Hi,

I just got out of school and now have a pretty big apartment. I am now looking to buy either a 1080p PJ or TV. I've been reading a lot on PJs recently and now I need someone else's advice.

I really wanted a PJ for the WOW factor of a 120" (or so) screen, but after reading that much, I started to question my choice a bit. Apart from the light control, mounting, fan noise, screen gain, etc. problems, my main concern is this:
I want to use my PJ mainly to play XBox 360 and my computer. And of course watch the occasional movie, but I don't have a HD DVD or blu-ray player... yet. So my question is how good would a PJ work when hooked up to a computer? (at 1920x1080 resolution) I haven't read much about people doing this so I started to wonder... does it look bad because of the small misconvergence? or does it look good when you sit at a distance?

Of course I don't want to hook my computer to a PJ to chat online or surf the web, I want to play games. But some text in games today can be pretty small and I wanted to know how that comes out on a 1080p PJ.

If anyone can help, post a screenshot, convince me to buy a PJ or not, that would be really appreciated.

Thanks in advance,
Yet another newb.

Picture quality on a screen that size is going to depend on your video card. A higher end card that can produce that resolution can look good.

What video card do you have in your PC? Does it have DVI or HDMI output?

An important game performance issue with either a big screen tv or a projector is refresh rate. The Xbox 360 outputs a native 1080/60p so smoothness of action and image performance will be best if the tv or pj has a refresh rate of 60 or better.

All ambient affects projector image and the more light the more evident it becomes so if you must game with all the room lights up then a big HD tv might be a better choice.

Our oldest son (32yrold engineer) favors Rock Band on the 360 and says you can't beat a projection screen with four people playing the game.

Anyhow and as already posted capability of your computers video card will affect pc image - the Xbox on a PJ is awesome.
goodluck

My video card is a ATI Radeon X1900XTX and it has two DVI outputs.

What happens when my computer doesn't refresh fast enough? Let's say I'm running a game at roughly 20 FPS (or Hertz if you will), will it look even worse on a projector then it does on my CRT monitor? (that refreshes at 70Hz anyway) What I mean is that the signal can run at 60Hz for a LCD TV or PJ, but the FPS of the game can be slower then that, right? Or am I missing something?

In the meantime, I'll go check some ATI forums to see if my video card can output in 1920x1080, but I'm pretty sure it can. It can do 1920x1200 on a 24" LCD screen, so why not 1920x1080?

You may want the extra sharpness of single chip DLP if you are to use the projector as your computer display.
Looks just like a crt monitor when a game is choking. I have test this with Gear of War PC, still looks great but absolutely unplayable at less the 5 frames a second. The projector is not the limitation here. I suggest looking for one with a VGA port that support 1920x1080 computer input, it will come in handy if HDMI/DVI does not work out.

LCDs are generally considered sharper than DLPs (except perhaps panasonics) so I don't know where you get the "extra sharpness of a single chip DLP" from.

I've got my PC connected to my projector.

I think I generally set the resolution at 1280 x 720, but I'm pretty sure 1920x1080 works fine as well. I'll mess with it next time I'm in my media room.

I used to think I'd do some PC gaming with it, and I still will some, but the 360 has really been my main game machine.

Still, the PC connected to the projector (119" with Sharp 12K DLP) looks pretty good to me.

Refresh rate problem does not apply to LCDs, don't fret.
For what you want HC4900 is a perfect candidate. About 13 franklins after rebate. Extremely sharp & bright 1920x1080 image. Any graphic card nowadays support this resolution. I have mine hooked up to the PC and very pleased with the image.

You sound like me 3 years ago. I debated a long time over what I wanted right after I got out of school. I eventually went with the pj and couldnt be happier.

Take a look at the HTPC forums, you will find tons of info on computers connected to projectors.

I have a panasonic pt-l500u, projecting a 120" image, connected by a roughly 30 foot dvi cable to my computer, and have had the same setup for about 3 years until my motherboard died and I decided to start buying new components.

Here are some things to keep in mind. These are my opinions and things I have learned:

*The pj is awful for watching standard definition tv on. It is too giant for the low definition and is just plain annoying. I wouldnt expect to use it to watch standard definiton tv broadcasts. (note, this has nothing to do with the projector, just an image that big at that low quality)

*The fan isnt nearly as noisy as my computer, and its just a normal computer, so dont worry about that.

*Daytime use is pretty much out unless you have a good way to block out light. I have blankets I hang on each window if I want to use it during the day.

*Computers can do some great things to image quality of dvds, and they look absolutly awesome. If you only need one reason to get a pj, this is it.

*HD content looks even better, and makes it even more worth it.

*Moving (since you said you are in an apt) is ridiculously easy with a pj, just carry it out.

So to sum up:
I have had my 720p for a few years and never regretted it once. If you use it for movies and games on your xbox you will love it. But dont buy one and expect to use it as a regular tv, it just cant do that well IMO.