A few questions related to projectors, HDTV, and screens (1 Viewer)

[Jackson L]

I am seriously considering a projector for everyday use. I would love watching TV and movies on a large screen. With that said I would need a projector with high brightness because my room is brightly lit during the day with one wall almost completely covered by two very large (8x6ft) windows. The sun does not shine through those windows but it is rather bright none the less. I have discovered the Dell 2300MP which has an attractive brightness rating of 2300 ANSI lumens and an even more attractive price of around $1400. It seems to have all the feautures and inputs that I would need but I don't know much about projectors in general. I also need some questions answered about screens and HDTV so here it goes:

1. I guess the main question would be, is the Dell a good choice? The reviews I have read were all positive and said it was an excellent value. I didn't even know Dell made projectors. Are there any other models to be recommended in this price range that have a brightness of at least 2000?

2. When watching HDTV on an XGA (1024x768) projector how does the picture look? I have never seen one in action and I have no idea.

3. This is a bit unrelated to projectors but I thought I'd throw it in because I can't find this info anywhere. Can an HDTV tuner tune regular analog stations along with HD stations?

4. When I use the throw distance calculator at ProjectorCentral it says it would be about 13 feet for a 67x37 screen which is what I would be using. Is that right? I don't know if I did it correctly.

5. What is the best kind of screen? I wouldn't want to spend more than $200. I found the Dalite Model B 37.5x67in manual screen at CousinsVideo.com for $124. Is that a good screen? Is glass bead a good type to get? Any other suggestions?

About lamp life in everyday use. I am prepared to pay the price. I figure that if I put about $12 a month into a "Bulb" account replacing the bulb would be rather painless provided it lasts close to it's rated lifetime.

Thanks for your time.

EDIT: I have to add another question that is completely unrelated. Why has my post count reset to 1? It says this is my 1st of 1 post. I have posted several questions and at one time it was up to 16. Normally I don't worry about post count at all but I can't post any links untill I have 15 posts. Are posts tallied seperately in each section of the forums?

 

[Jim Mcc]

Jackson, you need to go to Projectorcentral.com and read up on all the basics. Most of your questions can be answered there. But, unless you put some blackout curtains over those windows, you should forget about buying a projector. You will not be happy with it, I don't care how many lumens it has. And why such a small screen?

 

[Jackson L]

That size screen would fit perfectly in the room which isn't all that big. Like I said, not much light comes through the windows especially with the blinds closed. I watch most when it's dark anyway. I have been looking all over ProjectorCenteral and the stuff I could not find I asked above.

 

[DaveGTP]

The Dell may have more lumens, but that isn't necessarily going to help your viewability during the daylight. The 2200MP has an inferior scaler compared to some of its other cousins.


See this list, and peruse the sub $2k projectors. It covers a few of the best low-cost pj options.

http://www.projectorcentral.com/reco...projectors.htm

 

[Jackson L]

What is a scaler? Also, is the lumen rating really that important? What would be sufficient? I would post a picture of my room but I can't without more posts.

EDIT: What about the Panasonic PT-L500U? Is 850 lumens enough? It doesn't seem like it would be bright enough but it seems to be highly recommended.

 

[DaveGTP]

A scaler/deinterlacer (normally the same chip in a pj) is what scales the resolution of your source to the projector's resolution. Ex: Normal TV is 320x240. That means the pj has to upscale the image to 800x600/1024x768, or whatever - and deinterlace it. Some scalers do a better job of this than others.

So if you are going to be using this for Standard Def TV, video games (except of course Xbox outputs 480p/720p), etc...you really need a good scaler.

If you are just going to be feeding it HDTV and and DVD (and you get a good progressive DVD player), it doesn't really matter.


Lumens really don't matter much. It's generally a spec that is important if you are going to try to use it in lighted conditions (not recommended). Some things look OK with no lighting - basically anything that doesn't have a lot of black in it. No matter how many lumens, it won't help you much if you have a lot of light.

Black is not produced by the projector. Rather, black is the absence of light in the picture. So, in lighted conditions, you lose your blacks. I guess for sports it is ok because there isn't any black. Animated stuff often looks OK too (lots of experience with anime myself). But other content looks very bad with no blacks..

 

[Jackson L]

I see the effects of too much light every day in class. They have rather low end InFocus projectors. Most things look OK with the lights on but it definetly looks best with the lights off. In my situation I rarely watch TV during the day. At night there may be one light on in the room when watching TV but that would be it. Most of the stations I would watch would be in HD. I think every local station in Seattle has an HD signal. Xbox and DVD would be the other uses. I have a good quality Aiwa DVD player that's about 3 years old. I'm not sure whether it's progressive scan. I'd have to look in the manual. It does have component outputs. I'm hesitant to part with it because I paid so much for it and it is such a good player. Do you have any specific projector recommendations for my uses?