So I'm hoping you guys (and gals) can help me out: I'm going to put a projector in my living room. I've already decided on it.

Problem is, there are huge, I MEAN HUGE (20 ft tall) windows. It cost a fortune to put the current blinds in, and I'm not going to pay that all over to make the room as dark as theater should be. (Okay, I would...but the significant other won't let me let's pretend it's my choice for now...)

So I'm stuck with sub-par lighting conditions...doesn't bother me too much, because I usually watch movies at night anyway...but sports...oh the sports...they are on during the day and I still want to throw them up on the huge screen.

So, in these bright conditions, what's the best bang for the buck 720p projector. I'm leaning toward the PT-AX200U, but the HC1500 price is soooooo very tempting.

What are your thoughts? Can a budget DLP get 'er done in a bright room...or do I need to bite the bullet and fork over the extra bucks on the Panasonic? Or maybe I'm missing a great other option???

Why not tint the windows to help a little?

You're better off getting a 71" DLP from Toshiba or Mitsubishi.

Huh...neither of these answered my question.

:(

mitsubishi HC1500 1600 ANSI

btw..i ahve the same type of windows..i just put sewed to sets of drapes together to reach the floor and cover the HUGE bay windows. just a thought

So I'm hoping you guys (and gals) can help me out: I'm going to put a projector in my living room. I've already decided on it.

Problem is, there are huge, I MEAN HUGE (20 ft tall) windows. It cost a fortune to put the current blinds in, and I'm not going to pay that all over to make the room as dark as theater should be. (Okay, I would...but the significant other won't let me let's pretend it's my choice for now...)

So I'm stuck with sub-par lighting conditions...doesn't bother me too much, because I usually watch movies at night anyway...but sports...oh the sports...they are on during the day and I still want to throw them up on the huge screen.

So, in these bright conditions, what's the best bang for the buck 720p projector. I'm leaning toward the PT-AX200U, but the HC1500 price is soooooo very tempting.

What are your thoughts? Can a budget DLP get 'er done in a bright room...or do I need to bite the bullet and fork over the extra bucks on the Panasonic? Or maybe I'm missing a great other option???

Both of those are good choices, but I am not sure that the HC1500 will work for you. If you have 20' high windows then you must have high ceilings. The HC1500 has a fixed offset and it will not work on a ceiling that high. It is not a good projector for shelf mount and it has very limited zoom capabilities.

I would look at the Epson HC720. I like it better than the Panasonic PT-AX200U. Right now the Epson has a pretty good offer. $100 off and free replacement bulb. Since you do not have a light controlled room you might be using your projector in higher lumen output modes and a spare bulb would be a nice thing to have. Epson is one of the few companies that does not exaggerate the lumen output of their projectors, so when they say it does 1,600 lumens it does 1,600 lumens.

Optoma EP1691 - 2500 lumens < $1K
Benq SP830 - 3500 lumens @ $1.5K

Both of those are good choices, but I am not sure that the HC1500 will work for you. If you have 20' high windows then you must have high ceilings. The HC1500 has a fixed offset and it will not work on a ceiling that high. It is not a good projector for shelf mount and it has very limited zoom capabilities.

I would look at the Epson HC720. I like it better than the Panasonic PT-AX200U. Right now the Epson has a pretty good offer. $100 off and free replacement bulb. Since you do not have a light controlled room you might be using your projector in higher lumen output modes and a spare bulb would be a nice thing to have. Epson is one of the few companies that does not exaggerate the lumen output of their projectors, so when they say it does 1,600 lumens it does 1,600 lumens.

Excellent response. Thanks so much for answering my questions!!!

mitsubishi HC1500 1600 ANSI

btw..i ahve the same type of windows..i just put sewed to sets of drapes together to reach the floor and cover the HUGE bay windows. just a thought

Believe me, I tried this. She wants it to "look nice" which means expensive as all hell. Overtime, I will try to win this battle, but I need (okay want) the projector first.

Optoma EP1691 - 2500 lumens < $1K
Benq SP830 - 3500 lumens @ $1.5K

Both of these would work well, but due to the fixed offset and limited zoom, the only mounting option for a room with a high (20') ceiling would be to coffee table mount at the distance needed for the size screen wanted. If you can do that then these are good options.

Huh...neither of these answered my question.

:(

Just trying to help...
and tint would help with the glare on any projector.

G/L to you..

I have a Mits with 13' ceilings. I have a drop-down pole on my ceiling mount. It's quite bright and thankfully, putting it into 'Sports' mode really helps - it 'plasmatizes' the colors a bit, but for day-time sports it's not a big deal at all (secretly I like it, although I know that's akin to forum blasphemy). So considering the great price (and the trick is other ultra-bright units won't have the decent contrast of the Mits - home theater PJs will but not some of those quasi-business PJs recommended) I say try to find a drop-down pole that can make mounting the Mits possible. It's known to have a GREAT keystone correction (everyone grumbles about how that shouldn't be done and then every person I've read about - like 20 here on AVS says it works great and has no visible negative impact on PQ) so you can probably make it work. The other question is - how high can you have the screen on your 20' high wall. My screen is very near dead center on my wall - which is higher than normal (bottom is 4' up because I have a CRT tv beneath it) and as long as we're sitting far enough back it's perfectly fine for me.

Good luck!

Both of these would work well, but due to the fixed offset and limited zoom, the only mounting option for a room with a high (20') ceiling would be to coffee table mount at the distance needed for the size screen wanted. If you can do that then these are good options.

I'm not a big fan of coffee table projecting, I've ran some scenarios over at projectorcentral...and it just seems like the projector will need to be right where I'll want to sit....so I'll have a coffee table right in front of the couch. Yuck.

I like the idea of lens-shift projector on a bookshelf behind me. Out of sight, and away from drinks, kids, dogs, etc.

I have a Mits with 13' ceilings. I have a drop-down pole on my ceiling mount. It's quite bright and thankfully, putting it into 'Sports' mode really helps - it 'plasmatizes' the colors a bit, but for day-time sports it's not a big deal at all (secretly I like it, although I know that's akin to forum blasphemy). So considering the great price (and the trick is other ultra-bright units won't have the decent contrast of the Mits - home theater PJs will but not some of those quasi-business PJs recommended) I say try to find a drop-down pole that can make mounting the Mits possible. It's known to have a GREAT keystone correction (everyone grumbles about how that shouldn't be done and then every person I've read about - like 20 here on AVS says it works great and has no visible negative impact on PQ) so you can probably make it work. The other question is - how high can you have the screen on your 20' high wall. My screen is very near dead center on my wall - which is higher than normal (bottom is 4' up because I have a CRT tv beneath it) and as long as we're sitting far enough back it's perfectly fine for me.

Good luck!

The ceilings are 20 ft' and have a cool look to them. I'm not going to get sign off to to hang it from a pole. :(

One day, I'll have a dedicated theater room... one day...

I use my epson 400 in dynamic mode exclusively regardless of the enviroment because I too like a BRIGHT picture. I agree with nightfly13, that is blasphemy around here!
I have 1200 hours on it and its still really bright.

I use my epson 400 in dynamic mode exclusively regardless of the enviroment because I too like a BRIGHT picture. I agree with nightfly13, that is blasphemy around here!
I have 1200 hours on it and its still really bright.

I am using the HC400 also. Nice bright projector with good colors and the price was right. I have mine set up as a rear shelf mount and I use a DaLite High Power screen, 2.8 gain. I use this set up because my HT room is also our family room, no light control and I have a lot of large windows.

my .02 would be the HC1500 at 1600 ANSI it will be damn good in a bright room and not too $$$

I have a Sanyo PLV 70 which is a 2400 lumen machine it is an older model and the successor model is the PLV 75 which is rated at 2200 lumens.The 70 is a light cannon and would suspect the 75 would be also. I have a room with a lot of ambient light and the 70 allows daytime viewing. You may be able to find one on ebay.

my .02 would be the HC1500 at 1600 ANSI it will be damn good in a bright room and not too $$$

I looked at that projector for my room (17' ceilings) and it just is not practical for a room with real high ceilings and coffee table mount was out of the question. If this projector will work in your room then I agree that it is a good option, but for many of us it just does work well with our rooms. Placing a nine foot drop tube would not be cool in my family room. The OP has ceilings that are three feet higher than mine.

20' ceilings are probably not going to allow for any PJ to be mounted right up on the ceiling , I can't recall any PJ with that much lens shift/offset .

-- Jason

Exactly... I imagine that pole would need to be a bit on the "beefy" side as well (both pole and mounts) to ensure the projector didn't move. I could see minor projector vibrations transmitted to the screen because of the length of drop down.

I imagine a 12 ft. stripper pole hanging from my ceiling...doubt the mrs will go for that.

Hmmm... I'm fairly new to this but from my experience no projector, no matter the brightness, can put up a good picture if there is a lot of sunlight in the room. And if there's direct sunlight on a wall then you're pretty much not going to see anything at all... now I don't know how shaded the wall is that your projecting on so maybe your situation will work out fine. When I setup my HC1500 on my wall with all the shades open on a fairly sunny day, the picture was VERY washed out. Now I'm far from a "videophile", I can put up with bad quality, but it was pretty much unwatchable.

However, don't' let me scare you out of getting a projector. I'm very very happy I bought mine. :o

Hmmm... I'm fairly new to this but from my experience no projector, no matter the brightness, can put up a good picture if there is a lot of sunlight in the room. And if there's direct sunlight on a wall then you're pretty much not going to see anything at all... now I don't know how shaded the wall is that your projecting on so maybe your situation will work out fine. When I setup my HC1500 on my wall with all the shades open on a fairly sunny day, the picture was VERY washed out. Now I'm far from a "videophile", I can put up with bad quality, but it was pretty much unwatchable.

However, don't' let me scare you out of getting a projector. I'm very very happy I bought mine. :o

The OP said that that he watches movies mainly at night so that takes care of one problem. The only thing that he wants to watch during the day is sports. Sports do not require a dark room to enjoy. Since he has blinds the room should be plenty dark enough during the day for viewing sports.

I watch sports during the daytime with an hd1000/hc1500 and it works great. His ceilings are high though which means a table/shelf mount might be a better option and the hc1500 isn't the best for those types of placements. The Epson 720 may be a good option for the table/shelf mount and it seems to be plenty bright.

Thanks everybody your help. It was very valuable.

I ended up getting the Epson 720 and I will shelf mount it. When you factor in the free bulb and 100 rebate, it's really not that much more expensive than the HC1500 (at least that's what I'm telling myself). Also, I think LCD w/ lens shift projectors are simply a better a choice for a typical living room setup. Sure, you give up some black level and color depth, but...you get a workable solution with the flexibility to mount your projector somewhere that is unobtrusive...rather than designing your room around the projector.

If ceiling mount was an option, I would have probably gone with HC1500. I was initially leaning toward the AX200U, but it appears to have higher than average reliability issues.

Thanks again for your help!!!

Blinds?????