Home Theatre Projectors

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tweak50

.NET/PHP dabbler
Sep 12, 2007
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Wisconsin
So I was thinking of getting a Home Theater Projector, after some research I came to the conclusion that I don't know shit about them.

What I want is a projector that can produce a 50 inch screen at good resolution without spending a fortune, maybe $1500-$2000 max. Anyone have any recommendations or is my price range too low?
 


Are you sure you want a projector? You need a really really dark room to make it look good. Plus, there's bulb replacement costs, depending how much TV you watch.
 
Are you sure you want a projector? You need a really really dark room to make it look good. Plus, there's bulb replacement costs, depending how much TV you watch.

No, I'm not 100% sure yet. I have seen a couple at various houses that looked good without 100% darkness. From the little research I've done it sounds like sunlight does the most damage to the image, but thats something I need to look into further.

As for the bulbs, I don't watch very much tv. Mostly just movies at night with the lady friend.
 
You price range is fine. We spent $900 on a Panasonic PT-AX200U and we love it.

Another factor is your screen color. We ended up with a light grey screen.

We don't use this alot during the day. Mostly at night so the room is nice and dark.
 
I'm actually fairly well versed in home theater. If you give some more info I might be able to make a recommendation.

What size of room is it (the length from where the projector is to the screen)?
This is known as the "throw"

What approximate angle will the projector be at?
This is known as the pitch.

What are the lighting conditions? Any daylight or street light through the windows? Are the windows on the side or behind the projector? Florescent or halogen lights?

Whats the viewing distance (distance from the seating to the screen) and angle?
Viewable angles make a big difference in projectors.

What size of screen can you accomidate?

Whats your screen budget?
Screens make a bigger impact than you can imagine. Some great info from one of the best manufacturers

Whats your video sources?
dvd player, computer, 360? is it hd? What inputs do you need?
 
I'm actually fairly well versed in home theater. If you give some more info I might be able to make a recommendation.

What size of room is it (the length from where the projector is to the screen)?
This is known as the "throw"

What approximate angle will the projector be at?
This is known as the pitch.

Well I plan on mounting it on the ceiling, so the throw could be whatever it needs to be, and as for the pitch, that I dont know what it would be. I would assume both the projector and screen would be hung from the ceiling.

What are the lighting conditions? Any daylight or street light through the windows? Are the windows on the side or behind the projector? Florescent or halogen lights?

There are windows that would be to the back left of the projector. No street lights shine through at night.

Whats the viewing distance (distance from the seating to the screen) and angle?
Viewable angles make a big difference in projectors.

This I am not sure about. The screen has to be hung, and the couch would be ~20-25 feet back.

What size of screen can you accomidate?

70 inches

Whats your screen budget?
Screens make a bigger impact than you can imagine. Some great info from one of the best manufacturers

I would like to spend max 2 grand (projector + screen). But if screen will make that big of an impact I can wait a little longer and spend more.

Whats your video sources?
dvd player, computer, 360? is it hd? What inputs do you need?
Component,Composite,DVI...


I know these are all really rough estimates. If they are not enough I can get something more exact. Thanks for help on this, rep+
 
cool.

If I may make a suggestion I think you'd be really happy with the Optima HD7100.

Its got the highest lumens and contrast ratio for your midrange pitch and throw(~5000 contrast ratio and ~1,600 lumens). Which are needed for those rear lit windows. It's got all the plugs you should need including the dvi and does the necessary resolutions and formats for the uses ( NTSC, PAL, SECAM, EDTV (480p), HDTV (576i/p, 720i/p, 1080i/p)). It's also well within your price range for about $1,000. The lamps are also reasonable at about $350-$400 and have long life spans (bout 3000 hours). Which at your tv time one lamp will probably last you about 6-10 years.

For your conditions I'm going to recommend a tension white screen, although silver will work if you have florescent lighting (didn't answer that question). Elite makes some awesome screens that will fit your wall/aspect ratio and work beautifully with that projector assuming you'll have a less than 30 degree pitch (with a ceiling mount on a ceiling less than or equal to 10' high and a throw of 20ft is usually between 15-20 degrees).
I'd recommend any of their Cinetension series. Here's one for $600, but you can probably find it cheaper if you shop around. It'll also give you about a 50 degree optimal viewing area. You should do a bit of research to know what the viewing angles mean to make sure it'll fit your seating setup. At 25' you should be able to accommodate a 14' couch (avg 3 seat couch length is 7'). That'll leave you $400 for cabling and a wall mountable surround sound system.

This is all assuming of course that you still think a projector is the way to go. You should shop around and see what kind of plasma or lcd you can get in your price range.
 
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Yeah, holy shit. I never expected to get that kind of response, you really know your shit. Thanks a lot man. I'm still taking everything into consideration between projectors/lcd/plasma but I'm about 75% sure I'm going to go with a projector.

It will be a little bit before I can get exact measurements of how everything is going to be set up, do you mind if I shoot you pm when I get all of that?
 
thanks and sure you're welcome to pm any questions ya have. Any I can't answer I'll forward over to friend of mine who used to run my home theater biz and is a complete whiz at this stuff.

images, I'll take some pics. I don't actually have a projector setup though.
 
If you're handy, you can make your own screen, too. Just throwing that out there.

Also, if you plan to play any console games that require wires for controllers, you'll have to route all that somehow.
 
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