Jumping into FPTV? (2 Viewers)

[Chip McD]

Hi guys and gals,

I'm interested in building a home theater based on a front projection TV, and I have a couple of questions that I haven't really found answers to in the last week of lurking.

Lets start with the projector. I'd like to pay less than $3000 for the projector. I haven't settled on a format or LCD vs. DLP. I will use the projector for 4:3 DirectTV content, Websurfing, computer gaming, and DVD watching. I'm leaning towards a 1/4 HD format, but I'm concerned with the distortion of 4:3 content. Is the 4:3 content distorted to the point that you would notice it on a projector with a native 16:9 or 1/4 HD? This is my biggest concern because most of the content for the near future will be 4:3. Also, is this something that some sort of off board signal processor can solve? (don't know anything about those yet)

My next concern is the rainbow effect associated with a DLP projector. Can anyone recommend a movie and chapter that is likely to produce rainbows on a DLP projector?

And finally, can anyone suggest a good place in St. Louis to demo some of the lower end DLP and LCD projectors with both 16:9 and 4:3 content that is setup properly. Nothing is more irritating than seeing a piece of high end equipment that a store has made NO EFFORT to setup properly.

Thanks in advance for your help!!!

 

[Neil Joseph]

Moving to Displays area.

 

[Neil Joseph]

Distortion, can you define what you mean wrt 4x3 material? If you have two projectors and PJ1 is 1024x768 (4/3) and PJ2 is 1366x768 (16/9) and both are displaying a 4x3 title then both will be displayed at 1024x768 except PJ2 will use the rest of the widescreen panel to display the black bars to the left and right of the movie.

 

[Chip McD]

Thanks Neil... thats the answer that I was looking for. I'd read that a 16:9 prjector scales 4:3 material by stretching it and distorting it, but then I'd read someplace else that it just projected black bars on the left and right and the picture was not distorted at all.

That narrows my choices quite a bit. Now I'm looking for a good sub $3000 1/4 HD projector and I've read lots of reviews. Thanks.

 

[Neil Joseph]

Are you able to do demos in your area on the Panasonic L300U, a 1/4 HD projetor that I am sure you are aware of?

 

[Chip McD]

The Panasonic L300U is at the top of my list. Unfortunately I haven't found anyplace to demo one. Any suggestions for the St. Louis area? I've just started my search and I'm not in a terrible rush to go out and buy yet. It will probably be a couple of months before I take the plunge.