[xorbe]

I have a new living room with two large windows in the rear, which have slat blinds and not curtains (and don't want curtains there). I mean floor-to-ceiling wall-to-wall windows. Big ones. The slats when "closed" of course still let a fair amount of ambient light in during the daytime -- which is fine, this is a main room, not a basement setup.


Did I mention an open kitchen and large sliding glass door to the right also? This room is fairly open in two directions.


Would the new Optoma HD20 (dlp) adequately service such a room during the day? Or should I be leaning to the Panny PT-AX200 light cannon? I am not worried about the resolution so much (I find my low-rez H31 fine for movies already) -- just that it has enough light for acceptable contrast and punch.


I'm going to ceiling mount and wall project with no screen over the fireplace so as to keep a simple clean looking room.


I've never had an LCD projector (but 3 DLPs), so I am also concerned about that since I have no experience with LCD projectors. That and the AX200 is a couple years on now.


(Yeah I still need to take measurements and estimate picture landing for the HD20.)

 

[sharpnine]

I also have a room with quite a bit of ambient light in the day. I found a signficant improvement by switching to a dalite high-power screen. For dalite viewing, if you can sit near the position of maximum reflectivity (you sit near the projector in terms of line of sight to the screen) then the screen image really pops and blacks seem blacker. For night time viewing you can sit anywhere with no problem. I have never been bothered by the fact that brightness differs as you move around--it is pretty subtle and not that noticeable. Also at night, I can have a light on in the room (off to the side) and the picture still looks great, yet someone sitting in the room could be reading. I've had the high-power screen about 5 years. I have the projector table mounted, which probably is a bit better than ceiling mounted, although alot of people have good results with ceiling mounts and HP screens also.


I have an HD20 coming today, so will know more soon.

 

[xorbe]

No screen. The only question is which projector ...


Can't wait for the HD20 results to start rolling in!!

 

[gwlaw99]

Of those I would go with the HD20 if it fits. But I would wait until mid-Septemeber to compare it with the other sub 1k 1080p projectors that are comming out.

 

[xorbe]

Yeah that link some people just posted in another couple threads reminded me why I went with DLP the other 3 times:
http://www.projectorcentral.com/lcd_dlp_comparison.htm


I've enjoyed my Optoma H31 so much (it is insanely better than my previous NEC) I'd buy the HD20 sight unseen if I calculated it to fit. But, perhaps one of the September units will be brighter. The only thing is I don't want to deal with an excessive ton of heat dumping out into the room. No rush though, we just started working on this fixer-upper house. So much to do!

 

[xorbe]

Okay, how about these two DLP projectors, HD20 vs HD71? The HD71 is about 15% more expensive, lower rez (1280x720 vs 1920x1080), but it's 41% brighter (2400 vs 1700 lumens) with RGBCMY 6x color wheel.