How practical would it be to fit this projector with a metal halide bulb? The replacement bulb is 1100 lumens, 2500 hr life and costs about $300. I would love to change that!

Not very... at least not without a significant drop in brightness. The problem is the arc length the optical path was designed for (1.3mm) is much shorter than any MH lamps, and 1100 lumens is much more than any single die LED emitter. I know someone here tried retrofitting a commercial projector with an LED with some success, but I do not think they started with an UHP based PJ.

Thanx Doug. I am newb and was not sure with that model. I am looking into another projector, so maybe better suited. thanx again

most of the commercial projectors use UHP lamps precisely because of the small optical path geometry (people like smaller projectors). most of the retrofits people have done are of older ask impression (or like) projectors... here is an example of an UHP-based projector retrofitted with LEDs... end result was 20 lumens. this relied on the optics of the LEDs rather than the reflector based system of the UHP lamp:

http://www.lumenlab.com/forums/index.php?s...mp;#entry282798