I'm sure you guys get asked for buying advice all the time, so please don't flame me

A mate has just had his loft converted and is looking for a cheap projector setup. What he's after is a projector, DD amp and a pair of speakers (two to start with to upgrade later), and is looking to spend a grand or there abouts, and wants it all on interest-free! His PC is out of order at present so he's asked me to look around for him, and I stumbled upon this forum, had a look around, and decided the best bet would be to just ask .

So that's about it. He's not expecting much for the money, obviously, just something to get himself going. He's apparently got material to make a temp screen for the time. The projector needs a RGB SCART input as he'll be hooking game consoles up to it as well as a DVD player.

Thanks for reading, and again apologies for posting what has probably been asked a hundred times before...

Matt

[MAW]

Well, the budget's very tight for that! He might if he's a hard bargainer, pick up a Sanyo PLV-Z1, very nice, from a cheap online retailer with no backup, and a sherwood cheapest dd amp and a s*** pair of speakers from Richers. you need a special cable to connect the sanyo to scart, AFAIK nobody puts a scart on a PJ, too much risk of it falling out, they do that on your telly, and they're useless at long length typical of PJ install. So tell him to hawk his body round the back streets till he's got another couple of hundred.

Originally posted by MAW
AFAIK nobody puts a scart on a PJ

Panasonic do

I'll let others answer but a quick read of the FAQ & recent threads should answer the PJ enquiry anyway.

BTW, welcome

Thanks for the reply. From speaking to him, he's looking around £700 or so for the projector, £200 or so for the amp, and the rest fo the speakers. So say he upped his budget a couple of hundred pounds what's the projector to go for?

Thanks

Matt

AE200 would seem to be the choice IMO. Approx £700 new & a reasonable performer.

Re: amp & speakers, try the appropriate fora here.

[MAW]

If you can get away with £700 for the PJ, then something like the Yamaha 640 might suit, + a speaker package with the rest of the funds. That'd rock his boat, and 5 speakers to boot.

[Tomfoolery]

I'll repeat my post about the AE200 (bought for £710 from komplett on a special offer, now up to around £740)

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For an idea, this is my panny AE200 bought from komplett projecting onto my wall, as well as a bedsheet (which was as you can see, no where near big enough :D)


Below: PC input, the actual bits around the edge are a bit dark as they're missing the bedsheet and projecting onto a blue wall (I put a DVD case at the bottom so you get an idea of size)
http://other.mildlyamusing.co.uk/xbr.JPG


Below: Family Guy
http://other.mildlyamusing.co.uk/fam.JPG



Below: Some shots of Halo (sorry for bluriness!)
http://other.mildlyamusing.co.uk/hal1.JPG
http://other.mildlyamusing.co.uk/hal2.JPG



Below: The projector sitting in it's temporary position next to my Xbox
http://other.mildlyamusing.co.uk/pro.JPG



Below: Austin Powers and Father Ted
http://www.xboxrules.com/yabbse/attachments/proj1.JPG
http://www.xboxrules.com/yabbse/attachments/proj2.JPG



Not bad, I thought. Especially considering the terrible set up it's in at the moment (I will be building the screen soon).




EDIT : This projector also has a RGB Scart input, as well as the other usual inputs (component, composite, s video and VGA)

Thanks to everyone for the replies, now he's got a few model names to look out for.

I don't know if this is the right place to ask, but does anyone have any recommendations for retailers who do long interest free credit? He wants 24 to 36 months.

Thanks again,

Matt