TV or projector??

[admin_exported]

I've just bought a B&W MT-60D and Onkyo 818 receiver and, also taking into account new house and deco, the TV's looking a little 20th century...

All films (some from DVD some from iTunes) are burned onto a Drobo and I have a Mac Mini talking to the TV. Our watching is thus stored films, iPlayer/4oD etc, or directly from the internet for sport. (live in France, TV is crap...).

Question: what are the pros/cons be of buying a projector or TV? budget would be in the £2.5-3k range.

 

[Deleted member 2457]

I've just bought a B&W MT-60D and Onkyo 818 receiver and, also taking into account new house and deco, the TV's looking a little 20th century...

All films (some from DVD some from iTunes) are burned onto a Drobo and I have a Mac Mini talking to the TV. Our watching is thus stored films, iPlayer/4oD etc, or directly from the internet for sport. (live in France, TV is crap...).

Question: what are the pros/cons be of buying a projector or TV? budget would be in the £2.5-3k range.

I got one pro for TVs and that is there are some very good Panasonic plasma TVs available. The big VT50 range you could have with that budget!

 

[DandyCobalt]

Projector great for blu-ray and HD tv. Not so good for lower resolution tv or poorly upscaled DVD.

Can also get tiring, as very stimulating. A "smaller" 42" to 50" tv is a nice companion for the projector .

If my Pioneer plasma went kaput, I'd be heading Panasonic way.

 

[iainl2005]

You cant beat the big screen projector experience if you ask me, it can get tiring watching in the dark for long periods of time but if you go for one with a bright enough output you can always have some subtle lighting.

 

[D.J.KRIME]

Why not have both a TV and PJ as I have HERE then you can use the TV for lower res stuff and the PJ for native HD:rockout:

 

[DandyCobalt]

Same here - screen comes down in front of tv (easy if your a/v receiver has two hdmi outputs, otherwise will need a splitter).

 

[kinda]

As above if you're watching films a lot you can't beat the projector experience. It requires some planning to install one obviously, but it's great.

Cons are they can't cope with ambient light very well, so you won't get the greatest picture in full daylight, and watching any dark material in those cisrumstances won't really work. However, with the lamp set to the nhigher mode I can watch sports events and similar fine, (2200 lumens projector); the picture just isn't quite as good as in the dark, or on a TV. But if you can pull your curtainsa bit no problem.

If you want to watch in bright sunlight, have bright lights on so you can read / work while casually watching, and so on, you really need a TV as well.

You also have to be slightly careful with what you watch on it. HDTV great, but for SD tV, and especially the lower quality ones like ITV3 whatever, you need to make sure the projector or source can upscale well. Similar for DVDs, and compressed DVD rips, but both of these I have found fine via a Samsung player.

Hope this helps. I went from TV to projector / TV combo so happy to answer any questions.