[Mark_a]

Ouch - my lamp finally blew, out of the blue, last night after more years than I care to contemplate, and as sod's law would have it, during one of the rare occasions I was actually watching something live rather than off the plus box. Luckily I'd bought a replacement lamp right from the off from Tosh themselves, for I think around a ton (maybe more, I forget it was so long ago). Anyways, I phone up Tosh this morning about replacing my now used spare lamp and was told they don't do spares anymore, I need to contact their spares supplier at www.alltoshibaspares.co.uk. This turned out to be just another third-party supplier who wanted - wait for it - a cool £480 for the lamp.

Luckily a quick Google finds loads of other suppliers willing to sell me a genuine original Tosh lamp for a slightly more reasonable £160. It's being DHL'd to me tomorrow, hopefully.

Then again, the many years the original lamp has lasted might make buying another lamp redundant, as I'll probably replace the TV before it goes again. But it's nice to know there's a spare ready and waiting, should it go again, say right in the middle of the World Cup final, or summat.

Regards

Mark

[olpers101]

yah... most of the manufacturers dont produce their own lamps..... i have heard that Sony itself buy lamps from Phillips..... Is this true?

[Mark_a]

Dunno, but mine duly arrived today as promised, and it's got "Made by Toshiba" stuck on it.

Regards

Mark

[feckewe]

Mine did the same this week after nearly 2 years service and i was also routed to the new spares supplier and was amazed that a lamp that i bought for £150 direct from toshiba was now going to cost £460!!
In desperation i phoned toshiba to see if they could still provide the lamp at a more reasonable cost and was promptly put on hold while the customer service guy spoke to head office, 10 minutes later i was quietly seething and expecting to be either disconnected or fobbed off the guy came back and said they'd send a new lamp out for free as a gesture of good will!!
To say i was amazed would be an understatement but i think this sort of service on a 4 year old television deserves a mention.
One think that did confuse me though was the warranty and quoted lamp life, according to a customer service advisor who called the following day the lamps have an expected life of between 9-12 months and a warranty of 90 days. I'm sure the last lamp i ordered had a 12 month warranty and the quoted lamp life was much higher,can anyone confirm this as i'm sure i wouldnt have bought a television that needs a new every year!

[Mark_a]

Well, all I can say is that my lamp from original TV purchase has lasted me more than I four years (bought June 2005). And that's with turning it on for 30 mins every morning, all evening, and most of the weekend (once of month for the all weekend). Pretty good going, I think. Hope the new lamp lasts as long

Regards

Mark

[donkey1969]

Good to know that you can still get a lamp at a reasonable cost, I have the 46" version of this TV and am still on my original lamp (still going strong four years since purchase).

It was really good to see that Toshiba sent a free lamp out to a previous poster - I wish they'd been as helpful when I contacted them about the HDMI handshaking issue which my TV suffers from and which is well documented within these forums. They refused to acknowledge it's a known issue and referred me to my local tosh service centre who want £120 just to look at the TV - when I know what the problem is, I've told Tosh, referred them to the appropriate forums but still no joy. Very disappointing.