DLP lamps

I have a Panasonic LCD Projection TV and the warranty was increased by Panasonic to 18 mos up from 12mos as per an insert in the owners manual. The tv is only a month old so no failure so far. Seems the life of these bulbs varies poorly unfortunately throughout the brands.
I would encourage all who have had premature failure to write to their respective manufacturers regarding the failures and the related costs, and post opinions on this Forum, Epinions, CNET, Audioreview etc. If enough people make an issue with the manufacturers perhaps the problem will be recognized and warranties will be extended. Sometimes a manufacturer will quitely make an extension of a warranty to those who speak up.
Just my humble opinion.

Update on my Panasonic. The bulb finally went in early Feb 09. No warranty left so I went to Ebay and found a replacement made by Philips. The bulb cost $85 with shipping included. This is a bare bulb so I had to install it in it's cage. No big deal and I wore surgeons gloves so as to keep skin oils off the bulb. Reinstalled it and it worked fine. Alas, three weeks later the tv won't come on and the "bulb warning lamp" flashes. I contacted the firm where I purchased the bulb (under warranty) and was told to replace the Ballast! I looked into this with a local tv repair guy and found the ballast replacement is going to be in the area of $500/$700 range! Considering I got a deal on this tv (cost me $900) I decided not to fix it and went out and bought a new Sony LCD TV. I did the research on the web and Panasonic was sued and supposedly made "good" to other purchasers. I can't get anywhere with them cause the suit has been settled. So I guess I'll try and have a go at fixing the Panasonic since I was able to find a refurbished ballast on line for $140.
I'm going to get around to it soon and will update this post with the results.