Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Technical Questions Projector vs Plazma TV

Projector vs Plazma TV? What do you guys think? I've been doing some reasearch on Plazma TVs but have found little information on comparision.

Get the biggest RP you can afford (space & money).

Front projector will give you a much bigger picture and won't burn in. Plasma will reject ambient light better.

I went with a projector, and don't regret it a bit. I'm very thankful that I don't have a big RPTV dominating my room.

My research leads me to conclude that Plasma is not a mature technology. Quality is still improving quickly, but with a ways to go. Prices still have a long way to go in coming down. I ask myself would I be happy buying something with some flaws that will show up in use and see that within a year a substantially better set costs half what I paid? Rear projection sets are a much more mature technology, better picture and fewer compromises. Nevertheless,for me they are too big and heavy and require costly calibration in most cases. New DLP and LCD rear projection sets look promising. But with these I think another year will bring substantial improvement in performance & cost.
The courts just upheld the law requiring all sets sold after November 2004 to have HDTV tuners. I suspect that this will lead to a burgeoning of the hdtv market and a quickening in the quality improvments and reduction of prices. Since I look at a large screen set as a minimum six year investment, I am tempering my desire for having it now with what I think I can get next year.
If I had more room I would look at a rear projector or better yet a front projector. I like the Samsung DLP rear projection sets, but improved models will be out around February. I also think prices should come down by about a third during the next year.

I agree with Big Will.. Believe you get way more screen for a whole lot less when you go RP over Plasma..
Sure, they take some floor space, but plasma can't come close to size vs price..
If you have the room, and look to spend the money for plasma, go front projection, AKA: Sushi Projection..
I've seen the light so to speak, and will be going SP probably within the year.. 90 to 120 inche screens, no floor spaced used, tiny little projector hanging up out of the way.. Dang, what could be sweeter ?
Plasma is best used in airline terminals, giving out gate numbers.. ?? :-)

For the cost of a plasma you can get one HELL of a projector. The plasma pq isn't quite "there" yet either. Too many digital artifacts. (halos, edges, pixelization) They do have very bright, vibrant pictures, which upon first glance are very eye catching. And a wall mounted tv is damn sexy, but with the numerous pq issues, the prices are just still too dang high.

spiff, we've had a sony 32" for 10 months. yes i read about the pannys etc, but went with the sony. since our room has many windows, the plasma was the answer for us. i've not noticed any pix quality problems; damn the celtics look great. yes i did turn down settings too.
dan

The price of a 32" plasma isn't as outrageous as the larger 50" models. They are entering the realm of reasonable. I'm just thinking though, that if I'm going to pay $8000+ for a TV it had better have a PERFECT picture. I just don't think the plasmas do yet.

(I'm REALLY fussy about PQ, it's a large part of my job requirement.)

man, if i ever considered spending 8 grand on a tv, i would put myself in an institution. now, i realize your requirements for pq are not the same as mine considering your profession. my neighbor has about a 10 year old sony rear projection tv that has been moved from upstairs to the basement. bumped, dragged and nearly dropped in the transition, which has never been calibrated, let alone cleaned. now that pq does make me wish my contact's prescriptions could be adjusted to match the pq.
dan

I really doubt I'll be paying $8K for a TV either. But if I wanted a 50" plasma, that's what they go for. (and then some!)

I have a suspicion I'll be ending up with a very nice RPTV or DLP. But that's still quite a long way off. I think buying a house/condo is going to have to happen first. (Throwing rent money away is getting real old fast.)

It appears to me that the overall advantage to a plazma tv is that you save space. Space availabilty is not an issue for me, however I wont be able to fit in a front projector either so I am leaning toward a rear projection television. I am considering the Pioneer Elite Pro-530HDi (53 inch screen0. Anyone have any any experience with this TV or recomendations on others?

Note:I have no windows in my room so I control the lighting.

Thanks,

Rich

I keep sayin' it, but nobody seems to agree: The 60" Phillips HDTV at Costco for $1499 is a smoking deal. Yes the cabinet and grill cloth is ugly, yes the TV's built-in speakers suck, and yes it is the old 4:3 shape, but the picture is great and at $1499 you won't be cryin' 5-7 years from now when a more expensive widescreen is obsolete, too.
If you watch any broadcast TV at all, the 4:3 shape is an advantage in my opinion (no stretch or zoom mode, ick!). The letter-boxed DVD picture is crystal clear and something like 55". The letter boxed HDTV picture would be slightly larger, should that ever become a reality. I'm incredibly happy with mine (it is ugly though).

Philips needs to get rid of the silver look. My Philips DirectTivo is silver. Stands out like a sore thumb.

I wouldn't count on the silver going away any time soon. It's the new black! (or, in the case of computers, the new beige!)

Best Buy just lowered the price on the 51" Toshiba to $1599. That is a great deal on a widescreen hd ready tv.

Infocus X1 front projector $900
DaLite Hi-Power Hi-Power screen $300-400
You can go 16:9 or 4:3 with this setup.
If you want standard cable you need a viewsonic TV Tuner box $140
Still cheaper than above and you can go 60-110 inches.

Saturn, does that viewsonic box work well? I've been using my VCR's tuner, but I'd like a better picture. I'll probably get digital cable soon, but I'm curious about the viewsonic.

Using the Viewsonic TV tuner and if the signal you have is already clean then yes it scales the image up higher at least better than the VCR. I find that resolution really doesnt change from 640x480 to 1024x768. It just formats the screen to proper resolution. There is also a 16:9 format that fits well if all viewing is 16:9 on the X1. I still think though the ATI all in wonder card or any PC based tuner card will give the best scaling picture for standard cable but then you need to build up a HTPC. When I get a chance I will upload pics of the TV tuner on the X1 on my site.

If I had a dedicated HT I would certainly opt for a FP.
But in the family room? No way in the world would my wife allow me to hang a projector from the ceiling or back wall, run wires all over the place, and have a big ol' screen hanging on the front wall of the family room. She watches way too much HGTV to go for that. I'm guessing things might be the same for some of these other fellas, too.

Is another consideration viewing habits? I get the feeling that a projection unit is used to view movies while rpt or plasma is used for movies PLUS regular tv viewing.

Can someone with a projector please educate me on that one. How does "regular" non-digital tv look?

Thats what the boss said to me about 1.5 year ago. No way are you doing that. Now she gets to watch Debbie Travis in a 90 inch screen. I dare not change the channel or say the bulb will burn out in due time. I value the new LCD remote...those things are not as durable as a cheap All-in-one $30 remote control which used to fly towards me when she has "inadvertantly" lost control over it due to my err.

Its a little washed out becuase of the way I am taking the pictures. There is ambient light behind, left and right of me. No ambient light in front.
Check out my gallery from pictures 1100+. Click on thumbnails. What do you expect cable TV with is 280-320 lines. The TV tuner does scale it up a little bit but there is still too much crap in cable TV signal. This is not going through the scaler of the PJ...I will try that one day.

Its good enough for cable. HD does look awesome on the X1... maybe one day I'll order the service.
http://www.spacelofts.com/x1/index.htm


The easy way:
This is what I use to put cable TV on a projector. Output is VGA to PJ.
http://viewsonic.com/products/video_box_nextvisionn5.htm

The harder way:
Cable TV looks better if using a TV tuner on a HTPC. The PC can rescale the image a lot better. Thats a little harder to setup. Setting up the remote to accept PC commands. Not as WAF friendly unless configured properly.

Thanks for the reply, thats a great system you have.

Actually the pictures look a lot better than I thought they would. Considering the layout of my future viewing room FP is a consideration that I am now beginning to look at.

Nice use for the hockey pucks .

Its cheaper than Isolation platforms. Its temporary anyways till the loft is done in March-April. The other FPs to consider (if you havent already) is the Sanyo Z2 and Panasonic AE300. The X1 is the cheapest with excellent PQ to rival projectors $1500-$5000

How does the X1 picture quality compare to some of the higher models? Or is the main difference more that the expensive ones have more lumens so light control becomes less of an issue?

That depends. Your are correct in your point though. I am no expert (ask Sushi may be in order again) but based on my research well..the higher the price will buy you more resolution...sometimes the resolution is 4:3 sometimes its 16:9. 16:9 projectors tends be more more expensive but all 4:3(current ones at least) can do 16:9. Having a 16:9 projector could be better only because the 4:3 doesnt have to be rescaled to 16:9.
Having more lumens yes does cost more money but doesnt equate to better quality. It does equate to better pictures in ambient lighting. But movies are best in the dark so lumen output is not a critical factor. Actually high lumen output over saturates whites level and black levels are not black. For example PQ(picture quality)improves on the Panny model above when set to cinema mode...turns down lumen output.
Another thing to note...there is LCD and DLP projectors. I personally can't stand "chicken wire" or "grids" which can be prevalent in lower end LCD projectors. The Panasonic LCD PJ does a great job and apply certain filters/technology to get rid of those "chicken wire". While DLP even in the lower end has very very tiny "chicken wire".
DLP projectors use a spinning color wheel. Lower end PJ have 2 time color wheels. The higher model have 5 time color wheel. The faster the color wheel the less likely to see so called "rainbows" which does affect a small part of the population. So again someone may opt for a LCD projector because they are sensitive to the "rainbowing" on DLP projectors. But that disappears in time as your eyes gets used to it... as one gets use to the ummm met%$#%c or brig#* sound of Axioms.
Well for $900 USD you can get a X1 and project a 80-110 picture or a 32 inch Sony Wega CRT. Thats how I equated it at the time.
The X1 picture is as good or better than projector under $5000 from the last 5 years. The Sanyo Z2 at 1.5 times the cost is close in quality to the X1. The Panny a little better than the both but is 2.5 times the X1 and give a nicer cleaner 16:9 picture even in sitting position less than 10 feet. I would put any of these 3 budget PJ to quality up to about $5000.

My wife watches a lot of HGTV on our projector. She absolutely loves it. Analog cable looks OK, but you won't mistake it for hi-def.