[GHawk]

Your opinions are needed, I am in the final stages of completing my dedicated home theater room in my basement. I have complete light control (pitch black if wanted) and the room size is quite large at 18 x 22. I will watch a lot of hockey and movies/DVD's on this screen, and some HD sport broadcasts. I probably will go with a 92x54 screen size. I would like to stay under 10k for the projector, and right now I am leaning toward the Seleco ht250, the one I viewed with HDTV was stunning. I know this has been asked a thousand times before, but if this was your room, what would you use as a projector and or other equipment? Thanks for any responses.


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Sometimes I think we are alone, sometimes I think we are not, either way the thought is staggering...

 

[Jonmx]

Most projectors look stunning with HDTV material. The real trick is finding a way to make regular TV look good.

 

[RobertWood]

Nothing I've owned yet could take a sow's ear (480i) and turn it into a silk purse. Once I became spoiled with HDTV and good quality DVD I just have never been satisfied with what TV resolution looks like when blown up to these big image sizes. And it's not that I have any bias against SDTV.

I watch my share of it. And actually enjoy it very much. But on a 33" direct view TV monitor. Just can't stomach what it looks like blown up to 100".


Having said that, you can try running it through an external scaler that will feed native resolution to your projector for some improvement. Or you can use a PC with a TV card and dscaler software. But (and of course as always this is only my opinion) don't expect much from the highly touted projector scalers. I bought an LP340 because of all the hype heaped on it's scaler. I was sorely disappointed.


Bob Wood


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~ The Sultan of Cheap ~




[This message has been edited by RobertWood (edited 08-21-2001).]

 

[DanHouck]

Make sure before you go with the HT250 that neither you, your family or guests are rainbow sensitive. I may get flamed here but I wouldn't buy an older generation DLP with the single RGB wheel. IMO, the HT250 is obsolete because of this. Either wait for the Sharp, which will just fit your budget, or think about CRT, which will be well below your budget.


I own a Boxlight 38T (Sanyo XP21N) clone and love it. CRT was essentially impossible with our room layout and light problem. You're starting from scratch and you have no ambient light issues. Single chip DLPs and even these new LCDs simply cannot match the overall picture quality of a well set up 8" tube CRT with good scaling. So don't rule it out unless the size and need for periodic converging are a problem for you.


Dan

 

[leckian]

Since your budget will afford this I suggest buying a projector like the Mitsubishi X400 or a Sanyo PLC-XP30 and a Quadscan Elite or even better scaler especially if you want to watch TV. The scaler and the bright glow off the screen you get when you use a projector of this power will help make up for the poor source material of standard broadcast television and yield a pleasing picture. Both of these projectors will yield stunning results from DVD and HDTV. You will get deeper blacks and more screen door with the Sanyo and noticeably less screen door with the Mits but the blacks although good not quite as satisfying and rich as the Sanyo. If you are sitting 14+ feet away from the screen I would probably go with the Sanyo. Both projectors produces gorgeous color and very sharp pictures.


Lenny Eckian

 

[GHawk]

Thanks so much for the insights, I appreciate the help very much. I will track down these projectors around my area and try to get to see them. I guess the Seleco was my favorite because I saw that one compared to a Vidikron and a Sony 10T.


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Sometimes I think we are alone, sometimes I think we are not, either way the thought is staggering...

 

[JHouse]

Leckian is right about brightness. Until I saw my Sanyo 21N/Boxlight 38t, I thought the technology just wasn't quite able to capture the brightness and color of a tube yet. Though my DLP looked very detail to me in the dark, this new generation of Sanyo clones gave me what I had been missing. Brightness really counts, no matter how much light control you have. The color and contrast of these machines is outstanding. They appear very "tube-like" so that you don't feel as if you're compromising on the picture quality just to make it big. This particular model has feature ("MLA") that makes LCD screen door look like DLP, which is very good (invisible from any reasonable viewing distance). You will absolutely need an outboard signal processor/scaler like the Quadscan Elite, which is affordable and very good. I find DSS very watchable, though it can't hold a candle to DVD. DVD is actually more stable and more colorful than HDTV much of the time. You can get both for under $7,000 and be extremely satisfied.


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Joe

My current idea of the best value:

Boxlight 38t

Quadscan Elite

Panasonic RP91

RCA DTC-100

Da-Lite 100" 4:3 1.3gain

Studio Experience SE616's

and some other stuff.