Help required...please

[james123]

I am a newcomer to the AV world, never owned a projector and would appreciate any help that may be forthcoming.
I am looking for a projector/home cinema system that I want to use for DVD film and SKY sport viewing. I set myself a budget of £2500 but like all things I have gone from novice to 'expert' in a couple of weeks and have persuaded myself that I really need to spend £5000 plus.
Would £2500 be sufficient to purchase pj, amp, dvd, speakers and cables that would satisfy my needs. I had a demo of an infocus 4805 and was very impressed by the quality but that it is not HD compatible and I should really buy something that is.
I have read many threads on here so have some ideas but really just need to be brought back down to earth with the costs.

Many thanks to anyone who may be able to give any advice.
J

 

[Neil in Bristol]

You can pick up a great LCD projector for less than £1000 if you want HD.

Unless you've got money to burn, though, stick to your original budget. Don't fall into the trap of thinking that spending twice as much will give you twice as good a picture, 'cos it won't.

If you're unsure, go and seem some demos, and make up youir mind.

 

[gingercat]

A couple of years ago when I got my kit I spent about:

AE100 Projector £800
Pull up screen £100
Toshiba Component DVD player £80
Yamaha Amp £350
5.1 Speakers £500
Cables (should have spent more) £50

...which (if my maths is correct) comes to under £2K and I'm still happy with the setup (although now waiting for a PJ upgrade).

 

[james123]

Thanks for the help, I was going to budget as follows:
pj - £1000
dvd - £300
amp - £400
speakers - £500
cables £300
I am having the wall re plastered and painted so was initially going to project directly onto it.

Would this be a reasonable allocation of money for each item or is it better to spend more on some items and less on others to improve the system.

 

[gingercat]

DVD budget seems quite high unless you want a model that upscales the image to HDTV resolutions. Have you considered the HTPC route of using a PC to drive the projector?

Perhaps add a few hundred to the projector budget and get one of the new models. The Sanyo PLV-Z4 is probably going to be the favorite, but no direct comparison reviews are available yet.

With the amp, £400 will get you a LOT of amp, so perhaps you can lower your budget there?

Everyone will have a different opinion as everyone has different priorities in their setup. Try before you buy is the only hardened rule!

 

[summat]

Your budget should be fine, however, obviously you're looking at a fairly high-spec "entry" level setup. You'll probably find there's a couple more things to consider, for example:

You'll probably want to use component video for the image, that can cause some problems:-

Normal Sky box - only has Scart/RGB output (believe the sky+ has component?) - so if you only want to route a single component cable then you'll need an RGB->YUV converter. CPC do one for around £80

Component cables - depending if you like the taste of snake-oil - could cost from £30 to £300 (and more!)

If using component for Sky (via above convertor) and from a DVD player, consider if you want component switching from your AV-Amp (restricts the range, and increases the price - I got a nice Cambridge Audio [yes, RicherSounds] for around £300, I think)

Screen?, projecting onto a wall?, well try it - some people claim to have good results (have you read the screen forum?) , if, at the end of the day, it doesn't work for you then you can always buy the screen at a later date.