Advice needed - 85" 4K TV or 4K projector (room size included)

Domo

Domo

Domo

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EDIT - this is a snug. Regular TV etc is in the main living room.

Question is, spend £4K on an 85" Sony Bravia KD85XF8596BU TV or extend the budget to £5.2K for a Sony VPL-VW260ES 4K 3D projector (don't care about the 3D bit, but the reviews look good).

I'm no CAD/Sketchup expert but the dimensions are to scale.

As you can see from the attached, the 85" takes up some serious real estate on the wall so I'm wondering if the projector's actually worth it. Plus the advantages a TV offers - easier set up and the ability to watch normal TV without near or full darkness. Plus less noise. And cheaper.

The wall on which the TV is mounted is 3100 mm wide and 2446 mm tall (that excludes the cupboard).
The full length of the room is 3600 mm.
It shows an 85" TV mounted on the wall (dimensions exactly match the Sony Bravia KD85XF8596BU).
The front of the sofa is 2000 mm from the TV.
The space to the left is a cupboard which can be knocked out but would like to store AV kit behind glass.

Decision time is now. We're mid build and if going for a projector we need to cut a hole in the ceiling for the projector and trail cables to the AV kit before the flooring upstairs goes down. Same for the TV on the back wall if we choose that option.

Interested in opinions. All I keep reading is once you've experienced a projector you'll never go back, but then some online reviews say large TVs a better by miles. So advice from owners of both welcome.

Snug-Sofa-85-Inch-TV.png
 
There is little like a projector for the experience but generally a TV beats it hands down for convenience.

Personally though I wouldn't swap my projector setup for anything even though its a relatively modest setup compared to what can be done now and is still only 720p - while I have a 4K big screen. Though thinking of upgrading the projector now there is more actual high res content.
 
You've articulated my quandary better than I did :) As it's a snug I can make it about the experience and don't want to end up kicking myself having not invested in a projector. I suppose the question is (and not understanding throw distances etc), will a projector fill more of that back wall? I was going to get some floor standing speakers which would have reduced potential wall area for projecting onto, but now mounting all corner speakers up near the ceiling. So there's an extra 500 mm of wall either side of that TV. Hmmm.

I'm heading over to Richer Sounds for a demo of the Optoma UHD40 (not the Sony but it's what they have rigged up in their demo room). Worth a look.
 
Hmm how about a cheap 50" odd tv on the wall for general stuff i.e. news /soaps etc. Then a drop down hidden projector screen for the bigger films. The advantage being it would be a slot in the ceiling and it could very easily hide.

edit:- Missed your edit :D As it is a snug and you already have a normal tv, projector all the way! Are you planning on going Atmos?
 
Can you treat the walls/ceiling? If so you can have the pj screen fill almost the entire width of the room. It's amazing what a bit of black velvet does for stopping light bouncing around. Looks smart as hell too.

If it's going to be a dedicated movie room, i'd go for a treated bat cave with a pj and the largest screen the wall/viewing distance will allow.
 
Domo said:
not understanding throw distances etc
Click to expand...

Not much more to understand that it's the size of the screen at a given distance from the wall.

Projectors usually have a "zoom" that makes the image bigger / smaller and varies in amount per projector.

The other thing you want, given that you're going to be spending that much money, is a good "lens shift" (measured as a percentage of the projected image - 10% lens shift means 10cm moved for a 100cm image). I.e. the distance the projector can "shift" the image without having to use "keystone" to digitally alter (read "negatively post process") the image to make it fit the wall square.

A good amount of lens shift is going to let you place the projector higher and thus further away from the viewer (meaning less noise and generally just more out of the way)

Use this site, put in the projector you want and size of room: http://www.reviewtranslations.com/projection_calculator_en.html (you can drag the projector around to a specific place as well)

With your VW260ES you see it has great lens shift but at your size of room (3.6m) only projects a maximum size of 102.8 inches with 2.1x zoom (probably more like 100 inches if you consider the fact you need to wire things from the back so it can't be flush against the wall)

If you choose the Optima UHD40 you'll see it has less "zoom" but projects a larger image to start with and as such, in the same size room, the Optima could give you about 120 inches.

The Optima looks like it has less lens shift but that's not actually true, as again each projector is different and it appears the Sony lets you shift through the entire range where as the Optima works in either "table" or "ceiling" mounted mode and you end up with being able to shift just as much.

If the lens shift IS less, then you'd end up either with:
a) The image higher on the wall
b) The projector lower down
c) The projector tilted and keystone applied to the image

Given the size of the room I'd probably go with an OLED to be honest. I think it would look well proportioned in the room with a nice set of floor standers bought with the money saved. You're never going to be able to see true HDR with a projector...

P.S. I'm away to create my cinema room (probably next year) and the only reason I'm going with a projector is because I'm able to fit about 130 inches and only have about £2k budget total!
 
Thanks - you've done quite a bit of research on my behalf and I really I appreciate that.
If I do choose the TV route (and it's looking most likely) I will have to stick with LCD. The moment OLEDs breach the 65" screen size prices go through the roof and I just wouldn't be able to justify the cost to my partner. And she'd be right! It is excessive already. We have a 55" KS8000 in the living room and adding 10 more inches to the TV in the snug isn't a big enough improvement. Hence the Sony 85".

To be honest I don't get all the technical detail re projectors and it seems like a lot of hassle. More to the point I was at an Odeon cinema yesterday 3 rows from the front and I spent more time thinking how grainy, dim and washed out it seemed when compared to a razor sharp 4K picture on a TV. I know it's projected a fair distance and onto a massive screen, but I think I prefer a sharp image over a larger albeit washed out image.

I think there will be a part of me kicking myself later but it's a choice I'll have to live with.

RE the floor standing speakers - had considered that as mentioned in an earlier post but think I prefer a nice clean look and keep the speakers high up or maybe even in the ceiling.

the shadow said:
er indoors nagging infront of the screen already :p
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This made me laugh. Only just noticed the hand on the hip. It's a default scaled human component which SketchUp provides. Might as well include a speech bubble with 'HOW MUCH!!' or 'It looks ridiculous it's so big'. Both anticipated responses :)
 
75”+ Samsung QLED is your best bet.

They nearly match OLED for blacks at the top end of the range and have better brightness and a complete lack of image retention.

Projector won’t give anywhere near the same image quality / brightness / HDR / ease of use in comparison.

OLED is overrated, have some banding on my 65” B7 that I didn’t have on my KS8000, quite a bit of image retention that appears on menus etc after 30 seconds or so (which is just annoying) and the actual tv is slower to turn on / operate than the Samsung was. Also it’s nowhere near as bright which means daylight viewing is not as good.
 
Warbie said:
gf leaving menus up etc.
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So true!! How many times a day to I walk into the living room and find either the TV Guide or iPlayer splashed all over the screen!

I am liking those QLEDs. They came out just after I bought my KS8000 which was really frustrating. Seem to be quite a few variants all at different prices. For example, there are 6 different 75" QLED TVs on Richer Sounds ranging from £2,699 to £4,699 :confused:
 
There's a lot of confusion around the Samsung QLED models and how they improve up the range!

The Q7F model is the 2017 version. With the 2018 models being the "FN" models. Going Q6>Q7>Q8>Q9. I've no idea why it's the Q8DN rather than Q8FN.

Also RS have 5 75" versions, there's an 82" version mixed into the list :)

I suppose it depends on how much you want to spend vs quality. I have the 55" version of the Q7F and think it's excellent, so could imagine the 75" version being incredible. I'm not sure i could then justify the extra £2k to jump up to the Q8/Q9 models.
 
Domo said:
To be honest I don't get all the technical detail re projectors and it seems like a lot of hassle. More to the point I was at an Odeon cinema yesterday 3 rows from the front and I spent more time thinking how grainy, dim and washed out it seemed when compared to a razor sharp 4K picture on a TV. I know it's projected a fair distance and onto a massive screen, but I think I prefer a sharp image over a larger albeit washed out image.
Click to expand...

My cinema room knocks the local Odeon into fits
 
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