TalahRama Posted May 19, 2008 Share Posted May 19, 2008 I just recently moved into an apartment with my girlfriend and we need a TV -- but we're wondering whether or not to get a projector instead. Our price range is up to about $1000. The advantage to a projector is that we can fill an entire wall with a screen. But the down side is that we plan on using it pretty heavily, which would mean frequent replacement of the lamp, which tends to run in the hundreds of dollars range. Advice? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Damned Posted May 19, 2008 Share Posted May 19, 2008 I don't think you're going to get a decent projector for only $1000. You might want to just go with the largest LCD set you can get. It will have several advantages, like not being washed-out in color and tone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cobaltstarfire Posted May 19, 2008 Share Posted May 19, 2008 Yeah, good projectors are...well really expensive to get and upkeep, the only people I know with projectors have tons of extra cash to spend, and I think they use their projectors for everything not just TV. (Turning one of those things on and off just once or twice will toast a bulb, it's best to just leave them on once you turn them on). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kenobio Posted May 19, 2008 Share Posted May 19, 2008 I've seen pretty decent projectors for under a grand no problem, but I'd honestly recommend just going with the TV. Better picture and you should be able to get a decent size one for that price. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TalahRama Posted May 19, 2008 Author Share Posted May 19, 2008 Great, thanks! It's too bad, because full-wall gaming sounds pretty ridiculously awesome. But I guess logic has to win this one. While I'm already in the business of having a thread, what's a good TV? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brushfire Posted May 19, 2008 Share Posted May 19, 2008 You can get a previous generation Bravia for under a grand nowadays. That would be your best bet in the LCD department. I have had one for about two years and it is one of the best TVs I have ever own. If you have a bunch of things (like game consoles) to hook up than you really can't go wrong. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmr Posted May 19, 2008 Share Posted May 19, 2008 It's funny that this topic should come up now... this weekend I have the projector from work home. While full-wall gaming is indeed pretty ridiculously awesome, you need a really dark room or else everything looks really washed out and dark colors are difficult to see. Even in a completely dark room, the projector I have here (a Dell 2300MP, a quick glance online says it's ~$1200) still doesn't look that good when it comes to the dark colors, and I've tweaked all of the settings as much as possible. That being said, anything with bright, vibrant colors looks alright. Playing Sonic the Hedgehog on a 2 meter wide screen is pretty fucking awesome. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
starla Posted May 19, 2008 Share Posted May 19, 2008 It's been said of course that you will need a dark room. You'll also want to be able to mount the projector so that you don't lose a seat because someone can't sit in a certain spot for fear of headshadow on the screen. It just doesn't really seem like a wise investment to me, but if you're ok with it then go for it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Inimitable Posted May 19, 2008 Share Posted May 19, 2008 I've got a wall-sized projector here that I use for gaming and HD TV. It was about $700 for a 720p projector, and the colors work out well - but you really do have to dedicate a room to the projector. Like others have mentioned, a dark room is necessary during the day, so blackout curtains are an investment you'd probably want to think about, as well as a projector screen. Certain types of fairly cheap tile can be used for that, though, and it works out quite nicely. A TV is much less of a hassle, definitely, but a properly set up projector and room makes 120-inch HD GTA4 something to behold. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bigfoot Posted May 19, 2008 Share Posted May 19, 2008 LCD all the way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djpretzel Posted May 19, 2008 Share Posted May 19, 2008 That being said, anything with bright, vibrant colors looks alright. Playing Sonic the Hedgehog on a 2 meter wide screen is pretty fucking awesome. Well... it's pretty pixelated, too. Unless you're running GENS with eagle or 2xsai enabled on a PC @ 1920x1080. *THEN* it's awesome. I'll just offer this advice on this topic: to me, projector vs. LCD/Plasma/DLP isn't really the issue. If I'm spending that much on a TV, I want something that's not going to be obsolete for awhile and, especially at such large display sizes, captures detail as well. HDTV is gonna be around for a good long while, and 1080p is as high as it goes, so my standard advice is to always get something that natively supports 1080p. For LCDs, that doesn't mean downsampling, that means enough pixels to display a full 1080p signal. Projectors... aren't really there yet on HDTV, or rather, the ones that are are massively expensive. My advice? Bang for buck, I like DLPs. Especially the new OLED driven DLPs, where the bulb can't go bad because there isn't one. Samsung all the way. Yes, the DLPs aren't as thin as LCD and Plasma so you can't wall-mount them above your fireplace, which always seemed stupid ergonomically to me, anyways, but that extra foot or so of depth is saving you $500-$1000 or more, and dead pixels aren't an issue. Just my two cents; people are passionate about A/V gear, and will generally disagree about even the simplest of advice, but I thought I'd share mine nonetheless. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SLyGeN Posted May 19, 2008 Share Posted May 19, 2008 I'm pretty familiar with Plasma vs. LCD, but would anybody care to explain to me what OLED and DLP are? Along with pros and cons with respect to the others. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kitty Posted May 19, 2008 Share Posted May 19, 2008 Contrary to everyone here, my dorm bought a projector earlier in the year and we set it up in the common room. Needless to say I think that was the better purchase because we have this giant wall that's now used as a giant screen. Games (especially on the PS3 and the Xbox 360) look marvelous on it. It cost us about $1000 for $20 a person (50 people in the building). We've used the bulb for over 900(0) hours and it hasn't even gone out yet. I can't imagine playing Rock Band on anything smaller now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shadowe Posted May 19, 2008 Share Posted May 19, 2008 unless you're running GENS with eagle or 2xsai enabled on a PC @ 1920x1080. *THEN* it's awesome. No, then it's blurry, still pretty low-res, and it's stretched and distorted. 1600x1200 with hq2x on kega fusion will have you wondering if sonic HD is really necessary. I'm pretty familiar with Plasma vs. LCD, but would anybody care to explain to me what OLED and DLP are? Along with pros and cons with respect to the others. OLED is a type of LED, and DLP is basically a type of projection. the wikipedia page for each is your best source of info. Personally I'm banking on OLED since DLP never looks right to me and I don't see SED or FED coming out anytime soon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dhsu Posted May 19, 2008 Share Posted May 19, 2008 My roommate in Houston got a DLP projector for like $600 and it was pretty great. It was a little harder to play dark/low-contrast games during the day (e.g. Bioshock), but for the most part the image was fine for our needs. It's still one of the things I miss most about living there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skummel Maske Posted May 19, 2008 Share Posted May 19, 2008 I work at a hi-fi store, and although I haven't gotten around to test all the high-end projectors, the ones I have tested out aren't all that great. As people have already said, you need a completely dark room to get the best out of it, and still the image looks more washed out than a proper LCD. As a private person, I'd never buy a projector Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Calpis Posted May 19, 2008 Share Posted May 19, 2008 I say go with LCD/Plasma. I bought this Samsung a couple months ago and have no complaints, even if it is 720p and only 1024 lines horizontally. The screen is perfectly suited for my needs. I don't know, a lot of people told me not to buy it due to downsampling and I understand that there's less lines than 'true' HD should be but I think that the difference is too small for me to pay another $500 - $1000 to correct. Speaking of projectors, my Dad has one and during family gatherings he likes to play a movie on the wall with it. It was cool 5-8 years ago but since I've had an HD screen at my own place lately the projector screen just feels dark and blurry, so it's a little hard for me to watch now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djpretzel Posted May 19, 2008 Share Posted May 19, 2008 No, then it's blurry, still pretty low-res, and it's stretched and distorted. 1600x1200 with hq2x on kega fusion will have you wondering if sonic HD is really necessary. Someone knows his shit; nice. OLED is a type of LED, and DLP is basically a type of projection. the wikipedia page for each is your best source of info. Personally I'm banking on OLED since DLP never looks right to me and I don't see SED or FED coming out anytime soon. My DLP looks fine to me; for the sake of clarification, though, OLED can both be used as a display technology itself (competitor to LCD, longer-lasting), but also as the "bulb" for DLP projection sets, which is what I was referring to. I personally love my Samsung DLP, but it's bulb-based, and eventually that bulb will die. With DLPs powered by OLED lighting, that's basically no longer a problem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zircon Posted May 19, 2008 Share Posted May 19, 2008 On a side note, I can't BELIEVE how cheap TVs are getting. 61" Samsung DLP HDTV, 1080p native resolution, for $1650. WTF? My current TV (32" 1080i LCD HDTV) was $550. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fishy Posted May 19, 2008 Share Posted May 19, 2008 On a side note, I can't BELIEVE how cheap TVs are getting. 61" Samsung DLP HDTV, 1080p native resolution, for $1650. WTF? My current TV (32" 1080i LCD HDTV) was $550. I used to work in returns for Dixons, a UK electronics retailer, specifically dealing with TV returns, and from my experiance Samsung are not reliable. They are cheaper then most for a reason, if you added together all the returns for faulty TVs that aren't Samsung, it would still be lower then the number of Samsung TVs that were faulty. That said, when you get one that works, they're pretty good, nice styling. Just saying... you have been warned. Cheap: Samsung GOOD: Panasonic You get what you pay for. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Calpis Posted May 19, 2008 Share Posted May 19, 2008 I used to work in returns for Dixons, a UK electronics retailer, specifically dealing with TV returns, and from my experiance Samsung are not reliable.They are cheaper then most for a reason, if you added together all the returns for faulty TVs that aren't Samsung, it would still be lower then the number of Samsung TVs that were faulty. That said, when you get one that works, they're pretty good, nice styling. Just saying... you have been warned. Cheap: Samsung GOOD: Panasonic You get what you pay for. Really? When I was shopping around for HDTVs, I checked consumerreports.com and Samsung TVs were generally ranked directly below Panasonic, with most others below that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fishy Posted May 19, 2008 Share Posted May 19, 2008 Really? When I was shopping around for HDTVs, I checked consumerreports.com and Samsung TVs were generally ranked directly below Panasonic, with most others below that. That said, when you get one that works, they're pretty good Then he wrote more characters. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Calpis Posted May 19, 2008 Share Posted May 19, 2008 All I was saying was that it's weird that you saw so many broken Samsung TVs when at the same time it's ranked high for generally being a good TV. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bigfoot Posted May 19, 2008 Share Posted May 19, 2008 We sell more Samsungs at our store than any other brand at work. They also have like 4 models of the same size LCD, and that gets annoying at times. But really, before you buy any TV, make sure you look up reviews of the model that you're looking at online. Make sure they're also from a reliable source. A company can make a cheap and crappy product, but they can also make a good one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fishy Posted May 19, 2008 Share Posted May 19, 2008 I guess Samsung just have a ridiculous brand power. They're like Strats, everyone will buy one because they're well known for being the standard. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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