Osram Silverstar Not As Good As Sylvania SilverStar

[jabario]

For those considering upgrading your bulbs here's a rundown on the two
listed in title:

Sylvania Silverstar:

Pros-- White light, good coverage pattern, decent rain performance

Cons-- Longevity - one burned out in about 3 months

Osram Silverstar--

Pros-- light projects far

Cons- same color as regular bulbs, no improvement in rain, overall just
not as great an improvement as the Sylvania bulbs were.

Overall I'd say to choose the sylvania version. I will buy them again
if the osram ones go prematurely.

 

[y_p_w]

For those considering upgrading your bulbs here's a rundown on the two
listed in title:

Sylvania Silverstar:

Pros-- White light, good coverage pattern, decent rain performance

What's so great about "white light"? I don't get what good "white
light" does other than a poseur HID-like appearance.

Cons-- Longevity - one burned out in about 3 months

The 9006 version of the 9006 Sylvania Silverstar has a rated life
of 150 hours vs 850 for the XtraVision, 1200 for the standard, and
1600 for the long-life version.

Osram Silverstar--

Pros-- light projects far

This is very important for safety reasons, and should trump any
other concerns.

Cons- same color as regular bulbs, no improvement in rain, overall just
not as great an improvement as the Sylvania bulbs were.

Overall I'd say to choose the sylvania version. I will buy them again
if the osram ones go prematurely.

First - you didn't mention what version.

<http://www.danielsternlighting.com/tech/bulbs/blue/good/good.html>

"Osram bought the well-established American lampmaker Sylvania in
the early 1990s, so Osram is now Sylvania's parent company. Sylvania
also sells a line of automotive bulbs they call "SilverStar", but it's
not the same product at all. These bulbs have a blue coating on them.
Light output is of legal levels, but as with all blue-filtered bulbs,
you do not get more light from them. The Sylvania SilverStar bulbs
have a very short lifetime, because the filament is selected so as to
be overdriven. This is necessary because the blue filtration coating
"steals" so much light that only an overdriven filament can push
enough light through the filter to be legal. The Sylvania SilverStar
bulbs are also priced quite high. This is not because they cost a lot
to make, and not because they're based on some exotic new technology.
It's because the goal with this product is to take market share away
from other overpriced bulbs like the PIAA line."

 

[jabario]

What's so great about "white light"? I don't get what good "white
light" does other than a poseur HID-like appearance<<

The white light actually lights up the road better. The stock
headlights are good but I couldnt beliee how much better I could see
with the Sylvania Silverstars. It's not about posing. It's about
safety. When lights are on they appear white not blue like some of the
fast and furious boy racers use.
other concerns<<

Far is good but more usable light is better esp. in rain.
of 150 hours vs 850 for the XtraVision, 1200 for the standard, and
1600 for the long-life version. <<

Eliminating those *****ing DRL's will help in that department.

Osram silverstar +30 made in germany euro spec vs. Sylvania silverstar
(blue tint) sold in US. H1 bulbs. The sylvania silverstar in the fog
lights are awesome as are the high beams

Stern's spiel about "not more light" is total BS . The white light has
much better coverage to the sides and directly in front of vehicle. I
urge anyone who wants to be safer to get the US silverstars and can the
*****in DRL's and enjoy much safer driving.

 

[y_p_w]

light" does other than a poseur HID-like appearance<<

The white light actually lights up the road better. The stock
headlights are good but I couldnt beliee how much better I could see
with the Sylvania Silverstars. It's not about posing. It's about
safety. When lights are on they appear white not blue like some of the
fast and furious boy racers use.

To which I say - so what? So you **think** you see better. I'd
rather have **more** light from the Osram version than "white"
light from the the Sylvania. A lot of people feel safer with fog
lights on because there's this really bright light 20 feet in front
of their car, but that's certainly not safer when the driver's eyes
lock in really close when it would be safer to look ahead.

other concerns<<

Far is good but more usable light is better esp. in rain.

But there isn't more usuable light just because it's "white". To
get the appearance of "white light", part of the bulb's usuable
light output has to be removed. HIDs simply put out light in
that tend towards blue, but they put out lots more of it.

of 150 hours vs 850 for the XtraVision, 1200 for the standard, and
1600 for the long-life version. <<

Eliminating those *****ing DRL's will help in that department.

Too lazy to disable them.

Osram silverstar +30 made in germany euro spec vs. Sylvania silverstar
(blue tint) sold in US. H1 bulbs. The sylvania silverstar in the fog
lights are awesome as are the high beams

Yellowish lights are actually better in the fog.

Stern's spiel about "not more light" is total BS . The white light has
much better coverage to the sides and directly in front of vehicle. I
urge anyone who wants to be safer to get the US silverstars and can the
*****in DRL's and enjoy much safer driving.

I'll let him chime in.

 

[y_p_w]

Really? Mine got busted in an accident (need to reorder). They're
H1 Osram Silverstars. I still have the package, which says "+50%
MORE LIGHT" in the lower right corner. Upper left corner says
H1/448SVS/55W.

I'd also point out that one of the fallacies of "more light" in a
comparison is that new bulbs are often compared to older bulbs that
have degraded with use.

 

[jabario]

Yes the osram version gives a lot of light. However the light is the
same color as regular bulbs meaning it disappears on wet pavement and
doesnt really improve vision compared to the whiter light of the
sylvania version. Have you tried both? Or are you buying stern's crap
without firsthand experience. I've actually used both and can honestly
say the sylvania silverstars are the best choice for more effective
lighting in a 2004 outback.

 

[CompUser]

To which I say - so what? So you **think** you see better. I'd
rather have **more** light from the Osram version than "white"
light from the the Sylvania. A lot of people feel safer with fog
lights on because there's this really bright light 20 feet in front
of their car, but that's certainly not safer when the driver's eyes
lock in really close when it would be safer to look ahead.

Yup.

More light (and less watts, to boot) than the
*tinted* Sylvania SS.

Also, the eye is mroe sensitive to glare effects
in the blue-range of spectrum...making the
Sylvania SS less effective in fog, etc.

They also burn out FAST...I've used both Sylvania
and Osram SS, I'll stick with the Osram,
thanks...and I can get em cheaper, too.

 

[Masospaghetti]

Yes the osram version gives a lot of light. However the light is the
same color as regular bulbs meaning it disappears on wet pavement and
doesnt really improve vision compared to the whiter light of the
sylvania version. Have you tried both? Or are you buying stern's crap
without firsthand experience. I've actually used both and can honestly
say the sylvania silverstars are the best choice for more effective
lighting in a 2004 outback.

"Disappears on wet pavement"? The light "disappears" because the surface
is reflective and the light is bounced away from your vehicle, not
towards it, which is why oncoming lights on wet pavement have such
horrible glare. Whiter light is not going to offer a remedy to this. The
whiter light also refracts more in fog and rain.

And let me ask you this - why do these tinted-glass bulbs never come
standard in any vehicle if they offered such improved visibility?

 

[jabario]

Have you tried the bluish tinted ones? Obviously not. I have. Te
whiter light shows up more on wet pavement. I didnt worry about
visibility with the sylavania silverstars. The osram are no better.
Obviously car makers do not offer these bulbs is cost. However some
offer HID lighting which is whiter than halogen the same as the
sylvania silverstar.

 

[Ted Mittelstaedt]

Yes the osram version gives a lot of light. However the light is the
same color as regular bulbs meaning it disappears on wet pavement and
doesnt really improve vision compared to the whiter light of the
sylvania version.

This is purely an optical illusion. It is caused because of how light
works.

The light you are seeing when you turn on your headlights is reflected
light. Surfaces reflect light that is in the color of the surface, absorb
it
for all other colors. The silverstars reduce light in the spectrum that
most
surfaces are reflecting, and pass it in the spectrum that most things do
not reflect (Blue normally does not occur in nature)

Thus for any surface and color you care to come up with except for a blue
colored surface, you will get less light back from that surface when you
shine a Silverstar on it than when you shine a regular light.

So what is happening with the pavement scenario is that your eyes get less
light back, you adjust to the lower light level, then when you look away
from
the road to the interior of the car (which is black) or the side of the road
or
anywhere else, since your eyes are more sensitized to the lower light,
everything
looks brighter.

The problem though with the human eye is that as the light level drops, the
eye sees less and less fine detail.

So with the silverstars it looks brighter but you have much less chance of
seeing
that deer standing beside the road than with the normal lights.

Ted

 

[jabario]

So with the silverstars it looks brighter but you have much less chance of
seeing
that deer standing beside the road than with the normal lights. <<

I saw a lot more on the side of the road with syl. silverstars than I
do with osram's. Try them and you will be amazed. Why do high end
makers use HID which is "bluish" yet produces a whiter light? Because
it is more effective. Maybe it's my eyes but I can see better and
further with the syl silverstars. That's the truth.

 

[CompUser]

@g49g2000cwa.googlegroups.com>,
(e-mail address removed) says...

Have you tried the bluish tinted ones? Obviously not. I have. Te
whiter light shows up more on wet pavement. I didnt worry about
visibility with the sylavania silverstars. The osram are no better.
Obviously car makers do not offer these bulbs is cost. However some
offer HID lighting which is whiter than halogen the same as the
sylvania silverstar.

You just see more glare, due to sensitivity in
human eye in that portion of visible spectrum
(bluish)...on of the reasons HIDs are also more
annoying to oncoming traffic.

 

[CompUser]

@o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com>,
(e-mail address removed) says...

seeing
that deer standing beside the road than with the normal lights. <<

I saw a lot more on the side of the road with syl. silverstars than I
do with osram's. Try them and you will be amazed. Why do high end
makers use HID which is "bluish" yet produces a whiter light? Because
it is more effective. Maybe it's my eyes but I can see better and
further with the syl silverstars. That's the truth.

I've used both, I'll stick with the OSRAM SS.

They've also lasted longer than the Sylvania
SS...possibly due to the fact the Sylvania SS
were 5 watts "hotter", along with the tinted
glass, which probably increased operating temp
again...

 

[twillmon]

I put Sylvania H6054ST Silveerstar lamps on one of my cars a couple
of years ago. Wow! a lot more light, especially close-in in front
where it blinded me from seeing at longer distances. There is,
however, a fine spread of light off to the sides for seeing those
deer you guys are so worried about - perhaps the best I've had with
sealed beam headlights.

After a couple weeks of the near hotspot blinding me and other
drivers flashing me for blinding them, I did some serious inquiry
into how to adjust these monsters. And found I've always been doing
it wrong.

I used a screen of some old drywall set out front so I could see the
light pattern, car center line extended from measured centers of
windshield and rear window and marked, headlight centers laid out on
screen as 1/2 their distance apart from car center line and height
projected with a laser level from lamp centers. The car was on a
level garage floor.

Best lighting result is with the vertical adjusted so the low-beam
top cut-off is horizontal (on the lamp center-line), and the
horizontal set so the high-beam hot-spot is centered straight ahead.
These reference points were poorly defined on the Silverstars.

This gives good low beam coverage, eliminates the near hot-spot, and
puts most of the high-beam light up in the air, where it will
illuminate an upcoming hill. I hate compromises...

However, these lights put an awful lot of low-beam light into the
oncoming driver's eyes. I expected much more when I saw Osram's name
on the box.

If they haven't changed their pattern,I'd say Silverstars kinda suck.
Expensively.

The same aiming proceedure applied to the GE ordinary halogen lights
in my other car gave excellent results, good coverage both high and
low beams, virtually no glare to oncoming driver, a pleasant
surprise. Seems there are no properly-aimed lights out there? Every
oncoming car is an unpleasant, blinding experience, and testing of
mine (the standard halogens) yielded no complaints.

Somewhere there must be some really good headlights, but they aren't
these. Best I ever saw were in a BMW quad-light set-up, regular
lamps in the high-and-low, flame-throwers for the high-only. Miles
of light! Could really use that out here - our roads just go on
forever.


Tom Willmon
near Mountainair, (mid) New Mexico, USA

Net-Tamer V 1.12.0 - Registered

 

[y_p_w]

seeing
that deer standing beside the road than with the normal lights. <<

I saw a lot more on the side of the road with syl. silverstars than I
do with osram's. Try them and you will be amazed. Why do high end
makers use HID which is "bluish" yet produces a whiter light? Because
it is more effective. Maybe it's my eyes but I can see better and
further with the syl silverstars. That's the truth.

HIDs tends towards blue because of the xenon gas needed to help them
fire up quickly. It would take a few seconds longer with bulbs that
didn't use xenon, but they'd have the same performance advantages.

However - the performance advantage of HIDs isn't the color they put
out, but the intensity. They literally produce 2-3 times more light
than typical halogen gas/filiment bulbs using less power. Essentially
they're a flourescent light for cars. Properly designed reflectors
for HIDs will put out more light EVERYWHERE, including far distance
and sides.

 

[Daniel J. Stern]

HIDs tends towards blue because of the xenon gas needed to help them
fire up quickly. It would take a few seconds longer with bulbs that
didn't use xenon, but they'd have the same performance advantages.

More than a few seconds! Ever watch a street light come up to full
intensity once it's first energized?

However - the performance advantage of HIDs isn't the color they put
out, but the intensity.

Yes, and it's a light source efficacy advantage, not a headlamp
performance advantage. The extra light from an HID burner, relative to a
halogen bulb, can be put to good use if the optic designer is skillful
(and is allowed to put those skills to effect without undue interference
by stylists and beancounters). There are excellent HID headlamps, but
there are also poor ones. There are excellent halogen headlamps, but there
are also poor ones. Good headlamps are better than bad headlamps. But
whatever technology is used to make the light, there's no visual benefit
to blue light. It doesn't help you see better.

Essentially they're a flourescent light for cars.

Well...no. They're a high-intensity discharge light for cars. Fluoro lamps
are a completely different deal.

Properly designed reflectors for HIDs will put out more light
EVERYWHERE, including far distance and sides.

Yes (Well, properly designed *optics*, whether they be reflector or
polyellipsoidal type).

DS

 

[Daniel J. Stern]

Why do high end makers use HID which is "bluish" yet produces a whiter
light?

That's a good question, and the answer isn't what you think it is.

The SAE and ECE "white" boundaries were codified many decades ago, and are
enormous. "White" light is allowed to show significant blue, yellow,
orange or green casts and still be considered "white". There was, at time
of codification, no incentive to promulgate a more restrictive "white"
boundary, for the only light sources used on cars were tungsten filaments,
all of which produced a comparatively similar light color.

When the first automotive HID headlamp was demonstrated by a major
European lighting manufacturer to automakers, in the early mid 1990s, it
was a very well-designed optic, given the infant state of the art at the
time. It handily outperformed most halogen lamps, and of course consumed
less power. It was based on modified HPS (high-pressure Sodium) arc
chemistry, and had a very similar operating appearance when warmed up to a
halogen headlamp.

The automakers reacted favourably to the increased performance and reduced
power consumption, but rejected the lamp on the grounds that customers
would be unwilling to pay any premium for a lamp that looked the same as
the ordinary kind, regardless of increased performance.

Now, back to that very large "white" boundary: it was a very simple matter
to rework the arc chemistry in the auto HID lamp to create high spikes in
the blue and blue-violet. This created a markedly new/different
appearance, which the automakers' marketing boffins pounced on. Here was
something they could sell on appearance, something non-owners would notice
and come in to the dealers to ask about. No visual benefit to the blue
spikes, and the resultant colorimetry still fit within the legal "white"
boundary: Voila.

Now, of course, NHTSA is getting snowed under with complaints specifically
about blue light. Rigourous studies of the matter (e.g. Sivak and
Flannagan) show that for any given intensity level, bluer light is
significantly more glaring than white light without a blue tint, and that
there is *no corresponding visual benefit* to the bluer light. So they're
looking at ways of reducing the blue spikes in the SPD of auto HID
burners. European ECE regulations have already been modified to limit the
degree to which HID headlamps may emit blue light. Progress is slow,
though, because the new EU EVOL directives phasing out the use of Mercury
in automobile parts means HIDs are going to have to lose their Mercury.
Amongst other effects on the beam, this makes the output spectrum...bluer!

DS

 

[Daniel J. Stern]

Have you tried the bluish tinted ones? Obviously not. I have. Te whiter
light shows up more on wet pavement.

Well, a couple different kinds of "no" here.

First off, the light from blue-tinted bulbs is not "whiter" at all. It's
bluer.

Secondly, bluer light does not "show up" any better or worse than any
other color or tint of light on wet pavement. The reason why wet pavement
seems to suck up light and make it disappear is that the water turns the
road surface from a diffuse reflector (like a white sheet of paper) into a
specular one (like a mirror). Light striking a diffuse reflecting surface
bounces off in all directions. In the case of headlamp light striking a
dry road surface, the critical bit is that some of the randomly-reflected
light comes back to your eyes, and the road surface appears illuminated.

Light striking a specular reflecting surface, on the other hand, bounces
off at an angle equal and opposite to the angle at which it strikes the
surface. In the case of headlamp light striking a wet road surface, this
means that almost all the light strikes the surface at an angular range of
between 0.5 and 8 degrees downward...and bounces off at an angular range
of between 0.5 and 8 degrees upward. Almost none of it comes back to your
eye, so the road surface appears dark. On the other hand, this is why
light reflected off the road surface is so much more intensely glaring for
oncoming drivers when the road is wet than when it is dry.

HID lighting which is whiter than halogen the same as the sylvania
silverstar.

Nope. HID headlamps are not "whiter" than halogen lamps in any real sense,
and blue-tinted bulbs (e.g. Sylvania Silverstar) do not have an SPD
anywhere close to that of HIDs.

 

[y_p_w]

More than a few seconds! Ever watch a street light come up to full
intensity once it's first energized?

I thought it was closer to the startup of a flourescent bulb. Oh
well.

I was at a baseball game Saturday where the umps refused to start
until they knew the lights were on. Game time was 6:05 PM, and
the lights didn't really take effect until about past 7. I could
see a few of them (weakly) flicker on, and in about five minutes
they were pretty much all on. Would auto HIDs be like that without
xenon?

Yes, and it's a light source efficacy advantage, not a headlamp
performance advantage. The extra light from an HID burner, relative
to a halogen bulb, can be put to good use if the optic designer is
skillful (and is allowed to put those skills to effect without undue
interference by stylists and beancounters). There are excellent HID
headlamps, but there are also poor ones. There are excellent halogen
headlamps, but there are also poor ones. Good headlamps are better
than bad headlamps. But whatever technology is used to make the light,
there's no visual benefit to blue light. It doesn't help you see
better.


Well...no. They're a high-intensity discharge light for cars. Fluoro
lamps are a completely different deal.

Sorry - wrong choice of words. I was just trying to get across
that as arc lamps, they're efficient in a manner similar to
flourescent lamps.

Yes (Well, properly designed *optics*, whether they be reflector or
polyellipsoidal type).

The original poster was trying to get across that he believe he
saw better because the light was "whiter", and that the "whiter"
light really helped with rain, fog, and wet pavement.

 

[y_p_w]

@o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com>,
(e-mail address removed) says...

I've used both, I'll stick with the OSRAM SS.

They've also lasted longer than the Sylvania
SS...possibly due to the fact the Sylvania SS
were 5 watts "hotter", along with the tinted
glass, which probably increased operating temp
again...

Just take a look at the rated life of the H1 Sylvania Silverstar.
100 freakin' hours for the 64150ST, consuming 65 watts compared
to the standard 55 watt bulbs. I don't know about the Forester,
but I have to remove the battery if I want to replace the left
bulb on my WRX.

http://www.sylvaniaautocatalog.com/sylvania/ProductBrowse_halog.asp?Batchid=42&FigNumber=113