Have a look at the price for similar street lamps. I have bought them
for less than $50 for HIDs. Ok, they are different:
- operate via 60 Hz ballasts instead of the DC ballasts in projectors,
- have both electrodes the same size (projector bulbs have one much
larger than the other as they are DC),
- have a much wider gap (projectors need almost point source for even
coverage),
- are not concerned with exact color temperature,
- are contained inside a large glass envelope and not precision
mounted as are projector lamps,
- last 8000 hours upwards!!! (i have one that is still going with good
light output after 8900 hours - in a projector)

jakdedert wrote:
James Sweet wrote:

Somebody's gonna make a projector with a $100/2000 hour/2000 lumen
replacement bulb and sweep the market...maybe actually use an
existing type lamp (maybe one of the numerous, multiple sourced,
stage lighting types?) instead of designing one which will only fit
that model. At that point, LCD projectors will become economical
for home viewing.

jak



Don't hold your breath. Yeah there's some gouging going on, but the
lamps are expensive because they're precision made, taking into
account brightness, color temperature, color rendering index,
uniformity, warmup time, etc, there's a lot more to it than just
producing a bright light. The best hope is that the technology will
stabilize and lamps will become standard across at least projectors
of the same class.


Believe me, I'm not gonna be holding my breath. Yes, they are precision
made, but how many parts #'s are out there? I've only seen a few of the
replacement lamps, so I don't know; but would there be any possibility of
producing an adaptor of some sort which would allow at least some
commonality among various brands? As to color temperature, the stage
lighting types are pretty closely matched as well, but could that not be
compensated for in the projector settings? Maybe not close enough for
critical video viewing, but most of these get used to project computer
images, IME (PowerPoint presentations). Absolute color accuracy is not an
issue there. In fact very few projectors--placed side by side--look the
same in this respect, anyway.

I believe, having used these things in the A/V Presentations industry since
they were introduced (and operating CRT projectors for years before that),
that we're reaching a critical mass. The new machines are getting lighter
and smaller. New models are constantly being introduced, but are still
expensive...with a prohibitively high maintenance issue down the line. With
millions of older units out there, I believe that if someone could introduce
a cheaper alternative (I think half list price would be ideal, but even a
25% reduction might do it.) for replacement lamps, that the world would beat
a path....

jak