There are some really interesting developments made in laser projectors that project RGB independently and no focus needed
No light bulb to replace and much cheaper than conventional projectors. It going to be very interesting to see where this goes
Might take a Hugh chunk from the plasma market

If successful this will open up the need for content creators…we did some experiments with codatrace cut-out shapes on a store widow
projected onto and the results look quite promising for future opportunities

www.engadget.com/2006/02/13/new-pvpro-mini-projector-has-no-moving-parts/

Check Circuit City clearance if you have one nearby.

Was there today. Not much left... No projectors definitely.

There's a best buy next to officemax but the website doesn't say what's in that store. I know what the officemax store has in stock. Tomorrow I need to go that way to return some stuff so I was going to stop by best buy & check them out.

The Epson EX70 is very similar to the HC1600 you linked to & ~the same price & has the HDMI in. But it's $200 more then I wanted to spend on a viewing device. :/ That's at the point where I can get a decent 32" HDTV (which is big enough for us) & a BD player for that much.

When I started talking to the wife about projectors vs TV's a few weeks ago I honestly thought they would be ~the same price, or a little more for a comparable feature set (inputs, res, etc). Just because 640x480 projectors were crazy expensive years ago before HDTV's came out, I assumed the tech advanced ~as fast as & dropped in price ~as fast as TV's. Oopes.

EDIT: what's the advantage of a digital connection (HDMI/DVI) to a component (R/G/B) hookup? As far as I know the HDMI includes audio but that won't matter to me & that digital normally can have longer cable connections/less noise picked up, but that won't be an issue as the distance we're talking is ~10feet at most from source to projector. Do BD players need HDMI for 1080?

Check at Costco or Sam's Club for the best deals on HDTV's and Blu-ray players. The Vizio LCD TVs are ridiculously inexpensive and look amazingly good. (I've bought six of them for various purposes.)

BD players can use analog component but only up to 1080i, 1080p requires the use of HDMI and most all Blu-ray movies are encoded at 1080p. It wouldn't make any sense to go the distance to getting all 1080p capable equipment and then skimp a few bucks on an analog component cable and limit yourself to 1080i. There is a discernable visual difference between HDMI and analog component.

This is similar to that old question friends ask: "which camera should I buy?". The first response has to be: "for what purpose?". So, what are you wanting the outcome to be? Define the viewing conditions. Image size, projection distance, room lighting, purpose (casual or "serious" viewing), image quality. Blu-Ray has been mentioned; this is a 1920 x 1080 format. If the room will not be dark, then you will be better suited by a TV. Forget all those ads showing people watching soccer in a sun lit room. If you want "cinema quality" you'll be interested in achievable contrast ratio and image brightness as well as resolution. Going for cheap rather than quality will have the same outcome as buying a cheap camera -- early replacement.

That Engadget article is pretty old. Laser-based "pico" projectors (about the size of an iPod) are just now hitting the market. This one is the most promising:

http://www.microvision.com/showwx/

They aren't HD yet, but that can't be far behind.

Check at Costco or Sam's Club for the best deals on HDTV's and Blu-ray players.

I can get the same 32" HDTV's @ BJ's for $100 less then at best buy/walmart/etc. Already checked that out (same brand & what not). BD players ~the same @ bj's. I think walmart has the cheapest ($178 or so).

It wouldn't make any sense to go the distance to getting all 1080p capable equipment and then skimp a few bucks on an analog component cable and limit yourself to 1080i.

I definitely couldn't afford a 1080 native res projector, so the BEST projector I'd get is one that does 720. But I agree: what could would a BD player be with an SD res projector.

Define the viewing conditions. Image size, projection distance, room lighting, purpose (casual or "serious" viewing), image quality.

bedroom, size will be whatever the projection his the wall at (~12 feet from wall, have to adjust distance if necessary). Lighting will be dark to slight light.

I'm not inexperienced when it comes to handling/viewing projectors. They're used at work all the time in various light conditions (classrooms, auds, gyms). i've used them to project my Wii twice from ~20 to 50 feet away (hehehe) on a screen, used them to play DVD's (my parents, over the summer, showed movies in their lawn with their DVD player & my mom's projector, on a ~15 foot wide screen they made), had some setup @ work to display stuff @ the christmas show from ~50 feet away. All that was done with either analog video connections or the VGA connector. Most of the time it looks great (christmas show realy needed a better projector: they were using a ~$500 projector for that & it wasn't bright enough)

The EX70 or it's clone the Home Cinema 700 wouldn't be a bad choice for the money.

Here is a short discussion about it.

The Sharp XR-32X would be a good choice despite it being Native 4:3. Sufficiently bright enough with decent video contrast ratio and interface choices. It is around $700. It, like most 4:3 projectors will also display 16:9 content.

The Optoma EP721 is also a good projector for exactly your price range. Costco has it for $549

Brightness and contrast ratio vary greatly when the projector is optimized for video, ie: greatly reduced. I discuss this further here.

Although discontinued, many still have the Sharp DT-510 which is native 16:9 and 720p. But is is also $700.

The Optoma HD-65 is another really good 720p projector for around $799.

In terms of digital inputs such as DVI and HDMI being necessary, thanks to CSS, the predecessor to the AACS used on Blu-ray and HD DVD, output of protected content at higher than 480p is restricted to protected digital outputs (DVI and HDMI w/ HDCP). Otherwise they could output standard DVDs upconverted via analog, but they won't. In other words, another corporate screwing "to protect you" as these corporate cretins put it. So you need a digital input on the projector even for an upconverting standard DVD player.

The need for 1080 (p or i) isn't important despite Blu-Ray movies being native 1080p. It doesn't work that way visually. The supposed need for it is buried in tech specs that don't translate into anything visual much like the theoretical "Blu-Ray has better tech specs than HD DVD does therefore it looks better" nonsense did.

For today's Home Theater, a well reviewed 720p projector will give you everything you are looking for visually, but you may have to go a hundred dollars more.

I find that my projector serves me well to demo my videos as well as an HT projector. That is actually why I bought it. It is native 4:3 and essentially a $2200 business projector that will show my videos in an auditorium with ease. It has a DVI-D input.

You can save a lot of money on a good screen by building it yourself. I have an 80 inch 4:3 screen that I built for under $40. It looks great.

I also built a 120 inch 16:9 screen for a little over $100 that looks even better.

Both are fixed screens that I hang up and take down. Let me know if you need help building one.

John

Quite frankly, I'm not sure it's worth the hassle of a projector when large HD TVs are reasonably priced. Projector speakers are generally lousy, so the TV may give you an advantage there as well.

For a projector of any lumen rating, ability to control room lighting is critical. I suspect you won't always want to draw shades, etc., if you only want to catch a few minutes of news.

As far as your kids destroying a previous TV, you may want to try the old Bill Cosby line on them: "I brought you into this world... and I can take you out"

I have got an Optoma HD72 and it is an awesome projector. If you can get a previous model or even this one, I would recommend it. Personally, I think DLP produces fantastic images.

Just remember, projectors are not the sort of thing you leave on all day. Bulbs are expensive. Look at the price of replacement bulbs before buying any projector.

John,

Re your 120 inch homebuilt screen - details? Is the covering seamless?

Thanks,
Ralph

I have got an Optoma HD72 and it is an awesome projector. If you can get a previous model or even this one, I would recommend it. Personally, I think DLP produces fantastic images.

Just remember, projectors are not the sort of thing you leave on all day. Bulbs are expensive. Look at the price of replacement bulbs before buying any projector.
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That model is discontinued. And while available refurbished (e mo warranty) and used the very thing you mentioned ($400 replacement bulbs) should turn anyone away from either refurbs or used projectors.

John

TV viewing isn't an issue: we don't have an antenna up, no receiver (advantage to TV with built in tuner though) & I'm never going to buy a dish for TV. And we actually can control the room light pretty well: room/windows are on the north side of the house & the sun never in the window, 100% reflected light from outside all day (quite nice actually).

Audio isn't an issue either: I was getting a smallish 5.1 system too.

I'll talk with the wife about it more projector vs TV. Perhaps we'll wait a few months but then we may not have the $$. I'm sure you all know how it goes. :D

John,

Re your 120 inch homebuilt screen - details? Is the covering seamless?

Thanks,
Ralph
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Yes. It is a 5 foot x 10 foot sheet of D354-60 Wilsonart "Designer White" melamine laminate (like Formica) on a wood and metal frame with 3 inch wide black velvet material around it for border. The black velvet absorbs any light overspill. It hangs from the ceiling because I have windows on the end of the room where it needs to go so I couldn't hang it on the wall.

The 80 inch screen is a sheet of Parkland Plastics Polywall vinyl sheet It is available from Do It Best Hardware and several others. Cost is around $15-20 for a 4 foot x 8 foot sheet. It can be cut and cemented to a sheet of Rigid Foamboard Insulation from Home Depot to make a nice lightweight hanging screen. Trim with black velvet border or temporarily use black hockey tape. You can also contact cement it to masonite or perfboard and attach it to a wall.

1/4" X 49" X 97" Do-able white vinyl panel is also good and is available in some Home Depot stores in the Western states.

Ideally, if you have the wall space in the right place, mounting it on the wall and leaving it there is a much better and easier to build option.

John

Despite a previous post, I'd avoid Circuit City like the plague.

Despite a previous post, I'd avoid Circuit City like the plague.
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All their stores are closing. Some stores were cutting the price of their remaining projectors in half or better. It wasn't a recommendation for Circuit City. Their poor customer service is why they went bankrupt. An outside liquidator is handling the clearance. Many of the stores have a place to test equipment before you leave the store as there are no returns.

John

There have been some local stories of people who bought equipment that they weren't allowed to inspect at the store, then after getting home, they found out something was broken. When they took it back to CC, they said it wasn't their problem and they wouldn't be getting a refund.

circuit city always was pretty lenient as far as i was concerned. maybe it's per store.

The home built screen sounds like something the wife would say "Nooooooooooooooo you're NOT making anything in our bedroom!" so I'd definitely go for that. :D

Just remember, projectors are not the sort of thing you leave on all day. Bulbs are expensive. Look at the price of replacement bulbs before buying any projector.

Yeah, I know. For some projectors I can get a new projector for the price of a new bulb. Advantage to a TV again, but you CAN replace the bulb, you can't replace the LCD screen of a HDTV (well, you can, for ~$50 less then the purchase price of the TV).

I watched a movie or two with my projector and screen that I use for work (showing photo montages/same day edits at weddings), and while the picture was decent, the noise of the projector was too annoying. It wasn't loud loud, but enough to bother me.