Thinking of maybe getting rid of my Plasma

[Commander Shepard]

Hi Guys

I am thinking of getting rid of my 50" Plamsa and moving to the darkside with a PJ as I want to get the biggest pic possible.

I do have a few requirements though:

1) Needs to be LCD because of placement issues
2) Needs to be 1080p
3) Bright to handle the occasional daytime viewing

Another question though, will I end up getting used to the size though, I want to have the whole enjoyment of a HUGE screen size everytime I watch a show but not to sure if I will get used to it after a few weeks?

I cant keep my plasma and have a screen come down over the top as I rent so I cant go and mount a motorized screen to fall down infront of it, so this will be my sole viewing screen

I dont watch much TV but do watch alot of movies and play alot of games though

[weyland-yutani]

Originally Posted by jimthelegend

I dont watch much TV but do watch alot of movies and play alot of games though

a projector sounds ideal for you, then.

what is your budget?

£1000 - £2000

sanyo plv z700 or 3000. mitsubishi hc5500 or 6500. epson tw2800 or 3800. sony vpl hw10

the epsons are the brightest of that lot.

hope that helps.

[Commander Shepard]

Yeah it will be about £1k to £1.3k that I can spend. I worked out a way to actually keep both I can build a pelmet into my AV cabinate (see sig) and get one of the pull up manual screens, so I can actually keep both!! I have about a 4.5m - 5m throw distance and would like about a 100" screen if possible? What PJ's will give me a screen size of 100" from that throw distance?

[Pecker]

Originally Posted by jimthelegend

Yeah it will be about £1k to £1.3k that I can spend. I worked out a way to actually keep both I can build a pelmet into my AV cabinate (see sig) and get one of the pull up manual screens, so I can actually keep both!! I have about a 4.5m - 5m throw distance and would like about a 100" screen if possible? What PJ's will give me a screen size of 100" from that throw distance?

You say you need LCD due to placement issues, and you want a 100" screen.

I have a Beamax R-Series 106" screen, and I get that filled from a DLP projector at a throw distance of around 4.3m. You can get a 100" image from an Optoma HD80 at 4.1m.

Not sure about anything else, but just so you know that you shouldn't necessaily rule out DLP because you think you can't get the image size you require.

Personally, whilst I love my PJ, I wouldn't do without a traditional screen for day-to-day viewing.

Steve W

[Commander Shepard]

Well I'm going to keep both and build an extention onto my cabinate and have a PJ screen rise up from the cabinate. The only reason I am thinking of LCD is because of the fact that the PJ will sit quite low and will also sit slightly off centre so I will need the lense shift that comes with LCD. Although I would really like DLP as the colour tend to be richer and the blacks blacker I am a little worried as the PJ will sit ontop of a sideboard at the back of the room that is the same height as the back of my sofa. Are there any 1080p DLP PJ's that might be able to the job

[Commander Shepard]

Originally Posted by Pecker

Personally, whilst I love my PJ, I wouldn't do without a traditional screen for day-to-day viewing.

Steve W

I got a design going on in my head about how I can modify my self build cabinate to have the screen rise up from cabinate and going infront of the plasma. So I can keep both which would be better

[weyland-yutani]

i'm in the same situation re: dispensing with the plasma. if i want to keep both i'll have to wall mount the plasma which will be right pain in the arse.

head over to:
Projection Calculator Pro - Projector to Screen Distance

and check out the pjs i suggested to find a suitable match for your requirements.

Originally Posted by jimthelegend

Are there any 1080p DLP PJ's that might be able to the job

no. as far as i'm aware a dlp pj has to be above or below the projected image.

[Commander Shepard]

Originally Posted by weyland-yutani

i'm in the same situation re: dispensing with the plasma. if i want to keep both i'll have to wall mount the plasma which will be right pain in the arse.

head over to:
Projection Calculator Pro - Projector to Screen Distance

and check out the pjs i suggested to find a suitable match for your requirements.

There are a few PJ's that have caught my eye but I have come up with a way of how to keep the Plasma too for day to day viewing, thanks for the link I'll go pop there now and see what I can make of some of them, although the Epsom TW2800 is looking quite attractive now.

[weyland-yutani]

i don't think the epson tw2800 is listed on the projector calculator at the moment. but for throw distance calculations only, you may get away with selecting the 3800 model. the 3800 has 1800 lumens where the 2800 has 1600 lumens.

[Commander Shepard]

I saw it on the invojo website (there was an advert at the top of this forum) they have a screen size calculator on there, I dont need high lumens anymore and can get away with about 1500 maybe a little more as I am going to keep the plasma too so will only use the PJ for watching films and gaming which is done at night

[weyland-yutani]

if you buy a grey projector screen it will improve the image for ambient light situations, also.

[Pecker]

Many people baulk at citing their PJ's away from their 'proper' position and using keystone.

I was limited by this for 6 months, as I couldn't hang mine from the ceiling, and put on a coffee table it was too close to the PJ - for ages we had the PJ on a board on the sofa against the back wall.

In the end we moved the sofa forward a couple of feet and put the PJ on a shelving unit, and used vertical keystone. No problem! When I looked into the reasons keystone was frowned upon I found it wasn't too bad after all.

There are 3 arguments against keystone:

1 - It scales the picture, causing artefacts;
2 - It decreases resolution;
3 - It causes a trapezium shape, with light in triangles on the sides of the screen.

I found that (1) was an overblown criticism; many high end users upscale vertically for CIH set ups, and upscaling is likely to cause far more artefacts. For (2) I did some number crunching and found I was only losing a handful of pixels in resolution. For (3) I found that the triangles were not a distraction, and can be virtually eliminated with extra back wall masking.

I'm not suggesting you go down this route, just that you don't discount it immediately without any thought.

Steve W

[Commander Shepard]

Hi Steve

Thanks for your input there the only thing that I am worrying about is the fact that the PJ will be about 2 inches above the back of the sofa on a side board at the back of the room and almost directly online with the bottom of the screen and slightly off centre by about 4 or 5 inches would it still be possible to use a DLP with these conditions as ideally I would refer a DLP PJ?

[Pecker]

Originally Posted by jimthelegend

Hi Steve

Thanks for your input there the only thing that I am worrying about is the fact that the PJ will be about 2 inches above the back of the sofa on a side board at the back of the room and almost directly online with the bottom of the screen and slightly off centre by about 4 or 5 inches would it still be possible to use a DLP with these conditions as ideally I would refer a DLP PJ?

Mine is about a foot above the sofa and dead centre, but only 2 inches above would be even better (less tramezium).

My PJ (HD73) has both vertical and horizontal keystone - I only have to use vertical - I'm not sure if horizontal might not be such a good idea. Some DLP PJs have vertical but not horizontal, so you need to check.

Steve W

[Commander Shepard]

Thanks I'll have to go try get a demo of one somewhere so next month I will get one as I'm getting my SVS this month but I can buy the screen and start building it into the cabinate in the mean time and just try demo as many PJs as possible in the next month.