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Video Projector for Home Theater?
ZeLonewolf writes "I'm thinking about setting up a movie-style home theater system. I've already got the room set up and I've obtained a nice sound system. The last step is to acquire a video projector. I'm considering a few options: Projectors on eBay run from $300 to the tens of thousands. On the other hand, being an electrical engineer, there are plans online to build your own (Google cache), that are potentially as cheap as $200. What are Slashdotters' experiences? Will a $300 projector do the job? How about a home brew?"
Link to a Yahoo group, and their bandwidth is exceeded even before the story is posted. Niiiice...
The "homebrew" ones are a joke if you want something with a decent picture. And the contraption itself looks riduculous. Forget it.
There is a good deal on a refurbed DLP projector for about $3500 -- check gotapex.com (great site for deals). Read around for more info on what DLP is, but that and LCD are preferable to CRT projectors these days.
Anyway, you're more likely to get better information from someplace that deals directly with home theater equipment. The forum at Home Theater Spot has great information, despite their gestapo posting rules.
a $300 projector will more likely than not have poor quality and have faults within a year, there is a reason that good quality projecters are priced so highly. I have only expierenced bad quality when i have used cheap projectors on my projects, so i would recommend buying new from a top retailer such as Sony, and see how it suits you. And if you don't like it / it has faults you can return it with warranty
Business Voyeur
My father in law works at Texas Instruments and got ahold of one of those DLP projectors. Holy moly, that thing looks GREAT. We watched Two Towers on it, and he had put up a simple white sheet on the wall to watch the movie on. It looked very nice, like a smaller movie projection. Colors are extremely bright; I'd been so used to projectors losing brightness proportional to their distance that the brightness of this thing took me by surprise.
Plus those DLP chips are just so freakin' cool.
To put it in perspective, it might be helpful to compare the Z2 to the Sharp XV-Z9000. That DLP unit came out two years ago at a price of $11,000 and was heralded as an outstanding achievement. Like the Z2 it had 1280x720 resolution and an 800 ANSI lumen rating. And at the time people were blown away by the Z9000's dazzling contrast--rated at 1100:1. The fact is you would not be far off to think of the Z2 as better-performing Sharp Z9000 for one-fifth the price.
... with the technology changing this fast it doesn't make a lot of sense to buy on ebay. You'll save a bit on the retail cost and lose a wad on performance.
I love how everyone seems to be bitchin' and moanin' about projector's limited bulb life. I was worried about it too when I was choosing my projector but then did some math and calmed down.
The bulb life on my Sony VPL-HS20 is 3000 hours in "cinema mode". I figure that with my schedule I won't be able to watch more than 1 hour per day (aside from an occasional LOR marathon). So that gives me a whooping 3,000 days before bulb goes caput. That's over 8 friggin' years! I figure that in eight years technology will advance so far that instead of spending $$$ on a new bulb I'll get a new projector or whatever the imaging device de la creme will be. (300dpi wall-to-wall imaging nanopaper, anyone?)
As for people saying that projectors are expesnive, I have to disagree. I get an eyepopping 120" diag. image for under $3K. Even if plasma screen of this size existed, it would probably cost over $100K. Of course, a nice Home Theater PC that is hooked up to the projector through DVI and an excellent 120" sceeen from Carada.com cost me an extra 1.5K, it is still a bargain. The only drawback is that the room has to be relatively dark, but this is not a problem in my case because it is in the basement.
"You mortals are so obtuse." -Q
Don't go with a projector if you don't have the budget. A sub $1k projector is just plain painful if you ever do see a $5k+ one in action.
My primary TV is a 60" Plasma, and I am adding a Vidikron Projector ($10k) with a drop down 10' screen . I have used cheap projectors, and after the novelty wears off, I hated watching anything on it.
As a (retired) EE at age 51, I've built a lot of projects. I learned a long time ago to ask myself the following question before any home project starts:
Do I want to HAVE it, or do I want to BUILD it.
Saved myself a lot of work that way.
Cloned foods give the statement "We had that last week!" a whole new meaning.
I'm not saying that projector bulb prices aren't inflated, but they are certainly a LONG way from your floor lamp analogy.
Really? OK, maybe his analogy ($20 for a 500w floor lamp bulb) which makes the projector bulb only 10x to 20x as expensive. But if he really pays anywhere near $20 for a simple 500w halogen bulb, he is getting taken.
In reality, I buy 500w halogen bulbs for less than $1/ea, and they put out visually the same color of light as the $5-$10 GE bulbs and seem to last about the same hours (usually physical shock takes them out before the wear out). So you are telling me that something justifies 200x to 400x the price, which seems to be the typical range for the mid-grade LCD and DLP projectors? Or do you think 20x to 40x is justified, and the other 10x is just an "inflated" price?
Given the science of light color in a halogen bulb, I find it nearly impossible to imagine any justification for a 200x to 400x price delta even if 10x or 100x of it was inflation. A halogen light isn't rocket science, is it? It wasn't when I was taking my stage lighting classes 20+ years ago...
The bulb envelope must be quartz to withstand the heat, and the color of that quartz filters the color of light from the filament. The temperature of the filament determines the color it produces, and that temperature is primarily determined by the available current at the applied voltage. The halogen in the envelope helps the evaporating tungsten from the filament deposit back onto the filament instead of onto the envelope, but it isn't 100% effective so the envelope gradually darkens, and the filament develops a thin spot, and that leads to the death of the bulb.
I wonder how much it would add to the cost of the projector to use a little sensor to detect the color of the light, and a bit of active control to adjust the current thru the filament to change the temperature?
Of course it couldn't compensate 100% for flaws in a cheap bulb or the effects of bulb wear, but surely with $200 to $400 to play with, it could do a lot.
sdb
Which is why it's not a great idea to make your home theatre your "leave the TV on while you do other stuff" room.
:)
I have my X1 for watching movies and playing (big) games on, however when I just want to watch the news, or regular TV, I have a small 27" screen that I switch the input to.
Works great and saves the bulb!
Of course, the X1 bulb is rated at 4,000 hours, and only costs around $250-300 as I recall, so it's not too terrible. It should last me around 6 or 7 years with the amount that I use it, by which point I'll definately have something newer anyway
N.
"Nothing strengthens authority so much as silence." - Charles de Gaulle
I'd think twice about investing beaucoup bucks on a screen if you're going for a low-end projector. I paid just under $1,100 for my Sanyo PLV-Z1 (very happy with it, outstanding picture), but I couldn't justify blowing potentially *way* more on a pro screen. As others have mentioned, AVS Forum is THE site, and its Screens forum is full of cheap (as in inexpensive) do-it-yourself ideas. I created an essentially pro-quality screen by spending about $60 on a 4-by-8 sheet of Formica, some Kilz primer, and a pint of Behr Ultra White paint (all available at your local Home Depot). I used my old Wagner power painter to get nice, even coverage (it's tough to get rollers to cooperate), and finished the job with some cheap wood molding spray-painted black for a screen frame (a key; it really makes the colors jump out). I got some Velcro strips to secure the whole shebang to the wall, and presto -- great screen for a fraction of what the pros cost. I'm the anti-Norm Abram as a handyman, so if I can do it, anyone can.