Bad lamp news for all of us . . .

[Brandon B]

This IS being predicted by the industry right now, Dean. All of the industry. UHP lamp production last year was on the order of 5 million. By 2007, it is estimated production can ramp up to about three times that.

However, demand is projected (ha) to be as much as 30% more than that for 2007.

This is not a rumor I heard on the internet that I am spreading, this is a discussion we have had with the lamp manufacturers themselves regarding operating supplies for our parks.

There are not a lot of manufacturers of these lamps. Philips/Ushio pretty well control the industry. And it is not something a small company can just jump into and take up the slack. China, and a sudden paradigm shift to a different display technology are really the only unknowns here.

Now the upside is, your DILA with its Xenon lamp is not affected.

BB

[Dean McManis]

Unless these guys are in collusion, I seriously doubt that any responsible business would not predict and prepare for market growth.
If the manufacturers are not just doing this to raise the prices, I would expect that all of the smaller UHP bulb manufacturers will have a field day meeting the demand. And likely several bulb makers who don't have a big market in projection bulbs will sieze this as an opportunity as well.
Which will likely drive bulb prices down ultimately.

I've got at least a year or two to see how it plays out.

-Dean.

[JonMarsh]

Except you three eyed monster owners, who may now take a short moment to gloat.

A coworker spoke to a contact at Ushio at the recent LDI convention in Las Vegas (stage and theatrical lighting products trade show) about the previously discussed UHP lamp shortage. He indicated this issue is growing in severity, is projected to get worse through the next two years, and has reached a dire enough level that some of their lower tier manufacturer clients are being told they may not receive lamps for new shipping product.

Guess where in the scheme of things that puts individual users looking for a replacement lamp for the PJ/RPTV?BB

I've been expecting this for a while, as I really doubted that the lamp manufacturers (who were barely keeping up with demand 3 years ago) would be able to ramp for the volume of RPTV's now on the market with LCD or DLP projection.

But, you're right, I think, in your expectation that the one's who'll really suffer are the consumers in the replacement lamp market, especially for the older machines. Just one more thing for Curt Palme to bring up on his list of issues with digitals- now, not just difficult or impossible to econmically repair, but hard to maintain normally. It wouldn't take long for most Americans, with their daily TV watching habits, to go through a 2K - 3K bulb pretty quickly. I remember the last time I bought a bulb, it took about three months to get it-fortunately, it was just "in case", and not needed urgently.

Speaking of Curt Palme, this conversation is reminding me it's almost time to get back to him about an NEC 10PG he's supposed to be re-building with new tubes. I've had my eye on that unit for a while, as a possible entry to the world of 9" CRTs.

And then Doug Baisey has to go an post a complete set of NOS OEM red, blue, and green tubes for my 9PG projector... at a pretty reasonable price- $1150 for the set- that's about 10K hours. My tubes in my 9PG+ have less than 800 hours, but if I want to keep this projector running another when I'm old and gray, might be a good investment.

Decisions, decisions.

~Jon

[PiDD]

Except you three eyed monster owners, who may now take a short moment to gloat.

This sounds like permission to gloat!

Lets see I put in new 07ms tubes in my Electrohome ECP 4101. They last about 9000 hours.

Thats...

1 movie / wk for 86 yrs
1 movie / day for 12 years

or reality .. 4 hours / day for 6 years! :E

[George Bellefontaine]

Thanks for the lead on that lamp remanufacturer, Brandon. The trouble with buying a spare is that the little devils are on a 90 day warranty from date of purchase. I suppose you could take out your current lamp and put it aside, then install the spare lamp and use it for 90 days to be sure there is no problem.

[David Meek]

Well, we can blame this situation on blatant incompetence by the Bush administration. Oh wait, that's already been brought up by that notorious, ultra-far-left-winger Chris guy. :B :B :B

(this is just having some fun with Chris, gang - we will NOT discuss politics on this forum)

Seriously though, I'd been (down the road a bit) considering what to do in the Orcas Island house and a FP looks like the best short- and long-term solution. This does give some cause for concern. It'll bear watching, eh?

[SpOoNmAn]

Watch the news tomorrow... I'm sure you'll see John Kerry blame this situation on "blatant incompetence" by the Bush administration.

Of course, this is a communist ploy to destroy capitalism, starting with private people's private home theater enjoyment.

hahahahahaha

[Chris D]

Watch the news tomorrow... I'm sure you'll see John Kerry blame this situation on "blatant incompetence" by the Bush administration.

Of course, this is a communist ploy to destroy capitalism, starting with private people's private home theater enjoyment.

[Brandon B]

Found them.

Like I said, very little feedback on them so far, but what there was was good. We were going to contact them for our maintenance needs at work also. I'll share what comes of that as possible down the road.

BB

[Brandon B]

Except you three eyed monster owners, who may now take a short moment to gloat.

A coworker spoke to a contact at Ushio at the recent LDI convention in Las Vegas (stage and theatrical lighting products trade show) about the previously discussed UHP lamp shortage. He indicated this issue is growing in severity, is projected to get worse through the next two years, and has reached a dire enough level that some of their lower tier manufacturer clients are being told they may not receive lamps for new shipping product.

Guess where in the scheme of things that puts individual users looking for a replacement lamp for the PJ/RPTV?

There is an outfit that is selling a relamp service wherein they take your old lamp assembly, replace the bulb and realign it to factory specs and return it you you for about 50% of a new lamp's price ticket. Turnaround so far for the few who have posted about it seems to be 2-3 weeks and results good. I'll post back here later when I have looked it up. They do not d all types, but are adding to their list as time goes by. I know of one person who has had success with the same PJ as me (20HD/PLV70).

Anyway, if you are not able to suffer without your PJ while waiting a long lead lamp replacement, you might begin checking into getting a backup to hold onto in the meantime.

The other wrinkle is there are allegedly some Chinese companies looking into this situation as a an opportunity, but don't hold your breath for that as a near term solution.

BB