Home Theater Projectors

[rogerroger90]

Anybody have any experience with home theater projectors and how they look hooked up to a computer. I want to watch movies and use the same projector for cruising the net. How is the resolution / readability of these when you have them hooked to a computer.

Thanks

[Tron]

I have one, but I use it as a big screen TV..... I put it in the basement and now it is my 75" TV!!!!!! I had two, that I got for free from my work. They were going to toss them out!!!!! I put one up and sold one. Original price for these were $8000, but that is because they are Industrial models. So I am not sure if my opinion is going to help you. I love mine, the picture quality it GREAT, and you can pump any video source through it. The kids want to play PS2 on it... LOL... Too bad I did not know you wanted one. I sold that other one for $400.....

[Jim]

Roger,

I have one of these (I bought it a few years back) at work. I brought it home a few times and it works reasonably well on a PC for everything but you need a good screen for maximum potential along with a rather "dull" room. (~About the same as a Rear Projection LCD TV.)

My Son loved using the PS2 with it (6 Foot High Screen!!) and we just set it up so he could shine it on his wall in his Bedroom. The sound (of course) is barely adequate, but that's really just a bonus anyway. You'd be better off connecting that into your Stereo, then you'd really get into it.

As my 37" Toshiba CRT is on it's last legs (getting darker:shocked: ) I too am looking for a Home Theater Screen. ($$$ permitting!!) However, my intent is for High Definition TV so I'm probably headed towards a DLP Set instead.

But each to their own ;)

[freonchill]

most projectors dont do over 1024x768; so unless you can get a good focus, distance (room), and distance (sitting), its going to be just like plugging your computer into a standard analog TV that could look a little blurry.

though, since the 1024x768 isnt being projected through a analog TV, the image wont be as blurry as if it were on an analog tv, since it isnt being reconverted into an analog transmission that is being stretched onto a 200-400line (600x400, or older tv: 320x200) screen)

though, there are supposed to be newer ones coming out soon that will have LED's for the "backlight" and this will help reduce the power requirements, along with the need for fans to cool the LCD thats pretty much getting penetrated by direct sunlight (most projectors use Xeon bulbs that are way hotter than regular incandescent or flourenscent bulbs)

though, if you think about it - the technology they are using for rear-projection LCD HDtv (HD monitors) it is the same theory, and unless you get a 1080i (1920x1080 resolution), normally a 42-60in monitor, then you are pretty much stuck w/ the 720i/p (1332x720 resolution) or less (getting back towards 1024x768)

[insertdisk]

Regular TV is 480i in the US (NTSC) and a few other places which is 720 x 480 or 640x480 interlaced. DVD's are 720x480 Progressive (basicly it means the whole screen is refreshed at the same time). If you take a look at hxxp://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/index.php (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/index.php)?
you should be able to get an idea of what kind of projector you may want and a price. A DVD upscaled and ran through a projector at 1024x768 can look awesome.

[rogerroger90]

I've pretty much decided that anything less than 1024 x 768 is unacceptable. Trying to find a projector with that resolution or better is almost imposible for under $1000, and the ones that are under $1000 are refurbs and very low Lumens. I'll keep looking. Thanks for the replies. Anyone else with ideas / advice is encouraged to chime in.
Thanks