Running a projector as the main viewing system?

Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
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Hey guys,

What are the pros and cons of having a projector as your only 'TV'?

Obviously, there's the bulbs, but what about the nitty gritty, like warm up / cool down times? (n00b alert).

It won't be used for TV at all, just DVDs and game consoles (NES, SNES, Gamecube and Wii when it comes out).

Can they support NTSC, PAL and PAL-60?

Any good makes to look out for 2nd hand? (I'd be reluctant to spend £1k on a new one, but ~£500 would be OK, so I thought 2nd would be best).
 
major downside is having to block out ambient light. you will need a fairly dark room.

I actually dont like gaming on mine, the screen is too large !

spec wise, they will pretty much play anything you thow at them, 500 is a bit low but a little more should secure a second hand panasonic AE700 or Sanyo Z3
 
Bulbs aren't cheap and are only warenteed for about 500 hours, if they pop any time after that its £200-£400 depending on the model.

Ambient light is a pain and unless you have you rig in a cellar like mine you'll need think curtains.

Noise- some projectors are noisy, mine isn't but I can still hear it

Dust - you'll need to make sure the room isn't too dusty else the filter will block and the bulb will die quicker

For me the benifits outweigh the costs and I do everything on my projector (including typing this) apart from watching TV, all PC, console and film watching is done on the projector a Panny AE700

MB

MB
 
Jimbo Mahoney said:
Hey guys,

What are the pros and cons of having a projector as your only 'TV'?

Obviously, there's the bulbs, but what about the nitty gritty, like warm up / cool down times? (n00b alert).

It won't be used for TV at all, just DVDs and game consoles (NES, SNES, Gamecube and Wii when it comes out).

Can they support NTSC, PAL and PAL-60?

Any good makes to look out for 2nd hand? (I'd be reluctant to spend £1k on a new one, but ~£500 would be OK, so I thought 2nd would be best).


SNAP :) Im thinking about the exact same thing a projector would be unbelievably awesome for the wii,,,, :) but have no idea about projectors at all :( seen a small review in this weeks xbox 360 mag and they had a £575 projector in there which got 5 stars which got me interested,, Im wondering how far the projector has to be from the wall?? and also do all current projectors have all the inputs for game consoles??
 
turtle3 said:
Im wondering how far the projector has to be from the wall?? and also do all current projectors have all the inputs for game consoles??

Do you really live in Snodland?

In answer to question is depends on the projector in both cases, many now how a zoom so you can adjust for throw length and most newer ones have VGA and component although not all.

MB
 
Jimbo Mahoney said:
Do you know if they support PAL, NTSC and PAL-60? That's important for me...


I'd be stunned if you could find one that doesn't.

As for using them all the time, mine is never used for less than three hours at a time, there's no specifc reason for that just my own logic than switching it off and on all the time is not good.
 
Matblack said:
Maidstone here :)
Used to be in East Malling :D

MB


Cool, thats only five mins away, thought you was asking because Snodland is a funny name, everyone laughs when I tell em where I live lol,

BTW what I said about the projector in the 360 mag was completely wrong,, just found the mag and read the article again and the price was £1570 :eek: it was the panny A900 model,, five stars and they said its the nuts,, bit over my £600 limit though,,lol
 
turtle3 said:
Cool, thats only five mins away, thought you was asking because Snodland is a funny name, everyone laughs when I tell em where I live lol,

BTW what I said about the projector in the 360 mag was completely wrong,, just found the mag and read the article again and the price was £1570 :eek: it was the panny A900 model,, five stars and they said its the nuts,, bit over my £600 limit though,,lol

Second hand AE500 or AE700 tbh :)

MB
 
I've had an AE500 for over two years now and still love it, don't be put off by the fact its 'old' (in tech terms at least) it's fully HD ready and will take any signal you give it.
Right now even if I had the cash I wouldn't consider changing it as I don't think the subsequent projectors have improved enough (other than being brighter and a few handy extras).

It looks stunning with an HD image
 
As has been said before, the mojor concern should be the amount of light being let into the room. It is very hard to play console games in anything but very low light. TV is hardly worth watching too. Artificial light tends to affect the image less than sunlight. If I were you, I'd certainly look at getting a smaller inferior conventional TV to watch crappy daytime TV on or play the odd quick game on when it's too sunny. You could buy blackout blinds, but it's almost impossible to block out all the light without spending a bit of cash on it.
 
Very true, light coming in is the bain of my life, a little light when watching dark scenes completely ruins and stopping light seeping through is incredibly hard. I have blackout curtains but I still end up hanging bed sheets and shirts on hangers over the front of the curtains.
 
Goatboys comments just prompted me to put up my new blind in the cellar which has been gathering dust for 6 months :D. Need to make a blackout flue for the light well too :)

MB
 
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