[Health Nut]

Considering the cost of some of the nicer 50-60 inch HDTV's, how many of you are going, or have gone the way of just getting projectors to replace all of your SDTV's???


My thought is that why not put Sony Pearl or equivalent cost projectors up instead of flat panel HDTV's for auxillary rooms such as guest and bedrooms, etc...? My thought is that projecting on 60-80 inch screens is less demanding and would make for a nice, bright picture as well. Advantages/disadvantages?

 

[coldmachine]

Id just suggest you use machines with high ANSI CR ie over 500/600.

 

[wildfire99]



Quote:
Originally Posted by Health Nut /forum/post/0


My thought is that why not put Sony Pearl or equivalent cost projectors up instead of flat panel HDTV's for auxillary rooms such as guest and bedrooms, etc...? My thought is that projecting on 60-80 inch screens is less demanding and would make for a nice, bright picture as well. Advantages/disadvantages?

1) Projectors suck in ambient light. I don't care how bright they are, without one of those fancy 'black' screens they cannot erase ambient light (and thus contrast and black levels are destroyed)

2) You must have a clear line-of-sight (or line-of-projection) to the screen, and people + objects in the way obstruct the light path.

3) Bulbs.

4) You have to mount the thing somewhere, and that means both unsightliness (is that an autoturret in your living room or are some martians happy to see me?)

5) Fan noise.

6) Setup and alignment (you cannot arbitrarily place it anywhere in the room any time you want).


To me (who is looking for a plasma or RPTV for the living room), the only serious consideration is #1. But it's a huge consideration. Nobody likes to watch football in the dark, and washed out images aren't engaging or thrilling for episodes of '24'. Even RPTV's have problems with sunlight streaming into the room and directly onto the display surface, but they still work.


When (or if) we see those fancy 'black' screens come down in price and come down as pulldowns, then the situation will tilt towards front projection again I think.


What I've never understood is why someone never made a DIY RPTV setup. Let the person select their own projector, and create a thin framework for inserting various projectors, so that you have arbitrary screen sizes, and an overall box thickness of no more than 20".

 

[Health Nut]

Actually, I think Stewart Filmscreen has something like you mention (Mirror/screen for RPHDTV...) It is on their website.... If you are serious, I'd give them a call. I know for sure I've seen a DIY custom mirror/screen you can place your projector in!!! Here, take a look: http://www.stewartfilmscreen.com/mirrorproducts.html


You make some good points... The rooms I'm talking about wouldn't have much ambient light, and even if they did, You could use an 80 inch Firehawk screen or some screen material of your preference. I would think that because the projector only had to illuminate an 80 inch screen, that in combination with Firehawk material, wouldn't that be a non-issue???


As far as Picture quality and foot lamberts/Lumens, how do you think a Pearl projecting on to an 80 inch Firehawk screen would compare to a top of the line 54 inch Sony Bravia or such? You could pick another $5,000 projector, is doesn't have to be a Pearl... It could be a DLP based projector if you like... Any thoughts?

 

[wildfire99]

For that kind of money, I don't see how you can beat a plasma; or even better, a 70" RPTV. You're never going to have real 'black' in the picture with any reasonable level of ambient light, at least not what I would consider acceptable for serious cinema viewing (or serious TV viewing).


By the time you buy the firehawk screen ($$$) and the pearl ($$), why not get plasma or RPTV? The problem I've always run into with front-projection-as-tv is that at some point you want the lights on, or the windows open, or you just want to read the paper or eat while the TV is on, and at that point you're cursing up and down because the image looks like junk (or is faded to a significant degree), and you could have just gotten that 72" RPTV for less.


FPTV is about bigness. Trying to shoehorn it into a TV application (most of the time) is like putting propellers on a porsche and making it into a boat. Sure you can... but why not just buy a boat? That's my $0.02, but I know people do use the PJ-as-tv and are happy with it.

 

[Wet1]

I've added PJs to other rooms of the house. Most of them are older PJs that no longer have much value, but I did buy a new HD1000U for our BR. I used a gray 80" screen for the HD1000U. We have 3 windows in our BR (dark walls and med. ceiling), but we do have blinds and med. weight curtains on the windows. The image is far better than I expected from a $900 PJ and the 80" screen works great with it. Even the 720p pixel structure is a non issue with the 80" screen from our bed (~10' viewing distance). The HD1000U is tiny and fairly quite which makes it great for this use. I leave the PJ on low bulb and it's best picture setting, at night the image is amazing (it actually made our RS1 look pretty bad given the price difference). During the day the image is still nice using these settings, but if the light control isn't in place the picture is useless... even in the PJ's 1100 lumen mode on this small gray screen. I will tell you though that there are times during the day when we have the windows open with only partial light control and the image is far to washed out to be enjoyable... during these conditions we use the 21" LCD computer monitor to watch TV (via MS Media Center). I suspect using a dark gray screen with an even smaller size screen (maybe 70"?) could yield pleasing results under heavy AL (but not direct sun light), but at night you'd really notice the difference if you placed a white screen up next to the dark gray screen.


We put a lot of hours on this PJ in everyday use. We have our BR computer hooked up to it, cable and even Blu-ray (using it now to type this with the wireless mouse and keyboard). I never expected to be this happy with this PJ and the small screen, but I will admit we do most of our viewing at night (due to our schedules) or with the windows blocked out in the mornings for those occasional sleep-in days. Much to my surprise, the wife has fallen in love with it, even after the initial eye rolling I got when I told her what I was doing. Even the majority of our serious movie watching is done on this set-up...

 

[MTyson]

A very good ambient light image can be had if you cleverly control the light.


1: Block as much sunlight as possible.

2: Use a gray or high gain silver screen.

3: Shade lamps and place them it or them in the room strategically.

4: Keep ALL hard light off of the screen. Soft light only.


Doing this can give near RPTV like results in many cases. Heres is my 4805 at 12 feet wide on my pale grey wall (looks white though. A darker gray would've been better):

This shot has been blurred in post to get rid of my crappy camcorder grain. Also, the proejctor was hooked up via Composite video in this shot (had to use it. won't go into detail as to why at the moment).


You can't tell, but I can read in the room easily. There is one heavily shaded 60-75 watt light (I forget which) right infront of the screen. I made a box to go around the light so it blocks all of the hard light and leaves only soft bounce light that escapes. Image is very impressive in person.

 

[Health Nut]



Quote:
FPTV is about bigness. Trying to shoehorn it into a TV application (most of the time) is like putting propellers on a porsche and making it into a boat. Sure you can... but why not just buy a boat? That's my $0.02, but I know people do use the PJ-as-tv and are happy with it.

I suppose I thought that a good front projector, like a Pearl or such, because it woul only have to project to an 80 inch screen, would have lots of lumens. I guess my thought is that a Pearl projecting onto an 80 inch Firehawk screen would outperform a 1080p plasma, while providing a slightly large picture since most plasmas are in the 50 inch range... Doesn't the Pearl have something over the Plasma? Is the ANSI contrast of the plasma and on/off that much better?


I guess I thought the combination of Firehawk and only having to do an 80 inch screen would allow for about 25 foot lamberts or such... I thought 60 inch plasmas were expensive and had quality issues of their own? For somebody who has seen a good 54-60 inch 1080p HDTV, Plasma or any flatscreen, how do you think it would compare to a Pearl projecting onto an 80 inch Firehawk. Again, this is for an accessory room, not the primary home theater. How many would take a Pearl and an 80" Firehawk over a 60 inch plasma or Bravia HDTV?


Please, I'm not talking about typical projector use, I'm talking about projecting specifically to a 70-80 inch screen. Postives/negatives vs spending $5000+ or so on a 50-60 inch plama or Bravia HDTV, etc...

 

[JerryW]

In a bedroom with a High-Power screen and the projector mounted on the headboard of the bed (or footboard if it is a big bedroom) you would probably be able to get a decent picture even with moderate daytime ambient light. I would go with a projector that favored brightness over contrast since contrast differences evaporate at anything over minimal level of ambient lighting. The HP is great at ambient rejection, but it isn't 100%.

 

[Kevin McCarthy]

That new Sony Dynaclear screen might be just the ticket here...

http://crave.cnet.co.uk/homecinema/0...9288835,00.htm