Cinema Room Projector Choice ~£1500

MalcolmSex

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Hi,

I've just moved into a new house and we are setting up a cinema room.

Room
The walls and ceiling are being painted a very dark colour and the windows have shutters on them and we are going to install blackout curtains on the inside. So overall it should be very light controlled.

Screen
The screen width is roughly 290cm so 332cm diagonal / 130". The room is 5.5m from screen to back wall and the projector can be mounted anywhere along the ceiling. I'll be building my own fixed screen using the many online guides and therefore the material and gain can be anything I need.

Usage
I will be mostly using the projector for films and TV series through streaming services i.e Netflix, Prime etc. So a lot of content is 4K and HDR. I will also probably hook my PS4 up to it for a bit of gaming, but this is a secondary use. I probably won't play competitively online as I have a PC for that.

Projector
Now the difficult bit, which projector?! I am willing to go second hand if I can snag a deal.

I've done a couple of days of research and there's loads to take in, it also feels like to step up in quality it goes in £500-£1K steps i.e £1K is entry level, £1.5K is a bit better, £2.5K is starting to get really good etc.

So new I can afford the:
Epson EH-TW7000 and TW7100.
Benq W2700
Various Optoma models (too many to choose from)

However on eBay it's quite different. There are currently 2 BenQ W2700 that will go for less than £1K. There's an Optoma UHZ65 that might go for around £1500 and loads of older JVC models that were very highly rated between 2012 and 2015.

So, what would you guys do? Where would you put your money for a projector for this usage?

Thanks for any help.
 
I wouldn't entertain the BenQ or Optoma if you have a treated room and you have a healthy budget.

Your choices are (within your budget)

1. Second hand JVC X5000+
2. Second hand Epson 9300+
3. Epson 7400 new

Your screen size is quite big and not sure what colour your ceiling floor is or if there will be sometimes ambient light. If used with family, the Epson 9300's lumen count is going to be useful.

The JVC X5000+ will give you the best contrast and blacks. The only issues I see with it are your room needs to be light controlled at all times to take advantage of its black levels and the X5000 specifically has an utter crap input lag measurement which will make it very unsatisfying to play games with.

For games, unless you have a Lumagen or MADVR Envy, just play the 4K SDR 60fps versions. The HDR is a mess, even with a HDR slider for games.

BenQ, Optoma et al will give you a bit more brightness dependant on model (although they lack colour brightness compared to LCD) and a sharper image but they will lose out on black level, contrast, image processing, motion processing, lens shift, build quality, warranty etc... which is why I'm not really entertaining them in regards to reccomendations.


I think if you manage to snag a JVC, you're really set re: PQ for a long while and your room treatment wil be the bottle neck in terms of PQ rather than the projector.

Epson 9300 is probably the 'safer' option because it'll likely have warranty, be more versatile due to the sheer ammount of lumens it can produce in less ideal envrionments and has cheap bulb replacements.
 
Thanks for the detailed reply.

The ceiling and walls are painted a dark matt blue colour and the carpet will be dark. It's going to be a dedicated cinema room.

Unfortunately it looks like the Epson TW7400 is out of my price range new. It's coming in at £2K. Are the TW7100 or 7000 noticeably worse?

I'll keep a look out for the second hand Epson or JVC. I just had a look at replacement JVC bulbs and didn't realise how expensive they are so I'll factor that in.

I need something in the next 2 weeks or so as I'm going to mount the projector, test it on the wall and then build the screen after that.

If I could stretch to £2.5K then I'd just get the TW9400 and get the room set up. It looks to get brilliant reviews all around. :(
 
I agree with @kenshingintoki - get a second hand 9300, it’s a superb projector and will be leagues better than similarly priced DLP units. You’ll be missing out on 60FPS HDR material but can still play 60FPS in SDR and 24 frame material (eg Netflix, Apple TV content, Blu-ray / 4K discs) in HDR so it’s still a very modern projector with great features. I’ve seen quite a few sell for (well) under your budget and the lamps are cheap.

All the best with it.
 
Cheers for the help guys.

Having thought about it a bit more and having bought all my screen materials that are coming this week, I think I might go a different way.

The AV amp that I have is a Yamaha from 2013 and is only 1080p (RXV673 I believe). Also I think the projectors mentioned above in my budget will take a while to come up. My budget will also be greater by the end of the year.

So, I was thinking of getting a cheap e.g. £300-£400 second hand 1080p projector and getting everything set up an running. Get the room properly configured and getting used to a standard of picture and sound quality and then upgrading my amp and projector early next year.

What do you think? Also what projector for around that budget would be good?
 
That’s a fine idea, to make sure you’re into it before spending tonnes of money. So you could go for something older like an Epson TW9000 or 9200, they’d be great in 1080p so Blu-rays would look great. Possibly a bit over your prospective budget but you should be able to get one for around 500-600. They produced very good 3D too. A Sony HW50 also would be that sort of price. They were fantastic units but just make sure you get one without the contrast issue. Finally the Sanyo Z3000 was an absolute belter of a 1080p projector - they’d be available for around £300 - but are relatively dim in comparison to the Epson and Sony models.

The only thing I would note is that streaming in 1080p definitely lacks in comparison to 4K. And before anyone tells you streaming is terrible on a projector, that is nonsense when it comes to the best streaming platforms with 4K material. So as long as you have realistic expectations and are happy to stick with HD rather than 4K you’ll get a huge amount of enjoyment out of one of the older units I think.
 
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Cheers for the help guys.

Having thought about it a bit more and having bought all my screen materials that are coming this week, I think I might go a different way.

The AV amp that I have is a Yamaha from 2013 and is only 1080p (RXV673 I believe). Also I think the projectors mentioned above in my budget will take a while to come up. My budget will also be greater by the end of the year.

So, I was thinking of getting a cheap e.g. £300-£400 second hand 1080p projector and getting everything set up an running. Get the room properly configured and getting used to a standard of picture and sound quality and then upgrading my amp and projector early next year.

What do you think? Also what projector for around that budget would be good?
Great idea. Always good to go slow in the projector world.

I'd personally look to decorate, furnish and treat your room before even getting gear in.

If you can decorate it properly, even a £400 PJ will likely outperform some users in untreated rooms who have a £2500 PJ.
 
That's what I was hoping. If my materials come by Friday I'll be finishing painting the room dark blue (colour matched to Farrow and Ball Hague Blue if anyone is interested!) and I should get the screen up. Then it's blackout curtains on the windows (there are already shutters that block out most of the light), and a darker carpet, probably a charcoal grey.

I'll post some pictures as I'm doing it as I'd be grateful of any advice. It's going to be a dedicated cinema room so I won't have to compromise.
 
That's what I was hoping. If my materials come by Friday I'll be finishing painting the room dark blue (colour matched to Farrow and Ball Hague Blue if anyone is interested!) and I should get the screen up. Then it's blackout curtains on the windows (there are already shutters that block out most of the light), and a darker carpet, probably a charcoal grey.

I'll post some pictures as I'm doing it as I'd be grateful of any advice. It's going to be a dedicated cinema room so I won't have to compromise.
just do full length blackout curtains which can extend over the entire room when room is in use.
paint the ceiling the darkest colour you can.
compromise with the wife over the wall colour.


will give you astounding performance. the paint colours used are VERY important, trust us!
 
That's what I was hoping. If my materials come by Friday I'll be finishing painting the room dark blue (colour matched to Farrow and Ball Hague Blue if anyone is interested!) and I should get the screen up. Then it's blackout curtains on the windows (there are already shutters that block out most of the light), and a darker carpet, probably a charcoal grey.

I'll post some pictures as I'm doing it as I'd be grateful of any advice. It's going to be a dedicated cinema room so I won't have to compromise.

Hi

I would absolutely recommend a black carpet - I had a grey rug which reflected a lot of light back, then put a black rug on the floor and the difference in apparent contrast was huge.
 
With 130" you might just get away with a used JVC X500, but it will be stretching it, so the best option would for sure be a X5000 or up, just doubt it will come around your budget, and as you mention the lamps are very expensive.
Think you should go check out some Epson and DLP projectors, there is clear advantages to DLP over LCD. and some the other way around as well, they are all entry / mid level projectors, to move on from that there is only SONY and JVC, and used sony projectors ill never recommend.
 
Dunno if it is something you would be interested in but I have JVC HD350 for sale in the classifieds for £250. Great condition and a great performer in a dark room.
 
Hi

I would absolutely recommend a black carpet - I had a grey rug which reflected a lot of light back, then put a black rug on the floor and the difference in apparent contrast was huge.


What did the black rug look like?

I've tried tracking down a well priced dark black silk rug.. impossible.
 
What did the black rug look like?

I've tried tracking down a well priced dark black silk rug.. impossible.

It is quite a long pile one. That might not be what you’re after but it soaks up the light 100%, it’s brilliant.
 
I’m currently using an Epson TW8100 in a blacked out, dedicated cinema, and whilst looking to upgrade to 4K, I’ve been very happy with the picture quality... currently one for sale here at £400, and new bulbs are cheap as chips.... just a thought!
 
TW8100
 

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