[aviphysics]

I have an Epson HomeCinema 1080 and it has served us well. I think we paid around $1000 for it in 2009 and it came with an extra bulb.


So now it is 2013, projector is still on the first bulb, though probably about time to change it, and I am starting to kind of hope it will die. It has served us well, but deep down inside I just want something newer and brighter with better contrast. The main thing that has kept the Epson safe is that there aren't any HDMI 2.0 4K projectors yet, and I am assuming they will be really expensive when they do come around.


If I have a question, it is how does the current crop of sub $2000 projectors compare? Would the difference be mind blowing?


Currently our projector is setup in a great room, so kitchen and ambient lighting can sometimes be annoying.

 

[Chad Varnadore]

You can't hang around boards like this and not get the itch to upgrade. The grass is always going to be greener, in this industry more than most, as each year improvements are made, but commonly marketed as being more profound than they really are. More often than not, when people post their impressions of their new toy, you've got to expect the improvement they see or hear is blown out a bit. Of course one persons dramatic is another persons moderate, or subtle. That said, I don't think you'll see "mind blowing" shy of 4K projectors, especially not in the two thousand dollar price range; but I'm not at all familair with your Epson, so I don't have a very good idea of the level of performance you're coming from.


If you are set on indulging the upgrade bug now, rather than waiting another 3 to however many years it takes for 4K to be more affordable, you're better off with a pj you can resell to help pay for your addiction than one in need of repair that isn't worth anything. I've upgraded a lot in the past, almost every year at one point, rarely keeping anything more than two years. Side by side, the new stuff has always been an improvement over the old, but not always necessarily something I couldn't live without, so to speak. 720p to 1080p was probably the biggest single leap I've ever made, by far. I'm on my third 1080p projector. The Sony "Ruby" was my first back in 2005 I believe. As it was one of the earliest 1080p digital models produced, there's been many years of improvement made since then, and I would say the overall improvement from the first to my newest, a Mitsubishi 7900, bought just a year ago ( which granted is likely not the very best available, but was intended to tide us over while waiting on 4K) is only maybe 25% better in actual PQ than that early model Sony. It's a much smaller improvement over the 2008 Sony VW60 it replaced, which I kept longer than any projector I've ever owned.

 

[airscapes]

Nope, just got my used Planar PD8150 (made 2008-2010) last summer and hope is last 10 years. New lower end (any product) does not always = better if you compare it to an older High End product...

Put your new lamp in, you may not feel the need to upgrade as much when you have a nice bright lamp in the projector.

 

[Chad Varnadore]



Quote:
Originally Posted by airscapes  /t/1521582/ever-quietly-hope-your-projector-bites-the-dust-so-you-can-get-a-new-one#post_24456745


Nope, just got my used Planar PD8150 (made 2008-2010) last summer and hope is last 10 years. New lower end (any product) does not always = better if you compare it to an older High End product...

Put your new lamp in, you may not feel the need to upgrade as much when you have a nice bright lamp in the projector.

Yes and no. High end tends to be built better with more bells and whistles, but you quickly start to get into the area of lower return for your investment in terms of performance, especially as quickly as this technology has evolved. I'm not quite itching to go 4k yet myself, but that's partially due to a lack of content, and the fear we may never have any quality 4K content that's available to actually own, much less as affordable as BD is now. It seems most studios are more interested in going digital.


I have no familiarity with your Planar aside from reputation, so I'm not knocking it. But new low end can easily outperform older high end. My newish 2k Mits feels like a cheap toy comparing it's build to higher end models I've owned before, and doesn't have near the installation flexibility, but the actual image definitely surpasses both the 5k? Black Pearl and the 10k? Ruby I had before it in more ways than not, much more so compared to the 13k Marantz I had before that, which was only 720p but also DLP based, despite those being dedicated HT builds, where I regard the Mits as more of a renovated business design. Between Sony aggressively pushing 1080p prices and data projector makers like Epson and others apparently figuring out they could open up their markets just by tweaking their data projector lines for HT a bit, that seems to have changed the playing field for FP. The performance you can get for under 1k today is astonishing. How long the units hold up might be something to fret over, but probably no more so than Sony guaranteeing their optical blocks for only 5,000 hours.