Hello all,

Starting my projector research and figured i would get some opinions from the all knowing folks here. I have had plasmas in the past and we now have a room that can support a projector so here goes.

The room does have windows. Most viewing will be at night and i will get good curtains, but there will definitely be ambient light from the left wall as you are looking at the screen. So, i am assuming i want a higher lumens projector (2-3000 maybe) ?

Based on the wall size, we are going with a 92" screen. Putting most of the projectors in the calculator puts our seating at around 11-12' with a throw of almost the same... that works fine in this room.

This is a rough estimate of watching habits.. 50% HD sports (football, basketball, hockey..directv), 20% directv HD/non-HD shows, 20% movies blu-ray and regular DVD, 10% WII games. Which technology is the best for this. I heard LCoS for sports ??

And the all important budget :). i would really like to stay at 3k or below, but would consider higher if it REALLY made a big difference in what we want to use it for.

Any advice is appreciated.
Thanks in advance,
Charles

Hello all,

Starting my projector research and figured i would get some opinions from the all knowing folks here. I have had plasmas in the past and we now have a room that can support a projector so here goes.

The room does have windows. Most viewing will be at night and i will get good curtains, but there will definitely be ambient light from the left wall as you are looking at the screen. So, i am assuming i want a higher lumens projector (2-3000 maybe) ?

Based on the wall size, we are going with a 92" screen. Putting most of the projectors in the calculator puts our seating at around 11-12' with a throw of almost the same... that works fine in this room.

This is a rough estimate of watching habits.. 50% HD sports (football, basketball, hockey..directv), 20% directv HD/non-HD shows, 20% movies blu-ray and regular DVD, 10% WII games. Which technology is the best for this. I heard LCoS for sports ??

And the all important budget :). i would really like to stay at 3k or below, but would consider higher if it REALLY made a big difference in what we want to use it for.

Any advice is appreciated.
Thanks in advance,
Charles

Lots of pros and cons for all the projector technologies, Charles. I'm a long time DLP user, but I just got the Panasonic AE4000 LCD projector and I'm really happy with it. I'm pretty sure it's going to replace my Sharp XV-Z20000 (about $7,000) as my everyday projector. The loser goes into one of my bedrooms. Best part - it costs $2,000 from Projector People or Visual Apex, both AVS sponsors you'll find at the top of the page. Lots of features and a great value for the money. It's only been in the hands of users for a couple of weeks, but most people are extremely happy with the performance. And the price - awfully hard to beat.

Thanks Joe,

yes, i have been reading about the Panny. what are your thoughts regarding it and the ambient light i will have? How do sports look on yours?

I am in the EXACT situation. I will be keeping a close on this thread. Sports watcher here. My measurements are the same as op. Wondering if a tad bigger screen would work??

My walls are tan and ceiling white. I will have blackout curtains with no light.

Would the Panny 4000 be good for mostly Dish hd and blu ray??

I've spent about a week with the 4000 now and I really, really like it. I'm not a huge sports fan at this time of year. The Cardinals exited the playoffs early. We used to have a football team called the Rams here in St. Louis, but they disappeared a few years back and some impostors have taken their place. :D

I did watch the World Series on the Panasonic, and it was quite good. I have frame interpolation set on 1, the mildest of the 3 settings. I like it for movies and video (live sports such as the Series). And the Panasonic is chock full of really useful features, like the Waveform Monitor, frame interpolation, game settings (to avoid lag time while playing computer games), support for 24p frame rate, auto zoom/focus modes for scope movies (although I can't use that feature).

The Panasonic is much brighter than my old projector. I use the dimmest mode available and it's still a little too bright for my DaLite High Power screen. I had to raise the projector up close to the ceiling to improve the black levels. If you have white/light walls and ceiling, a screen like the HP might be a good choice. It will help reject the light coming from those areas. It would work best if you could darken the wall *behind* the projector, since a retro-reflective screen bounces light back to the source. A light colored wall behind the projector would send reflected light right back to the screen and wash it out.

At its brightest mode, the Panasonic should have enough oomph to have lights up moderately for things like a Super Bowl party. The best solution, though, is dark walls and ceilings, as well as having as much light control as you can provide (blackout curtains, dark walls, ceilings and floors).

Blu-ray playback is excellent. I've watched several Blu-ray discs already, and I love the 24p playback. I'm not really susceptible to rainbows, but I do see them occasionally on my Sharp. No rainbows ever with LCD.

Another great thing is that its color right out of the box is excellent in the Color 1 mode. It looks every bit the equal of my ISF calibrated Sharp in color accuracy.

Overall, I think the Panasonic projector is a great buy. It falls short of my much more expensive Sharp in a few areas, but it's better in several other ways, such as how it handles motion. I'm almost certainly going to leave it in my main home theater and move my Sharp to the bedroom as a secondary/backup projector. That says a lot about what I think of it.

Thanks again Joe. This does seem like a very good buy for the features and performance.. i am certainly leaning in that direction.