A discharge lamp ballast is provided for powering a discharge lamp with feedback filament heating control. A startup circuit is coupled between output terminals of a DC-AC power converter together with a discharge lamp. A lamp current detection circuit and a lamp voltage detection circuit detect output signals to the lamp. A control circuit controls the switching elements and generates an operating frequency in accordance with a startup operation to generate a high voltage output from the startup circuit and ignite the discharge lamp, a filament heating operation wherein the operating frequency is controlled so as to set the amplitude of the output current detected by the lamp current detection circuit to a target current amplitude based on the amplitude of the output voltage detected by the lamp voltage detection circuit, and a steady-state operation wherein the operating frequency is decreased to maintain a stable light output from the discharge lamp.