Projectors for Home Theater

[flavius]

In the past I have never payed much attention when the topic came up but now that I'm moving into a house where I could put one in I started looking into this.

What did you guys have put together? I assume what happend with Sage didn't make you dismantle what you have.

As to the projector to buy I'm not sure if I need 3D - in fact I have no idea what to expect in terms of PQ. The projectors that I use at work are quite basic and make me wonder if it's even worth the money considering that I have a new 62" plasma.

How large did you go?

[Carlton Bale]

I have a 123" screen and a JVC D-ILA projector. The front row is 11 feet from the screen. If you have a room with complete light control, front projection gives a fantastic viewing experience.

Here's a spreadsheet that helps determine screensize, resolution, and viewing distance: http://carltonbale.com/home-theater/...er-calculator/

[stanger89]

Well first off, don't base your opinion on the business-class machines you see at work, they're not great machines (they're just bright because they have to be), they're probably terribly set up, and they're in a terrible environment.

Projectors are totally worth it, 62" is tiny for watching movies, unless your room is also tiny and you sit really close (like <8').

What sort of budget are you looking at, that's going to play a big role. I've got a Planar 8150 (now being sold as the Runco LS5), it's a great machine, first one I've had for more than a year or so.

Probably the best "reasonably affordable" is the Sony VPL-VW1000ES, which can be had for a great price from AV Science, but it's still over $10k (though it is 4k and amazing from what I gather).

I haven't drunk the JVC coolaide, but they sound pretty amazing as well.

My advice would be to try and see a few machines of different technologies to see what you like/don't like (DLP/LCD/LCoS). If you can't see any, DLP is pretty nice, though I think you need to get a relatively high end one to get one with minimal compromises. I don't think you could go wrong, especially if you haven't developed any personal biases, with a JVC.

[panteragstk]

I've got a cheapo Mitsubishi HC4000 as my first PJ and I love it. Black levels are less than stellar, but you have to spend a bit to get decent black on DLP projectors.

Check out reviews on projectorcentral.com and projectorreviews.com

[flavius]

That's a lot of useful information and some great links - thanks, guys. I'm really looking forward to doing this this summer.

One of the place where I could I install it would be the basement, but I don't think I have an eight foot ceiling there - could it still work putting it underneath the ceiling?

[stanger89]

I've got about 7.5' ceilings in my basement/HT. What do you mean "underneath the ceiling"?

[flavius]

Mount it to the ceiling? Make sense now? English is not my first language, I actually had to look that one up.

[stanger89]

Yeah, I had weird thoughts going through my head like mounting it between a drop ceiling and the structure and weird stuff like that

[patja]

Like Carlton I too have a JVC D-ILA projector, albeit my screen at 105" is a bit smaller than his. I am on my second D-ILA projector, an RS-40. My previous one was an RS-1. Before that I had a BenQ and before that a...Panasonic LCD Projector I think?

I've been generally happy with the price/performance of the D-ILA line. The exception has been around the lamps which seemed to have a design defect originally. JVC stood behind their product though and shipped free replacement lamps when they failed prematurely. I bought my projectors direct from AVScience.

I recommend ignoring 3D, there just isn't that much content and it is still a bit bleeding edge in my opinion.

Light control is critical. I have blackout blinds that help, but I mostly just use it after the sun goes down. Helps me stay productive.

[pjpjpjpj]

I just completed my basement home theater about a month ago. Loving it so far. I view it as a "best case scenario in the small space I had" situation.

I went with the Epson 8350 projector. Native 1080p, great picture, nearly silent, great price (I got it for $1150 but cashed in Discover Card Bonus points at Crutchfield on e-certificates that give you 1.25x your dollar, so I effectively got 20% off that). My only gripe is that it's BIG. Like, "size of those old dinosaurs in your office conference room" big.

I have mostly 8' ceilings in my basement, but have a dropped area running right down the middle for ductwork that's 6'10". That means the top of the projector has to be lower than 6'10", making the bottom of the projector about 6'5" or so. So the projector is kinda hovering right in the middle of the room, in terms of aesthetics - something my wife doesn't really like too much. But I got around the "head knocker" issue by putting it over the seating, backed up where you can't walk into it, and you sit under it. Seating is a large sectional which is backed against a wall, so that wasn't a problem. You can, of course, reach up and touch the projector while sitting on the couch, but, well, you just don't. I do wish I could hide the projector better, but at this point, function is more important than aesthetics and the room was what the room was.

I only had width available for an 84" screen, but it's great for where we sit at about 10' to 13' away. I got a screen from elitescreens.com, their lowest-end automatic model, but it has been perfect so far. It came with a trigger cable and plug, so I am able to have the screen drop by the trigger port on the projector (the cable they provide was short but I spliced in a old piece of speaker wire to get it from the screen to the projector. My only complaint is that the screen drops VERY slowly, but I am powering on an HD200 from complete power-off state (not sleep, but switched off), and projectors always take a while to warm up, so conveniently everything seems to be ready all at about the same time.

I built a shelf unit to hold my surround receiver, three front speakers, old DVD player (in case of visiting friends bringing discs) and Sage extender. I mounted it at the ceiling, in front of the screen case. Wife isn't terribly happy about it either (it's bigger than she expected because the receiver is large... hey, honey, can't help that, they're all large), but it's up and out of the way. There is a cabinet on the ground (not an option for the AV stuff, which the projector screen literally stops about 1/8 of an inch above when it drops. I tucked the subwoofer next to it in the corner. The wife gets to hang art on the wall so the room at least looks a little "normal", and then when I turn on the projector, the screen drops (from behind the ceiling shelf) in front of the art.

See the room cross-section I attached to explain.

Everything works great so far and the wife (surprisingly so) and kids really enjoy watching movies and sports on it.