Comments about Sylvania SilverStar headlights?

BuddTX

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So, has anyone used them yet? A couple of people posted positive comments, but I have not heard of many people actually useing them.

Just curious, as I want to buy them soon, before the 10.00/pair rebate expires
Click on the "SAVE TEN DOLLARS" button

Interesting, this thread goes from 2003 and then jumps to 2009!
 
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Alaric Darconville

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I saw them at Wal-Mart the other night, $47.99/pr. I got that "rice boy" feeling just looking at them, the glass envelope is tinted blue, and the packaging just screams "I'm the coolest dude in my high school." I'd pass on them, myself.
 

Orion

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I have some. They aren't extraordinarily bright, but they do have a more white beam as compared to normal headlights. But when someone comes along with HID headlights, it makes the Silverstars look more yellowish. They definitely don't have that blue look to them.
 

BuddTX

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[ QUOTE ]
Alaric Darconville said:
I saw them at Wal-Mart the other night, $47.99/pr. I got that "rice boy" feeling just looking at them, the glass envelope is tinted blue, and the packaging just screams "I'm the coolest dude in my high school." I'd pass on them, myself.

[/ QUOTE ]


I am pretty sure the SilverStar is NOT like those cheap blue lights that you see 18 year olds put into their car.

Read this Review.
 

larry

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Budd:

I have them in my 2003 Jeep Liberty. Not only are they brighter, the pure whiteness of their beam makes them more effective for night driving vision. They are worth the additional money.

Larry
 

Zephyr

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I totally love mines! I have them in my 98 Honda Civic (no, I'm not one of them racer people /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif) and I noticed a significant increase in output. I actually noticed an improvemnt in visibility, espcially driving in rainy and foggy conditions. Although the SilverStars are coated blue, they actually don't have that HID tint that many cheap HID immitation bulb has. Instead, it just gives it a bit of whitesh tint compared to some ordinary Halogen. In fact, I have an 80 watts PIAA fog lamps on my Civic and they're much yellower in compaison to my SilverStars. I would recommend them to anyone who would want to upgrade their stock Halogen bulbs.


ZEPH
 

freeze12

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I have them in my 2001 Old's Alero & they are definitally brighter & whiter than anything else I have used & they have NO cheap blue tint to them.Well worth the $$
 

highlandsun

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You guys are deluding yourselves. If you see blue tint on the glass capsule, then it may not be a CHEAP tint, but it's still a tint. Halogen bulbs just don't have that much blue/white output in their spectrum; the tint is filtering out useful yellow light to give you that blue/white effect.

And remember, human eyesight is more sensitive to yellow light than blue. Putting a blue filter on the bulb is giving your eyes less to work with, and what it gives you is in the glare-inducing end of the spectrum. Two strikes, totally counterproductive.
 

highlandsun

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Oh, another story in the line of "bluer is not better" - I have HIDs on my car; I ordered 4100K bulbs but they were out of stock so they originally shipped me a pair of 5000K bulbs. If you've been following all the hype, you know that these are supposed to be even closer to daylight color, and even better for visibility.

Well, oddly enough, they were true to their word, and it sucked. During twilight hours, around sunset and during sunrise, the headlight color matched the daylight color perfectly, and so you got no visual feedback that the lights were on. No visible beam pattern on the pavement or road signs. If you were unfortunate enough to be driving at these times, you couldn't see any better than if your lights were off. With a yellower headlight, (I now have 4100K bulbs, as I originally wanted) even if the light intensity is the same as before, you can see more because there's *contrast* - you can see shadows and details and you can read road signs.

Here's another fact about human eyesight - it works on edge detection. When you have sunlight and headlights both the same color, even if the sunlight is relatively dim and the headlights are relatively bright, your eyes are going to act like there's no information coming in, because there's no contrast, no edge information. When you have headlights of a contrasting color, your depth perception improves dramatically, because your brain can cross-correlate overhead shadows from the sunlight against the beam shadows of your headlights.

Granted, these periods of time are relatively short, maybe an hour or so at most, but they also tend to be intervals that you most need to be on the road, if you're commuting. It's just another factor to add to eyestrain and stress. Not good.
 

larry

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Higlandsun,

Before you condemn the SilverStar bulb, experience one and then give us your opinion.

Larry
 

JollyRoger

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I agree. Highland Sun, you just need to try them.

I have them in my car as well. I've tried lots of different lights...and these are pretty darn good. No, they're not blue. No, they're not yellow.

The beam is a nice color...almost slightly greenish sometimes, very very slightly bluish sometimes....it's just a nice color temperature for an incandescent bulb. Coming form a major manufacturer, you know they're going to ge better quality than those cheap (but expensive) aftermarket lights sold at local carboy shops, etc.

I can see the road just fine with them....I DO recommend them at the $10 off price!
 

highlandsun

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I should note that I used to use Sylvania XTraVisions before I upgraded from sealed beams to H4 lamps. They were certainly worthwhile as far as sealed beams go, but still not as good as E-spec lamps, and definitely no comparison to real HIDs for total brightness. If you want more light without changing anything else, stick with the XTraVisions.
 

Azreal911

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if you guys buy the american version the sylvania silverstars. you WILL have that blue tint, but if you order the european version called Osram Silverstars, they will have NO tint which is actually brighter. Exactly same bulb specs, but without the tint. this is if you guys are choosy about tints saying they are brighter. my friend ordered the osram versions and took a pic for both lights with a set camera setting and did notice a improvement, but he had the ricey lights before so the improvement was significant. i use some canadian tire high output halogens with no tint and when i changed only one headlight, had my other head light with a very LIGHT blue tint that's has some dot approved sticker on it (eurolite plasma). the yellow canadian tire light was very noticably brighter than the "whiter coloured" light. I never went back to any tinted bulbs after. so if you guys order any of these, get the Osram version. If tints = brighter, we would have seen surefires and maglite bulbs setting tint versions on their lamps! hahahahahh! but they don't have it for a reason. somehow i don't know why they tinted the bulbs sold to north america, do they think we are a ricey nation or something?
 

soloco

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I totally agree with the above posts about the crappiness of the NA SilverStar. I have them in my Camry. My stock bulbs are much brighter. My bulbs are much whiter now, but it's much less noticable in the city if I forget to turn on my headlights. I'm looking for some nice quality bulbs WITHOUT resorting to TINTS! I'm thinking of checking out the Polarg Halogen Max Clear or the Raybrig Racing Hyper Halogen. They both seem to be pretty high quality with a minimal amount of tint. I'm actually leaning toward the Raybrig. Anyone have an experience with them?
 

GJW

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Polarg and Raybrig both appear to be using the same hyped nonsense as all the other "blue" bulb companies.
What led you to believe they were "nice quality"?

The Raybrig bulb you mentioned promises 130/125W using your stock wiring.
Common sense immediately tells you its bullsh*t.
One site does state "For exclusive competiton car use only, prohibted for use on a (sic) public roads."
Nowhere I found mentions DOT or "street legal"...
Translation: the bulbs are actually dimmer than required.

The fact that all of their bulbs use the Hx designation instead of the 9xxx tells you that they were not made with American drivers in mind.
Those designations are not only sizes -- they refer to ANSI and ASTM standards. A bulb with only the Hx designation means it was never tested to American standards.

Save your money (and possible your life).
 

DeltaPositive

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Installed a set of them on our 2002 Subaru WRX, wife and i both love them. Left the stock bulbs in the factory fog(white)lights and can tell a drastic difference in color temp. between them. Thought about changing the fog bulbs to a ionic crystal(yellow) type for more versitility.

Delta
 
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