Projector ideas

[thephatnessq3]

I'm planning on moving into a 1 bedroom apartment pretty soon and was thinking about getting a projector instead of having to get a 30"+ TV and have my current 19" Sony G400. The digital cable TV box would hook directly to the projector and the PC would use the DVI connection. This leaves the problem of seeing the desktop while watching TV. Maybe I can mount my Sony at an angle underneath a glasstop coffee table where the box would be. BTW, how much of a pain would it be to get PowerDVD to output to the DVI connection to the projector while still being able to use the desktop on the Sony?

I'd be playing DVDs, video files, and 3D games off of the PC. I don't do any video capturing so running everything through a HTPC setup isn't necessary. Plus if my computer ever crashes I can still watch TV. I'm willing to spend $1000-$1500 on a projector and maybe $200-300 on a screen if the wall doesn't do...the bragging rights of having a 70" screen is priceless. I've been reading about the InFocus X1 (http://members.shaw.ca/technut/x1faq/) and I've been playing around with the Dell 3200MP at work (now replaced by the 3300MP). I just want to avoid buying a separate TV/DVD player combo or watching from a crappy TV output signal. So have any of you done anything like this or have any suggestions? Thanks.

 

[truffle00]

The BenQ PB6100 is a projector similar to the X1 in that it retails for the same price and is DLP based; it has the same contrast ratio as the X1 but has a 3X color wheel as opposed to the 2X of the X1 (which will reduce rainbows) and is brighter than the X1 as well (1500 vs. 1000 lumens). The X1 technically has the better deinterlacer or scaler but most people seem to feel that the PB6100s is just about as good.

For somewhere in the $1300 region you could go with an Optoma H30. It is DLP-based as well, but has a 6-segment 4X color wheel which should be significantly better than either the PB6100 or the X1. I believe it's brightness is lower than the PB6100 but it's supposed to look great as well.

For under $1500 another great option would be a Panasonic PT-L300U or PT-AE300U (they are the same projector but with different finishes; one is marketed to business types whereas the other is for home usage...connectors and specs are exactly the same). This is an LCD projector with a 16:9 native aspect ratio. The upside to this is that the resolution is greater (960x540 vs 800x600 of the DLPs), but if you are viewing a 4:3 source the projector gives you a shrunken picture to fit in a 16:9 frame. 960x540 is also conveniently 1/4 the area of a 1080i/p picture, and so scaling from HD sources on this projector should be exceptionally good. The contrast ratio is lower than the DLP projector although in real-world usage the difference isn't as noticable as the specs might indicate. This projector also offers greater connection options (component video via RCA ports and I believe DVI as well). Finally, this projector is a very short throw projector and as a result you get a sizeable image even with a smaller throw distance.

These are just a few suggestions to get you started. Although I don't like recommending that people go to other forums, you might find that you'll be better served by going to the Home Theater Forums or the AVS Forums. Both of them just have MUCH more active projector threads; in fact, they even have separate projector forums.

 

[thephatnessq3]

Thanks Truffle! That's some good info. $1500 seems to be a good price point. I'll see how much I'll have left after putting down my down payment.

 

[Zepher]

When I was running only 2 PC's I had the dual outputs on my second PC hooked up to a 17" monitor and my projector.
With the ATI cards I have, when I maximize a movie, it stays on the screen it was on when maximized. The ATI card I used on that machine only had VGA outputs, but one with DVI should work the same.
Only problem I had was since my machines are kinda slow, when I use the machine at the same time I am playing a DVD, the picture will stutter a bit. I haven't had the opportunity to try this on a faster machine since most of my friends only have singe display systems.

One of my friends with duals and a fast machine is running an NVidia card and when he maximizes a screen, it stretches across both monitors, which I don't like. It's making it like one large wide monitor instead of a wide desktop with 2 monitors.
Here is a pic I took last year of the system running IE on both machines just showing the screen sizes,

and here is a test playing 3 video clips on my Internet machine,