Greetings all!
I am getting ready to build a new home. I have set aside a 25' X 24' space in the basement to be my home theater (9'6" ceiling). After using a few projectors at work I decided I want to buy a projector and screen for my home theater. The room will have carpeted floors and walls and will probably not have any windows. The result is that light can be controlled and the projector does not have to have super high lumens.
Like a lot of folks who walk into the store, I want a corvette for the price of a Yugo. I am setting aside $2500.00 to purchase the projector, projector mount, AND the screen. If you folks think I'd be sorely dissapointed with that I'll add another $500 to my budget, but that's about all I can afford on this project for now.
I want a minimum resolution of 1024 X 768 (XGA), low cost replacement bulbs, or long life bulbs. I don't care about size & weight, since it's staying on the ceiling. I intend to mostly watch DVD's on this system, but I will also play an occasional video game off my laptop computer. I don't know how the image size increases when you back the projector up, but I was hoping to at least have an eight foot wide screen. If I can go to ten foot wide and still stay in my budget I'd prefer that. I would hope that with a 25' X 24' room it could be done.
I really don't know what to watch out for, what brands to stay away from, how to tell what the magnification will be, what features I should be asking for, or what kind of screen is appropriate.
Can anyone make some recomendations for a brand/model of projector and type of screen that might come close to my budget?
I am getting ready to build a new home. I have set aside a 25' X 24' space in the basement to be my home theater (9'6" ceiling). After using a few projectors at work I decided I want to buy a projector and screen for my home theater. The room will have carpeted floors and walls and will probably not have any windows. The result is that light can be controlled and the projector does not have to have super high lumens.
Like a lot of folks who walk into the store, I want a corvette for the price of a Yugo. I am setting aside $2500.00 to purchase the projector, projector mount, AND the screen. If you folks think I'd be sorely dissapointed with that I'll add another $500 to my budget, but that's about all I can afford on this project for now.
I want a minimum resolution of 1024 X 768 (XGA), low cost replacement bulbs, or long life bulbs. I don't care about size & weight, since it's staying on the ceiling. I intend to mostly watch DVD's on this system, but I will also play an occasional video game off my laptop computer. I don't know how the image size increases when you back the projector up, but I was hoping to at least have an eight foot wide screen. If I can go to ten foot wide and still stay in my budget I'd prefer that. I would hope that with a 25' X 24' room it could be done.
I really don't know what to watch out for, what brands to stay away from, how to tell what the magnification will be, what features I should be asking for, or what kind of screen is appropriate.
Can anyone make some recomendations for a brand/model of projector and type of screen that might come close to my budget?