Headlight Bulb Types.....

[BOLTO57]

I'm completely confused about this whole HID, Xenon headlight bulb thing. I want to put brighter bulbs on my car but I'm getting mixed opinions about the both of them. What is really the difference between the two. They look the same to me as far the equipment that comes with the kit but then again I could be wrong about that too. Is it the bulb itself? Is it the quality of light that is produced from the bulb? I dont want the super blues just a Really bright super white but I'm not sure I don't want to blind people but I don't want low quality either. What is the move?

[Mad Myche]

There are 3 main technologies with automotive lighting these days; filament, gas-discharge, and LED.

Filament can be broken down into incandescant (vacuum filled) and halogen(gas-filled).
Halogen has been the norm in headlights for the last 30 years. Halogen bulbs use reactive gases such as chlorine or iodine, which mix with particles of evaporated filament, and redeposits them on the filament. This increases the lifespan. Increasing the performance of these bulbs is done via altering the halogen gas mixture, using "noble" gases which do not interact (krypton, helium, argon, neon, xenon), and playing with the filament itself.
One thing to note is that the hotter a filament lamp burns, the brighter and whiter it is. (hence, Color Temperature)
Blue bulbs may be dipped in a blue filtering agent, or they may have a dichroic coating.
Dichroic coatings act by reflecting segments of the rainbow back towards the filament. Usually we see this implemented when a bulb has a yellowish appearance, but outputs bluish light.
HIR lamps are an outgrowth of dichroic halogen lamps. The particular coating used reflects IR light back at the filament while allowing other the other colors to pass through it/ The IR energy causes the filament to operate at a higher temperature which translates to brighter lighting

HID headlamps are based on Discharge Tubes. They work basically by creating a continuous arc running through a (noble) gas charged envelope. The applications for this range from the little neon outlet testers to the big spotlights used at arenas. Strobe lamps are a type of discharge lamp which is not running a continuous arc through it.