Need help selecting DLP Projector for Flight Simulator (1 Viewer)

[Graeme G]

I have a 14 x 20 ft. media room that has no windows at all and is completely dark. In the process of building. I will be installing a F-16 falcon cockpit simulator in the room. 75% of my time will be used in the simulator which will be driven by a PC, using simulator software similar to Microsoft Flight sim 2002.

The other 25% of the time will be spent watching DVD's (used as normal home theatre)

I am so confused as which projector to get. Some say go for 2000 lumens, some say go for contrast, some say don't get a business projector like Infocus etc.

I am over researched I am now totally confused.

Do I need to get a Cinema projector or a office type projector to have the best of both worlds, PC and Theater.

I hear fatigue from DLP and bulb life will be an issue.

My budget is up to $3,500

Any thoughts on

Optoma EzPro 737 (1,500 lumens / 1,500:1 contrast)
MSRP 4,999 have found under $3,000

or Boxlite Cinema 17SF (1,000 lumens / 1,000:1 contrast)


Thanks so much!
1) What is my best bet for contrast and Lumens.
2) Any model suggestions?
3) Do I go DLP or non DLP

Thanks so much!

 

[Gabriel_Lam]

For a flight sim, I'd suggest 2 things:

1. Fast colorwheel. 5x would be ideal, though you may have to settle with slower. 3x would be a minimum I would think.

2. XGA native resolution or better.

For gaming, brightness tends to be a bit more important than contrast, but contrast does help in practically all applications.

What size screen do you plan on getting? Something like a 100"?

Personally, if you can stand the extra maintenance, size, and noise, I'd look for a good used CRT. There's no frame delay on analog displays compared with digital.

 

[EdR]

I've been using an NEC LT260 for gaming (and movie watching) and I can't say enough good things about it. There's a review of it at projector central.
It only has a 2x (4-segment) color wheel, but I never see rainbows (certain people will though).
During the day, it can be put into normal mode which outputs 2100 lumens, at night I put it into Eco mode which drops the lumens to 1600 (and extends bulb life to 2000 hours). Eco mode is more than bright enough most ofthe time, and when in this mode, the fan drops to a nearly inaudible level.
The color is superb, saturated, and very accurate (I work in the graphics field, so I pay attention to this). There are no motion artifacts, unlike older DLPs like the InFocus LP650.
One of the nicest things, though, is what NEC calls '3D reform' - a fancy word for 8-way keystoning. You can independently keystone each corner and the middle of each side. This is a god-send if your projector can't be positioned exactly perpendicular to the screen.

 

[ParnellH]

My recommendation is to wait until all of the new projectors from PLUS, NEC and others start coming out in Q1 that have the new DDR (double data rate) DLP chipset. The contrast will be increasing from the usual 400 - 800:1 rating into the 1500 - 2000:1 range. In addition to extremely high contrast ratios, they will be able to process the video information at more than twice the spped of current DLP chips. Thi should help tremendously with accuracy in the color fidelity and help end some of the jitter and background noise associated with DLPs.