Projectors

[Yaka]

wot are the pros and cons for evey day use over a plasma/LCD tv?

by this i mean it will be used throught the day 3pm till mabbe 1 or 2am
used for gaming ps3,wii,360 TV and Films and prolly browsing via lappy/htpc

room will be lit during the day when kids watch cartoons or play wii

 

[Kryten]

Cost.
Decent projectors are fantastic for gaming but christ the cost of lamps is very prohibitive. If its not a factor, no real problem - and then of course you've got the usefulness of being able to pack it away.
Then of course you need a nice, white, large wall.

And you still need something to provide a TV signal.

 

[dysfunction]

What would you look for in a decent projector? How much would you likely spend on a good one?

 

[Clown]

You should get a good second hand one for a much cheaper price

 

[Kryten]

My brother picked up a cheap little Benq for a mere 320 quid and it's fantastic, especially with his Wii.
You can certainly spend a lot more though. I fixed up a scrap one for my boss, a HD one worth around 900. Cant remember who made it.

 

[Yaka]

thing is every one that owns a pj dont use it for "everyday" stuff just maybe a couple hours gaming every evening or watching films/footy at the weekend i am looking to get one and preety much use it all the time till it prolly dies

things that are bugging me are.

bulb cost

eye strain.

few years back when i was looking at pjs some peeps would say that more thane a couple of hours on a pj would give them eye strains and headaches. not a big issues for many but i switched to LCD monitors 7 years ago because the best 19" crt at teh time the diamondtron would give me painful eyes.

kids would want to watch some thing or play on wii with the blinds opened with plenty of daylight coming thru the windows this would in turn possible kill the bulb quicker

 

[old.user4556]

I use my HD proj for everyday TV / gaming / movies.

I will post tomorrow when i'm not tired and I cba.

 

[nath]

Lamp costs seem to have come down a substantial amount (at least for my projector). A replacement used to cost roughly £300-350, you can pick one up for about £140 now and it's not even that dated a projector. Infocus IN76 - absolutely fanfuckingtastic. I use it very regularly, but 3pm-1am is a heck of a lot. The marketing crap for this projector says that on standard power mode you get about 3000hours out of the lamp, 2000 hours at high power mode (brighter). I'm not sure how accurate this is, I'd expect it to be less, but you can use those figures to get a rough idea how long your lamp would last based on your usage.

Oh and for the love of God don't use a white wall to project on to, get yourself a nice glass bead grey projection screen. A Panoview GreyWolf II for example.

 

[dysfunction]

That one costs about £1500 Nath!! No wonder its fantastic!!

 

[nath]

Not as good as the £15k one I wanted :\

 

[cHodAX]

I would love a 120inch motorised screen and a decent 1080p capable projector but until the cost comes down to around the £1500 mark I just can't afford it.

Also, how far back would I need to sit for a screen that size and what distance would the projector need to be from the screen?

 

[Yaka]

Panasonic UK - PT-AE2000E LCD Projectors

im thinking that one, or the previous gen if its out of my price range. im

 

[nath]

What is your price range by the way? Also DLP>LCD if you ask me.

Chodax - motorised screen is just excessive tbh, a manual pulldown does the job fine. Also 1080p projectors are very pricey but you can get an IN76 for about a grand now, it's 720p and looks damn fine.

As for viewing distance, my screen's only 106 not 120" but I sit 13ft away from it and it's very comfortable - that's how far the projector is from the screen too. All the projector websites should have a throw distance calculator to work out how big a screen you'll get at what distance with specific models of projector.

 

[old.user4556]

Ok.

Projects are fantastic, I wouldn't waste my time with a plasma or LCD for consoles or movies. My reasons are:

1) Price. Bulbs aside, you can get a huge high-def picture for £1500. I've looked at £4000 Sony Bravias and they are simply not a patch on my projector's picture.
2) Size. Seriously bigger picture for seriously less cash.
3) ePenis. Good bragging rights.
4) Space. A paper thin motorised screen sits on one wall, the projector is mounted on the ceiling out of the way, giving you more floor space. You can even have your mother-in-law's picture on that wall for when she visits and hide it when she leaves .

The bad points to projectors are:

1) Once they're fitted and mounted, they stay there. Obviously buying and using a projector is a lot more specialist than buying a TV and nowhere near as versatile.
2) Bulbs. What Nath said.
3) They can be a PITA to setup for noobs, especially if you're ceiling mounting it. Cabling to the projector (presumably HDMI leads) isn't cheap, particularly if you have a large living room. My 7M QED HDMI lead was £80.
4) Useless in bright rooms. Lets face it though, you're going to want a dark room when watching a movie on a TV anyway. Today's projectors are much better than CRTs of old. Bulbs are brighter and contrast ratios are better than ever.
5) For TV use, you'll need a tuner (freeview box, sky etc).

Personally, the size and sheer awesome picture quality of today's HD projectors far outstrips plasma/LCD TV's when it comes down to size, and for movies they are just perfect.

 

[old.user4556]

For some info, my proj looks like this during the day:

(not a pitch black room, but the "curtains" are half down with no light hitting the screen; any light hitting the screen will kill the picture though. I have a 0.8 gain high contrast grey screen too. Makes blacks black whilst sacrificing some brightness)

 

[nath]

It does sacrifice brightness, but oddly enough a grey screen works better in brighter rooms than white screens do. They had a half and half screen at sevenoaks when I tried out a couple of projectors - when the lights were on the grey was still watchable whereas the white was completely washed out.

Still you're right - when watching a movie everyone wants it dark - I picked up a couple of blackout blinds from ikea for like 8 quid each - piss easy to put up, roll up out of the way and keep the room nice n dark when I watch a film

 

[Yaka]

well having just seen the panny during a demo, i am very gutted i wont be getting it now, amazing peice of kit 360 and ps3 games look minta on it as does the uber ey pr0n that is transformers. i had seen pics on various forums of this pj showing diif films etc but none of that comes close to seeing this in RL.
buying a 2nd hand plasma for the time being, but i am going make this my next purchase next year

 

[Yaka]

robot pr0n rawks

 

[old.user4556]

Nice one Yaka, what proj did you go for in the end?

 

[Yaka]

i fell in love with the panny proj, with a kid on the way thought it would better to go for a telleh and got a second hand plasma we could have gone a for new panny pf10 plasma but decided on a 2nd hand coz we both liked the panny pj we demoed.