Thanks mrmaico, I'll give them a try.

I also bought from them and it went great. The problem was the bulb (Philips branded) only lasted about 2800 hours before going noticeably dim. I bought an Osram from them recently so we'll see how long it lasts.

Link

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I ordered a replacement from Advanced Lamps last week, but it is backordered. And given the price (about $70 before shipping), I expect is is one of the cheap knockoffs from what I read here.[/QUOTE]

Oh, dear. I ordered a lamp from them on July 4th. As of today, still backordered, can't get my money back from them directly or from PayPal (whose buyer protection doesn't apply if there is no "tangible" product). I wish you luck!

Can anyone recommend a stand for the KDA-60A3000 that is still being produced and readily available/affordable?

I bought one of these second hand 6+ months ago and its been sitting on a dresser which is barely long/wide enough. I'd like to buy a stand that can hold the TV and other components (cable box, PS3, etc.). I love the TV... the picture is AMAZING, just wish I had a better place to put it.

I use a sturdy coffee table with a shelf underneath. Size and height are perfect for viewing from a couch and can accomodate a few components.

Hey guys, I am having an issue with my KDS-55A3000. At random times and with random frequency, my picture will go black, but the sound will remain. I can tell that the bulb has shut off. The power light blinks 35 times and then the bulb comes back on. Can you please help me figure out what is going on with my TV? I am still on the original bulb and have never had any sort of service done on it. I purchased it Dec 2007.

I have performed the self check and there are no errors:

Posts like this are not factually correct. Do NOT spread misinformation, please.

My original OEM Philips lamp -- made in China, by the way -- only lasted 39% of what is should. Only 3,121 hours, instead of the 8,000 promised. Where's my other 5,000 hours? So, true OEM lamps can be crap too. My "OEM" replacement lamp, does not says Philips or Osram, but says Electrified, has lasted much longer than the Sony-supplied lamp that came in my TV.

I bought my TV in January 2008, replaced the bulb in October 2009. That replacement bulb has now lasted longer than the original bulb (currently 4,112 vs 3,121). I just checked and the replacement bulb it has 4,112 hours and still looks great, while the entire display panel has 7,238 hours. So, the OEM equivalent I bought apparently EXCEEDED the standards of the original! When I installed it, I just re-tweaked the brightness/color settings for the different bulb, and it looks better than the original.

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For those with calculators, yes there's always a discrepancy between "bulb hours" and "panel display" hours. 3121 hours (original bulb) + 4112 (replacement) = 7,233. Yet my panel display total is 7,238 hours. Panel display hours are always more -- by a little bit. For an example, just look at the picture above. Bulb (lamp) hours are bottom right number. Panel hours are the number just to the left of that.

I'm not a technician, but it panel display hours seems to be counting from when you turn the TV on, while bulb hours seems to be when the bulb actually starts showing a picture. Over time, the difference adds up.

If you don't know how to check your bulb hours and panel display hours, go here. Has pics and easy instructions:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showp...ostcount=12822

You are wrong there. It's not too cheap for bulb and housing. Two years ago I paid $92 for bulb, housing and free shipping and prices have come down since then. $70 is now the expected price. If you are paying more, you are paying too much for nothing.

THIS is the link I ordered from back in 2009:
http://electrified.com/Catalog/Items...e&ItemID=34815

And it's now $69 plus $10 s&h to my zip code. It's worked great in my TV.

And you want bulb + housing. You just plug and play the entire module, throwing the other away.

Luckily I had this spare on hand when my bulb blew. I then immediately ordered another to have on hand and have not had to use that yet. It's last MUCH longer than the Sony Philips bulb that came with the TV.

I agree. In early December 2009, bought the same bulb + housing from the same company, as did ChazzMat. Haven't had any problems whatsoever and the PQ is outstanding. A very rich looking picture, is the only way I can describe it.

I'm glad for you 2, but as I stated earlier I had the exact opposite experience. My original bulb (which was branded) started going dim in the 6500-7000 hour range. I bought an OEM from both the big e-tailers at the time (no branding) and almost immediately they would flicker like a strobe light. When I put the original back in it would stop. Bought another branded bulb (Philips) which never flickered but didn't last but about half the original. Now have a branded Osram with no flickering. Time will tell about the hours. I bought my TV in Aug. 2007.