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Author Topic: What About Theatrical Bulb Supply? Bill Enos Film God Posts: 2081 From: Richmond, Virginia, USA Registered: Apr 2000 posted 08-04-2006 04:18 PM                     We received a post card from them today quoting incredibly low prices on xenons. Their web site gives warranty info that is comparable to most. Anybody know what is being sold? 3K bulbs are quoted at $324. The web site is tbsbulbs.com.  |  IP: Logged Gordon McLeod Film God Posts: 9532 From: Toronto Ontario Canada Registered: Jun 99 posted 08-04-2006 04:38 PM                     Some of those lamps have very low warranty hours compared to some Also it says nothing as to the source of the lamps nor their lumen output  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 08-05-2006 08:21 AM                     If these are Chinese made lamps be careful. One customer of ours tried that and we made a ton of $$ selling them new reflectors for each site they tried them. Ka-Pow! Mark  |  IP: Logged System Notices Forum Watchdog / Soup Nazi Posts: 215 Registered: Apr 2004 posted 11-27-2009 04:21 PM                 It has been 1210 days since the last post.  |  IP: Logged Cameron Andrews Film Handler Posts: 29 From: Rexburg, ID 83440 Registered: Apr 2009 posted 11-27-2009 04:21 PM                     I realize it has been a long time since the last post on this, But I was hoping to see if anyone else has tried Theatrical Bulb Supply Bulbs and what they thought. I have been using them in a few machines for over a year. I don't have the equipment to measure the lumen output, but there isn't a noticable light difference. They don't last quite as long as christie or OSRAM but when you break it down to $/hour it is still significantly cheaper. Yet I don't know anyone else who uses them. Am i missing something?  |  IP: Logged Tim Reed Better Projection Pays Posts: 5246 From: Northampton, PA Registered: Sep 1999 posted 11-28-2009 12:20 AM                       I know of a couple places using them with no complaints, AFAIK. The company is very tight-lipped, however, about where the bulbs are manufactured.  |  IP: Logged Monte L Fullmer Film God Posts: 8367 From: Nampa, Idaho, USA Registered: Nov 2004 posted 11-28-2009 01:57 AM                     Yea, they're those Chinese bulbs stay away from them.. I did a service call on a small town theatre way up north from here and we went through two of these idiotic bulbs when I changed them out. Lamphouses were the little Christie CH10 variety that sat on existing projector bases. The ower bought a good wad of these little 1000w "charlie bulbs" for cheap. One exploded as soon as I hit the power and the other one (this what was funny..) started okey, but then went into horrible flicker then the upper part of the bulb's envelope just broke off with a funny "ping" when it went .. and I had already turned down the taps on the Christie rectifiers to "1" to start down low then I can turn them up to proper operating levels...The owner was a little ticked so to say. I put two more of these bulbs in and haven't heard so far on how they're doing (owner got his warranty taken care of by TBS), but I know that I'll be back up there soon doing another bulb replacement knowing that he's never going to get the life and dough out of those bulbs as if he stayed with Christies.. Sure, for example, a 1k Christie bulb may cost close to $400 bucks whereas the TBS bulb of the same size, you may get for a hundred less. But, in the long run, you'd be buying more of TBS's bulbs to make up for the one Christie bulb's price... Thus, are you really saving your money? Sadly, the bulbs I pulled out that day were Christies that have been in there for over 10 years and had 10k plus hours on them..they didn't look that all bad-almost hated to pull them since they looked so good, but the light output and color was rather flat and knarly looking. TBS also remanufacture bulb modules for countertop digital projectors and resell them close to a hundred below new bulb prices. If you have a cinema with tonnage of preshow digital projectors and have tonnage of burnt out modules, you send them to they people and they rebuild them by putting in a new bulb element. We get remans all the time from these people and you can definitely tell that they've been reman with some of the reflectors all banged up from bulb explosions.. -Monte  |  IP: Logged Bill Enos Film God Posts: 2081 From: Richmond, Virginia, USA Registered: Apr 2000 posted 11-28-2009 07:27 PM                     We tried 'em. We bought six 3K bulbs for $1000 with the provision that if we were not satisfied, all unused bulbs could be returned for full refund. One bulb failed to strike initially and was promptly replaced. All the rest performed normally. The issue was that all failed passively at around 1000 hours. They either just went out during operation or would not strike when turned on an hour after a normal run. Light output was noticeably lower than other bulbs at the same power setting---92 amps. I can't recommend them especially now that the price is quite a bit higher.  |  IP: Logged Bill Enos Film God Posts: 2081 From: Richmond, Virginia, USA Registered: Apr 2000 posted 11-28-2009 09:37 PM                     There is no mention on the bulbs or packaging of where they are made, the brand name is "Cine-Lite"  |  IP: Logged Jeremy Weigel Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1062 From: Edmond, OK, USA Registered: Mar 2007 posted 11-28-2009 10:59 PM                     quote: Bill Enos There is no mention on the bulbs or packaging of where they are made, the brand name is "Cine-Lite" Don't all products have to have a country of origin listed somewhere with or on said product?  |  IP: Logged Louis Bornwasser Film God Posts: 4441 From: prospect ky usa Registered: Mar 2005 posted 11-29-2009 10:03 AM                        Yes. That is the reason why small tags cannot be removed from pillows. U. S. Customs requires origin labelling so that U. S. products can fairly compete. Osram is German Christie was Japan, now the Phillipines. Louis  |  IP: Logged Tim Reed Better Projection Pays Posts: 5246 From: Northampton, PA Registered: Sep 1999 posted 11-29-2009 03:21 PM                       quote: Louis Bornwasser That is the reason why small tags cannot be removed from pillows. I thought it was because of the Mattress Police!  |  IP: Logged

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