[Brian D]

I currently have a dedicated home theatre room, in which I have a 70" Mitsubishi TV, that I raised on a platform and mounted flush with the wall. I'm ready to get a bigger picture, and I want 16:9. I'm not looking to spend a bunch of money, I am selling my 70" and don't want to spend that much more. I just want at least as good a picture only with 16:9 and bigger. A friend of mine has a Sony LCD VPL-W400Q he wants to sell, I know it has been well taken care of and has no dead pixels and is less than 2 years old with 1 year left on the warranty. The bulb is less than half-way through it's life. He wants $2700.00 for it, I know he paid $5000.00 when he bought it new. I need all and any opinions on the price and the projector....should I get a used CRT for the same money or less? I've seen a bunch on e-bay.... Is the price he's asking to much? Where can I get a good idea on the going rates for these LCD projectors, I only found one on e-bay and no one has bid on it yet. Again, any and all opinions on everything to do with front projection would be appreciated. He kind of needs the money, so I need to either jump on it or let it pass, and I have been hemming and hawing about getting a FP for ever, I want to go ahead and do it.


thanks,


Brian

 

[JoeFloyd]

The Sony 400Q has many good qualities, but it's not the best choice for a modern Home Theater setup. If you plan on using a HTPC you should know that this is a video projector so it will not like standard computer resolution and refresh rates. If all you're interested in is normal 1080i/720p/480i stuff, then this projector is still a good choice.


The price seems a bit high. Many modern projectors can be purchased for about the same money and they will have 1) more resolution 2) better support for computer signals 3) much brighter and 4) better contrast (depends on projector)


There is recent thread that shows how to purchase a brand new projector for about the same money that you're thinking of spending.


Once again, the Sony is a good projector, but technology has moved forward while prices have fallen. If the asking price was maybe half of the what you mentioned, then that would be a much better deal.

 

[camoura]

And which one is good for HTPC ?


Thanks

 

[pcostanz]

Good projectors for HTPC are:


NEC LT100 XGA

PLUS UP1100 XGA

DAVIS DLS8 SVGA

DAVIS DL450 SVGA


Of course, there are variations on all of these. Viewsonic makes knockoffs of the davis models and you can get them new sometimes for under 3000.00. There was a recent post of projectorcentral advertising the plus up1100 for under 2k new. Any of these under 2500 is a good deal.


BTW, all of these models are DLP, not LCD. That means deeper blacks, and no dead pixels.


Anyone else want to chime in with other models?




------------------

-Peter

 

[rlsmith]

Buying this kind of gear from a friend can have its problems.


One of them is that the expectations of price may be unrealistic. The market has moved very quickly from the time the 400Q was introduced. Sony has the 10HT (now for under $5K) and soon will apparently have the 11HT. So the 400Q is getting old.


I would not pay more than $2K for one myself. I did like the machine a lot when it first came out BTW.

 

[camoura]

Peter,


What about new ones ? Is the Mitsubishi X30U any good ? It is a XGA DLP 800 lumens for around $2600.


Thanks