£250 Projector

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26 Feb 2008
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437
Hey guys,

For lack of funds for that 40" lcd we students dream of... I want a projector to hook up to my comp to play the usual games (COD4, TF2, Civ4 etc) on and watch movies on.

Few noobie projector questions:

1. Whats the quality of an 800x600 projector like the Infocus x6 or similar at around the 200-250 pound mark likely to be?

2. How massive a difference is projecting onto a red wall rather than a white / magnolia one? (Basically i have a rectangular university room, with one 'feature' wall thats red, but there is too much furniture to project onto the white walls) - and drilling holes for a pull down screen isn't an option. White sheet and some hooks possible though lol.

3. Which projector would you recommend for my budget?
 
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Infocus is a decent brand, I'm still using an Infocus X1 (almost the original great value projector!) which is 800 x 600 and it's a nice piece of kit for the price. It's 4 1/2 years old now, so i'm looking to upgrade to a X9 (720p) or maybe X10 (1080p) if i can stretch to it in the near future though.

The only issue with 800 x 600 projectors are that they are 4:3 - this means when displaying widescreen content you're wasting a lot of pixels, and you also have an area around the projected image that is blank, but is still slightly lit by the projector bulb.

Projecting onto a red wall will be a bad idea - you'll either need to repaint your wall or look at a fixed frame screen of some kind, otherwise your image will be just be very red. Black out blinds are also supposedly a good option for those on a budget.

I would personally recommend you look at getting a second hand 720p projector, rather than a brand new 800 x 600. :)
 
You might be able to pick up somethin like a second hand Panasonic PT-AE500 off AV Forums for that kind of price now

I used to have one of these and it was a fantastic projector for the price :)

As for a screen, you could make a screen out of MDF or somethin thats painted white, then simply just lean it against your red wall. it may not be totally flat so you'll need to use some keystone correction but it would be better than the red wall.

There is a couple of threads on here about using a certain paint for low budget projector screens, but can't remember what it was. alternativly you could check out the "Paints, Brews and Mixes" thread's (tehre are 3 now lol) on AV Forums again
 
Thanks guys. I can't use paint simply because I'm in rented University accomodation and they don't allow any changes to rooms. Think my best stopgap will be a nice flat sheet and some pins or even a huge sheet of paper, or like you said a blind of some description. Basically anything i can blue tack or temporarily stick rather than drilling holes / re decorating.
 
A big sheet of MDF or plyboard painted matt white/very light grey is probably a good option. You could even paint your own thick black border around the edge to improve the perceived contrast. :cool:
 
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