dancingmatt
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- Apr 26, 2005
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Hi all
I'm looking to buy my first PJ next week and have done a lot of reading of reviews, mags, this forum, other websites and can someone please just tell me what to do?!
My PJ is going to connect solely to my PC for about 50% gaming and 50% watching PAL DVDs, a tiny bit of just general application or internet use from the sofa and in future watching a very little bit of telly from a DVB card. I wanted a PJ with a native resolution of 1024x768 for the games and to avoid downscaling PAL DVDs, plus it will surely mean any LCD chicken wire effect is less noticeable? I've pretty much decided against DLPs as I have noticed the rainbow effect on the 2 or 3 DLP PJs and TVs I've looked at. Obviously I want to 1:1 pixel map. It needs a good short throw distance as my room is narrow - it's going to be projecting about 1.7m from the wall and I'll be sat a little behind it.
However, I only have about £500 to spend at the moment so here's my thinking...
I could just buy an 854x480 PJ: This is a lower resolution than I have ever used on my PC, which worries me for games and is too low for watching PAL DVDs without scaling them down, but I could get the Toshiba ET1 for about £390 and I was impressed with the picture quality of that for the brief time I demoed it in a shop (although that was off a DVD player not a PC).
Alternatively I could spend a bit more and get another SVGA like the Epson TW-10H for about £550, better picture quality? Although is it really worth £170-ish more?
Any PJ of XGA resolution that I wanted is going to cost a lot more than that -I've looked into models like the Sharp PLV-Z3 (about £880), Hitachi TX100, Epson EMP-74, NEC VT540 or VT570, ViewSonic PJ500 - it's going to cost a big step up to around £700-£850 and I could pay that if I had to, but definitely no more.
If I go 854x480 then I know I'm watching downscaled DVDs and lower res games... If I go 1024x768 then it'll be more future proof (and it's got to last years) and better resolution, but the ones I can afford will be the cheapest of the XGA range (and so possibly poorer picture quality?) and still cost me a hell of a lot more than I wanted to spend...
I guess I'm trying to convince myself that I should pay out a lot more than I wanted to and get an XGA, but is it worth so much extra? IThis is where you come in - how would you spend my money?!?! £400 Toshiba, £880-ish XGA, somewhere inbetween?
Thanks for reading the (long) post and any thoughts you can share
DM
I'm looking to buy my first PJ next week and have done a lot of reading of reviews, mags, this forum, other websites and can someone please just tell me what to do?!
My PJ is going to connect solely to my PC for about 50% gaming and 50% watching PAL DVDs, a tiny bit of just general application or internet use from the sofa and in future watching a very little bit of telly from a DVB card. I wanted a PJ with a native resolution of 1024x768 for the games and to avoid downscaling PAL DVDs, plus it will surely mean any LCD chicken wire effect is less noticeable? I've pretty much decided against DLPs as I have noticed the rainbow effect on the 2 or 3 DLP PJs and TVs I've looked at. Obviously I want to 1:1 pixel map. It needs a good short throw distance as my room is narrow - it's going to be projecting about 1.7m from the wall and I'll be sat a little behind it.
However, I only have about £500 to spend at the moment so here's my thinking...
I could just buy an 854x480 PJ: This is a lower resolution than I have ever used on my PC, which worries me for games and is too low for watching PAL DVDs without scaling them down, but I could get the Toshiba ET1 for about £390 and I was impressed with the picture quality of that for the brief time I demoed it in a shop (although that was off a DVD player not a PC).
Alternatively I could spend a bit more and get another SVGA like the Epson TW-10H for about £550, better picture quality? Although is it really worth £170-ish more?
Any PJ of XGA resolution that I wanted is going to cost a lot more than that -I've looked into models like the Sharp PLV-Z3 (about £880), Hitachi TX100, Epson EMP-74, NEC VT540 or VT570, ViewSonic PJ500 - it's going to cost a big step up to around £700-£850 and I could pay that if I had to, but definitely no more.
If I go 854x480 then I know I'm watching downscaled DVDs and lower res games... If I go 1024x768 then it'll be more future proof (and it's got to last years) and better resolution, but the ones I can afford will be the cheapest of the XGA range (and so possibly poorer picture quality?) and still cost me a hell of a lot more than I wanted to spend...
I guess I'm trying to convince myself that I should pay out a lot more than I wanted to and get an XGA, but is it worth so much extra? IThis is where you come in - how would you spend my money?!?! £400 Toshiba, £880-ish XGA, somewhere inbetween?
Thanks for reading the (long) post and any thoughts you can share
DM