8mm Forum: Looking for Home Theater Projector Suggestions

This is topic Looking for Home Theater Projector Suggestions in forum General Yak at 8mm Forum.

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Posted by Scott Mallory (Member # 2393) on April 05, 2013, 03:28 PM:

Hi Everybody, So I've put together a pretty nice man cave for my Super 8 and 16mm projectors/films and I'd like to do more, like use the screen to watch my DVDs and Blu-rays on. I don't want to go crazy, so I'm looking at spending between $200-300 on a HD movie projector either with a built in DVD player with output for my speakers or a projector that will have HDMI and other inputs. I've been overwhelmed with options, brightness, name brands, generic models, etc. Any suggestions on a good fit? Thanks!

Posted by Lee Mannering (Member # 728) on April 06, 2013, 08:11 AM:

Always going to be a very personal choice but I have always liked the BenQ which are good value and very good performance.
www.benq.com/

Posted by Christian Bjorgen (Member # 1780) on April 06, 2013, 08:48 AM:

I would steer clear of the ones with built-in features, they tend to have poor picture quality. LG, BenQ, Samsung and Dell are all good brands for projectors, but make sure that you get one with native resolution of 1920x1080 (HD). Many projectors claim to have full HD output, but when you read into them they have low native resolutions, which means that while they will accept the HD signal, they will downscale it to the native resolution.

Posted by Scott Mallory (Member # 2393) on April 06, 2013, 03:45 PM:

Thanks guys!

Posted by Roger Shunk (Member # 2836) on April 06, 2013, 06:31 PM:

Hey Scott,

Can you let me know what you end up getting and how you like it because I too want to add a rear projector to my present film set-up and there seems to be a lot of choices out there. I too have done lots of research on the subject and it gets confusing
and overwhelming!

Thanks,
Roger

Posted by Matt McBride (Member # 3311) on April 06, 2013, 07:07 PM:

It will all come down to how much money you want to spend. Like Christian said you'll want to make sure that it has at least 1080p resolution, though I want to add it may help to get ones that can run 1080p at 24fps. They are usually marked as 1080p/24fps. The reason being, it adds a little edge to making the DVD or blu-ray you are watching see slightly more film like. Also there is a whole debate on LCD vs. DLP. Personally I would go with a DLP as you won't have to worry about aging on the crystals like LCDs, however LCDs are getting better with how to control the aging element. DLPs are known for giving richer blacks and lighter whites, that LCDs in general can't reproduce as well. However they are getting better in that technology but you may have to shell a little more out for a higher end projector.

The $200-300 dollar range will be a tight budget, and I am not even sure if you can buy a projector with 1080p that is worth while. I would try to shop for a used one. You can find them at projectorcentral.com. They are dedicated to digital projectors and reviews, mostly for home, but they talk about some large venues. I don't think they discuss DCI compliant projectors other than they exist.

There are a variety of brands to select from. I personally have owned Optomas and Panasonics, in fact my current one is Panasonic PT-AE4000, which I bought brand new 3 yrs ago for 2K, now since it's not even in production as they are on the 8000 model, you can probably get mine around your price range. One little feature that may be nice to have, one that's actually in my model, is called lens memory. You can save your lens zoom positions, so you can mimick the constant height for scope formats. Ideally a scalar with lens changes is ideal but that's a different story.

Other than Optoma and Panasonic there are other good brands out there such as runco and christie. I would browse through projector central. They have a nice tutorial about home theater projectors if you have never bought one, plus they have section to buy used projectors. Good luck and let us know what you decide on. BTW this excellent step towards being able to show movies of various formats, not just film, on the bigger screen. [Big Grin]

Posted by Roger Shunk (Member # 2836) on April 06, 2013, 07:19 PM:

Thanks Matt for your great advise & insight on the subject as well as everyone's else's too! I was looking to spend between $400-500

RS

[Smile]

Posted by Rob Young. (Member # 131) on April 07, 2013, 07:03 AM:

Or D-ILA technology from JVC.

Best black levels and shadow detail available; especially important for movie watching.

New ones start at about £3000.00, but I bet you could find a used bargain if you looked around.

Posted by Mark Todd (Member # 96) on April 08, 2013, 11:48 PM:

If anyone in the UK is interested I have a very nice LCD machine with little use, superb picture in the £120-£150 range. Only selling as the peugeot has a bloomin dual mass clutch !!! needs doing soon.

Virtually unused origional lamp and brilliant starter machine.

Best Mark.

Posted by Scott Mallory (Member # 2393) on April 11, 2013, 12:44 PM:

Wow, tons of helpful information. Thanks!

Posted by Scott Mallory (Member # 2393) on May 07, 2013, 12:09 AM:

Hi Everyone,
So I think I’m closer to getting my digital projector. Here’s what I want and have to work with: a basement theater, 8ft tall screen, Bose speaker with a quarter inch jack, distance of 10-15ft to the screen, AV cart to put the projector and hopefully 3D bluray/DVD player on. Here are my possibilities: a refurbished Optoma HD20 or BenQ W710ST Short Throw DPL. The Optoma has the native resolution of 1920x1080 but no quarter inch sound out for my Bose speaker. Also it got a lot of great reviews but also complaints of lines, flickering and possible bad boards that can only be serviced in Singapore. The BenQ gets great ratings and has a quarter inch sound out, but has a lower 720 resolution and there are a couple of reviews saying the single/internal 10watt speaker isn’t very loud. I’m not sure, but I imagine that I can run a player into the projector and then run sound out from the projector to my Bose speaker?! Also it’s a short throw, so can I put it behind everyone on my AV cart or do I need to have the mess of a set up low and in front of everyone? I don’t have the option of mounting it from my ceiling. Both are just under $600 and I think I’m leaning towards the BenQ. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Posted by Matt McBride (Member # 3311) on May 07, 2013, 09:00 AM:

You can always send your sound signal to the speakers. You will just hook the sound cables(rca, digital, etc) to the receiver that powers the speakers and the video cables will go to the projector. I have owned optomas in the past I was happy with it. I never had any problems. I would lean towards that to have the native 1080p resolution, otherwise there really is no point in having a blu-ray player if you can't run it at full resolution especially in the case of projecting it. Storing everything on the cart is a great idea. That will limit the number of long cables you need to just speaker wire.

Posted by Paul Adsett (Member # 25) on May 07, 2013, 10:20 AM:

I strongly recommend buying a digital projector with a minimum of 2X zoom range so that you can put the projector where it belongs - at the back of the room. Having the projector in the middle of the audience is not the ideal solution.

Posted by Elyas Tesfaye (Member # 3356) on May 07, 2013, 01:48 PM:

Hi Scott,

I have a very small room n got extremely lucky with this short throw projector locally for which I only paid $60 (With 3.5 meters of throw, I get a screen about 1.5 to 2 meters wide by 1.25 to 1.5 meters tall). It is a portable Dell M109S DLP projector. I am happy with it and just thought I'd pitch in my 2 cents worth [Smile]

!!!

Best,
ET

Posted by Scott Mallory (Member # 2393) on May 10, 2013, 03:49 PM:

Thanks again Guys! I ended up getting a BenQ W1070 which will cover my needs and is 3D ready. I did tons of research, read product reviews, watched demos on YouTube and picked your brains. I found what I needed in my NEW price range on Amazon and a digital projector site. The price and factory warranty were the same but I was really pleased with the smaller company's customer service which answered my many questions along the way. You can check them out here: www.consignia.ca
Don't worry I'm not about to abandon film though, lol. I just got some stuff for my Super 8 and 16mm projectors too. Thanks!

Posted by Thomas Murin, Jr. (Member # 1745) on May 10, 2013, 03:59 PM:

Congrats, Scott!

I got the W1070 a few months ago and am really loving it! The PQ is really outstanding as is the 3D!

I'm sure you will be very happy with your purchase! If you have any questions, please let me know and I'll do my best to answer them!

Tom

Posted by Scott Mallory (Member # 2393) on May 13, 2013, 09:57 AM:

Thanks Tom!

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