I just installed a new bulb in my Ruby, and immediately thought the picture was not as bright as a new bulb should be, although definitely brighter than under the replaced bulb. (BTW, this is in a ceiling installation, and I'm damn proud of myself for pulling it off alone.) But after checking blu-rays and DIRECTV, I got back to a blank blue screen which definitely looked nicely bright. Fiddling with brightness/contrast didn't seem to help. Your thoughts, please. Some possibly important observations: my previous bulb (which was either my second or third, I can't recall) lost significant brightness suddenly....one minute I just had to get a new bulb; there didn't seem to be any tapering down. The lamp counter was in the 2,000s, but possibly had not been reset the last time a bulb had been replaced. But I'm sure until just a few days ago the picture seemed brighter than what I have with this new bulb.