Greetings mates,

I just got my LL light kit and have a few questions regarding the LL/Vue 6500k bulb.

Apparently the center element to the blub looks like it has some form of red residue inside. Almost as if a small about of dark red/brown paint was splattered in there.

Is this normal? Or should I fear the worse and replace the bulb.

Please let me know as I'm eagerly looking forward to working on my new projector.

That appears to be normal with this lamp. MH lamps are doped with different mixes of salts/metals to achieve the desired color temp.

With a verticle projection with a pro reflector, does the reflected light that passes back through become affected by the salts inside the bulb?

Yes, but it's a necessary evil and far outweighed by the increase in brightness that you can get using a reflector. There have been people who've for various reasons had to reorient bulbs and what-have-you whereby they then had to place the "salty" side nearest the projection triplet and they reported varying magnitudes of deleterious effects from having that "gunk" between the arc and projection. Also, it appears as though different bulbs vaporize their contents to different extents. How hard the bulb is being driven by the particular ballast being used can affect this to some extent as well.

What about tilting the bulb so the salts form in the bottom corner? thinking about it, it may distort a portion of the projection. because the reflector will most likly reflect light back through it.

I think it's best to maintain symmetry and avoid puddles in corners as you pointed out.