[21stcenturyelec]

We are looking at possibly going for one of the above PJ's but would like to see one on demo against say a z700, does anyone know of a place in the east mids.

Any suggestions of other makes/models would be appreciated our room is 3.7m long (lense to screen about 3m) and we are looking to have a screen width of 2.4m, I would have gone for one of the Infocus range but the distance is to short I think.

budget is £1000-1500. but could stretch if it was worth it.

[21stcenturyelec]

Bump, can anyone suggest other models we should be checking out? all a bit new to this cheers.

[21stcenturyelec]

Also the screen size seems a litle large to me but that was advice given by someone else. I think 2m arcoss looks big enough to me what do you guys reckon?

[swiftpete]

If I were you I'd project the image on the wall, shrink or increase the size of the pic til you're happy with the size, measure the size of the image, then buy a screen of that size. Until it's there you can't tell how big you'll be happy with.
Those 3 pjs are all very different in price, without a budget it's tough to recommend one to you, but presuming you're looking at about a grand ish as you mentioned the z700...can you mount the projector on the ceiling, directly in line with the screen? If so then I'd look at the mitsubishi hc5500 if I were you. If it's got to be off to one side on a table or shelf or something and you need lens shift then that one's no good and one of the others you mentioned will be better, but the reviews are great for that one and it's the one I'd go for if my room could accomodate it.


ps. Just noticed the existence of the new LG projector. Looks pretty good actually. Another one to consider!

[21stcenturyelec]

Good idea on the screen size thing, the budget ist 1k to 1.5k but would stretch to 1.8k if the PJ out shown everything in the lower budget. The PJ will be ceiling mounted and dead centre. The mitsubishi hc5500 was one I looked at but I felt the reviews were to varied, do you rate them then ?

[jebjeb]

I bought a TW3000 last week. I am sending it back as there are some issues with panel convergence/alignment.

Other than that, it is very, very quiet in low power mode and certainly bright enough in Theatre 1 mode on my 120" matt white 1:1 screen. It is ridiculously bright in any of the high power modes and they are certainly usable for sports when the room is not dark.

I am not that happy with the blacks though. I turned the auto iris off as I found the noise of it constantly adjusting too distracting. There is no ability to manually set it stopped down at all which would have been very helpful as I would have pretty much left it stopped down a fair bit as it was still bright enough but the blacks would have been a lot better.

I found the lens shift adjustment to be a bit cheap in the sense that when one altered, say, the horizontal adjustment, it would shift the vertical a bit as well due to sloppy controls. I know it is only something that has to be done once, but it did mean it was a bit annoying doing it.

Too be honest, I probably would have gone for an exchange for a new one (with hopefully well aligned panels!) instead of a refund but Dixons.co.uk didn't have any more stock and that seems to be the only place to get it. BTW, I got it for £1166 with a voucher found online.

For the price, it was very bright, I probably could have done some work with better calibration to fix the blacks and anyway I only really noticed the blacks with letter boxed material.

I am thinking of giving the LG AF115 a go as it looks interesting but no reviews yet. It is in the same price range as the TW3000/2800

[21stcenturyelec]

Originally Posted by jebjeb

I bought a TW3000 last week. I am sending it back as there are some issues with panel convergence/alignment.

Other than that, it is very, very quiet in low power mode and certainly bright enough in Theatre 1 mode on my 120" matt white 1:1 screen. It is ridiculously bright in any of the high power modes and they are certainly usable for sports when the room is not dark.

I am not that happy with the blacks though. I turned the auto iris off as I found the noise of it constantly adjusting too distracting. There is no ability to manually set it stopped down at all which would have been very helpful as I would have pretty much left it stopped down a fair bit as it was still bright enough but the blacks would have been a lot better.

I found the lens shift adjustment to be a bit cheap in the sense that when one altered, say, the horizontal adjustment, it would shift the vertical a bit as well due to sloppy controls. I know it is only something that has to be done once, but it did mean it was a bit annoying doing it.

Too be honest, I probably would have gone for an exchange for a new one (with hopefully well aligned panels!) instead of a refund but Dixons.co.uk didn't have any more stock and that seems to be the only place to get it. BTW, I got it for £1166 with a voucher found online.

For the price, it was very bright, I probably could have done some work with better calibration to fix the blacks and anyway I only really noticed the blacks with letter boxed material.

I am thinking of giving the LG AF115 a go as it looks interesting but no reviews yet. It is in the same price range as the TW3000/2800

Is the TW3000 being phased out and replaced by the TW2800, I can't seem to get a handle on the whats new and whats old with the epson stuff.

I'd be interested to hear if you go for the LG AF115, as you say there are no reviews to be found - well in english lol the spec looks good for the price and it scores 10 out 10 by a user on testfreaks. Suprised there is little info on it as it seems to have been around since March 09.

[jebjeb]

It is so confusing with Epson's models across the globe. The 2800, 3000, 3800 and 5000 are all current models.

The 3000 is available much more in Europe and only through a couple of places with limited stock in the UK. Spec wise, it is 1800 lumens to 1600 on the TW2800 and 18,000 contrast to 16,000 contrast on the TW2800. Plus it adds a better scaler if I recall correctly.

It is just a bit silly how it all works. I am just waiting on hearing about a potential used projector being up for sale. I may just give the AF115 a go as it reads well and the info I have seen so far is many people believe that it is the guts of a Sony HW10 in an (admittedly a bit ugly) LG body but for a lot less money.

[21stcenturyelec]

Originally Posted by jebjeb

people believe that it is the guts of a Sony HW10 in an (admittedly a bit ugly) LG body but for a lot less money.

You aren’t wrong there what is going on with that whole band round the middle, did they make an injection mould before sizing up the guts then realise oh we need more height - aah I know we will waz a grinder down the middle and slap a bit of fly screen in there and it’s job done

[21stcenturyelec]

Not great for the LG AF115

LG AF 115 reviews, Best LG Electronics Projectors reviews - alatest.co.uk

Compare to HC5500

Mitsubishi HC5500 reviews, Best Mitsubishi Projectors reviews - alatest.co.uk

[jebjeb]

Interesting. Hard to get an exact idea with the Swedish review as my google translation looked a bit interesting!

One thing to note is that the price for the AF115 in Europe is much more than it is here in the UK so it is competing and a higher price point over there.

The most annoying thing about the looks is that there is an extra 50mm of projector hanging down below the lens once ceiling mounted.

[halcs]

mate not got a new epson but have owned tw2000 for a few months now and its been excellent but you do have to get a good one with good alingnment etc. blacks are brillant.

[21stcenturyelec]

Originally Posted by halcs

mate not got a new epson but have owned tw2000 for a few months now and its been excellent but you do have to get a good one with good alingnment etc. blacks are brillant.

I'm a total novice on PJ's never owned one before, is this a hit and miss thing ? and how do you know if its a good one etc ?

[jebjeb]

Originally Posted by 21stcenturyelec

I'm a total novice on PJ's never owned one before, is this a hit and miss thing ? and how do you know if its a good one etc ?

With my TW3000, when I put the built in test pattern up on screen, I could see that on the left of the vertical black line, I could see a row or red pixels and on the right, a row of green pixels.

On the horizontal line it was similar but above and below. This showed that the convergence of the three panels was out both vertically and horizontally. Thus it was faulty in my book so off it went.

Some people may be perfectly happy with it though and not even notice it. Too be honest, when viewing a movie, it is not so much of an issue but for well over a grands worth of kit, I want it to be right out of the box.