So here's the deal guys:
I'm wrapping a big dedicated home theater project in my house now (build thread to follow), as in gutting the room and building an entire room around the sole purpose of it being a home theater room. One window, essentially blacked out and only there for when I re-sell my house so I can call it a "bedroom". For all intents and purposes, it's a cave with 100% ambient light control.
I've been researching projectors since day 1, and kind of waiting around til I found a good deal. I've been set on the Epson 8350 for awhile, as Epson's web store has them for $999 refurbished and their CS sounds pretty stellar. I'd love an 8700UB, but the project (as they often do) has already gone over budget, so I'm trying to retain a modicum of sanity and not adding any more 4 figure changes to the plan. That said, the Epson store has 8500UBs on there for $1,099 now. I've read lots of threads on here and reviews on the 8700UB vs the 8350 and that would be a no-brainer if money were no object, but I've not yet seen the 8350 compared to the 8500UB (other than just comparing stats). I know the specs are different, the frame interpolation advantage is nice and the higher contrast ratio would be nice, but stats don't mean much to me. Does anyone have any real world experience with these two or any insight how they compare nowadays? My budget for the PJ is around $1,000, but if I'll get substantially better performance for an extra $100 then I'll bite the bullet, but I'm just concerned about how "outdated" it is, since it's replacement in the 8700UB is even retired now. Thanks.
-Ryan
I'm wrapping a big dedicated home theater project in my house now (build thread to follow), as in gutting the room and building an entire room around the sole purpose of it being a home theater room. One window, essentially blacked out and only there for when I re-sell my house so I can call it a "bedroom". For all intents and purposes, it's a cave with 100% ambient light control.
I've been researching projectors since day 1, and kind of waiting around til I found a good deal. I've been set on the Epson 8350 for awhile, as Epson's web store has them for $999 refurbished and their CS sounds pretty stellar. I'd love an 8700UB, but the project (as they often do) has already gone over budget, so I'm trying to retain a modicum of sanity and not adding any more 4 figure changes to the plan. That said, the Epson store has 8500UBs on there for $1,099 now. I've read lots of threads on here and reviews on the 8700UB vs the 8350 and that would be a no-brainer if money were no object, but I've not yet seen the 8350 compared to the 8500UB (other than just comparing stats). I know the specs are different, the frame interpolation advantage is nice and the higher contrast ratio would be nice, but stats don't mean much to me. Does anyone have any real world experience with these two or any insight how they compare nowadays? My budget for the PJ is around $1,000, but if I'll get substantially better performance for an extra $100 then I'll bite the bullet, but I'm just concerned about how "outdated" it is, since it's replacement in the 8700UB is even retired now. Thanks.
-Ryan
