Cheaper Projectors

[kinda]

Hello,

Recently went to a holiday cottage that had a Sharp PG A10X LCD projector, (only 720p and 450:1 contrast ratio, but bright). Looking on line it's about £250, and basically a PC presentation projector. We watched The Reader and The Departed.

The experience was pretty cinematic, (though blacks weren't fantastic), playing AVI from an Apple Mac Mini, so I'm thinking something similar might be a goer as a cost effective solution. Or maybe a bit more for a 720P home cinema projector. It didn't feel loads worse than a recent demo of an Optoma HD20 and no rainbow effect.

However, I noticed a bit of tearing on motion, and I'm not sure if this is a limitation of cheaper projectors or the Mac Mini. Wondered if anyone had any insight on that, other drawbacks to these types of projectors, or if having less than 1080P is a big drawback once playing BlueRay at large sizes?

Any comments would be much appreciated.

 

[Frank Harvey]

I've not witnessed any tearing on any projectors we have in store, so I can only assume it was down to that particular model - whether it's down to price point or the design of that specific projector, I'm not sure as I'm not familiar with it.

Usually, your first experience of a projector is a real wow, whether the picture is up to much or not, most people are bowled over by the size, and the fact that they look far better than they do in bars and clubs. Generally, 720p is fine up to about 5 feet, and 1080p is really needed above 5 feet, although there's nothing to stop you using a 720p projector with an 8 foot screen, it's just that you'll be more aware of compression/artifacts depending on the source being used.

One other thing to take into account is noise. Most entry level projectors are fairly noisy, sometimes around -28dB or higher - these will impede your viewing pleasure on quieter movies. Ideall, aim for -25dB or less if you can. Certain price points may not give you much option. Black level and contrast is also something that vastly improves with better projectors.

I've never used a PC as a source for a projector, so I can't say what efect this would have on the picture you were seeing.

 

[kinda]

Thanks for the info,

In retrospect I should have had a proper look at the same scenes on the monitor, but we were caught up in the whole dust cloud fiasco and the projector started to take a bit of a back seat. However, I've never noticed anything like that playing AVI on my PC, XBox, or XDE500.

It sounds like potentially I'm better going 1080P.

I have demod the Optoma HD20 and thought it was good. I wonder is the Epson TW2900 for example in a similar league? Though the rainbow effect wasn't a nightmare it was visible in some scenes without trying too hard so I'm thinking about LCD but potentially would like to keep around the £1000 mark, as in reality I probably need a TV also. Projector only appeals to me but I think for any casual watching it's probably not quite right.

Also, in terms of room and projector I wonder what are the main things to look out for to understand if a projector is OK for a particular room? Is it essential to fully plot out exact position and so on prior to purchase?

Sorry for all the questions, but any advice would be much appreciated.