PROJECTOR advice

doggie750

Hello Polks,
Before I jump on to DIY-ing this, may seek the easiest costly approach due to time constraint or simply with four little kids running around...I might have no time. What's the best Projector to mid candidates out there? Will only utilize this is a dark room @ night.......... :loneranger:

polkfarmboy

Acer h9500bd if your not a friek about perfect color accuracy. It has the highest contrast for a sub $1500 (50.000:1 dlp wowfactor)and as a great bonus has the best 3D on the market with less flicker, zero ghosting and good to great brightness. Unlike other 3d it lets you have the iris on and does frame interpolation thats of the up most importance in 3d mode

If you dont want 3D then in the middle catagory their is the epson 8500 as its getting flogged @1700 direct from epson. If you aint a black level friek then a good choice would also be the epson 6500 with insane contrast for around $1100

If you have 3K and want the best picture known to man then the jvc rs45 lcos is kicking around amazon with a native 50.000:1. It has 3d but its not bright enough unless you get a 2.8 dalite high power screen for 3d usage and a normal 120 to 140 incher for dark room theater. Thats an insane price because 3 yr ago you would have paid about 7k for that black level champion

Sherardp

I would go for the Epson, but checking Visual Apex and PP the 8700 and 6500 seem to be sold. If you can get your hands on an 8700 UB I would go that route. If not the Epson, then the Panasonic 4000U( still very good ).

http://www.projectorpeople.com/projectors/projdtls.asp?itemid=24987&itmname=Panasonic+PT-AE4000U

DLP

http://www.visualapex.com/BenQ/Projector-Specifications.asp?For-The=W6000

Reviews

http://www.projectorreviews.com/epson/home-cinema-8700ub/index.php

The differences in performance are so slight you can't see with the eye. So if the funds are available now, get the Panasonic 4000U while they have it for that price.

cstmar01

I might be looking to sell my JVC HD250 for around 1700. I also have a fixed screen. If your interested let me know.
Around 200 hours on the blub and purchased from an authorized dealer in May.

mufsoman

cstmar01 wrote: »

I might be looking to sell my JVC HD250 for around 1700. I also have a fixed screen. If your interested let me know.
Around 200 hours on the blub and purchased from an authorized dealer in May.

Why are you looking to replace the JVC so soon?

cstmar01

mufsoman wrote: »

Why are you looking to replace the JVC so soon?

I don't use it that much to justify it really anymore. I really don't ever use my HT really besides for music and I don't need any of the HT!

Apart from that if I had more time to sit down and watch a movie the only reason why I would sell is to upgrade. Its really awesome and the picture quality is great.

polkfarmboy

cstmar01 wrote: »

I might be looking to sell my JVC HD250 for around 1700. I also have a fixed screen. If your interested let me know.
Around 200 hours on the blub and purchased from an authorized dealer in May.

Thats a crazy price your selling that for. I could never imagine letting a projector like that go if I had one. I'm sure if doggie does not take you up on that offer you would have no problem selling it on ebay in a matter of hours. I noticed you selling other stuff for super cheap

What kind of screen do you have ?

doggie750

Really love the offerf CST, let me check the specs & my thin wallet.... The screen is hd compatible right? Sorry for my ignorance...

Sherardp

That JVC is really good. Heck yeah go for it. All you need it white screen for that bad boy.

yeahbuddy

If 1700 is steep for what you're looking for, you'll be in the same spot I was recently in. I picked up an Epson 8350 for $1100 on Amazon. I spent a good amount of time sifting through reviews, and this one stood out as a great projector for a great price...actually received a few commendations as a great value when it was priced a good bit higher (at least that's my recollection).

Although now I put this out there I'll be nervous some of the more experienced/better informed around here might slash my decision to grab this, it really does fit what I need from it spectacularly, and bang-for-the-buck factor was important for my diminutive bank account.

leroyjr1

^^^ that Epson is a very nice unit.

polkfarmboy

You can buy an epson 8100 for $750 on visual apex and its just the same as the epson 8350. The thing about these pj's is your going to just want more and upgrade again thus spending more cash. Buy a high contrast like the jvc for $1700 and you wont look back because any other diff is marginal.

We all know 2K 4K is coming so and in 3 yrs is going to be the norm so keep this in mind

doggie750

Cst, sending u an IM right now.... As for my polkbrothers, all ur inputs were considered. Thank u all.

Sherardp

4K is already here, check out the Sony 95ES and JVC RS55/65 projectors. Your talking 5K and upwards though. I'm hoping Epson comes out with a 4K model, and offer the same lumens/contrast or better than the 5010. I would indeed jump ship then.

la9ers

I would go with Epson all the way, one of the best projector I have own.

polkfarmboy

Hey doggie I dont know if that pm got to you because of too many characters so i will post here just in case and the info may be beneficial



Hi first you have to understand what contrast is and it can be factored in 2 ways.

One way is you have a dynamic iris that blocks light to getting onto the screen and this can be used to measure black and white

Second is you have a native contrast measurement and this will give you an indication of black and white at the same time

If you take a scene on a movie with both light and dark like deep space on a sci fi movie then if the projector does not have a high native contrast the stars will appear dim with no sparkle because the iris shut out all the light to make the blacks blacker. If the projector has a low native contrast like the epson thats really only about 4000:1 then the iris will only do so much and the images with light and dark will appear flat with a greyish black

Its a fact that although the epson 8350 does indicate a good contrast its still no where near the older epson 1080 ub with lower contrast

The jvc will appear to have a deep 3 dimentional image and colors will really pop of the screen also because of that high native contrast.

The jvc is liquid crystal on silicon and the light path inside the projector is sealed tight and does not allow dust to enter the light path resulting in not only a long long life but it has more resale value. The epson has the organic panels unlike the more expensive epsons with the inorganic lcd panels so what this means is that when the projectors on for a long time the panels will start to toast and it degrades the image greatly and there are dust blob issues that can enter the light path

I hope this gives you a little understanding of the tech and how non native contrast projectors hype up the specs to get your money

The jvc pj's have a special chip inside them giving them the best contrast in the business

doggie750

go it bro...... tnks

yeahbuddy

Well it looks as if your PM box is full, so hopefully everyone else will spare the obnoxiously long post here in response to your PM.

Well it certainly looks that farmboy got a nice comment in for you on stuff I really didn't take the time to learn about. I love the tech stuff just don't have the time to get on it, unfortunately.

I got the Epson after several hours digging around because it clearly fit my needs. I will be using it for maybe a few movies a week and always at night, so I wasn't so concerned about overstressing the lamp due to frequent use, and didn't need anything bright enough to burn a hole in the wall since I'm not using it during the day. I will caution that I've only logged ~3-4 hours with this guy so far and only last night with an actual screen. However, I love what it can do and for as cheap as a really nice plasma I got a machine that projects 100" in stellar 1080p. Funny now that the 50" TV in the bedroom looks fairly diminutive after having logged a few hours in front of the PJ's image.

Take what pfb says to heart, and ask yourself if you'll ultimately be happy with the Epson or now knowing what you know if you'll always be searching out 'greyish' blacks and kicking yourself that you didn't save up a bit more to grab the JVC or something with comparable contrast. Personally, I won't care so much about how crazy good a starry sky shows up on my screen to ever have buyer's remorse. At least until I get a giant promotion and have more money than I know what to do with.

So that's that, hope I've helped!

doggie750

just dropping by.......... i'm in heaven w/ my jvc hd350........ if ur skeptical getting a projector then....what r u waiting for?

polkfarmboy

doggie750 wrote: »

just dropping by.......... i'm in heaven w/ my jvc hd350........ if ur skeptical getting a projector then....what r u waiting for?

Congrats on that bud I'm sure your having a great time watching bluray movies on that beast. What screen have you chosen for your viewing and have you had it calibrated yet ?