Projector advice.........should i, shouldn't I

Skidder

Skidder

Skidder

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I'm shortly going to be doing some work to my house which will involve among other rooms an overhaul of my living room. At the moment this has a first gen 32inch HD tv (1080i JVC) which is not brilliant in terms of blacks and is quite chunky. I have a bose lifestyle system with it (with other rooms linked), media pc, wii and a couple of virgin boxes (2 so that the media extenders elsewhere in the house can watch different channels).

I am going to be knocking some walls around and so on and since I will need to rebury wires it is an opportunity to revisit my setup.

The room is small, something like 11.5 ft x 11.5ft.

I am weighing up going to a projector. I am tempted because it would be nice to have the option of a big screen without a massive tv dominating a small room. (ie screen not down when not watching). I have another home in mind for my current tv too.

The downside is this is a normal living room and I will not be painting the walls dark and / or covering them in velvet!

I know dark is important and for watching movies I would achieve this. What I am wondering is for TV use, just watching virgin for example, will I get acceptable results with the blind up and normal light entering the room? (ie not expecting perfection in light conditions, but just watching the box.)

I am willing to sacrifice screen size if this would help in terms of dealing with light. I would even be happy with a 60-70 inch image given the room size.

I would love any feedback, thanks!:)
 
depending on the amount of light entering the room, from my experience, it can be a very washed picture and if there is a lot of light it might be a struggle to view the whole picture, if you have curtains make sure they are lined to cut the majority of light out or if its blinds your going ot use again try and make sure its a good fit on the window and it should make viewing a little bit easier.
 
Skidder said:
I am willing to sacrifice screen size if this would help in terms of dealing with light. I would even be happy with a 60-70 inch image given the room size.

I would love any feedback, thanks!:)
Click to expand...

if you'd be happy with that size then you would probably be better with a 60" plasma ? Projectors are great but the need to be used in a darkened room with either blinds closed or after the sun has gone down which is not ideal for a normal family living room.
 
I have a 32" LCD for general TV viewing and a pj for films/group gaming. PJ Screen comes down in front of TV. As screen and PJ are hidden in ceiling when not in use, it's a perfect wife friendly set up as we all know how they hate big pieces of kit dominating the room.

Wife hated the idea, but loves the reality as its best of both worlds.

My walls aren't all dark, the wall with the tv on and screen are, but the rest of the room is light and airy during the day, but I have blackout blinds in the velux windows and full floor to ceiling dark curtains, and its very viewable even on football during the day. Of course night time is better, but the compromises are liveable with for me.

My PJ is a Sanyo PLV-Z%, so wasn't considered the brightest in its class, yet its fine by me.
 
Any semi decent recent projector will be fine in a reasonably day lit room aslong as it isn't in direct sunlight... obviously darker room enhances it.

Its not a replacement for a TV (for most peoples viewing habits) IMO but theres nothing quite like a wallsized projection for watching movies.
 
Thanks for views so far. I really am torn. Our 32 inch TV could move into the kitchen which is the room next door and for a lot of the chucking the news on in the day or for my wife to flick herself off to Trisha, that would probably do. My wife says no way she will have a 32 inch TV in the kitchen (not due to room size as the kitchen is more than twice the size of the living room, she just thinks it's plebby!) It really appeals to the geek side of me to have the projector.
 
One of your main problems is that all the best screens for combating non-optimal room conditions are fixed-only, because the various materials they use aren't suited to being bent and rolled up like a motorised drop-down screen does. They also cost a lot.

The only way around this is either get a grey pull-down screen (blacks can only be as black as the surface the image is being projected onto it at that moment, so grey is better than white) and have a mediocre image, or get a fixed screen and look into ways of disguising it when not in use. Ideas would include blinds, a removable cover/reverse side of art/fabric/wall-hanging which would then be removed or flipped to use the screen. Of course the image will be watchable, but even your old TV will look better, bar the size of course.

As others have said as well, projectors are a good complement to a TV not necessarily a replacement. You have to consider things like replacing the bulbs - which would be more frequent if it was your only method of watching stuff - and making sure it's operated/turned on/off properly, since unlike a TV you can damage PJs through incorrect use. You still have to either have it hanging off the ceiling or placed on something, have to consider throw distance, stuff like that.
 
Keep the 32" for watching eastenders and rubbish daytime viewing. Get a roll-up projector screen and projector for proper viewing. Seeing as you're re-doing the whole room, could you fit blackout blinds?

Only you can really decide on how much of the room would be dedicated to the projector... then you can decide on whether to go for a fixed screen (I wouldn't unless I had a dedicated room used only for cinema) and blackout blinds.

Don't be put off though, you can get reasonable results with a bit of ingenuity.
 
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