Projectors

[Steve]

A projector, in your own home... imagine that! I guess at least a couple of people might have one and we quite fancy one in our house next year, but there's the issue of expense and bulbs.

So, what options are there out there? It'll be used for standard def TV, mostly.

Cheers.

[jimborae]

I've got a Sharp projector and for the money I paid it really is very good (£399), although it's an old model (XV-Z91E ). It does HD and has loads of inputs apart from HDMI and is fairly quiet.

Afraid I can't really comment on options are out there as I got this as an impulse buy as the price was so good at the time. However I will say this, if you're going to use it to watch SD broadcasts you need a very good source and get the highest native widescreen resolution you can . ITV world cup matches were virtually unwatchable on my projector due to lack of bandwidth from ITV. BBC HD World Cup matches were fantastic & the XBox 360 looks great on it as well in HD.

[dancingmatt]

I posted this on another thread but that's dead. Steve, I do have a projector at home and it is absolutely fantastic. It was bought only for gaming and films off a PC but now we use it for some TV too. The things you want to look for:

Noise - you want one which is no more than about 26dB if possible, or you'll hear it when watching TV, playing etc. Most projectors have an economy mode which is quieter, but less bright and also makes the bulb last longer. I wouldn't get that first one you linked to.

LCD/DLP - these are the 2 main formats. DLP looks better to many people, and can be brighter, BUT can also give people mad headaches. Basically (and from the many many pages I've read about projectors there's no way to tell for definite if this will affect you), DLP projectors have a colour wheel which spins. For some people, this causes any sudden movement of something bright (i.e. white or close to) to have a coloured streak behind it, like a tail of red green blue. I saw it on a film which had a dungeon lit by flaming torches. If you don't see it, fine, but if you do you'll hate watching the thing. Best way to tell - go to a shop with DLP televisions (same technology) and move your eyes left to right to left to right etc. quickly.

So I went for an LCD projector, because I do suffer from seeing this - and besides even if I didn't, someone who came round to watch it might. So you need to decide whether or not you want to go for LCD or DLP.

Resolution - I wouldn't go for anything less than 576 lines vertically since that's what PAL TV is broadcast in. Anything lower than that will need to compress the picture. And you'll be surprised how low resolution even Freeview is when you're watching a big screen. (ITV football in particular is terrible, as jimborae said.)

Connections - make sure whatever you buy you can plug into it!

Contrast ratio - at a minimum, 1200:1 I think.

Darkness - bear in mind you need a dark room and ideally a white or VERY close to white wall (or screen, but that'll cost you more). Doesn't have to be pitch black but definitely dark. Projectors don't project black - it's just nothing - so the darkest part of the picture is the colour of the wall it's projecting on. Go home, turn out the lights, shut the curtains, if the wall looks black then fine.

If you want a screen, you can make one from some Ikea blackout material and put it on a wooden frame for about £20.

One last thing - when you buy a good one you will be amazed by it and I reckon you'll end up wanting to use it a lot more than you think now, so I really recommend you buy a good one. Worth it in the long run, and unless you exclusively watch TV on it all the time, the bulb can last you years. I reckon my projector and bulb (2000-3000 hours on economy mode) will last me about 6 or 7 years at the rate it's being used.

DM

[Steve]

Thanks so far guys. I should have saved you some typing time DM and said that I'm aware the technologies and how they work... it's my job to know

What I'm really after is the opinions of people who've used them. What projector do you actually have, DM?

Have I posted this question before? Am I going mad? So many questions.

[harlequin]

for standard def any data projector will do , preferably 1600 ansi lumens , that way you can have room lights on too

stay away from dells data projectors , the wording is scarey. up to 1600 ansi lumens ( because their bulbs die slowly from day one , losing lumen output )

we have phillips / hitachi / benq and all are ok.

nice ones are the wifi enabled ones , at approx £600+vat

[dancingmatt]

Thanks so far guys. I should have saved you some typing time DM and said that I'm aware the technologies and how they work... it's my job to know

ARGH Oh well it was just a copy and paste job from another post anyway!

What I'm really after is the opinions of people who've used them. What projector do you actually have, DM?

I'm the happy owner of a Sanyo Z3, which has been superceded by the Z4. For a long time over on AV Forums (which has a whole forum on Projectors) there were three models that were repeatedly recommended as the very best quality (and great value for money) at about £1000 or less - the Sanyo Z3, Hitachi PX100 and Panasonic AE700. I think they've all been replaced by the Z4, PX200 and AE900 respectively.

Fortunately I got one of the few Z3s left before the Z4 was launched so saved £110 and got a free second bulb with it which is worth about £300. Very happy.

Can strongly recommend Ivojo.co.uk to buy from too.

DM