Question Best projector in living room with light walls ReAct screen

Furnace Inferno

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Ok, so I’ve impulse bought a Euroscreen Draper ReAct 3.0 104” Screen from the forums but don’t actually have a projector yet.

Main reason is I’ll be losing 3D on the TV as I’m switching to a new OLED and rather than having two TV’s and needing to hunt around for a 6 series LG OLED I decided it would be easier and more impressive to just get a projector for the task.

Room is 4.5x3.7m if I remember rightly and only around 2.5m high, in the current orientation the projector to screen distance would be around 3.5m but I can push that up to 3.8m without wall mounting the TV if I move the AV rack.

So my question is given it’s not ideal conditions what are my best options?

Looking at the JVC X5900 and X7900 is there going to be a worthwhile difference in a light coloured room with an ambient light rejecting grey screen or not really?

If there is then how does the Epson LS10500 stack up compared to the JVC X7900.

If not then should I be looking at JVCX5900 vs. the cheaper Epson TW9300?

I think the last HT projector I saw was an Epson of some variety 8 or so years ago and the only thing I can remember thinking was wow the screen is huge rather than worrying about contrast at the time so maybe I would be impressed with the cheapest option?

Only concern I have with the TW9300 is dust blobs how much of an issue is it? My room is quite dusty not hidden well by all the piano black gear. Not sure if it’s more than normal but my PC certainly gets more dust in it than I would like so don’t want to get something if it’s going to be an issue.

Thanks for any help!

Won’t be buying just yet, need to work out which price bracket I should be saving for and I like getting my research in early.
 
Looking at the JVC X5900 and X7900 is there going to be a worthwhile difference in a light coloured room with an ambient light rejecting grey screen or not really?

More on the side of not at all, rather than not really and one of the main reasons why I don't have one.
 
I’d be tempted to get a used pj if it’s your first one and then upgrade in a couple of years when you’ve got used to it and know more what you want. 4k pjs will also be a bit cheaper and hopefully all the hdr10/Dolby vision etc will have settled down... the JVCs are undoubtedly great pjs and a bit ambitious for a first pj!
 
More on the side of not at all, rather than not really and one of the main reasons why I don't have one.
So even with an ABL screen it still wouldn’t show a difference unless you have a bat cave room? Interesting.

I’d be tempted to get a used pj if it’s your first one and then upgrade in a couple of years when you’ve got used to it and know more what you want. 4k pjs will also be a bit cheaper and hopefully all the hdr10/Dolby vision etc will have settled down... the JVCs are undoubtedly great pjs and a bit ambitious for a first pj!
I’m not too fussed about 4K, WCG and especially not HDR on a projector. My main concerns are 3D, low input lag for gaming and black levels because I’m used to plasma and soon to be OLED which is why I was looking at the newer JVCs.

What would you recommend and what sort of price range? A budget DLP or 3LCD instead?

How much of an issue is dust on a 3LCD when it comes to dust blobs?

Wasn’t sure if it was just better just to save for something I’d keep for a while rather than get something now and just waiting until the end of the year.
 
So even with an ABL screen it still wouldn’t show a difference unless you have a bat cave room? Interesting.

I’m not too fussed about 4K, WCG and especially not HDR on a projector. My main concerns are 3D, low input lag for gaming and black levels because I’m used to plasma and soon to be OLED which is why I was looking at the newer JVCs.

What would you recommend and what sort of price range? A budget DLP or 3LCD instead?

How much of an issue is dust on a 3LCD when it comes to dust blobs?

Wasn’t sure if it was just better just to save for something I’d keep for a while rather than get something now and just waiting until the end of the year.

You won’t get black levels close to an OLED or Plasma unless you have a bat cave, even then, the black won’t be as dark as you’re used to.
 
So even with an ABL screen it still wouldn’t show a difference unless you have a bat cave room? Interesting.

That's right and you'd need a good white screen as well. I'm going to do this room dark brown and switch my draper react for a Seymour Centre stage XD. But that was always the plan I'm just lazy and I have the audio sorted now for the foreseeable future.
 
You won’t get black levels close to an OLED or Plasma unless you have a bat cave, even then, the black won’t be as dark as you’re used to.
Even older plasmas? I think I must have looked in 2010 at whatever the top Epson projector was at the time. Room wasn’t black but red/mahogany though not close to the walls and white screen. My only memory was damn this is insane, the screen is huge, the blacks didn’t noticeably look worse than the VT20 I also looked at just prior or my PZ81 (which still had pretty grey blacks to my eyes).

I thought they were meant to be better than the cinema blacks? Hmmm not sure what to do now.

That's right and you'd need a good white screen as well. I'm going to do this room dark brown and switch my draper react for a Seymour Centre stage XD. But that was always the plan I'm just lazy and I have the audio sorted now for the foreseeable future.
What projector did you go with?

You think I should set my sights lower than a JVC even as well, I’m all for saving money if I don’t need to spend it!
 
Don’t get me wrong, I’ve got a X7900 and the blacks are superb, but I have a bat cave. And yes, they are better than cinema blacks, in the right environment.

With a normal living room, white ceilings, light walls, etc, you do lose a lot of contrast.

The room is without doubt the most important part to the AV jigsaw.
 
Ok thanks for the info, perhaps I should focus on 3D performance then since that is the main reason I’m getting it. At which point maybe all I need is a DLP projector, a bit more reading suggests you need to keep your room dust free for 3LCD which I might do for a month or two but I’d get bored of that pretty soon as seen by the dust covering all my gear currently :laugh:.

Then get a laser projector when the price comes down to the 9300 price range.
 
I own a jvc x7500 and dont have a bat cave - just an ordinary living room with 3 white walls and a grey wall and at night with lights out and blinds drawn my blacks are black (i cant really see the black border of my white screen).

with my last projector a Panasonic PT-AE6000 blacks were definately greyer in my environment.
 
What projector did you go with?

You think I should set my sights lower than a JVC even as well, I’m all for saving money if I don’t need to spend it!

JVC 5900

Lower than the 7900? Yes absolutely, keep that for a couple of years and trade up. You absolutely do not need to spend it on your circumstances.
 
Ok had a look at the low end DLP’s, seems they have terrible Lens shift options, I can’t mount on the ceiling due to a lampshade and anything coffee table height is also not an option. I’ll save for the JVC X5900 and lookout for any earlier 3D models on the classifieds since I’m not bothered about 4K.

EDIT: Scratch that just remembered the JVCs have terrible input lag pre-x5500 models.
 
I have a smallish room, 3.6m x 2.3m, mid brown coloured walls, light ceiling. I have a React 3 screen which is 1.9m wide installed on the narrow wall. A JVC HD350 provides the light. At night, the react3 negates pretty much all of the reflected light in the room. This is a huge difference from the white screen I had to start with. So your choice of screen is good. As far as blacks go compared to plasma (I have a Pioneer 5090 which is blacker than a black thing), with the projector/react setup, it depends somewhat on the screen content.

To give you some idea... the opening scene to Gravity is epic. The blacks are deep and satisfying. 98% of what the 5090 can achieve. Scenes in other movies where there is a lot of light on one side and shadow on the other do suffer a little but that's more to do with the projector being a point light source and having to send a lot of light to the right. Inevitably the left of the screen picks up a little of that. Scenes like that aren't all that common though and for the most part I think you'll be pleased with the black level performance of the screen. Definitely go with a secondhand PJ to start with and see how you like it. JVC isn't a bad place to start. The HD350 is my first digital projector (previously I was a Barco 801s owner) and it is extremely capable. I have no desire to change it.
 
I have a smallish room, 3.6m x 2.3m, mid brown coloured walls, light ceiling. I have a React 3 screen which is 1.9m wide installed on the narrow wall. A JVC HD350 provides the light. At night, the react3 negates pretty much all of the reflected light in the room. This is a huge difference from the white screen I had to start with. So your choice of screen is good. As far as blacks go compared to plasma (I have a Pioneer 5090 which is blacker than a black thing), with the projector/react setup, it depends somewhat on the screen content.

To give you some idea... the opening scene to Gravity is epic. The blacks are deep and satisfying. 98% of what the 5090 can achieve. Scenes in other movies where there is a lot of light on one side and shadow on the other do suffer a little but that's more to do with the projector being a point light source and having to send a lot of light to the right. Inevitably the left of the screen picks up a little of that. Scenes like that aren't all that common though and for the most part I think you'll be pleased with the black level performance of the screen. Definitely go with a secondhand PJ to start with and see how you like it. JVC isn't a bad place to start. The HD350 is my first digital projector (previously I was a Barco 801s owner) and it is extremely capable. I have no desire to change it.
I would go second hand but I remembered the high input lag on the earlier models which means no gaming on them if I was in the mood.

Would it be worth getting one now for now under £1000 and then upgrading at the end of the year to the new models either way I wouldn't be gaming on it and decide if I even wanted to?

I just don't want to lose out on too much money than if I had just waited.
 
I just sold my JVC HD350 today on the classifieds here. I never noticed any lag with it when playing Xbox 360 games, but I'm not a massive gamer of first Person shooters so may not have noticed it too much anyway.

I will say that I tried the JVC with a React 2.1 screen for a couple of weeks and didn't stay with that combo. The react 3.0 must be better now as the 2.1 didn't have a great viewing angle as those sat on the edges of the sofa had a darker image than those sat in the sweet spot. Also the JVC wasn't enough of a light cannon for me to get the best out the screen. It wasn't very bright, worked well for nightime viewing as I have light walls (as long as I sat in the sweet spot), but it was no good for day time viewing when there was a lot of light leaking in from outside.

I may revisit the React 3 as I now have an Epson 9200 and its much brighter than the JVC so may work better with that screen.
 
I just sold my JVC HD350 today on the classifieds here. I never noticed any lag with it when playing Xbox 360 games, but I'm not a massive gamer of first Person shooters so may not have noticed it too much anyway.

I will say that I tried the JVC with a React 2.1 screen for a couple of weeks and didn't stay with that combo. The react 3.0 must be better now as the 2.1 didn't have a great viewing angle as those sat on the edges of the sofa had a darker image than those sat in the sweet spot. Also the JVC wasn't enough of a light cannon for me to get the best out the screen. It wasn't very bright, worked well for nightime viewing as I have light walls (as long as I sat in the sweet spot), but it was no good for day time viewing when there was a lot of light leaking in from outside.

I may revisit the React 3 as I now have an Epson 9200 and its much brighter than the JVC so may work better with that screen.
Viewing angle won't be an issue for me as I'm the only one watching it that has issues with picture quality.

I do have a blackout blind so whilst the room is light coloured and has a number of objects in it which will reflect light, the only light source will be the projector, I never do any critical viewing with anything other than a bias light.

How dim are we talking? Plasma vs. LCD differences as brightness has never been something I consider a good thing, LCDs go to ridiculous levels of brightness IMO, same reason HDR doesn't interest me, though I've yet to see it to completely right it off.

I'm looking at the older JVC's now and it seems as though they had a lot of crosstalk until later models which 2nd hand are over half the cost of the X5900 so maybe I'm back to waiting on that now and it's brighter too.
 
I'll say the Epson (9200) I just got, which is 3LCD, is massively brighter than the JVC and both have similar bulb mileage on them (circa 2000 hours). I had the JVC set run in low power mode and had tweaked the iris/aperture to reduce light power. I never tweaked this when I got the React 2.1, when I should have to let more light through.

The image did look good, but you could see that the middle was brighter than the edges of the screen but the blacks were better.

I can't really compare Plasma to LCD as I never had a plasma !!

With the Epson, my wife said that she couldn't watch it with the out of box settings as it was too bright, so I spent Friday evening tweaking it and have it down to something more manageable. You can see in my link that I have 3 bright walls, a bright ceiling but a dark wall with the screen on, and dark curtains but the room lights up with the white screen. I think the React would reduce that significantly and improve the blacks no end.

My old JVC was non-3D so can't comment on that, but the Epson has a great reputation for 3D. I'm just waiting on my glasses to turn up so I can try it out ! I think this is where the extra brightness really helps, although it doesn't have a great reputation for game lag.

Dust blobs are a problem....there are a number of green dots on the screen. Its still in warranty so will see what Epson will do about that, if anything !
 
I'll say the Epson (9200) I just got, which is 3LCD, is massively brighter than the JVC and both have similar bulb mileage on them (circa 2000 hours). I had the JVC set run in low power mode and had tweaked the iris/aperture to reduce light power. I never tweaked this when I got the React 2.1, when I should have to let more light through.

The image did look good, but you could see that the middle was brighter than the edges of the screen but the blacks were better.

I can't really compare Plasma to LCD as I never had a plasma !!

With the Epson, my wife said that she couldn't watch it with the out of box settings as it was too bright, so I spent Friday evening tweaking it and have it down to something more manageable. You can see in my link that I have 3 bright walls, a bright ceiling but a dark wall with the screen on, and dark curtains but the room lights up with the white screen. I think the React would reduce that significantly and improve the blacks no end.

My old JVC was non-3D so can't comment on that, but the Epson has a great reputation for 3D. I'm just waiting on my glasses to turn up so I can try it out ! I think this is where the extra brightness really helps, although it doesn't have a great reputation for game lag.

Dust blobs are a problem....there are a number of green dots on the screen. Its still in warranty so will see what Epson will do about that, if anything !
Thanks for the info, especially with regards to the dust blobs, I'd be straight onto the 9300 were it not for it being a possibility.

Think I'll save for the X5900 then as I've got a few other things to upgrade first anyway like my receiver and by then the new models will be known quantities and might be the better option.
 
Thanks for the info, especially with regards to the dust blobs, I'd be straight onto the 9300 were it not for it being a possibility.

Think I'll save for the X5900 then as I've got a few other things to upgrade first anyway like my receiver and by then the new models will be known quantities and might be the better option.
I've owned two Epsons (currently a 9300) and never experienced any blobs. It has a filter and as long as you keep it clean can't see why you'd have a problem.
 
I've owned two Epsons (currently a 9300) and never experienced any blobs. It has a filter and as long as you keep it clean can't see why you'd have a problem.
Yes, the filter was in a bit of a state on the one i bought. Owner said he cleaned it once a year ....yikes!! No wonder it had dust blobs !
 
Oh the viewing cone on the React3 is pretty narrow, but like the OP, I don't care as I'm typically the only one viewing. Two maximum. Given the room dimensions, it's impossible to have viewers really off axis.

@Furnace Inferno if you're ever Newbury way, you'd be welcome to drop by and have a look first hand.
 
It seems your in a bit of a quandary. You want one with good lag, great blacks and great at 3D. Sadly, I have never seen a projector with all three of these factors. There's always a compromise somewhere.

DLP's were the master at 3D until someone decided to leave it out :facepalm:, no other technology could get close, however without the glasses on and watching 2D the blacks we're poor when comparing them to a JVC's

Sony's models were the best of the other technologies for 3D, they were great for crosstalk. 2D, they are respectable, other projectors do bits better and if memory serves me correct, they were also quite good for gaming too, being one of the best for input lag .

The Sony VPL-HW65ES is one such projector. It still performs well in all the above areas together with a lag time of 27.8ms, when AVForums reviewed. They gave it an 8/10 which is fair for this projector as it neither excels in any area with the exception of input lag than any other projector, but what it does do is combine all these things into a very good package. To read more about the review by AVForums you can find it here, yes it's blacks could be better, but if your room isn't blacked out, its never going to happen regardless of whether you purchase JVC or a Cheap DLP projector.

SXRD is one of the better technologies with 3D playback. its good for gaming, it's a colourful projector too and with your screen could require an expert calibrating it to bring the best out of it. But all in all, Having read your requirements. I cannot see what options you really have.

It's either compromise on gaming and 3D or compromise with the black detail and enjoy gaming and 3D
 
I've owned two Epsons (currently a 9300) and never experienced any blobs. It has a filter and as long as you keep it clean can't see why you'd have a problem.
It’s more the fact it could happen and I’m super lazy when it comes to dusting. I don’t do it often but when I do I go to town there just seems to be quite a lot, though my PC isn’t as bad as I’ve seen some online there’s still a lot more dust accumulation in it than I’m happy with!

Oh the viewing cone on the React3 is pretty narrow, but like the OP, I don't care as I'm typically the only one viewing. Two maximum. Given the room dimensions, it's impossible to have viewers really off axis.

@Furnace Inferno if you're ever Newbury way, you'd be welcome to drop by and have a look first hand.
Thanks for the offer, don’t think I’ll be out there anytime soon though :(.

It seems your in a bit of a quandary. You want one with good lag, great blacks and great at 3D. Sadly, I have never seen a projector with all three of these factors. There's always a compromise somewhere.

DLP's were the master at 3D until someone decided to leave it out :facepalm:, no other technology could get close, however without the glasses on and watching 2D the blacks we're poor when comparing them to a JVC's

Sony's models were the best of the other technologies for 3D, they were great for crosstalk. 2D, they are respectable, other projectors do bits better and if memory serves me correct, they were also quite good for gaming too, being one of the best for input lag .

The Sony VPL-HW65ES is one such projector. It still performs well in all the above areas together with a lag time of 27.8ms, when AVForums reviewed. They gave it an 8/10 which is fair for this projector as it neither excels in any area with the exception of input lag than any other projector, but what it does do is combine all these things into a very good package. To read more about the review by AVForums you can find it here, yes it's blacks could be better, but if your room isn't blacked out, its never going to happen regardless of whether you purchase JVC or a Cheap DLP projector.

SXRD is one of the better technologies with 3D playback. its good for gaming, it's a colourful projector too and with your screen could require an expert calibrating it to bring the best out of it. But all in all, Having read your requirements. I cannot see what options you really have.

It's either compromise on gaming and 3D or compromise with the black detail and enjoy gaming and 3D
Do the ones I’ve singled out not do all 3?

To be honest my main use will be standard blurays since I have a lot more but with the option to view the 3D ones. Gaming will be minimal as I will do most in my VR sim rig, I’ll probably only game on the projector with friends over or games which have bright HUDs you can’t turn off which I have to be careful with on my current plasma and future OLED.

I have looked at the Sony but there comes a point where I don’t want to spend thousands of pounds on something I won’t be happy with and I’d rather just save more, so really not sure.

Do you not think the JVC X5900 is the best option?

I’m getting the impression that maybe a cheap DLP matched with an older JVC two projector setup might be best. Would something like the Optoma 142x do better with 3D than the JVCs or Epsons surely black levels would still be much worse even in 3D.
 
There is nothing to stop you having a stack of two projectors, one for movies, one for gaming. If they have enough lens shift, you'll not need to resort to keystone.
 
There is nothing to stop you having a stack of two projectors, one for movies, one for gaming. If they have enough lens shift, you'll not need to resort to keystone.
The Optoma and pretty much all the budget DLPs have barely any lens shift so they’d be using a fair bit of keystone both horizontal and vertical.

For now whatever it is will be on top of a cabinet that’s just over 4ft high and right of centre, near level with the middle of the screen which could present issue with offset but certainly scope to raise it up if need be to around 6ft before the light would be an issue. There are two doors stopping central mounting which also means no two tier shelf even if I changed to a spot light.

Adjustments of the room will be minimal simply because I don’t want to go drilling in everything when I’ll be moving in the relatively near future and it’s already jam packed with other gadgets which also limit things. When I move I’ll have more options and potentially a dedicated room if I get my way that is ;).
 

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