Upgrading to HD front projection ? (1 Viewer)

[Dave Moritz]

I currently own a Toshiba 31 dvtv that is aprox 9 years old. I want to make the move to front projection that is if I can find one that does the job without killing me financialy? I would like to have a screen size of 80"-110" and would like to use it for HD programing. Given my current financial situation I do not think I could go over $5k max. If I could I would go for the Toshiba TDP-MT8U HD DLP Projector that I saw at the CES show this past January in Vegas. This projector was impressive even with a decent amount of light in the room the image was still bright and crisp. But given that its retail is $10k it would take a miricle for this unit to end up in my HT. Are there any HD quality projectors in the $2500 to $3000 range that will match or kill RPTV's overall? I will get ether a Stewert or Delite screen for it. But the main problem is just getting a projector that will do the job. And has a great picture to go with it. I do watch some laserdisc movies but mostly I watch dvd's. Once I get the projector then I will invest into a HD Dish to maximize my investment in the projector. Plus heck movies in HD would really rock, lol. My main issue is PQ overall. So if anyone could help me with some info I would really apreaciate it. I live in Whittier,CA which is in LA County area. It is not easy to find a place to demo projectors here.

 

[Neil Joseph]

Are you looking at doing this in a 2 stage process and get the projector first and project onto the wall till you can afford the Stewart or Dalite? The Sharp 9000 DLP comes to mind but all of the HD2 DLP's are out of that pricerange as far as I know. CRT is also an option for that price although you need to budget for a scaler device as well.

 

[Dave Moritz]

I was under the impression that the DLP's where less exspensive than the CRT's? The Stewert Firehawk for a dlp projector should run about $1200 for a 110" screen. Not sure what the DeLite version of that screen would run but I believe it should be cheaper than the Stewert. mmmm I wounder what a Farudja scaler is going to run? Makes me wish I could afford the Toshiba that has the Texas Instruments chip and the Farudja scaler built in. But like I was saying that is $10k. I have seen some internet adds for the Infocus dlp ranging from $1700 to $10k but the specs are not all that great on the cheaper models, especially in the HD area. I saw the write up on the Sharp 9000 and it looks like it may be really nice. Sony makes a DLP that is around $9800 that I checked out at a place called Ultimate Electronics in Salt Lake City, UT. I doubt I will be able to afford $18 or even $20k on a projector at this time. If I did I would get the CRT that Farudja used at the CES show in the demo room . Could you tell me what CRT's are in my price range? I appreciate the input

By the way nice H/T Neil .

My Current H/T
Yamaha RX-V995 DD/DTS Reciever, Denon DCD-1290 CD, Denon DTR-2000 DAT Recorder, Sony DVP-S9000 ES DVD/SACD, panasonic 4 head VHS, Onkyo Integra CP-1055 Turntable w/Pearl by Simiko cartridge, Yamaha AC-3 demodulator, Martantz LV520 Laseridisc with Toshiba 31" DVTV. My main cabnets are Altec Lancing Voice of the Theaters, Polk Center and Advent rears. Center and rear speakers will be upgraded as well as the reciever to ether a Denon AVR-5803 or a Sunfire pre/pro ?

This has been a project since 1987 and the work continues, lol. I am counting the days when I will have a projection set up so I can have a theater like exsperience as far as the picture goes. The sound is good but there are always room for improvement given the lack of decent center channel and rear channel speakers.

 

[Dave Moritz]

Does anyone have this projector or demoed it???

Sharp SharpVision DT-200 DLP projector
Switchable Screen Modes: allow for 4:3 and 16:9 aspect ratios.
HDTV Compatible: 480i/480P/720P/1080i
Aspect Ratio: 4:3/16:9
Resolution: 520 TV Lines
Brightness: 600 ANSI Lumens
Contrast Ratio: 1200:1
Maximum Screen Size: 200" (diagonally measured)
Anamorphic DVD Capable

http://www.audiosound.com/sharsharxvz9.html

also what do you think of the specs?
I want a 110" screen, min. of 80" diginal. so the 200" max on this projector is more than enough.

 

[DaViD Boulet]

Dave,

If you want to buy a projector *now* that has the performance you seek...get the NEC HT 1000. in 16x9 mode it only has about 1024 x 565 vertical-resolution (a little less than 1280 x 720 HD), but it still looks astonishing with HD signals (ie, clearly better than DVD) and has the black level/contrast to really produce a 3-D image.

If I bought one, I'd leave it set permanently to 16x9 mode and use a 16x9 screen even though it's a 4x3 native projector. Either that or get an anamorphic lens to go with it to maximize resolution. In either case...I'd get a 16x9 "HT oriented" screen. The Firehawk would be awesome with this or any other digital projector on the market.

Option 2: if you don't need deep blacks to be happy get a Sony HS10. It's really, really good *except* for blacks.

Option 3: If you can wait 8 months or so, by that time all the excellent HD2 machines out now will be in your price range to make way for the new-generation DLP machines. Sony will also have their SXRD (LCOS) 1920 x 1080 projector out this year though no one knows pricing. In any case...the *very* well-performing HD2 machines will drop in price. If I were you I'd do that rather than get a Sharp 9000 which is rather dim and lacking in "punch" IMO, given the immiment price-fall of the HD2 projectors...

Hey, have you been over to Avscience.com?

 

[Dave Moritz]

Thanks DaVid & Neil

No have not heard of Avscience.com but will check it out .

Mmmmm Option 3 is most likely what I will be doing. The goal is to get the best projector for the money. I will be upgrading a number of pieces in my HT. My Yamaha RX-V995 reciever needs be be updated to 6.1 or 7.1 surround and needs to not only be more flexible input wise but also needs 80MHz-100MHz video pass thru for HD progaming. My first goal is to save up for a HD projector and screen. Then I want to get a Flagship reciever or pre/pro. Then a Faroudja digital scaler and other toys for the H/T.

i agree that the Stewert Firehawk would be an awsum choice. I saw plenty of manufacturers using them at the CES show in Las Vegas this past January. IMHO it is the best screen for DLP projectors out there.

 

[DaViD Boulet]

It makes sense to spend $$ right now on things that are evolving (and price-dropping) at a slower pace. The projector should be the last think you purchase IMO, as by the time you spend the $$ it will have gotten better and cheaper compared to when you started your "HT purchasing journey".

Then a Faroudja digital scaler and other toys for the H/T.

Forget Faroudja scalers. At this point you can get a HTPC for a fraction of the cost that will pretty much put a Faroudja scaler to shame. You can even get video-deinterlacing boards that use the Faroudja DCDi deinterlacing algorithm. Win-win. There are boards/cards/programs available not only for DVD-ROM playback, but also for accepting outboard sources like composite and S-video from DSS, VHS, and laserdisc so you can deinterlace and scale those sources as well.

Also, unless Faroudja is going to come out with an affordable solution with DVI in/out then you're just throwing your money away to purchase one of their black boxes. DVI is the future...and you can already get a DVD player for $200 that has DVI output (full digital video output) to hook directly to the DVI input on your digital projector...and this DVD player will scale to 1280 x 720 and provide results that surpass using a stand-alone DVD player and Faroudja NRS combo. Really!

Also, some of the newer HD2 units have such good built-in deinterlacing/scaling, the whole concept of needing a high-end external scaler like we did in the CRT days it moot. The Sharp 10000 and Marantz HD2 products deinterlace so good and scale so good you get a silky-smooth, detailed, highly-resolved image even from analog 480I component input. It looks truely "film like" and anything but "digital".

The advantage to an external scaler at this point is really one on convenience...running all your sources into a black box that can act as a switcher with a single cable run to the PJ. Also benefits might be additional aspect ratio adjustments (like if you were going to use an anamorphic lens for 2.35:1 films) or the ability to calibrate each source independently if your PJ doesn't provide this abiltiy. But all in all PQ wise...not necessary to use a $$ stand-alone scaler.

Here's a link to the avs form for "digital projector $5K and up":

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/forum...?s=&forumid=24

From there you can also switch to the forum for projectors "under $5K".

Keep in mind that what's over $5K today might not be in a year or so...so I spend most of my time educating myself about projectors in that forum knowing when I'm ready to install the HT gear in my HT room they might be in my sub-$5K price range

 

[Dave Moritz]

I wounder if you can store dvd movies with the DTS track on the HD and play them back at the 1280 x 720 ???

I would hate to have the fan noise from the pc and I really dont think the pc's are good enough at this time? I guess I need to see a demo of a working pc set up that is hooked to a projector before I discount it completly. I figure my DVTV is coming up on 10 yrs old and I want to upgrade it before it goes out. The Faroudja demo at CES was mind blowing. The images from dvd source was increadable. I will look into video cards and sound cards with digital outs. I was looking to update my pc sometime soon since it is only a P3 800 MHz with a GForce 440 card and 526mb ram. I wonder how long of a dvi conector is available? So pc could be placed in another room. My goal is to have film like images with great crisp color to match.

I know I should go pre/pro to replace my 5.1 reciever but nothing seems to have the flexability of the Denon AVR-5803. The number of assignable digital inputs, dvi out, dual 8 channel inputs to run seperat multi channel inputs, doscking station for remote making it a wireless, adustable crossovers etc.... I would update my reciever if I put off on the projector long enough.

 

[DaViD Boulet]

Dave,

HTPC really *is* as good (or 97% as good...and in some cases better) than a stand-alone Faroudja processor. Soon we should even have on-the-fly 3-2 pulldown for deinterlacing 1080I film-based material via HTPC! Do some snooping over at avs...they have a whole forum devoted to HTPC. That's just what *is* so shocking...that for just about $1,500 you can get a PC with a decent video-card and get $10,000 Faroudja performance. It almost makes you *mad*. And so far, projector owners accross the board are reporting that they're seeing the best DVD-image quality with their HD2 projectors *ever* using the DVI output (scaled to 1280 x 720) of a lowly $200 stand-alone DVD player. That's right...a $200 dvi-output player beats out a $$$ Faroudja-processed image by bypassing all analog conversion.

Of course, who's to say that the image might even look better being fed to a Faroudja processer via DVI input and then out to your projector via DVI out? Exactly why I would ONLY buy any external scaler/deinterlacer/video processor if it had FULL digital-video in/out capability to keep an all-digital video path.

Hey, does your Denon have pre-amp outputs for all main channels? If so...you can use that as your pre/pro and just upgrade to an outboard amp for the time-being. I'm using my B&K AVR202 that way right now and it sounds SWEEET.

-dave

 

[Dave Moritz]

My Yamaha RX-V995 has 5.1 in and 5.1 pre/out on it. The processing on it is not bad and for the price range it was in it is really nice. It has multiple 5.1 DD and DTS surround feilds in it although I usualy dont use the 70mm adventure, scifi, drama etc... The video output of the 995 is 10MHz but considering I purchased this about 4 -5 years ago I guess I can not complain, lol. I really want 6.1 processing and the 995 does not have it. I have considered getting an amp for this reciever. I was looking at some Adcoms, Parasound, Sunfire, B&K and Rotel. The 995 is pushing a pair of Altecs with 4 15" woofers, hf horns, Polk CS100 center channel and two pair of Advent Marble's for the rear channel. So the amps are not to week, lmao. The newer Yamaha's seem to have weeker built in amps. But I just looked up the video pass thru and 10MHz for todays video sucks. I just signed up with the AVS site and am checking it out now. Thank you for your input DaVid