£1500 budget for Projector Now what do I go for?

dodgydaz

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Hi all,

After a little bit of advise on building a home cinema room. I have browsed the various forums and have seen some very impressive set ups which has given me some very good ideas.
Where I am stuck is with the projector and screen. So need a little help.

The room I am going to convert is approx 4 metres by 4 metres, so my viewing distance will be about 3 metres when I get the chairs in.
I am trying to stick to a £1500 budget for the projector and would like to have a motorised screen so it’s easier for the rest of the family to just press a button and start watching a film. (Will be setting up a Harmony remote to allow this).

I am in two minds about 3D. I have only seen a couple of 3D movies at the cinema, and whilst they were impressive, I am not sure I would watch too many films in 3D. Having said that, I don’t want to get a projector without 3D just in case I change my mind later on!! This is one of my dilemmas.

The other thing I am confused about is the throw ratio thing. I have no idea what I should be looking for and which projector would be best for my viewing distance.

I am going to repaint the room. At the moment it is all white, and I am thinking of going for a grey colour scheme, with a dark carpet, and dark grey furniture.

Finally, the windows are covered with wooden blinds and when closed keep out a lot of daylight, but a little still comes through, so during the day, when the blinds are closed, it is dark but not totally. I will figure out a way to make the room totally dark if I need to, but one of my aims is to make this a duel purpose room.

At the moment it is a dining room, come dumping ground for my sons toys, so it is rarely used for eating in.
One of the conditions I have to stick to by SWMBO is that we can still have people round for dinner etc if the need arises. So I intend to hide all cables, have unobtrusive speakers, and as mentioned above, a motorised screen that can be put away at a touch of a button.

So there we have my ideas for a semi man cave.

In summary, I need advise on the best projector for my budget and viewing distance, and what type and size of screen I should get. I have seen mention of grey screens that are considered better for certain types of room but am getting confused by it all!

Help!
 
For a £1500 (is that to include screen or not) you are limited to 2-3 choices of projector from the Optoma and Epson ranges.

Optoma has the HD33 for around £1250 including glasses and emitter or the HD300x @ £950 with no glasses and emitter.Epson has the TW5900 £999 no glasses or TW6000 @ £1250 with 1 pair glasses.

So with either of the cheaper projectors you can buy now with no glasses and add them later if you want 3D for £70 approx per pair.Spec wise on paper the cheaper projectors have slightly lower performance but in real life you will see no actual on screen difference.

These projectors are suitable for either mounting on the ceiling or on a very low shelf or coffee table in front of the screen.If you are sitting 3mtrs from the screen you will want a screen of approx 100" diagonal (8ft wide approx) and the projector will need to be right at the back of the room (3.5mts min) to get this sort of size image.

Look at the calculator below for screen throws.

Epson Europe EH-TW5900 Projection Calculator - Throw Distance and Screen Size

A grey screen is best in a room that is not a batcave (very dark walls ceiling carpets) white is best in batcaves.

You can get a 100" grey motorised screen for £120 from the guy below they are ok for the money but a decent quality screen can cost £500 and up so don't expect the cheap one to be the best but they are ok for what they cost.

New 120" Electric HD Projection Screen projector home cinema 16:9 Matt Grey | eBay
 
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Thanks for the info. The £1500 budget is for the projector only. I am more inclined to go for a 2D only projector as I think the majority of my viewing will be 2D, and I have heard that some projectors, whilst great at 3D, don't always produce the best 2D picture.

The screen itself, I have budgeted around £400, so apart from going for a matte grey type, are there any particular makes to look out for or avoid?
 
If spending up to £1500 on the projector and you are not interested in 3D take a look at the JVC HD350, they were £3.5k when first introduced 3 yrs ago.

They are still an exceptional projector (at it's price point) especially regarding black levels, JVC's are the best in the business at this.

Richer sounds have been selling them (exclusively for the last year or so) at £1700 but they are down to the last few and only have them available for collection from certain branches now at £1399 once they are gone that's it. At this price I would say the best 2D projector on the market.

JVC DLA-HD350 Black | DILA Projector 1080p HD Ready | Richer Sounds

As for quality makes even £400 is low but look for a beamax, if you can find a tab tensioned that is best but unlikely at this price.

Second hand may be worth considering there is usually something on the classifieds.Other than that if you can go with a fixed screen you could do worse than make your own it is easy and cheap at around £40 for a 100" diagonal.
 
OK, forget what I said about not bothering about 3D! I went round to a friend's today and he has the Epsom EH5900. All I can say is WOW! 2D pictures were amazing and 3D blew me away.
So now I am sold on 3D, I am now searching for an affordable pj. I have been looking at the EH6000 or EH6000W. Not sure if the additional cost for wireless would be justifiable. Does anyone have one of these models and can they explain how the wireless facility works? I assume you have to have a transmitter in the source device? What I was thinking was using the wireless connection to my Sky HD box, which is in another room. Any thoughts on this? Thanks
 
Bit the bullet and have ordered an Epsom EH6000 from Projector Point. Hopefully be with me for the weekend.
As its my first projector, I think I will mount it and then see what screen size I can get away with. At the moment my room has white walls so I hope I can see the potential awesomeness when I set it up. Just need to sort out a Blu ray player now. Off to the Blu ray forums....:thumbsup:
 

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