I've had my Z1 since Christmas and clocked up 540 hours, and it went pop last week. It went dark prior to popping, but I didn't really notice it until I put in the new one in and I was amazed at how bright it was. I suppose if it dims gradually then you don't notice it so much.
I paid £240 from ivojo.com who got it delivered with 2 days.
I was expecting at least 1000 hours out of it though - I've had a bit of trouble trying to explain to the wife that I've just been unlucky this time and the next one should last much longer - fingers crossed.
The night before popping we had the central heating on, and it was quite hot in the cinema room where the projector is housed. Half way through a film I felt the top of the pj and it was VERY hot. I needed to pause the film for five minutes, so I decided to power down to give it a little breather. I think I might have done this twice. I'm thinking now that it may be bad for the bulb to turn it on and off in succession, especially since it was very hot at the time. Perhaps the cooling and heating up of the bulb is worse than just leaving it on. Any comments anyone ? I think I'm going to turn the radiator off and suffer a slightly cold room if it's going to be better for the bulb in the long run.
As for the firmware crashes - I haven't had anything as bad as you have reported, but one thing that always happens is if I switch on the pj and leave it to warm up, but I don't switch the dvd player during the five minute countdown, it goes into a standby mode but I can't power it up again using any of the buttons. I have to knock it off at the mains and start the cycle again. Quite annoying.
Off topic now - but has anyone had a demo of the Infocus 4805 ? I demo'd the 4800 before I bought my Z1, but I couldn't stand the rainbows so had to count it out. But my mate has just got a 4805 and I'm amazed by the picture quality and lack of rainbows and quite jealous. He paid £1200 for it and I'm wishing that it was out when I bought my Z1 - I think it would have been well worth the extra £200.