which projector?

[smiffy]

Hi all first time poster.
Decided I would like to go down the projector route but absolutely no idea about them.
I don't exactly have a budget but don't want to spend more than £600 (just on the projector)
I'll be using it mainly for gaming and the odd movie.
Would like the image to be decent quality but as it's my first I don't expect it to compare to these £10k+ projectors
So far I've come up with the Optoma HD600X-LV @£380.
Anything better for similar money?
Cheers.

 

[witchdrash]

There's plenty of places to research what's in your price range, but make sure you get a demo, as what looks good for one person can look bad for another, plus there's the fun and games of the dlp rainbow effect, which if you can see it rules out all of Optoma's projectors.

 

[smiffy]

There's plenty of places to research what's in your price range, but make sure you get a demo, as what looks good for one person can look bad for another, plus there's the fun and games of the dlp rainbow effect, which if you can see it rules out all of Optoma's projectors.

I had googled that and it's been hit and miss. Some people have it some don't. I do know there's alot in my price range but I don't know why I shouldn't go for a £200 vs a £600 projector?
Is there a list of what it should have ie atleast x lumens and x contrast ratio etc? for decent viewing
Thanks

 

[smiffy]

It seems led projectors look good.
Is there any reason to buy a branded projector such as optoma, acer etc?
There's a few on ebay that offer similar specs but they're unbranded

 

[Tight Git]

Just do a search on the forum for "cheap Chinese rubbish" or similar and you'll soon change your mind!

 

[smiffy]

Just do a search on the forum for "cheap Chinese rubbish" or similar and you'll soon change your mind!

I saw that after I posted
I'm just looking at branded ones now. I just have no idea what so ever.
Is LED worth while since they last longer?

 

[Tight Git]

Please don't get hung up on bulb life.

With normal viewing, they last for years...

Again, a search will reveal all!

 

[PJLOVER]

Please don't get hung up on bulb life.

With normal viewing, they last for years...

Again, a search will reveal all!

These are wise words.

Also it's about the quality , contrast and brightness .
20 seconds on a calculator will tell you lamp life.
Keep in mind that 50,000 hrs is about 6yrs of continuous use hrs a day , 12 yrs at 12hrs/day ,48yrs 3hrs/day....slightly ridiculous !

By this time 4k will be old tech and there may even be holodecks .

If its not a brand name IT WILL BE PANTS!

You need to make sure you check the native 1080p will be the best in your price range.

MAKE SURE IT SAYS NATIVE!
Then double check an Internet review with spec.

Personally I would go with dlp as less likely to go wrong and less crosstalk on 3d.
However if you have a warranty who cares.

New the best deal seems to be the Benq w1070 from richersounds at £700 with 5yrs warranty but think some places doing 650 for 2yrs.
That's true 1080p NATIVE and 3d .

Benq , optoma , Acer , dell , epson , Viewsonic , lg , Vivitek and jvc are some brands that are reliable. Jvc probably out of your price range along with Sony .

Try reading trusted reviews , projectorcentral , whathifi and obviously this magnificent forum to get your hands on some info to help you gauge what's hot or not , and prices.

Then look at new ones and maybe some secondhand ones. But always try get second hand after testing ,with some form of guarantee period . Even if PayPal for 40days , but has to be delivered to give you protection.

 

[PJLOVER]

There's plenty of places to research what's in your price range, but make sure you get a demo, as what looks good for one person can look bad for another, plus there's the fun and games of the dlp rainbow effect, which if you can see it rules out all of Optoma's projectors.

Thinks that's a bit of a rash statement.

Demoing is great advice , so is research... however the dlp statement was not (regarding ruling out a whole brands catalogue ).

I see rainbows if I choose to ( or not) on some dlp but the mind can be trained and also one could sit still.
And there are high end optoma with fast colour wheels which rainbows are near impossible to see even with trying.
Isn't dlp what they use at the IMAX and other cinema screens???

 

[witchdrash]

Thinks that's a bit of a rash statement.

Demoing is great advice , so is research... however the dlp statement was not (regarding ruling out a whole brands catalogue ).

I see rainbows if I choose to ( or not) on some dlp but the mind can be trained and also one could sit still.
And there are high end optoma with fast colour wheels which rainbows are near impossible to see even with trying.
Isn't dlp what they use at the IMAX and other cinema screens???

Not really if you see them occasionally and don't mind slightly impairing your viewing pleasure fine, however if, like me, you can see them every time anything moves, of if you shift your eyes at all yes it rules out the entire single chip dlp line. I'm not really, personally, interested in trying to train my mind to not see the rainbow effect, I'd much rather just use an LCD projector.

I've seen the them scene hd83 a couple of months ago and it was a horrible rainbow mess, for me there is no such thing as a fast enough colour wheel.

 

[iamsludge]

for me there is no such thing as a fast enough colour wheel.

I quite agree. I hate rainbows but even if I didn't I'd hate it if I invited a friend round and they couldn't watch because of them.

I don't know why anyone bothers with DLP when there's alternatives.

 

[Tight Git]

I don't know why anyone bothers with DLP when there's alternatives.

Because none of the alternatives are perfect so, if you don't see rainbows, then DLP's advantages become attractive.

 

[smiffy]

So far the BenQ w1070 seems good but I'm also leaning towards the Optoma in my original post. I don't think rainbow effect will bother me. Going to ask for a demo anyway to find out for myself

 

[PJLOVER]

I quite agree. I hate rainbows but even if I didn't I'd hate it if I invited a friend round and they couldn't watch because of them.

I don't know why anyone bothers with DLP when there's alternatives.

Better not go to the cinema or IMAX as they are dlp too....

 

[PJLOVER]

Not really if you see them occasionally and don't mind slightly impairing your viewing pleasure fine, however if, like me, you can see them every time anything moves, of if you shift your eyes at all yes it rules out the entire single chip dlp line. I'm not really, personally, interested in trying to train my mind to not see the rainbow effect, I'd much rather just use an LCD projector.

I've seen the them scene hd83 a couple of months ago and it was a horrible rainbow mess, for me there is no such thing as a fast enough colour wheel.

I don't but I understand some are horrific .
I'm curious to how long you used the hd83 as near impossible to see rbe in 3d.
Also as I said the brain gets use to it and dlp is far superior to non dlp (or Lcos) crosstalk .
Other option is frame rates .
Please let me know exactly how many films you watched ?
Like active 3d or even wearing reading glasses takes the brain a little to adjust and phase out these problems to make it into a perceived normal picture.
Saying that this happens with your own eyes when you are born.
But if you have given it a serious go and watch hd83 blu ray content and found it unbearable fair enough.
Just don't go to the IMAX either too.

 

[mikeybabes2]

Better not go to the cinema or IMAX as they are dlp too....

I though IMAX was a film medium, and aren't the cinema DLP's three chip and so don't suffer from the rainbow effect ?

 

[PJLOVER]

Most imax screens in London are dlp.

What I'm trying to say is just because a cheap optoma may show severe rbe that will be drastically different on a higher end model.
If I had a cure for rbe I would sell it to Benq and optoma for a very small amount of money.

 

[mikeybabes2]

Most imax screens in London are dlp.

That is just so depressing. I used to work as a projectionist at an independent cinema in my youth, and there was a magic to handling real film.

When I found out that most film projectors had been replaced with digital ones in cinemas it made me quite sad.

Now you're telling me IMAX has gone digital. You'll be telling me Santa isn't real next....

I had a DLP (Sharp XV-Z1000) for nearly ten years, and I never saw rainbows - though having a six segment wheel probably helped. Now replaced with a JVC X35 due to my water tank leaking ....

Ah well, nostalgia isn't what it used to be.....

 

[Gilbers]

Most imax screens in London are dlp.

What I'm trying to say is just because a cheap optoma may show severe rbe that will be drastically different on a higher end model.
If I had a cure for rbe I would sell it to Benq and optoma for a very small amount of money.

All commercial digital cinema projectors are 3 chip designs, which do not suffer from the same rainbow issues as the single chip designs commonly used in home DLP projectors.

 

[PJLOVER]

Anyway I think the optoma 600 is only 720 p and not full "hd 3d like the w1070 or even the optoma hd25.
This is a huge jump!!!
If you can that's the route I would take. As long as you don't get killed by a rainbow.

 

[witchdrash]

I don't but I understand some are horrific .
I'm curious to how long you used the hd83 as near impossible to see rbe in 3d.
Also as I said the brain gets use to it and dlp is far superior to non dlp (or Lcos) crosstalk .
Other option is frame rates .
Please let me know exactly how many films you watched ?
Like active 3d or even wearing reading glasses takes the brain a little to adjust and phase out these problems to make it into a perceived normal picture.
Saying that this happens with your own eyes when you are born.
But if you have given it a serious go and watch hd83 blu ray content and found it unbearable fair enough.
Just don't go to the IMAX either too.

I'm intrigued as to why you are so interested in this. I'm not down on DLP at all, for those who the rainbow effect is minimal and not a problem, or they can't perceive it at all, there are some very very good DLP projectors, especially around the £1000 mark, for me personally DLP is just a non-starter, I can see rainbows nearly all the time, even on expensive single chip DLP projectors, and it makes my eyes tired, because I naturally want to focus on the sudden flash.

For a new projector purchaser it is vitally important they don't go in blind, it's very tempting to just go out and buy an Optoma projector, they're solid, well built and cheap, however as they are exclusively DLP if bought blind, by someone who doesn't understand the cons of single chip DLP projectors they could end up very upset, or believe there is a fault with the unit, when there isn't, a simply demo of any black and white film, or those with quick moving scenes with large contrasts, Inception or The Dark Knight, are good examples, will quickly tell them whether they can see the RBE and it's severity, I have numerous friends who can see the RBE, but it's so minor they don't care.

The Imax is fine, it's 3 chip, it's only single chip DLPs that are the problem.

 

[PJLOVER]

There's plenty of places to research what's in your price range, but make sure you get a demo, as what looks good for one person can look bad for another, plus there's the fun and games of the dlp rainbow effect, which if you can see it rules out all of Optoma's projectors.

That statement is the problem.
Really not well thought advice to a potential projector owner.
Although I do see where you are coming from.
If I had never used a dlp optoma projector before and viewed the cheapest oldest optoma with crap colour wheel and see a harsh rbe (which I would) should I really rule out the better standard ones ?
Is that good advice ?
That is my problem as 99.99% of people will have no problem and see a huge difference between a cheap 10yr old optoma and an hd83.

I do suffer badly from rbe on cheap projectors to the point I won't bother.

But I won't rule out all optoma as I won't rule out all LCD ( but I am unlikely to get any more) because of filters, dead pixels, burn, loss of colour and general price of repairs many of them have.

 

[smiffy]

So been busy spending hours of research and come up with a BenQ W710st.
Reviews are good for it and on here it's had some talk about it. Would this be a good option?

 

[Hatlesschimp]

Im doing research as well on a 3d vision 3x Pj setup. Ive narrowed my sights to the w710st because its 3d vision enabled and hdmi 1.3 for PC gaming and that its the only one you can find in stock anywhere.

I cant find anything bad about! Ive trawled the net and only one person was disgruntled about it being brighter on one side of the image compared to the other side and he managed to post on 12 different forums lol. I honestly think its a solid projector and I'm looking to buy 3 of them for a Nvidia 3d surround setup.

The only other option im looking at is forgetting 3d and going LED. WHY??? Because they are smaller. Less fan noise. Longer life with no/low maintenance.
If they made 1080p LED projectors at a decent price with 1000 lumens i would not even be here typing this. i would have bought 3 already and typing a review lol.

Get back to me if you do get the W710st and ill do likewise if i get them.

Cheers

 

[smiffy]

Im doing research as well on a 3d vision 3x Pj setup. Ive narrowed my sights to the w710st because its 3d vision enabled and hdmi 1.3 for PC gaming and that its the only one you can find in stock anywhere.

I cant find anything bad about! Ive trawled the net and only one person was disgruntled about it being brighter on one side of the image compared to the other side and he managed to post on 12 different forums lol. I honestly think its a solid projector and I'm looking to buy 3 of them for a Nvidia 3d surround setup.

The only other option im looking at is forgetting 3d and going LED. WHY??? Because they are smaller. Less fan noise. Longer life with no/low maintenance.
If they made 1080p LED projectors at a decent price with 1000 lumens i would not even be here typing this. i would have bought 3 already and typing a review lol.

Get back to me if you do get the W710st and ill do likewise if i get them.

Cheers

I should be buying this month so I'll let you know if it happens