Hello,

I've been reading around, getting info on projectors as i'm buying my first one soon.
Before anything else, let me thank everyone for the helping feeling on gets on this board. Learned a lot already just reading.
Let me tell you also I read the complete threads on the projectors i'm looking into.

Room: 4x4 meters (13x13feet), sofa centered on the wall, screento the opposite one.
Viewing distance: should be around 3.80 meters (12.5 feet)
Pj position: next to the sofa on a shelf (could be at a range of different heights without problem) - want to get the image as centered with the sofa as possible, although for what i read i think no projector will have enough shift for that. Distance of lens to screen should be at least 3.5 meters (11.5 feet)
Screen size - thinking about something close to 2.5 meters (100 inches) but would love to get closer to 3 meters
Screen type: white painted wall - for various reasons it's the only option now
Lighting conditions: room has one window that can be easily blacked out. Have indirect dim light on the wall behind the sofa, and that will probably be one most of the time. Most of the viewing will be at night.
Viewing content: for at least a year this will work almost exclusively on SD material:
- TV from digital set-top box, but all standard definition (all we get in Portugal for now...) mostly for sports - 30% of viewing
- SD dvds on 480 resolution player (no upscaling) - 30% of viewing
- divx of movies and tv series at multiple resolutions, on standard DVD player (no upscaling) - 30% of viewing
- PS2 - 10% viewing
Price: around 1000 euros

I'm lotaced in Portugal so i'll have to buy online on a given store and am limited to the models they offer.
Under these conditions the ones taken out of shortlist are:
Sony AW 15: costs 20% more than I want and apparently not too bright
Pan AX100: costs 20% more than I want and got worried about all technical problems reported
Sanyo Z5: on budget but read it's not as bright as competition and more apt for movies

Current short list:
Epson 400 and Benq w500
Both are more or less same price, the epson actually being a little cheaper.
Difference in brightness seems not too big.
Vertical lens shift (which I would like) seems identical (not sure on this.... Benq's website has a nice diagram of it but the epson only states 50% offset.). If not the same I think the epson is just slightly better (again if i understood the specs correctly.). At the disposition I'll start with I don't think I can get the image centered with the sofa with any projector anyway...

My real doubt at the moment is if the processor on the benq will make SD stuff i'll be watching that much good than the epson.
If i go with the epson should i consider to get an upslacing dvd player to play SD DVDs and divx stuff? Will it upscale better than the projector?
It's obvisouly a shame but there's little feedback (apart from w500 users) on projectors' performance on SD stuff... which is quite normal, but makes my decision harder.
I would just love to hear from anyone who has tested / watched both or at least someno with great results on the Espon on the same kind of content/format I'll be watching.

Anyway, thanks to those who read all this and manage to give some feedback. Would love to hear any opinions.
In the end I think I'll be pretty impressed with any 720p proejctor and it will be a pretty big improvement on current CRT 32' Sony TV.

cheers
Luís

Hello,

I've been reading around, getting info on projectors as i'm buying my first one soon.
Before anything else, let me thank everyone for the helping feeling on gets on this board. Learned a lot already just reading.
Let me tell you also I read the complete threads on the projectors i'm looking into.

Room: 4x4 meters (13x13feet), sofa centered on the wall, screento the opposite one.
Viewing distance: should be around 3.80 meters (12.5 feet)
Pj position: next to the sofa on a shelf (could be at a range of different heights without problem) - want to get the image as centered with the sofa as possible, although for what i read i think no projector will have enough shift for that. Distance of lens to screen should be at least 3.5 meters (11.5 feet)
Screen size - thinking about something close to 2.5 meters (100 inches) but would love to get closer to 3 meters
Screen type: white painted wall - for various reasons it's the only option now
Lighting conditions: room has one window that can be easily blacked out. Have indirect dim light on the wall behind the sofa, and that will probably be one most of the time. Most of the viewing will be at night.
Viewing content: for at least a year this will work almost exclusively on SD material:
- TV from digital set-top box, but all standard definition (all we get in Portugal for now...) mostly for sports - 30% of viewing
- SD dvds on 480 resolution player (no upscaling) - 30% of viewing
- divx of movies and tv series at multiple resolutions, on standard DVD player (no upscaling) - 30% of viewing
- PS2 - 10% viewing
Price: around 1000 euros

I'm lotaced in Portugal so i'll have to buy online on a given store and am limited to the models they offer.
Under these conditions the ones taken out of shortlist are:
Sony AW 15: costs 20% more than I want and apparently not too bright
Pan AX100: costs 20% more than I want and got worried about all technical problems reported
Sanyo Z5: on budget but read it's not as bright as competition and more apt for movies

Current short list:
Epson 400 and Benq w500
Both are more or less same price, the epson actually being a little cheaper.
Difference in brightness seems not too big.
Vertical lens shift (which I would like) seems identical (not sure on this.... Benq's website has a nice diagram of it but the epson only states 50% offset.). If not the same I think the epson is just slightly better (again if i understood the specs correctly.). At the disposition I'll start with I don't think I can get the image centered with the sofa with any projector anyway...

My real doubt at the moment is if the processor on the benq will make SD stuff i'll be watching that much good than the epson.
If i go with the epson should i consider to get an upslacing dvd player to play SD DVDs and divx stuff? Will it upscale better than the projector?
It's obvisouly a shame but there's little feedback (apart from w500 users) on projectors' performance on SD stuff... which is quite normal, but makes my decision harder.
I would just love to hear from anyone who has tested / watched both or at least someno with great results on the Espon on the same kind of content/format I'll be watching.

Anyway, thanks to those who read all this and manage to give some feedback. Would love to hear any opinions.
In the end I think I'll be pretty impressed with any 720p proejctor and it will be a pretty big improvement on current CRT 32' Sony TV.

cheers
Luís

I would read through the Epson and BenQ threads again and see if you can't pick up a few more details that will help you choose. The chipset in the BenQ should help with SD content the most but check with the owners to see what they are actually seeing.

Thanks

Read those threads completely.

Some nice reviews from SD users on the Benq but almost no comments on it by any Epson's.

regards
Luís

Hello All,

Hope you are all well.

Luis,

The Epson Home Cinema 400 has a vertical shift of 100 percent screen height and a horizontal shift of 50 percent screen width. This is a significant range of lens shift that should suit your needs. The scaler in this unit is only vaguely addressed in the manual as using Pixelworks ICs. Consensus on these forums is that the Reon HQV is a better scaler.

The review of the W500 on projectorreviews.com was very neutral, the unit reviewed had a slight red cast to the left side of the image, hopefully that was just a problem with that particular unit.

I have always had very good luck with Epson products, and recently purchased a MovieMate 30s that I have been enjoying. Could not beat the price.

I would go with the brighter Epson 400 over the BenQ W500, after all Epson makes the panels and I believe know how to make a good robust projector around them. The extra brightness would easily allow you to achieve your desired screen size of 3 meters, I am guessing that is diagonal? You would also need the extra brightness to allow more ambient light in your viewing area. Projectorreviews.com has a write up on the Epson 400 with actual lumen measurements for the various modes.

You will want 16 foot lamberts off the screen. So, take the measured lumen output from projectorreviews and divide by the square footage of your desired screen size to get how many foot lamberts are achieved, sorry we are barbarians and still don't use metric.

For example on a 106" diagonal screen that would be 92 inches x 52 inches, convert to ft...7.66 feet x 4.33 feet...which is 33.193 sq feet....my projector in theater black is 508 lumens....so we take 508 lumens divided by 33.193 sq feet and we get 15.3 ft lamberts on a 1 gain screen which is what you will usually have on a painted white wall.

Hope some of this helps.

Later,

Tony

Thanks a lot Tony.
That is helpful and another new thing I learned today :)

For reliability and brightness I am totally sold to the Espon, according to all reviews, user and pro, (including projectorreviews).

The only thing that is giving me trouble is the ppl raving about the scaler on the Benq ... viewing most stuff on SD that may be of importance, but unless I could see them side by side I will never know.

I'll have another couple of weeks of pondering (maybe Art will post some update on his benq review) and then decide.

And again thanks vey much for any input.

regards
L.

Hello All,

Hope you are all well.

Luis,

No problem on the help.

My Wife likes to watch the local news, and World News in SD on the projector, my MovieMate I believe has the same scaler as the Home Cinema 400, and it looks much better than I thought it would. There is a large difference between my cable SD and my over the air SD though...the cable SD is absolutely terrible...scaling a bad signal just makes it worse...does not matter what type of scaler at that point. If the signal is good quality, I believe you will be happy with the scaling capabilities of the Epson with your digital satellite signal.

Later,

Tony

speculare I am in the same seat as you. Can't decide between epson 400 and benq w500. Which one you pick up at the end?

Yo Ivan

I'm still trying to decide.

Still have a month before moving apartments and actually buying.

For now I'll just wait and keep reading opinions, and maybe Art's review gets updated somehow.
MEanwhile the Pan AX100 just went down in price where i'll be buying and is just 4 or 5 % more expensive, which may make it a contender again.

For the future I've read Benq can have another advantage... if i get around to buying a PS3 for bluray disks, it accepts a 1080p/24 signal while i think the Epson won't (or not without the added frames process).

cheers
L.

I'm still undecided between:

Benq W500 and Epson 400

even now i'm pondering on the Panasosic 200 everyone is raving about.
Still don't know how much it will cost whne it's available to me but surely 20 to 30% more than the other 2.

Any other input is most welcome

thanks
cheers
Luís

ProjectorCentral.com has a BenQ W500 in for review, but I have no idea when they'll actually get around to reviewing it.

Review on w500:

Mentions Epson and Panny against w500.

HQV = pretty good SD material viewing compared to others.

http://www.projectorreviews.com/benq/w500/index.php

ProjectorCentral.com has a BenQ W500 in for review, but I have no idea when they'll actually get around to reviewing it.

cool, thanks for the info. i'll wait for that.
hope their review would compared it performing on SD material to the epson at least.

in the end i'm really kneeling for the Benq after this review, because of the scaler. What i lose in brightness is probably gained in that.

cheers
L.

I think you will be disappointed with the white wall as the screen. Yes the screen will be big, but the quality will even just a little ambient light will destroy the picture.

The screen makes or breaks the quality of the picture.

I would consider a screen, a DIY one will cost around $75 for a 100" 16:9 screen.

Yeah dont judge the PJ performance on a white wall. Maybe go read the DIY screen section also.
I built a DIY from Home Depot using 4x8 board and does very good. Cost $35.