So,
I am currently building my theater and watching my TV last night I saw that My Panny just looks damn good, do these projectors provide the same image or better?

I will be doing a 1080P possible the Panasonic or the Optoma HD80.

Just curious

There are pluses and minuses to each. Not every situation is right for a front projection. However, if you have the right environment, equipment, setup, etc. I don't think you can get the same WOW type moments like you do with a very large projection on a plasma.

The equipment, environment, and planning have to be right. I think you will actually quite surprised if you do it right. Nothing like playing Xbox 360 on a 92 inch screen or watching Monday Night Football in HD. You just can't get that same WOW factor on a 40 inch set. IMHO. On the downside, having a room in near complete darkness is not necessarily an easily thing either. I think with front projection, you get out of it what you put in.

Different and way bigger. Equal, but different.

Different and way bigger. Equal, but different.

That's how I'd sum it up as well. My friend has a 50 inch plasma and I have a 64 inch (I know, I know, it's small for a projector--all I can fit for this year) screen with a projector. I've run DVE on each of them (he barely knows how to turn on his DVD player) and each of them looks very nice.

Pluses for him--it's in his living room and he can watch it with a fair amount of ambient light with no problem. It doesn't dominate his room as much as my setup does (less claustrophobic). Looks very nice. Simple to operate.

Pluses for me--cost me half what his TV cost (and about 20% of what the 63 inch Samsung plasma costs--closest size equivalent). When we watch movies at his place, we're watching movies on a nice TV. When we watch movies at my place, we're at the cinema (relatively speaking). Next year, when I move up to about 80 inches, it will be even more cinematic.

The plasma experience can't touch a front projection experience. My DT-500 is throwing a picture 4x bigger than a 55" HDTV. For $762. :D

My DT-500 on my 9'2" diagonal DIY Torus screen:


http://img407.imageshack.us/img407/1319/d41nw6.jpg

http://img407.imageshack.us/img407/7546/d101tx6.jpg

Im not talking about size here, I will do going from 50 to 110, double teh size and a little extra... I am just concerned about the image quality that is all..

Well, actually it's more than 4x the size. If you have the right room conditions, I don't belive you will notice any picture degradation compared to your flat panel. Just more awe.

Hello All,

Hope you are all well.

Neither one of you is incorrect in your size comparisons, one is comparing diagonal size, and the other is comparing total area of the screen.

Po-tate-o/pah-tot-o. 50" diagonal is approximately 8 square feet in area, 110" diagonal is approximately 36 square feet in area. So both are correct in one saying it is a little over double the diagonal size, or that the projection screen is 4.5x the area of the 50" in square feet.

On to the original question on quality. I have a lowly 480p machine, a MovieMate 30s which is a pretty darn bright projector, I hardly take it out of its lowest output Theater Black mode even with a light on. When comparing with a plasma I would highly recommend a bright projector if you like the plasma look. I believe you would be disappointed with a dimmer projector.

As far as picture, I am projecting at 107" on a flat white painted wall and I would never go back to a regular set again. For movies the picture is outstanding, a projected image just looks better for movies, hard to explain until you see it. Even this 480p unit looks better than the old 1080i CRT we had before. With standard definition TV it still looks very good, but that is probably the Pixelworks processing working, you definitely can tell it is standard definition, a little soft but not bad at all...better than I was expecting. With HDTV from the Samsung tuner the image is fantastic, only downside is with sports when they pan far out, then the 480p shows that it is 480p with loss of detail and some pixel structure evident, especially in the bent leg striping on football uniforms. On closeups the picture is very crisp and clear and looks very much HD.

You are looking at 1080p units, that picture would be a hell of a lot better than mine. And I like mine vs my friends 50" plasma. I do not think you will not like the projected image once you see it at home.

Later,

Tony