Projectors....worth it?

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I'm having a little space issue in my house and have a lot of space on my wall so have been thinking of getting a projector to display all my dvd/game/tv needs.

I'm not looking to go above £500 because I would also like to save on buying a HDTV. I've seen a couple, such as the Epson EMP-TW20 1200, which look pretty decent.

I'd just like some advice on projectors for that price if possible. I will need better curtains I realise as I do get quite a lot of light in my house.

Thanks for any help.

-greg
 
First of all, you will need to make the room very dark for a very good picture. Any amount of extra light in the room will just lead to poor contrast in your picture.

£500 is a very tight budget. Whilst projectors are available for this, I'm not sure what the quality is like. You will want to get one capable of at least 720P resolution. Then you need to decide between DLP and LCD. DLP projectors can offer better contrast than their LCD counterparts, but can also suffer from a rainbow effect, where on certain models with a slow colour wheel, if you scan your eyes across an area of white on the screen, you notice the changing of colours.

If you've never used a projector before, any half decent model will probably be impressive.

Something like a second hand Panasonic AE500 might be worth a look.
 
A projector is not a replacement for a tv you simple cant run it 12 hours a day it will blow a bulb every couple of months and there not cheap to replace.
If your gonna use it for a few hours a day then there great i have a panasonic ae500 and from 10ft away it makes a picture of 100 inches :D A screen is also needed a wall just dont cut it screens cost about 100 quid for 80inch manual pulldown one.
Projectors dont have sound so you would need some sort of amp and speakers that you connect to your dvd/sky/console this unfortunatly takes u well over budget.
 
danoliver1 said:
A projector is not a replacement for a tv you simple cant run it 12 hours a day it will blow a bulb every couple of months and there not cheap to replace.
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12 hours a day every day for nearly six months would be about 2000 lamp hours... which would be about average life for the bulbs in most models.

Who watches TV for 12 hours a day though? Do you not work or sleep?! :p :confused:
 
Well worth it in my opinion, but don't rush into it. You need a demo of all the products first.

Here's mine running through my PC:

IMG_4826.jpg


IMG_4808.jpg


First pic is taken in a pitch black room

2nd is taken late in the day, with the curtains half drawn.

It's an Panasonic AE900, probably sell new at around 850 now or something
 
thanks for the info. I realise I will have to spend more on bits and bobs. Thankfully I have a amp setup already, just need some proper surround speakers. How bad is the difference between using a white wall and a screen.

I know theres a difference but would I really be losing out that much? Though I think I will buy a screen all the same...
 
Guys I dont want to destroy this thread but I won a Philips cSmart LC4433 off the bay & I wanted to know if it would look like your's on that wall dispite your's having 5500:1 contrast ratio? :p Also how much did your white screen cost & do you actually need one? Say Im projecting onto a coloured wall would it make that much difference if it was dark etc?
 
RoachycaL said:
Guys I dont want to destroy this thread but I won a Philips cSmart LC4433 off the bay & I wanted to know if it would look like your's on that wall dispite your's having 5500:1 contrast ratio? :p Also how much did your white screen cost & do you actually need one? Say Im projecting onto a coloured wall would it make that much difference if it was dark etc?
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Well the wall will colour anything projected onto it. White light projected onto a yellow wall will appear yellow, there's no way around this. I'm sure your projector is a decent entry level model, but to get the most of out it you should at the very least get a white wall. Better than this might be to use some blackout cloth, I think Ikea do a good blackout blind for about £25 that is supposedly pretty good.

Toothbrush - you seem to have the contrast too high as there's a marked lack of distinction in areas of black in that image. Of course, it might just be the photo. :o

Edit: Sorry it was the rubbish TFT monitor I was using at college... browsing at home on my projector your image is much nicer. :D
 
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T00thBru5h said:
Well worth it in my opinion, but don't rush into it. You need a demo of all the products first.

Here's mine running through my PC:





First pic is taken in a pitch black room

2nd is taken late in the day, with the curtains half drawn.

It's an Panasonic AE900, probably sell new at around 850 now or something
Click to expand...

Is that second photo from A band of brothers?
 
At a guess i'd say so :)

*BTW i've been to T00thBru5hs house and that PJ setup he's got is really quite something - just spent the best part of a day with my Wii hooked up to it - pretty darn good fun!

Shame as i'd get one but my room ain't big enough :(
 
I see rbe on all dlp projectors and have no choice but to go for lcds. This isn't really a problem, though, lcd projectors have come on a great deal in recent years - so much so infact that a shiny new Epson TW1000 is in the post as I type :)

It cost a fair chunk, but is 1080p, nice and bright for video games and daytime viewing, great for movies, and beats any 720p dlp i've demod. It's hard to splash out on a plasma when you can get a picture of this size for roughly the same cash.
 
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Make sure you invest in a screen - I'm going to get myself a high-gain slimline model from DRH screens sometime over the summer. :o
 
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