Optoma BL-FP230D, P-VIP, 230W Projector Lamp

I was skeptical about this being so much cheaper than an OE bulb from Optoma et al. When I got it I checked it out and it was identical in every way I could see to my (blown) OE bulb. The bulb itself is an Osram bulb and the Osram part number matched the one on my OE bulb. I'm up to 175 hours on this after a couple of weeks use and all is well.I did have another problem @ 139 hours on this bulb, but I think it was unrelated. I had a dark/yellowed spot appear on my screen one night accompanied by a bad smell and a tiny bit of smoke. Upon investigation the plastic magnifying lens inside the projectors light path assembly had started to melt. I believe this to just be an age related thing (the old bulb had nearly 5500 hours on it), but since it happened shortly after installing this I thought I would mention it in case others have had a similar problem. I found a replacement lens on Amazon for cheap and have already installed it, all is well again.

Good company so far as I can tell, but this particular lamp for Optoma HD70 is no good. It comes in a plastic housing and will fire up once, but not again. I am a state licensed master communication contractor. I do audio / video sales and install for a living and own a company that runs five techs - small, but not tiny. We've been in business for 18+ years. My point? I know of what I speak. Put this lamp in - works once and no matter what I do to reset projo - will not fire again. Place original lamp (nearing end of life - proactive replacement) back in and projo works flawlessly.I was forced to order an OEM lamp assembly at a much higher cost, but it works perectly - further evidence that this after-market is a flop. Now maybe, this is just a bad single unit or batch - no way for me to know, as I did not try for a replacement from this vendor. They refunded my money with no resistance, so would not be dissuaded from ordering something else from them in future.As such, this review is about one item - not the company. If I could rate the company separately I would go five stars.

Despite arriving in box printed with Optoma logos, I believe I got a counterfeit bulb assembly.* The fit and installation was fine.* The lamp was missing a light shield that was on the original. As a result, much more light came through the front grille and into my theater room than with the previous bulb.After installing the bulb, my projector soon experienced two other serious problems that I believe to be related to the bulb. Counterfeit bulbs can burn hotter and may not have the same Infra-red filters that are on the OEM bulb. You plug them in and they seem to work great, but the IR light is heating up components in-side beyond their design temperatures. This is the likely cause of the subsequent destruction of my HD20.First within a month of the bulb replacement, the color wheel, which is the first optical component that light passes through after leaving the bulb, shattered, it might have just worn out after 3500 hours of spinning, or it might have been running much hotter by not being protected by the originally designed IR-filter on the front of the lamp unit. I replaced the color wheel myself. Only a couple of weeks after that I noticed a darkening in the middle of the image, which over the course of about eight hours of projector use, grew darker and darker until the center of the image was completely blacked out, and a plastic-burning smell filled the room.The darkening spot in the middle is caused when a plastic lens in-front of the DLP chip gets too hot and partially melts. (This is the next optical component in the projector that light passes through after leaving the bulb and passing through the color wheel.)I am quite confident that this bulb did not have the same IR filters, and clearly lacked other features of the original bulb including the light shield which should block the small amount of light that comes through the silvered reflector, and prevent it from spilling into the room through the front grille.There are bulbs available on Amazon for other Optoma projector models which are supplied by Optoma and sold by Amazon. I would completely trust those bulbs. However for the HD20, the only sellers on Amazon are third parties such as Briter Media, that I can't say that would trust next time.A tip - if you did buy a bulb and noticed it wasn't a great match for the original, turn on your projector's "High-Altitude" setting. This setting basically just runs the fans a little more to compensate for the fact that high-altitude air is less dense and carries away heat more slowly. I live at 4,500 ft. which is close to the limit f when the high-altitude setting should be used. I initially turned it on but noticed the slight increase in noise, and decided to leave it off... I would much rather have had that slight noise, than a melted optical unit, although I'm not positive it would have completely prevented my trouble.

I was a bit nervous when I ordered this bulb because I saw the multiple negative reviews reporting the same problem, that the bulb did not correctly fit into the projector. However, this was not only the least expensive replacement bulb I could find, it also offered the fastest shipping. So, I decided to take a chance. I ordered this bulb through the seller G-Lamps at 10:30pm on a Tuesday and received it around 2:00pm on Thursday(Awesomely Fast!). It took less than a minute to replace the bulb and everything worked perfectly. This is the second time I have replaced the bulb in my HD20. Both the original and the first replacement lasted about 1.5 years. This is an excellent life span when you consider I use my projector daily and regularly fall asleep with it running. Assuming this bulb has the same life span, I will reorder when I need another replacement. If it does not, I will update this review.

My last bulb came from this seller too. It survived a healthy 3090 hours. Keeping brightness set at 50%The new bulb just arived and has me Very Nervous. There are no markings on it at all. (Brand, make, wattage, ...)The old one had all that. It said "OSRAM, 230 Watt, optoma, etc"You can see the (new) box and bulb in the three pics as i got them.I installed the bulb, it lit up and works fine, but ill be running high altitude the first 50 hours just to be safe...If it ruins the projector or imaging ill make sure to leave an extra comment. Till than...asume that it is a good bulb. : )

Less than 350 hours on the new bulb which fit perfectly fine and I had a burn out. Projector seemed hotter than normal. Don't recommend this one. Thoroughly cleaned projector during installation to reduce the thermal retention of dust. Projector is run in my 60 degree basement so heat shouldn't have been an issue. Going to look for another product.

Official Optoma bulb. Plugged it in, reset my light bulb timer, good to go. Projector was back to brand new again.

Purchased this bulb December 2014. Lasted 353 hours only (6 months of casual use) on UPS power. Ended up putting my duller original bulb (2200 hours) back in the system. So much for 3000 hours lamp life.

Lamp was easy to install and so far works ok. But it came in a plain brown carton with no manufacturer information and without any warranty card or info. The package has no reference to "optoma" as the manufacturer. Still not sure about any warranty either. If its not manufactured by Optoma , then it should state it upfront as a third party manufactured replacement.