First Time Projector Advice

[tododo]

Hi guys

Ive been medling in the projector world - at first this was just for haloween and christmas displays for my 4 year old boy

Now Ive started with a few cheaper options Im kinda itching to try a better one now as I can see uses in using it in his room and also in garden and for various uses around the house

At the moment I have a cheap one from amazon for about £175 (did previously try a £80 one and that was not bad too) and to be fair its probably fine for what we need as it says its 720p - However I do find some of the colours a bit washed out though so was thinking of maybe trying the Epson TW5300 just to see what the difference is like mainly

I will need in built speakers for the time being though as after all its only for watching Peppa Pig etc

Any thoughts??

 

[Zefan]

Ah I'm jealous, discovering home projectors is a joy. I'm not sure about the TW5300 as I only have experience with the TW3200, but if it's anything like that it'll be really decent for the price and have an extremely handy
vertical and horizontal lens shift so you can have more flexibility as to where the projector sits while throwing the image off at an angle. You've reminded me actually, I need to get round to selling mine! I wish I could still use it but I just don't have the space required anymore unfortunately.

 

[Phonesis]

I've had an Epson TW3200 set up now for about 5 years. Recently moved to new flat and managed to set it up in similar fashion to old place. Use the lens shift to tilt the image to the right so it's as centred to my 3 seat sofa as I can get based on the layout I have gone for where it sits on a tallboy chest of drawers to the right of the sofa.

Projectors are awesome for films. Imo not so much for gaming or general TV (maybe sport is good though). But ultimately, it's for films. You'd definitely want to get one with lens shift as it allows for flexibility regarding image placement. Epsons are generally a good way to go as they use LCD tech as opposed to DLP, which means you won't stand any chance of falling foul of the rainbow effect.

Sound plays a big role though and really you need a decent sound setup to get the full projector experience. A sound bar minimum I'd say. They can be loud when they run, even on eco modes, so you need to be able to boost the sound over the fan noise. Another factor is wall or screen. I still just beam mine onto a white wall. It's not optimal but looks fine. Perhaps blacks are tad washed out though but projector set ups are generally a case of compromises unless you can create a dedicated projector room.

But yeah, go for it! But only if you are into regular film consumption imo.

 

[Rroff]

Big fan of Optoma here - I went through a phase of going for the latest and greatest projectors but ended up back on my old Optoma HD70 (1280x720) as there wasn't a lot of content that really showed a big difference movie/TV show wise at 80-100" even a lot of content that is high resolution due to the compression you don't really lose anything noticeable at 720p though there is some proper 4K, etc. content starting to emerge now but even then many of the platforms are locked down to certain hardware setups