HD Projectors...hmmm...what to do?

[iamwhatiseem]

I don't know why I didn;t think of it before, but I know what want to do with the "2nd living room" in our house...a home theater. Right now it has two nice couches in it...but nobody really uses the room.
So anyway...HD projectors...what is up with these things?
Why in the hell call a device 1080p - when it projects 480p at best???
The range in prices is like nothing else I have seen in electronics...between $80 - $900....what the??
The room is 14'5" square.
I know nothing about projectors....anybody???

 

[Iceweasel]

I don't know why I didn;t think of it before, but I know what want to do with the "2nd living room" in our house...a home theater. Right now it has two nice couches in it...but nobody really uses the room.
So anyway...HD projectors...what is up with these things?
Why in the hell call a device 1080p - when it projects 480p at best???
The range in prices is like nothing else I have seen in electronics...between $80 - $900....what the??
The room is 14'5" square.
I know nothing about projectors....anybody???

I don't know much bout them, I only have a slide projector. But why bother when flat panels are so cheap now and you don't need a dark room? At 14' a 45" would be plenty big enough.

 

[iamwhatiseem]

I don't know why I didn;t think of it before, but I know what want to do with the "2nd living room" in our house...a home theater. Right now it has two nice couches in it...but nobody really uses the room.
So anyway...HD projectors...what is up with these things?
Why in the hell call a device 1080p - when it projects 480p at best???
The range in prices is like nothing else I have seen in electronics...between $80 - $900....what the??
The room is 14'5" square.
I know nothing about projectors....anybody???

I don't know much bout them, I only have a slide projector. But why bother when flat panels are so cheap now and you don't need a dark room? At 14' a 45" would be plenty big enough.

I get that..the TV in the living room we use is 55" and certainly enjoyable to watch movies on...but it still doesn't offer the immersion of seeing a movie in a theater. I have RA and chronic venous insufficiency in both legs - so sitting in a theater chair for two hours without ability to change position is not easy for me at all. So I would like to get that at home.
I will say projectors are way-way cheaper than large flat screens (70" plus) = in fact you can probably buy 2 or even 3 projectors for the price of a 70+ flat screen.

 

[Iceweasel]

I don't know why I didn;t think of it before, but I know what want to do with the "2nd living room" in our house...a home theater. Right now it has two nice couches in it...but nobody really uses the room.
So anyway...HD projectors...what is up with these things?
Why in the hell call a device 1080p - when it projects 480p at best???
The range in prices is like nothing else I have seen in electronics...between $80 - $900....what the??
The room is 14'5" square.
I know nothing about projectors....anybody???

I don't know much bout them, I only have a slide projector. But why bother when flat panels are so cheap now and you don't need a dark room? At 14' a 45" would be plenty big enough.

I get that..the TV in the living room we use is 55" and certainly enjoyable to watch movies on...but it still doesn't offer the immersion of seeing a movie in a theater. I have RA and chronic venous insufficiency in both legs - so sitting in a theater chair for two hours without ability to change position is not easy for me at all. So I would like to get that at home.
I will say projectors are way-way cheaper than large flat screens (70" plus) = in fact you can probably buy 2 or even 3 projectors for the price of a 70+ flat screen.

Last I heard the bulbs were stupid expensive to replace. They should last a while but I'd look into it before pulling the trigger.

 

[Auld Phart]

I've got a 55 with home theater in the family room, which, unfortunately has 4 windows and a patio door.

About dusk, when I want to watch a movie, I close all the drapes, pull up the movie, and sit back in my LazE boy, about 10' from the tv.

it's great

 

[iamwhatiseem]

Last I heard the bulbs were stupid expensive to replace. They should last a while but I'd look into it before pulling the trigger.

That's what I am trying to do - but websites selling these things make that frustratingly hard to do.
And clearly someone needs to look into the claims made by the makers. I question an entire brand that will label any of their projectors "1080p HD" - when in the small writing it clearly states it projects at 480p at BEST!!.

 

[Iceweasel]

Last I heard the bulbs were stupid expensive to replace. They should last a while but I'd look into it before pulling the trigger.

That's what I am trying to do - but websites selling these things make that frustratingly hard to do.
And clearly someone needs to look into the claims made by the makers. I question an entire brand that will label any of their projectors "1080p HD" - when in the small writing it clearly states it projects at 480p at BEST!!.

Well it's all in the lingo. It may be a 1080p projector but output is a different matter. They are hoping to capitalize on the unaware. I've been into photography and my projector is a Leica and I would be skeptical of claims of any inexpensive projector. Quality lenses are not cheap, never will be. And no quality anywhere else in the system can make up for it.

 

[BULLDOG]

Last I heard the bulbs were stupid expensive to replace. They should last a while but I'd look into it before pulling the trigger.

That's what I am trying to do - but websites selling these things make that frustratingly hard to do.
And clearly someone needs to look into the claims made by the makers. I question an entire brand that will label any of their projectors "1080p HD" - when in the small writing it clearly states it projects at 480p at BEST!!.

It is hard to figure it all out at first, but don't sweat it too much. It's still just a TV. Buy a fairly good mid range projector from Ebay It will last for a year or two, and by that time,you will know what you really want. Go ahead and get a top notch screen and be sure to block any extraneous light, because that has almost as much to do with the picture quality as the projector does.

 

[iamwhatiseem]

Last I heard the bulbs were stupid expensive to replace. They should last a while but I'd look into it before pulling the trigger.

That's what I am trying to do - but websites selling these things make that frustratingly hard to do.
And clearly someone needs to look into the claims made by the makers. I question an entire brand that will label any of their projectors "1080p HD" - when in the small writing it clearly states it projects at 480p at BEST!!.

Well it's all in the lingo. It may be a 1080p projector but output is a different matter. They are hoping to capitalize on the unaware. I've been into photography and my projector is a Leica and I would be skeptical of claims of any inexpensive projector. Quality lenses are not cheap, never will be. And no quality anywhere else in the system can make up for it.

Pisses me off.
Obviously a $69 projector is going to be crap, and someone who buys one expecting it to be all that is a moron. But what pisses me off is you have to decipher 10 feet of bullshit to try and figure out what you need.
There are $300 projectors that are only projecting 480p...now...that is a ripoff.

 

[iamwhatiseem]

Last I heard the bulbs were stupid expensive to replace. They should last a while but I'd look into it before pulling the trigger.

That's what I am trying to do - but websites selling these things make that frustratingly hard to do.
And clearly someone needs to look into the claims made by the makers. I question an entire brand that will label any of their projectors "1080p HD" - when in the small writing it clearly states it projects at 480p at BEST!!.

It is hard to figure it all out at first, but don't sweat it too much. It's still just a TV. Buy a fairly good mid range projector from Ebay It will last for a year or two, and by that time,you will know what you really want. Go ahead and get a top notch screen and be sure to block any extraneous light, because that has almost as much to do with the picture quality as the projector does.

I might disagree there...looking into that I see you can easily build a high quality screen from stretchable black out fabric for less than $75.

 

[BULLDOG]

Last I heard the bulbs were stupid expensive to replace. They should last a while but I'd look into it before pulling the trigger.

That's what I am trying to do - but websites selling these things make that frustratingly hard to do.
And clearly someone needs to look into the claims made by the makers. I question an entire brand that will label any of their projectors "1080p HD" - when in the small writing it clearly states it projects at 480p at BEST!!.

It is hard to figure it all out at first, but don't sweat it too much. It's still just a TV. Buy a fairly good mid range projector from Ebay It will last for a year or two, and by that time,you will know what you really want. Go ahead and get a top notch screen and be sure to block any extraneous light, because that has almost as much to do with the picture quality as the projector does.

I might disagree there...looking into that I see you can easily build a high quality screen from stretchable black out fabric for less than $75.

As long as the fabric is bright, and you want to put some labor into it, I don't see a problem with that.

 

[Bleipriester]

I don't know why I didn;t think of it before, but I know what want to do with the "2nd living room" in our house...a home theater. Right now it has two nice couches in it...but nobody really uses the room.
So anyway...HD projectors...what is up with these things?
Why in the hell call a device 1080p - when it projects 480p at best???
The range in prices is like nothing else I have seen in electronics...between $80 - $900....what the??
The room is 14'5" square.
I know nothing about projectors....anybody???

The price is mostly about the lifetime of the lamp in it, I guess.

 

[BULLDOG]

Just keep in mind that a great projection system is designed to block out anything but the image being projected, and the sound that goes with it. As close to total immersion as possible. If you expect to have a grand kid playing on the floor,while you watch, and occasionally showing you the picture they are drawing, or asking you to help pick out the best color for a cow's eyes, you might want another TV in another room for that.

 

[iamwhatiseem]

Just keep in mind that a great projection system is designed to block out anything but the image being projected, and the sound that goes with it. As close to total immersion as possible. If you expect to have a grand kid playing on the floor,while you watch, and occasionally showing you the picture they are drawing, or asking you to help pick out the best color for a cow's eyes, you might want another TV in another room for that.

Definitely, I intend to use the room to watch movies...and that's it.
We have a Family Room for visitors etc.

 

[iamwhatiseem]

Update...
After reading watching vids from this site --> Home Theater Projector Buyers Guide | Projector People

I decided to buy this one... http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00NJTXWOA/?tag=ff0d01-20

The first link was buy far the best site I ran into when researching. They explain all of the eons of numbers and descriptions in layman's terms as well as explain the ones that mean the most.

I chose the Epson 3000 for the following reasons:

1) ACTUAL 16:9 projected ratio...I can't imagine the number of buyers that bought a $300 projector then realizing that the ratio is 4:3 when in the description it clearly says 16:9...which actually means it can accept 16:9 and transmit correctly to 4:3. BIG difference.
2) Contrast...this one is 60,000 to 1, which will give deep blacks and brite whites...which has everything to do with how crisp and sharp a picture is. They had a video that showed the difference between cheaper 10,000 to one and 50,000 to one and above. With the 10,000 to 1 - you don't get black...you get dark gray...and you don't get white...you get light gray.
3) 2300 lumens...plenty bright for Home Theater use, anything brighter is really a waste unless you have a lot of ambient light in your room.
4) And finally last but certainly not least - 1080p Native Resolution. I cannot believe the number of makers that, IMO, are outright deceiving buyers buy listing 1080p in the description when in fact it is only 480p - at BEST.

Amazon was $500 cheaper (brand new) than Best Buy, which looking at options - Jesus Christ are they high!! $100's higher than everyone else around here.