Beware of Third-Party & Generic DLP TV Lamps, Counterfeit, Copy Lamps

Counterfeit lamps DO exist… and they are presented in a number of different disguises:

  • Generic lamps sold online by a number of vendors today should be considered counterfeit when sellers deliberately mislead consumers with claims to "OEM" or "Genuine Original" when in fact the are knock offs. There are many of these generic lamp e-tailers popping up daily… it’s a disease that needs to be stopped! We will show you the questions to ask and how to confirm you are receiving a genuine product!
  • Brand name lamps, marketed and sold, again, as the “original” lamp for your particular TV. Just because an aftermarket lamp has a brand name stamped on it does not qualify it as an original part number for your TV. Your television was engineered with consideration from the ORIGINAL lamp supplier and the TV manufacturer. Engineers from both companies worked hand in hand to fine tune your picture. What does all this mean?

EXAMPLE: lets use for example a Samsung DLP TV, model HLS4666W TV. The original lamp part number is BP96-01472A. This part, when purchased directly from Samsung at about $199.99 includes the plastic case (sometimes referred to as the enclosure, assembly, housing, etc.) and the actual lamp. The lamp this TV originally shipped with out of Samsung’s factory was manufactured by Philips. The replacement part number BP96-01472A shipped from the Samsung Parts Factory is also a Philips. There are vendors out there that claim to sell the original lamp for your TV at deep discounted prices… this is a sign something is not right.

  • The competition is hot and it’s only heating up higher. Generic companies are trying to figure out ways to gain a piece of the market share and there is nothing they will not consider to get it! As are copies of brand name sunglasses, watches, purses, and so forth, copycats have realized the market potential of replacement lamps (more on this below). What’s stopping a third party lamp manufacture from stamping “Philips” on their lamps and introducing them into the marketplace? Nothing really. Philips doesn’t have a world police as every dock examining every product that’s shipping off international ports. If the clothing industry cannot prevent fraud and copycats I would imagine lamps would have similar problems. All the more reason to purchase lamps from authorized and legitimate distributors, not just a fly-by-night company with the best price working out of their garage importing generic product!

Where do these bogus vendors sell?

  • eBay is a common breeding ground…as are fly-by-night brand-spankin’ new ecommerce stores. They claim to ship you original parts at deep discounted prices, often times over $100 less than the manufacturer! For a part that retails less than $200, something is wrong when an e-tailers claims this folks, watch out.
  • Heavy marketers – some of these fly-by-night merchants are investing literally thousands of dollars a day on advertising [to be blunt] their crappy merchandise. And they really do need these advertising campaigns to trick uninformed consumers into their scams. Search for Samsung BP96-01472A lamp, you’ll see a lot of these scammers on paid google search results. These guys are battling out through pricing competitions on a daily basis…ultimately they will lose any credibility if they’ve had any when consumers realize what is going on.

What do these bogus vendors sell?

  • More often than not, cheap, generic lamps. These are made by a handful of manufactures, mostly in Taiwan and mainland China. Factories seem to be popping up as these realize the market potential of this industry.
  • Branded lamps – Venders often claims they are selling an Original Equipment Manufacture (OEM) product. While a lamp may be OEM for one product, this does NOT make it an OEM product across the board! I.E., if a Samsung lamp is manufactured by Philips, that does not necessarily mean that a different Sony TV’s OEM lamp is Philips (in this case, both Samsung and Sony depend on Philips as the OEM, but that’s beside the point). There are third party lamp manufacturers that are insisting to sell original lamp by marketing them as OEM. This is a lie and deceitful!

Why do consumers need to be wary of these third-party and counterfeit products?

  • Rear Projection TV’s (RPTVs) were manufactured by collaboration efforts between many different companies. Texas Instruments (TI) was instrumental in creating the DLP Technology and the DLP chip that spawned this revolution of TVs and Projectors. Philips has been a huge part of the movement as the inventor of the UHP lamp technology used across the world today. With these two main partners are the OEM product manufactures, such as Samsung, Sony, Toshiba, Panasonic, etc. It is collaboration through these companies that resulted in RPTV and Front Projection (FT) projectors.

As this is the case, these companies have spent countless hours perfecting their innovations to work together seamlessly. These companies have spent millions upon millions of dollars on Research and Development (R&D) to not only created and perfect their technologies, but to mesh all the this technology together.

When a third-party manufacture enters the marketplace, there are a lot of disadvantages at play…and that is a whole other discussion there…

  • Often times third-party products (including lamps) can VOID your manufacturer’s warranty and lead to premature failure of other components inside your TV set! Your DLP is “driven” or powered on by a “lamp driver” or a “ballast” This ballast has been engineered as the bridge between the TV manufacturer (Samsung for example) and the lamp manufacturer (Philips for example). To ensure proper ignition, continuous voltage, and a healthy long life, the ballast and lamp are matched together.
  • With a generic or third-party lamp, you are committing yourself to buying an inferior product! Spending $5, $10, or $15 extra on an original part versus a generic/third-party should be a no-brainer when you’ve got a lot more to lose than a few bucks! More on this to come, this has already become longer than it should be.

What should consumers do to protect themselves?

  • Always buy from reputable, AUTHORIZED dealers.
  • Check to see how long the company has been in business.
  • Check affiliations
  • Compare pricing with competitors (if you see a vendor that’s extremely cheap, but has limited quantity, that’s a red flag)
  • Call the company to check them out and ask questions
avatar
About

Owner of Delauney Repair in San Diego, Ca. I've been in the electronic repair business for the last 35 years.

Tagged with: , , , ,
29 comments on “Beware of Third-Party & Generic DLP TV Lamps, Counterfeit, Copy Lamps
Join the discussion on Facebook! All your questions, answered! The Screen & Projector Group
  1. Javier has a way with words.

  2. avatar Eddie says:

    Wow, that was one of the longest, most informative posts ever written.

  3. avatar hass says:

    I`m glad that i have found this web side. My samsung d l p tv broke and i had no idea where to find the right genuine lamp for it.In this bad financial times i couldn`t effort to get conned, by reading the above aricle my awareness towards genuine products have grown and now i can take the right steps towards buying the right lamp with minimum expenses.thanks for the awareness.

  4. avatar PATRICK says:

    I have already been a victim of counterfit lamps, this post came a little late for me.

  5. avatar Peter Smith says:

    Most sites don’t write what type of lamp their selling. How can I be sure I’m buying a genuine lamp and from a trusted source?

  6. avatar Peter Smith says:

    So how do we know we’re buying a real genuine Philips lamp or some generic brand?

  7. If they don’t write what type of lamp they’re selling, chances are, you’ll get a generic lamp. You can always call and ask. If they send you the wrong kind, you can always call and ask them to send you the OEM brand–and if they refuse, do a chargeback. Just be sure to document all of your correspondence.

  8. A Philips lamp will contain pieces of information such as a serial number etched into the bell of the lamp and the Philips logo. Generic brands often don’t have a brand on it at all. You can avoid buying fake Philips lamps if you go to distributors of Philips lamps like Discount Merchant or PartStore or MCM.

  9. We’re just becoming aware of this rampant problem!

  10. Thanks Hass, you should share your story. Did you have a good experience with your purchase?

  11. avatar Andy says:

    Thanks for the great information. I wish I could have read that earlier. I have been victim of generic lamp too. I bought generic lamp couple of months ago for my Samsung TV. It worked fine for a while, but after that I had been experiencing problems with that. After using it for 2-3 months, the picture quality was not that good and in fact was never like when TV was bought. And after a while it went bad as it happens with most. 🙁

    I suggest everyone to buy a original lamp otherwise you will regret your decision as I do. I bought Philips lamp for my Samsung and TRUST me … this information is absolutely correct, you can get the same watching experience with a Philips lamp.

  12. avatar Josh says:

    I bought a dlp from a friend. He said he replaced the lamp. Now I’m having problems, I lose picture after 3-5 minutes, but sound keeps going. Then the tv turns itself off. I pulled the lamp, it says “top, OSRAM, P-VIP 100-120/1.0 E22h, Made in P.R.C., Ra2”. Can anyone tell me if this is a counterfiet lamp, or just the wrong lamp in general? Does this sound like it could be the problem. Oh yeah, I have a Samsung HLS4266Xw w/ lamp code BP96-01472A. Thanks

  13. avatar Josh says:

    Nevermind, I found out what it was. It ended up being the color wheel.

  14. Josh,

    The OSRAM lamp you purchase is considered an aftermarket lamp. Why? Well, because all Samsung enclosured using part number BP96-01472A originally shipped with Philips lamps. How do we know that? For one, I’m telling you [ 🙂 ], but seriously, it’s in the part number sticker itself. BP96-01472A(P132W) The P signifies Philips, and the 132W is the wattage. Not only did you purchase an aftermarket lamp (that could void any warranty you may have on the TV, but you also purchased a lower wattage lamp (100/120 vs. 120/132 as your original).

    I hope this helps 🙂

  15. avatar Bob says:

    But Phillips makes the worst bulb on the planet. That is why HomeDepot stopped carrying Phillips exclusively and now carries real light bulbs. I have GE R-Spots and Floods that have lasted 30 years and Phillips barely 3-6 months.

    This is really scary!

  16. avatar NealS says:

    RCA Model HD50LPW164 rear projection TV.
    Bought a $120 OSRAM bulb and it lasted just 4 months. Will look for genuine Phillips now but I remember that Phillips bulbs on the web were $600 – $900 when I bought the OSRAM. Maybe someone knows of a site where I can buy a genuine Phillips for a reasonable price. Thanks

  17. avatar Kyle Sheahan says:

    I was looking at [substitute website here] and they have good prices. Is that a legitimate site to your knowledge?

    • FixYourDLP.com recommends Discount-Merchant.com for all your DLP/D-ILA/Projection LCD lamp needs. Discount-Merchant.com is a long standing supporter of FixYourDLP.com and this site and its wealth of information would not be possible if it wasn’t for the support from these guys. Take a look at their product offerings as a thank you to us! They promise to carry lamps for all RPTVs with very competitive pricing.

  18. avatar Alain says:

    You can also buy from samsungparts.com for philips parts, which an authorised dealer. They have my DLP lamp only for $99 (found it through amazon.com – for some reason only entire assembly is listed on their website, but it’s only $129). That’s $10 cheaper than DM and I didn’t have to pay CA sales tax either (which these days is almost 10%! state is in a mess…. 🙂

  19. avatar Alain says:

    their resellerratings.com rating is not very high (only 3 ratings) so will see once/if I get the item…. but looked fine on amazon.com where I got it. Who knows….

  20. avatar Jim says:

    Just wanted to provide a third party opinion on discount-merchant.com.

    Had to order a lamp for a second hand LG DLP I just bought with 4680 Hrs on an OSRAM lamp. Came across this site and was a bit nervous of getting an OSRAM or worse instead of the stock part. Called the guys at DM and the guy on the phone told me to pull my lamp and confirm the number. I gave him the OSRAM part number and he confirmed it was aftermarket and looked up the Philips part for me. He also asked me the symptoms of my TV and felt pretty confident it was entirely a bulb issue.

    I paid about twenty bucks more than some other merchants that I found on Froogle but I was really impressed with the guys on the phone at DM and feel confident I’m getting the proper part.

    /Jim

  21. avatar Kent says:

    anyone ever order a replacement lamp from Discount merchant for a Mitsubishi HC1500 front projector? They said I need to take the lamp out to get them specific part numbers.

  22. avatar Minorkle says:

    I purchased a generic lamp for my Sony DLP. It is fantastic! I have over 18 months of use out of it and it is still brighter than a Fourth of July Fireworks show. I truly recommend generics. I am happier than a dingo in a hen house.

  23. avatar sam says:

    Was this article written by Philips or Samsung? LOL

  24. avatar henry says:

    I took my lamp out of my Samsung HLS4666W and it says Philips on it. I’m not willing to put some aftermarket crap in their when I paid $2,600 for my TV…Philips it will be.

  25. avatar sm says:

    With 50 inch plasma TVs at $500 new and some LCD 46 inch models at around $600 it is becoming hard to justify spending $125 or more for a DLP bulb. With new TV prices continuing to drop at what point will it no longer be worth replacing such expensive bulbs?

  26. avatar dave says:

    I bought a lamp from Discount Merchants that lasted 4 months. Two people tell two different tales. They,re just like the rest of these scams. Just a little more advertizing

  27. avatar Ryan says:

    I’m another guy who bought a $40 knock-off. Lasted 5 months

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*

Time limit is exhausted. Please reload CAPTCHA.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.