Projectors everywhere, but which one to pick?

[AndyFov]

edit:

Now irrelevant. New queries below:

[AndyFov]

Well, after taking that advice on board I've gone and bought Cogpaul's NEC 9PG.

I'm now after advice re its installation. With no internal doubler, I imagine I need a scaler more than ever before. With cash a major constraint, what's the most economical way forward for getting the most out of this pj?

I'm weighing up either allowing £300 for a scaler, or taking the HTPC route. I've been gifted an old Athlon 900Mhz pc, and wonder whether that with the right components added could be a more affordable solution. Taking into accounts that my dvd player is nothing special, perhaps HTPC is the way to go?

If anybody could recommend a minimum spec pc for getting decent results I'd appreciate that.

TIA

Andy

You've not lost me to the LCD board just yet.

[cosaw]

I am without crt pj, or decent PC, however in my opinion. I'd have a bash with the PC, a software player, powerstrip (for tweaking resolutions) and you'd need somthing like a VGA to HVRGB lead I beleive.

If you're fairly good with PCs then have a play instead of spending £300. I think there is no end of pottential for image quality via HTPC even with a modest amount of knowledge/research.

My problem is I have no money for a new PC, it's old and the processor is only 350Mhz, it plays some dvd's better than others, some it only drops a few frames, with others it drops more. I recon if I had 400Mhz it would play everything fine, however it would seem that pentium IIs are very difficult to overclock. These result are independent of what resolution I run. If I run a high res like 1152x864 it doesn't drop anymore frames than at a lower res but I know the cpu is maxed out either way. With 900Mhz I don't think you should have any problems.

and wonder whether that with the right components added could

You may not need to add anything, (as long as its got a dvd drive!), just check how it plays dvds at different resolutions on a your monitor then see if powerstrip works ok with your graphics card and then get it cabled to your pj. I'm no expert but those are my thoughts, obviously people in the HTPC forums may suggest a newer PC, however I know that if I had just slightly more power I'd be quite happy with what I could send to a projector.

Simon

P.S. Still saving for my CRT pj

[flibble]

On my rather budget system. I use my computer as a HTPC (a rather aging celeron 466). But I also picked up a cheap external 'TV Tuner' box for computer monitors. This little 60 quid bag of tricks lets you
step up analogue TV (built in tuner), composite video and svideo to 640x480, 800x600 and 1024x768. I've got my dvd player, telewest box and video player plugged into it and it does a good job at deinterlacing it.

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...roductID=92935
If you shop around you might be a ble to get a better price.

The only issue I had with it was that it was outputting RGBHV positive sync, when my Barco 800 needed RGBHV negative sync. This was fixed with a little 'interface' box, that cost 15ukp second hand, though I could have used a circuit diagram I found on the web and put together a cable for a lot less. You NEC may be less picky about sync polarity than the rather stupid barco.

Peter

[AndyFov]

Thanks for the advice Simon / Peter...

I definitely think the PC is the way forward. If I had a fancy DVD player and the like I'd want to use it, but given that I've so little kit ATM I'll give the pc a whirl and will see what it's capable of.

I guess most of my queries now are more HTPC than CRP pj - I think I'll leave it here and make a pest of myself on the other forum.

Andy

[cosaw]

Don't be gone for two long Andy, remember lots of people use HTPCs to feed DLPs, LCDs, Plasmas and even conventional CRT TVs, yes all that is covered in the HTPC forum. However you'll need more specific info to get the best out of your NEC, such as resolutions and refresh rates for optimum performance. I'm sure many people in the CRT forum run from HTPC and could give good advice. Dip in to all the forums, but personally I found this forum to be the most useful knowledge base for people in our situation - crt wanabees/newbies with low budget and pre built pc.

Simon