Good day all

I am planning on building a new house. My wife has given' me a room in the basement that is 18' x 25' for a dedicated home theatre. She is giving me total control over this space (yes, I am very lucky, did I mention she is a huge NASCAR fan too). Anyways the room will have no windows so I will have total control of the light. I would like to get a projector and need some advice.

LCD or DLP? 1080i or 1080p? How big should I plan on the screen to be? I would also like some info on aspect ratio. Black bars with 16x9? Is there a way to get rid of them? I need the works here as I only have experience with 4x3.

Any help would be great!

Thanks

Hi Worfzara,

There is an excellent review on affordable front projectors from Sound & Vision at http://www.soundandvisionmag.com/article.asp?section_id=3&article_id=1408

You should get used to the 16 x 9 ratio; this is the shape of things to come (HD). Once you will have a large screen (100 or 120 inches across) these bars will not annoy you anymore. You will definitely love the theatre effect which they create.

For screen material, there are good offerings from http://www.carada.com/ and I recently read a very good review on an inexpensive one at http://www.hometheatersound.com/equipment/grandview_signature.htm

You will live a very exciting project experience; good luck !

JC
Axiom Resident Expert

I've got some company over right now for movies on my big screen. I'll try to reply tomorrow. I would start at http://www.projectorcentral.com. This is a great place to start on reading articles on some of your questions.

For getting rid of black bars of cinemescope movies on 16:9 screens you can zoom, but the sides will be chopped off. The best way is a constant height design using a 2.35 screen and anamorphic lens. It costs more to achieve but I will never go back...

Really? I was pretty sure you were getting sick of it.

Be careful taking advice from Randy….thanks to him, my HT budget got doubled.

I haven’t got a lens yet, but I’m planning my theater to accommodate one. Randy will get you lined out Constant Height Systems and screens.

As far as projectors go, it really depends on how much you want to spend. If your set on 1080P and plan to jump into the HD DVD / Blue Ray fight, the Ruby seams to get touted as the best one out for the money. I think they run about 10K, but I’m not real sure. All I know is I can’t afford one.

So, the next financially responsible step down (according to Mike) would be 1080i / 720P. In this resolution, there are currently three projectors that are leading the pack with price point and performance. Each has pro’s / con’s. 1- Sanyo Z4, 2- Panasonic 900au, 3- Optoma HD72

All three of those can be found for about $1500 and I don’t think you could go wrong with any.

The Optoma looks like a great projector for Constant Height systems (Randy will surely tell you all about them). The reason being, it will vertically stretch the digital input. The Panny will only stretch the Component input. One con that I know of, is it is limited with mounting locations.

The Panny has what they call “smooth screen” technology. Laymen’s explanation for this: smooth the lines between each pixel. I have yet to get mine hooked up and running, but the Panny gets a lot of praise. It’s supposed to be very easy to set up and mount because it has a great zoom and lens shift. A draw back with the Panny is that it is somewhat of a “short throw” projector. Anamorphic lenses work better with long throw projectors (the constant height thing again).

I don’t know much about the Sanyo other than it should be a dandy if it’s as good as the Z2 or Z3.

OK sounds like 720p / 1080i is the way to go as I can't afford to spend much over $2000 on this. I am not sure I wana drop 10K on a technology that may or may not take off. I'd rather put the difference into; I don't know, say, comfy chairs to sit on, or carpeting, or mortgage.

Still need answers on DLP or LCD or does it realy matter anymore.

In a darkend room, how do projectors stack up against plasma or DLP rear projection ro LCD flat screen. I know you can't get the size, but is the picture as good as these other technologies?

I would also like to get more info on Anamorphic lenses. How much do they cost, and can you put one one on any projector? Do you loose any quality when you add one of these?

For the projectors mentioned, we're talking about them as "720p / 1080i". If I remember correctly, they are all 720p native and will scale a 1080i image down to 720p when displaying it.

Not that this is a bad thing, of course

EDIT - regarding DLP vs. LCD, my understanding is that each approach has some artifacts which bug *some* people, and that you need to figure out which of artifacts you are most sensitive to and most bugged by. The "rainbow effect" from a DLP *really* bugs some people, although more recent designs (more segments in the colour wheel) seem to have reduced the effect to the point where many don't notice it, while the "screen door effect" from LCDs doesn't bug anyone nearly as much as rainbows, but everyone can see it if you sit real close.

Everyone seems to agree that DLPs are inherently superior, although those same people seem to be buying LCD projectors over DLP about 2:1 right now. The Panasonic and Sanyo 720p projectors are both LCD, and they seem to be the projector of choice on this board right now, although I think the Optimas are DLP and are pretty popular as well.

FURTHER EDIT -- PM Randy (sirquack) for info on the anamorphic lenses.

Worfzara, i think you should state how much you plan on spending to create your room. if you throw out a number people can more accurately help you with their reccomendations...



if you can afford 10k on a projector, then realisticaly you will not have to upgrade any time soon at all.. those of us with 720p/1080i will have to upgrade in a few years when the 1080p projectors prices come down a bit.


you've already got the audio covered.. are you going to want a video scaler? Maybe dvdo vp30? Any input to any output.. excluding 1080p.. room acustics? Chairs ect.. you could easly spend 10k$ just building your room, with out any new HT equipment at all, or maybe you have already considered this?


For projector, depending on how much you want to spend, I would say the most cost effective route is get a 720p projector along with a good video scaler, the total for that would be about screen, you could do a diy screen depending on what route you want to go. And yes, the 720p projectors scale 1080i down to 720p.. if you get a video scaler, you can upscale 420p (DVD's) up to 720p

Just a though, hope this helps ane makese sense.

1080P is here, and it’s here to stay. Unfortunately, it’s just too expensive for me to take the plunge right now. I suspect in about a year we’ll all see more 1080P projectors on the market which will ultimately drive the price down to where us “frugal” folks can afford them. I checked prices on the “Ruby” (Sony-VPL-VW100) and it can be found for $7000. Still way too painful for me.

There used to be quite a difference in performance between DLP and LCD, but from everything I’ve read, LCD technology has come up to where the differences are negligible. Really, all three projectors that I mentioned get rave reviews everywhere. I think they are all very good. But if I were to buy again knowing what I know now, I’d get the Optoma for the vertical stretch function because I am not going with an external processor right now, or conversely, a HTPC. I intend to simply zoom for the time being until I can pry some more cash out of my cheap hands and buy a lens.

I am waiting on a few new models of VP’s to come out now too, hence the wait. The VP 30 is good, but its chip is getting antiquated. They are to be releasing a VP 40 or VP 50 soon, but details of this rumored processor are scarce. Then Lumagen is also about to release a new line that sounds quite attractive. Then there’s the Mosquito that is shipping now which has its bugs, but also has great potential………..oh the decisions we have to make with this A/V addiction…..

Anamorphic lenses run anywhere from $500 on up to over $5000. What they do (in a nut shell) is magnify the projected image by about X 1.33. They do this either vertically or horizontal. Horizontal is what you want to get rid of the black bars. The projector, VP, HTPC or DVD player “stretches” the image vertically to where everything looks tall and skinny. The lens then magnifies the image to bring it back to its intended shape, but only much larger, and you loose the black bars on the top and bottom. The real benefit is that you get about 33% more image than without. And you get this increases image size without zooming (which basically just makes the pixels bigger and they tend to look like crap). When you go with a CH system, you no longer need to mask off the screen on the top and bottom. All you mask is the sides. When you watch 2.35, no masking, all other ratios will require masking.

When I started building my HT in early '05 I took a hard look at LCD and DLP and found both technologies had their drawbacks but the top end DLP's had the fewest problems. I eventually narrowed it to 2 720p DLP projectors: the SIM HT300e and Yamaha DXP1200, both with dazzling images. The next step was the screen which also has a significant impact on the picture and I would recommend doing research as to which screen matches best with your choice.

Interesting to note that in Greg Rogers recent Widescreen review of the latest Yamaha DXP1300 DLP 720p projector, he found the image superior to the Sony Ruby 1080p.

How tall are the ceilings in your basement? I ask because there will be a screaming deal at costco.ca on the Optoma HD6800 August 7-20? (not sure on the end date). It's basically a rebadged HD72 that only Costco sells. The package includes the projector, 5m dvi cable, 92" Panaview Graywolf Screen and a ceiling mount for $1825CAD.

The onion in the ointment is that it has a 32-38% offset which rules it out of the running for people who want big screens with low ceilings. Otherwise you probably want to look at LCD as others have mentioned, they're simple to mount and throw a comparable picture from what I hear. The Sanyo Z4 is comparable in price to the Optoma, I've found it for $1895CAD with a $200 instant rebate from one dealer. The AE900U is a mystery, I can't seem to find it for a good price here in Canada whereas in the US it's one of the cheapest thanks to $400 rebates. An AE900U in Canada will run you about $2300-2600 depending where you buy from. If others know of where to find it cheaper please let me know, as I would love to get it for <$2000.

One word on the LCD models, September/October is usually when the new generation technology is released, so if you can wait until around Halloween you can choose between the brand new stuff (maybe 1080p this round?) or get this years stuff for cheap.

Long post I know, but I've been researching this for a few months now and the story is a little different for those of us north of the border. Good luck with your search and your decision.