I recently purchased a Samsung OEM BP96-01472A replacement lamp with enclosure from the web store of an unnamed competitor.  I knew something was wrong as soon as I opened the box.  There were two scuff etched into the glass surface of the bulb!  I thought the damage could be purely cosmetic, so I installed it and fired up the set.  Despite 15 minutes of run time the picture was very dim.   The old bulb was much brighter!  Then I realized that might have been had.  I got a banged up used bulb marked or a maybe even a counterfeit!   I then compared the bulbs side by side.  The identification and Philips trademark printed on questionable bulb looks authentic.  The country of origin was listed as China instead of Belgium.   However the reflectors were molded much differently.  The glass around the metal grommet in the reflector were the electrode wire passes through the side of the reflector is countersunk with the Belgian made bulb.   The glass is not countersunk in the Chinese bulb.   The interior edge of the reflector where it meets the two air vents is a simple smooth bevel with the Belgian bulb.  With the Chinese bulb this is done in a much cruder fashon.  There is a deep ridge stamped into the interior of the bulb before it meets the vents.  I have not seen any photos of Philips UHP bulbs made in that manner, even ones bearing the made in China label.   Looking through the bulb, I could more tooling marks in chinese bulb.   It was clearly inferior in construction to the belgian made bulb.

Given the amount of counterfeit products in China, could Philips bulbs now be victim?  Or do I simply have a geniune Philips bulb that is somehow damaged or previously used.  Has there been a major tooling change or cost cutting to account for these differences in construction?

Member Questions, Samsung Lamps

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.