Projectors - suitable for budget HT? (1 Viewer)

[_Alan Preston_]

Thanks Neil and ChadLB, that sounds pretty good to me.
Even if I only got 1 year from a bulb, I guess it would still be worth it to me, because on my current budget, I'm just not going to be able to get Large Screen Goodness(tm) any other way.
I guess I just wanted to make sure that PJ's weren't too good to be true.

 

[Scott.T]

Hi Alan,
Got a demo of the Epson TW10 yesterday, and I think I am going to try to squueze it into my budget. It is widescreen native, has better contrast than the S1, and most importantly (to me) it has an optical zoom, which the S1 lacks. Got the demo at Eastern Hifi again, they have given great service, so I think I will give them my business, even though they are not the cheapest.

 

[_Alan Preston_]

Scott,

I went to Eastern HiFi in Wairau Park on Saturday. They also gave great service. Their sales guy was well informed, and not at all pushy, just happy to show me what they had, and answer my questions.

I was impressed by the Epson EMP-S1, the image was much better than I expected. I think I know what people mean by screendoor now, that was probably the major detraction from the picture on the Epson. But certainly no worse than the pixelation apparent on most large RPTVs.

I was even more impressed by a Toshiba projector that was well out of my current budget, at around $7k. Man, did it have a nice image... Never mind, one day I'll be able to afford it.

The TW10 sounds interesting. I am going to wait now until October ( which is when I will have the funds available). Eastern HiFi have said they will call me around that time so we can go through all the options. I will ask specifically about the TW10 then.

Cheers.

 

[Gabriel_Lam]

Was the toshiba their TDP-MT8U? I was deciding between the Infocus version of that and the JVC DLA-SX21u. The MT8u is a pretty amazing unit.

 

[Scott.T]

Alan,

Yeah Eastern Hifi are pretty good and the S1 looks great, especially when you consider the price.
I ended up buying the TW10 from down Eastern Hifi down here. They did me a great package deal with a screen and cables.
In the end the lack of optical zoom put me off the S1. I just don't have much flexability with mounting positions, and didn't want to use digital zoom, so needed an optical zoom.
The TW10 is widescreen native, and has better contrast.
I spent the weekend setting up the TW10 and tinkering and will post a bit of a review in a seperate thread.
Needless to say I am ecstatic about the huge, beautiful picture!

Scott

 

[_Alan Preston_]

Gabriel,

Sorry, I didn't pay too much attention to the model of the Toshiba PJ, as I knew it was well out of my price range. NZ$7000 probably equates to about US$3500 if that helps identify it, although obviously exchange rates are far from the only variable.

Scott,
congratulations, after seeing a few PJ's in action, I can only say I am hugely jealous. Still, my turn is coming. As I said to the guy at the shop, the size and price of projectors just seemed too good to be true, I kept expecting there to be a catch.
Projectors certainly seem to be taking off at the moment. When I bought my HT sound system, about 4 years ago, I went to the same shop, and I don't remember seeing any projectors. Now they have 3 or 4 complete room installations, and another one setup in a corner. I'm guessing that projectors will rival sales of TVs before too much longer, especially if prices keep coming down, and quality keeps going up.

 

[Scott.T]

Alan,

I found there seemed to be alot of resistance by some retailers to budget projectors. When it comes down to it they would rather sell an NZ$10000 plasma, or NZ$6000, so are promoting those over the NZ$3000 projectors. Thats one of the reasons I went with Eastern Hifi, they were enthusiastic about PJs because they are into home theatre, not just trying to sell a product to make their commission.