Projectors/ Home Cinema?

[Caleb]

Anyone got much experience?

I was considering getting a 32/42 lcd wall mounted around December but after seeing the quality of a decent projector at uni in a similar sized room to mine im quite interested in anyones experience/ problems with them.

id probably be getting one on ebay if i did and assume a white board/background would be very beneficial to the quality of the image too?

cheers

[Revolver]

Whiteboards are shiny, so it would reflect the light of the projector. Admittedly, that's the point, but there'd be a big round glowing spot on there. I think they work better with a plain white flat wall. You can get projector screen things though, that pull down like a blind.

[JD™]

My buddy has a projector on the ceiling of his lounge, projects a screen size of 103" at the moment. Just straight onto a magnolia wall, looks awesome.

[Caleb]

Just had a look on ebay, seems the specific projector backgrounds are very beneficial, can even get motorized ones too which would be pretty swell, just seems a lot more cost effective and a better novelty than another 42"lcd

[anzo]

I was looking into this a while ago - I think Texas Instruments do some nice HD projectors - obviously the quality will never, ever match up to LCD, but can look good if you have the money and a decent place to put it.

Remember to check up on the price of the bulbs - these need replacing every XXX hours and can sometimes be rather expensive, just something to note. Probably do with some black out blinds too.

I've seen some very nice projector set ups in both home cinema and also business conference; they do look good, but like I said, bloody expensive.

[Boswell]

I have also been though the "I want a projector stage" but then came to my senses and got an LCD flat panel!

[DrDoom]

http://jforjustice.co.uk/banksters

[Mat Smith!!]

I thought about it, but read up that you have to change the bulbs alot and there pretty expencive? might want to concider that.

[DrDoom]

http://jforjustice.co.uk/banksters

[tomturd]

My mate has one, only thing to consider is the noise they generate... can get annoying.

[DrDoom]

http://jforjustice.co.uk/banksters

[Caleb]

I have also been though the "I want a projector stage" but then came to my senses and got an LCD flat panel!

Yeah like i say i have a 42" lcd and quite happy with it, but as its in my uni room i have no set up at home, and this seems the most cost effective way of getting what i want really.

Got one myself... I did have a Sony HD Projector, not sure on the specific model or anything, but it was just beamed onto a cream coloured wall, just over 6foot wide. Now I have an InFocus x17, lovely projector, great quality but just not HD, Spare bulb for them is £200, projector was £375 from projectorpoint.co.uk

Also 6foot onto a cream wall, bloody good quality, great for watching movies, playing games and everything on too. Combine it with my PA kit for DJing, 4kw rms, 8.5kw peak, and you certainly have home cinema.

Only thing to look at really is how much room you have, to get a decent size on a wall with a standard throw projectore you'll need it about 15 foot away. Unless you get short throw, then you can have it at about 5-10 for a huge image... hit me on msn for any info you need dude.

jamiehail@hotmail.co.uk

Thanks a lot for that, really helpful and optimisitic ha.

My rooms just a little over 18 foot long so hopefully that should accomodate a regular/smallish projector quite well?

Is there an ideal ratio to distance projected: size of screen? e.g if i went for a 100" screen should there be a specific distance to mount the projector to get optimum results?

Thanks to everyone for the information, probably looking to buy in around a month so will keep you all updated.

[DrDoom]

http://jforjustice.co.uk/banksters

[Caleb]

Ah top shelf, had a bit of a play around looks like im after a 180 width X 135 height in general for the screen but will just buy the projector first then the appropriate screen after or get them both of a seller on ebay selling his old set up etc.

Also just to add, not going to be in much use as im at home about 5 months of the year,

Random fact i just learned : never turn the projector off at the mains as it doesnt allow time for the bulb to cool down and can reduce the bulbs life by 50 percent.

suppose its a similar concept to a turbo timer on a car? makes sense really.

[MadManMike]

Yeah, switch the unit to standby and the lamp cools down. Once the light stops flashing it's safe to switch off.

When I worked in the home cinema trade you'd be amazed how many people tried to get refunds...

"My lamp blew up!"

[Caleb]

Is there any way to prevernt that apart from not being careless?

Would a surge protector do any good?

Been looking at more on ebay, think im just going to try and buy a set up off someone with a similarly sized room etc.

[Mr Motivator]

I've got a projector. It's ace.

I use a 6' white roller blind to project on to. It's got black-out material on the back and was £20 from Argos, It's Bloody ace.

As for the projector it's a Hitachi 1024*768 and it's perfect. I bought it second hand for £100 with 200 hours on the lamp.

I have the projector set about 3.5 meters from the screen and get a 90 inch screen.

Go buy one!!

[Krisboats]

I did a little research into it a while ago as we were looking at getting one for our house. What i would advise is where most people seem to fall down for home cinema if they haven't looked into it properly and that's the colour of the backdrop that you'll be projecting it onto. Normal projectors for office use generally won't be too bothered about good colour levels. Instead high contrast and visibility is needed for the all important information so it was standard practise to use white screens.

Watching movies is a whole different ball game though and colour levels are quite important. As such a white background for a projected image isn't the best option like most people seem to think it is from what they've seen of projector use in the past. The colour you'll be wanting is light grey to improve black levels and if you can find some cheap, an aluminium flake paint to improve the white levels in combination with the grey.

If you use white you'll more than likely find washed out blacks and overly bright white's to the point where they can be uncomfortable to look at.

A 2-4 inch thick matt black border round the outside should finish it off very nicely in terms of any overspill with the projector light too.

Here's a nice little piece on it on wiki if you're really that bored.

[DrDoom]

http://jforjustice.co.uk/banksters

[Krisboats]

I use a yellowish cream colour, almost like butter... Then in my projectors menu, you set it to a yellow wall, no burnt out colours, and grey blacks. Pure black and paper white.

Not gonna happen. Projectors work in the same way as a printer does in that they don't produce white in the normal sense. They beam high output light onto the surface and use the surfaces main colour as the white level. If your using a cream/yellow wall your whites will have a yellow tint. Plus there are all the other problems of wall surface evenness ruining your perceived immersion, reflectivity issues etc.

A dedicated screen is far superior to a yellow wall.

[Mr Motivator]

As said, light grey is best. Although I have excellent results with a plain white one.

I'll get some pictures up of a film.

Another thing to consider, which I found out, is the colour of the room you are in. My cinema is a conservatory and I wanted to watch movies in the day time but the blinds just wern't dark enough, so we blacked them out with thick white card on the windows and all on the roof to blank out the roof lights, so now the room is one massive, dark, but also white room. It's fine being dark, but when you fire up the projector, the light bounces off the screen and then off the white walls of the room and then back to the screen again, so you get a brighter more washed out image. So, paint your walls matt black and have a good screen and you'll be on winner there.