igotshotintheeye

my first home theater on a budget

im looking for a projector and reciever and i want to be able to connect it all to my apple macbook pro to watch movies. i dont have alot of money and im hoping to spend 600 or less on a projector and 150 or less on a reciever. im not sure about all the inputs and outputs and lumens and watts and all that stuff. i want to make sure everything will work together and although it wont be the best quality set up i want it to last for a while and i want to be happy with it . Im not sure if they would work together and with my macbook pro. would they all work together and is one of those projectors a good choice or is there another one i can get for around 600 that will work for movies? and is the reciever ok or is there a better one for around 150? also on amazon the reciever says it has hdmi but on cnet i didnt see it so im not sure if it has that. how would i connect projector to reciever and to computer?

well it wont let me post links so the projectors were Optoma MovieTime DV10 on cnet and PowerLite 76c Multimedia Projector - Refurbished on the epson site under products and clearance center. and the reciever was Onkyo TX-SR304S 5.1 Channel Home Theater Receiver on amazon.


thanks for your help. any tips, suggestions, advice reccomendations or anythign elsse that might help is greatly appreciated.

Jim Mcc

Re: my first home theater on a budget

You can do much better than those 2 for about $600. Are you looking to buy a projector with a built-in DVD player like that Optoma? Do you want a DLP or LCD projector? I know nothing about computers, so I can't help you there. Believe it or not, you can buy a 720p projector for right around $600, the Acer PH530. That's what I would buy for $600. It's a DLP and the guys who own it are giving it very good reviews at Avsforum.com. There's a thread there devoted to it.

igotshotintheeye

Re: my first home theater on a budget

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jim Mcc You can do much better than those 2 for about $600. Are you looking to buy a projector with a built-in DVD player like that Optoma? Do you want a DLP or LCD projector? I know nothing about computers, so I can't help you there. Believe it or not, you can buy a 720p projector for right around $600, the Acer PH530. That's what I would buy for $600. It's a DLP and the guys who own it are giving it very good reviews at Avsforum.com. There's a thread there devoted to it.

i dont need one with a built in dvd player. the optoma just got pretty good reveiws and it sounded ok so i was considering it. im not sure about dlp or lcd i dont know which is better? does it matter? the acer looks good but it says it has 900 lumens i dont really know what that means but i was under the impression more is better so im not sure if that would be enough? do u know anything about recievers?

thanks.

Jim Mcc

Re: my first home theater on a budget

I'm not up to speed on the current receivers. You need to post in that section for advice. I prefer the look of DLP, but only you can decide which you prefer. 900 lumens should be fine if you have a dark room and watch with the lights out. I would read thru that Acer thread to see what guys are saying about the brightness.