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I cant make up my mind (1 Viewer)

Josh Drewitz

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Jun 5, 2003
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Alright, I am currently in Afghanistan so going to look at TVs and projectors is a far cry from possible, (no big screens or projectors in the desert) but when I get back to the states (soon i hope) I want to upgrade the display on my Theater. Heres the situation, I have a 14'x11' room but the display will go along the long wall. There a sliding glass door that faces outside on the short wall so i can not take advantage of the long throw if i were to go with a projector. The other 3 walls are solid, no windows and the other far short wall has a closeable door. So with a heavy set of drapes I could get pretty decient ambient light control. The choices are to go with a 65"RPTV either the new Hitachi 65S500 or a Pioneer elite 730 maybe the mitsubishi 65ws413 but as I said I cant go look at them right now. The second option is to go to a FP. I am looking at the Panisonic PT-l300u or the Epson tw100h (if i can find one) or another projector with a short throw. The problem is I very little have expierence with FP and frankly im leary of the limitation of not being able to have light in the room while watching movies.

The limitations are that I sometimes watch movies when the room is not completely dark so I can do work and I plan on spending up to 5K on the display but hey its only money so if there is something that i need to have to make this work let me know about it please.

The Main Use for the display will be DVDs. Second will be video games and third is SD.

I am just looking for opinions on this stuff so when I get back I have a better idea of what to look for so feel free to express opinions. I've researched the heck out of these things but cant wait to get a look at them. Thanks a lot for your time and input. :)
 

Jason Charlton

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Hi Josh. Given the size of the room, I really think that viewing distance is your main limiting factor. Given that most RPTVs are between 27 and 30 inches deep, and even if you put your seating right up against the back wall (although for surround sound, you should really try and leave a foot or two of space) you're looking at best to have about 8-9 feet of distance between your eyes and the screen. In all honesty, I think a 65" display is too big for that sitting distance. I'm actually getting ready to plunk down the cash for a 57" display, and I'll have a full 11 feet from screen to my eyes. Most of the people I've talked to agree that anything bigger would likely be too big for my room.

As far as front projection goes, I think your situation is just a bit too far from ideal to warrant making the jump. Some of the newer FP systems can deal with the ambient light pretty well, but I don't think it would be worth the investment considering the resulting display size wouldn't be much bigger than what you could do with RPTV.

You can increase the viewing distance with a DLP, LCD, or plasma system, but IMO they're still a bit pricey, and don't offer the same bang-for-the-buck that a good RPTV does. Fortunately, you've got a great budget to work with, and these may be viable options for you.

One of the hardest parts about shopping for displays is that you don't really get a true sense of their size in a huge showroom where 20-30 sets sit side-by-side (even tougher in your case, since you have to rely strictly on imagination ;) ) When you get back, get a really good sense of the seating distance in your room before going out and looking at sets. Then sample the sets at the showroom from the same distance. You may discover that a set in the 50-57" range is all you'll need.

As far as what to look for in a set, I think it's safe to say you have pretty good taste from the models you listed. Sounds like you'll have several progressive sources (if your gaming system is Xbox) so a pair of wideband component inputs would cover the console and your DVD player, and a DVI input could be used for a future HD tuner.

I'm sure others have lots of opinions as well. Best of luck in the upgrade - keep us posted on what you end up getting.

-Jason
 

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