Is a standered def PJ actually HD when in Widescreen mode?

800x600 is the projectors resolution, it will scale back the other resolutions. 1280x1024 is not widescreen BTW.

For watching video, you will want the 720p projector. Having said that, you should probably do more research before you go handing over your hard earned

Accepting and displaying are not the same thing. The projector is a fixed pixel display and it shows everything at it's fixed resolution. If the projectors resolution is 800 x 600 (480P) then everything it receives is shown at that resolution. What they mean when they say it accepts 1080P is just that you can feed the projector 1080P and it will down convert it to 480P. A lot of lower resolution projectors will not accept 1080P material so you would have to set your BR player to send a lower resolution that your projector can accept. Having the BR player send the projectors resolution should give you the best image, but that is not always the case.

You need to buy from a place with a good return policy because you are not going to like the picture.

There is a large difference in pixels between:

800 x 600 (yours) = .48 Million
1280 x 720 (720p) = .92 Million
1920 x 1080 (1080p) = 2.07 Million

But the difference between the 800x600 and the 720p is greater than that when displaying a 16x9 or wider picture:
800 x 450 (16x9) = .36 Million
1280 x 720 (720p) = .92 Million

That is is 2.5 X resolution increase. Huge. Massive. On 16x9 material, 720p blows away the resolution you can get from an 800 x 600 projector. but, on standard def DVD's, this may not make much of a difference if you sit far enough away.

Ignoring the resolution factor, that PJ is, from your description, most likely a business model designed to show Powerpoint slides, etc. It would not be tuned for movie viewing.

FYI:

800x600 would be the maximum number of pixels you would see only when displaying 4:3 content. In widescreen mode, you would have a black bar above and below the image where pixels are not being used and would only display 800x450 for a 16:9 presentation, which is less than dvd resolution and for a cinemascope movie the image shown would be down to 800x342.

If you want to use a 4:3 PJ to try to get a good compromise between 4:3 content and 16:9 content, you want to buy at least a 1024x768 model like the Sharp XR30X.

Otherwise, as was suggested above, go with a native 720p model.

Toshibafan
If you're gonna buy this PJ: Acer PH530 Home Theater Projector
You need to read this review: http://www.projectorreviews.com/acer/ph530/
Summary: "If you want a 720p projector, and this is all you can afford, by all means, go for it."

You may want to check with Acer to see whether the PH5350 will be released in US. I heard that it had been released in Europe. But if your budget allows. you should consider the Mits HC1500 or Optoma HD65

A 720p projector will probably give you a great Home Theater experience. We still like the HD performance of our Panasonic 720p and with a good up converting DVD player our many standard definition dvds look very much like HD to us.

720p a definite need as it allows HDMI up converted dvd to connect to your projector as well as cable, sat or Over-The-Air HD television programming to your projector. None of this possible with your existing projector.

In our house we're going to wait a year or two at least before buying into a 1080p upgrade. IMO right now it's not worth today's prices.
goodluck

imjay: what dvd player are you using to upconvert? I just got my Epson 720 in and am contemplating getting one, but keep reading the conflicting reports from, "its great," to "I don't see any difference."

My 480p image to my old Epson projector is pretty amazing with a regular Sony player. Rich and colorful. I will spend the money if it warrants it, but the opinions seem to vary so widely that I wonder if everyone is smoking crack or what.(or works for the manufacturers!!)

Check out the Sharp DT-510 at NewEgg

Here is the short of it: Something has convert your 480p DVD to the native resolution of the projector. The quality of that up conversion varies greatly amongst all technology ever released to do it. But... in the last couple years, even most cheap up conversion does a very good job. The built-in up converter in the projector is probably not that much worse or better than excellent up converting DVD players like the Oppo. So if you want to save money, do not worry about it. Just let the projector do it.

That aside, I have never seen a DVD that looked as good up converted to 720p as a HD-DVD down converted to 720p. Once I replaced my 720p projector (Sanyo Z2) with a 1080p projector (Sanyo Z2000) the difference in DVD's versus HD-DVDs is large. Even the worst HD-DVD is easily noticed better picture quality than the best DVDs. It is not just resolution, it includes colors, black levels, detail in active scenes, and especially sound (though not a projector thing).

Hello Toshibafan,

Hope you are well.

Movie Cinemas utilizing digital projection use either a 2k or new 4k system, with 2048x1080p and 4096x2160p resolution respectively. 35mm film projection on average is considered to be around 1200 lines of horizontal resolution.

Standard DVDs at home are 720x480i. HDTV broadcast is 1920x1080i or 1280x720p, i is for interlaced and p is for progressive scan. Old standard NTSC had 525i. 1080i HDTV interlaces 540 lines of information to achieve the appearance of 1080 lines, 720p HDTV is a true 720 lines of information on the screen at each screen refresh.

An 800x600 1.33 ratio projector will display all the resolution of a standard 4:3 NTSC signal or a 4:3 aspect ratio DVD, however at a 2.35 aspect ratio standard DVD you will only be using 340 pixels of the available 600. This is where you will gain even if using a low end 480p 16:9 projector where you will use 363 of the available 480 with 2.35 aspect ratio movies, and will of course get all 480 when watching 1.78 aspect ratio HDTV or movies in 16:9 format.

I will not compare to the 720p and 1080p projectors, you can extrapolate from the above what the numbers will be for those, both much better than the 800x600 and 480p machines.

Movie theaters even utilize standard 1920x1080p projectors for the pre-show and previews, then switch to the 2k or 4k unit for the main attraction.

So, the simple answer to your question is no, an 800x600 projector will not even come close to a 720p when downsampling a Blu-Ray disk. The 800x600 as stated above will be limited to 800x340, compared to 1280x544 when watching movies, most of which are in 2.35 aspect ratio. There are not any currently available 2.35 aspect ratio native consumer displays to eliminate the loss of projected horizontal resolution. Unless you go with an anamorphic lens set up which is very expensive. Even the 720p option does not compare with the extra resolution you see at the Theater with 35mm projection, 2k, or 4k projection.

Hope this clears some things up.

Later,

Tony

Hello Toshibafan,

Hope you are well.

The reason that downsampled HD DVD and Blu-Ray look better than standard DVD has to do with the compression method and much higher bit rates used in the new HD formats. HD video is higher quality in more ways than just resolution, there are less compression artifacts and other video anomalies, better color, faster data processing etc.. in the HD format disks. So, when downsampled they do indeed look better than standard DVD even at low resolution.

If you really want to keep costs down you will be much happier with an 854x480p wide screen projector than the 800x600 you are contemplating. I don't know what the prices look like in Europe, but I bet you can get an older 854x480p refurbished unit for a decent cost. Take a look at the older Epson EMP-TWD1 (Epson Moviemate 30s in USA) with built in DVD and small speakers with their portable Duet screen.

Hope this helps.

Later,

Tony

I had a look at some websites that serve the EU and I see where you are coming from. I'm not sure how to relate the EU prices to North American dollars though. It does look like the price doubles to get into anything that will produce a nice movie image.

The smaller the image the clearer it will look. If at all possible try to get your hands on a projector and play with it. Maybe you could rent one for an evening. Like others I suspect you will be disappointed in the images produce by an 800x600 pj on an 80-90" tall 4:3 screen. I also suspect that if you reduce the size down to the point where you get a nice image then you might be better off buying a flat panel TV.

IMHO, you should save your money until you can at least buy the Acer H5350. I know it is almost twice the price but you will be so much happier with the results and it will be worth the wait.

By-the-way, is this a dedicated theater room? Black walls and ceiling? Windows completely blocked out? No lights on?

Hello Toshibafan,

Hope you are well.

A 90 inch vertical 16:9 screen would be 160.2 inches wide with a diagonal of 183.58 inches. In metric 4.07 meters wide x 2.29 meters high, diagonal of 4.66 meters. Most projectors, no matter the resolution at this point, are not going to be able to illuminate such a huge screen. A low resolution projector at such a huge size would have huge visible pixels unless you are about 10 meters from the screen (2.5 screen widths).

How far back were you planning on sitting from such a large screen? If you give me the seating distance I will do some calculations for you for an appropriately sized screen.

Later,

Tony

90" high 4:3 would be 120" wide.

More importantly the pixels will be 0.15" in size. That's pretty big! A 100" 16:9 screen is only 49" tall and for a 720p projector the pixels would be 0.068" in size. To have similarly sized pixels from the 800x600 pj you would want a screen about 40" tall.

OK, 90" diagonal 4:3 means the screen is 72" wide and 54" tall. The pixels are then 0.09" tall. The 40" tall 4:3 calculated in the previous post would be 67" diag. 4:3.

What size is your computer monitor?
What aspect ratio is the monitor?
How far are you away from the monitor screen?

How far will you be sitting from the projection screen?

Hello Toshibafan,

Hope you are well.

For a low resolution projector this size screen will be fine with your intended 14 foot seating distance, and should minimize the screen door effect. I would not go any larger than 90" diagonal with this class of projector.

Dark grey walls will indeed contribute to a much improved image quality, I would recommend a flat white paint to start for your screen.

Happy hunting for your projector.

Later,

Tony