looking for a projector..please I need your advice (1 Viewer)

[stephen la]

I'm planning to get a projector by the end of the year
from all the talk here I want to just by the infocus 4805
but the headache problem with dlp I read about really scares me..
I wouldn't want to put my family through that.

so I'm thinking about the Panasonic PT-L500U
I think it has screen shift, I plan on just sitting the projector on a coffee table, until I buy a home.. hopefully next year. right now I say I have about 10ft from wall to couch..plan to place the coffee table somewhere in the middle. is this a bad idea?

its lcd so it doesn't handle blacks as well as dlp
is there sample pic of this? I plan to use it only at night, will I notice it?
how much is a replacement bulb on this..how many hours is the bulb life.
I plan to get it around xmas so are there any new projectors at this price level or less coming out soon?

and screens.. in this forum I read about an ebay seller called moakes that sells screen material, 100" diag for about $30.
this sounds really good to me.. I plan on getting that an just tacking it up on the wall..maybe get some black velvet to border the sides.
how would will this look? how does that screen material compare to screen by dalite or the do it yourself paint mixtures I've read about here.

so if anyone cant point me in the right direction on what projector to get
I want lcd /16:9/ under $2000 closer to $1500/ with screen shift (let me know if I really need this) / an image that will look nice on a 100" screen / I plan to use it for dvds and videogame consoles
thanks for reading.. hope you can help

 

[Oren Paul]

I recently purchased a PT-L500U and have about 300 hours on it. I use a 92" CARADA classic white screen. Long story short: I am thrilled with the unit, no SDE, and even though there are many posts discussing poor black levels I can only say that black looks black to me. If you are planning to buy in Dec there should be more choices thus lower prices by then.

 

[brentl]

You're asking tons of questions that have been onswered a million times on AVS over the last coupla years. How about a search there first!

The way we are going here though we may catch up to AVS sooner than later.

B

 

[Jack Ferry]

Before giving up on DLP sight unseen, why not try the X1 free demo?

My bias: I tried the demo, then bought the 4805. I love it.

 

[Jim Mcc]

The Panasonic 500 does not have lens shift? You should check into the Sanyo Z2. Go to Projectorcentral.com and do some reading. They have reviews also. You shouldn't just tack screen material to wall, you need to build a wooden frame(I used 1X3 pine) stretch it tight, and staple on back.
Go to AVSFORUM.COM in the DIY screen section.

 

[stephen la]

thanks everyone.. I'll check out avsforum.com