|
God you guys are really tempting me to replace my Infocus X1 with a 720P projector. I'm going to hold out though. If I can make it to summertime 1080p will be $1500 and before xmas next year it may hit the magic $1000 mark.
|
#
¿
Feb 7, 2008 21:44
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 29, 2024 03:17 |
|
|
King Hotpants posted:Jumping from an InFocus X1 to even a low end 720p projector would drop your loving jaw, and you would no longer care about 1080p. HA! I know man. I have a few friends with dedicated theaters and 720P projectors and they look amazing. I should really stop being a cheapass since I have a dedicated room with a wet bar, nice audio equipment and seating. The X1 is like a dinosaur chillin in the back of the room. Once I get that tax return back it is going to be extremely difficult not to drop 800 bucks on a new projector. One thing I have a problem with is throw distance. Where I have my mount, it's like 17 feet from lens to screen. The spot I eventually want to mount the projector will be 19 feet from lens to screen. My screen is only 120" and it seems like a lot of newer projectors can't display that small of an image at 19 feet throw.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 7, 2008 22:32
|
|
|
Just thought I'd point out that the Optoma HD70 is $649 after $200 rebate at projectorpeople.com. I would grab one in an instant but its throw distance won't work for my setup. That's a pretty drat nice projector for $650. I think I've all but decided to upgrade to the Mitsubishi HC1500. Anyone currently running the HC1500? What are you thoughts? From what I hear it is extremely bright so it works well in moderately lit rooms. That would be nice since I have to have it completely dark for my X1. I'd like to be able to have the light over my bar on while watching TV on the PJ.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 18, 2008 19:34
|
|
|
King Hotpants posted:If you watch one movie a day, every day, it'll take somewhere in the neighborhood of four years for your projector's 3000 hour lamp to die. During that time many people replace their projector anyhow. Your analogy kinda sucks. Yeah. I always chuckle a bit when people complain that they'll need to replace their projector bulb after 3000 hours as a reason to go with a plasma or LCD. It's kind of like worrying about your computers video card wearing out after 10 years.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 21, 2008 19:45
|
|
|
I built one using Black out cloth (BOC). You can buy blackout cloth at a fabric store in rolls large enough to make a 96" screen or you can buy larger rolls from a lot of people online. I went with a 125" screen built on 1x3's for the frame. It turned out very well and for the money it's hard to beat the picture quality. I used a plan very similar to this one: http://members.shaw.ca/danhanson/Theater/screen/screenproject.htm I've also used a painted wall in the past. I used Behr Silverscreen paint rolled on and it was decent but not great. The problem with the painting solutions is that your wall has to have no blemishes and you have to be VERY good at painting if you want to roll it on. If you have a sprayer it makes it easier. There are much better solutions than straight Behr Silverscreen. You can read for days on AVSforums about different mixes. At the end of the day, though, for price to performance and ease of installation, the BOC method beats painting in my opinion. On a different note, I pulled the trigger on the Mitsubishi HC1500 today. I'll post a report once I get it hooked up and have a chance to use it.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 22, 2008 18:13
|
|
|
I received my Mitsubishi HC1500 today. First impressions are HOLY poo poo WHAT HAVE I BEEN WAITING FOR?  The picture is just lightyears ahead of the Infocus X1. I mean I knew it would be quite a lot better but it is AMAZING. I am amazed at how bright it is as well. I can have my main fluorescent overhead lighting on in the room and the picture is still very good...definitely watchable. I need to finish painting the room so I can get my screen put together this weekend. I can't imagine how great the picture will be on a decent screen as opposed to a painted wall. For $800, this thing is amazing. My Berkline 090's get delivered Monday night. I'm pretty pumped. I'll get some pictures up when everything is in order or close to... Thanks to all in this thread for giving me the nudge I needed to go to a true HD projector. Anyone using an X1, honestly....consider upgrading to one of the lower priced 720p's. The difference is night and day.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 29, 2008 03:02
|
|
|
luma posted:Any more detailed thoughts on screen material? I'm looking at an AX200U in a relatively small room (10'x13'). The room will have pretty good light control except from some glass block on the ceiling allowing in a little light from above (long story). The wall I'm projecting against is the 10' wall, but as I can't really get to far back from it I want to keep the screen 8' or less. I've looked at pre-built screens and decided I'm too much of a cheap-rear end to spend $500+ on a screen. The wall that the screen will be mounted on it brick so painting will require drywalling which eats away from the cost benefit. I've used the Parkland stuff from Home Depot at my old house. I painted using Behr Silverscreen and it worked pretty well. You just have to make sure you get it painted very evenly. I'm currently using a painted wall and it's about the same as the parkland/paint. I'm building a BOC screen this weekend so I can let you know how that looks. As for the HC4900...$1400 after $500 mail in rebate. I think the rebate expires at the end of February so if you're going to pull the trigger, do it quickly. Edit: Looking at AVS today, it sounds like Mitsubishi extended the $500 rebate on the HC4900 through the end of March. Scrapez fucked around with this message at 21:22 on Feb 29, 2008 |
|
#
¿
Feb 29, 2008 05:52
|
|
|
GoonsInDepth posted:Can any of you goons tell me what's a better deal? I just got the Mitsubishi HC1500 and I am very impressed with it. I've not compared it to either of the other projectors you list, though. It is available for $800 from projectorpeople. It's a 720p, DLP, 1600 lumens. Like I said, I couldn't be happier with it so far. I'm projecting on a homemade 135" blackout cloth screen and it looks very very good.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 9, 2008 08:28
|
|
|
sigma 6 posted:EDIT: This thread at AVS gives you more information than you'd ever want on a DIY painted screen: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=929997 I used a painted screen with my Infocus X1 for awhile and it did the job fairly well. I just used straight Behr SilverScreen paint rolled on. There are a lot of different mixtures that people have perfected with Behr Ultra Pure White as a base and you can read about all of them on AVS. The biggest key to a painted screen is prepping the area well so that it is nice and smooth and being very patient and careful when painting the screen so you get it painted perfectly evenly. Even the slightest smudge or run will show up extremely well when you turn your projector on. Having said that, your best bet may be to build a blackout cloth (BOC) screen. You can get BOC in 54" wide rolls for like $5 a yard at your local fabric store. You build a frame out of 1x3's and stretch the BOC and staple it to the frame. I'm currently running a BOC screen with my HC1500 and it looks very nice. It can also be painted if you decide you want to. From my experience, I found that building the frame and stretching the BOC screen was much easier and less tedious than rolling on a painted screen. There are other options too, such as, hardboard which can be found at Home Depot, etc, etc.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 18, 2008 22:01
|
|
|
3363 posted:Got a question, I have a 4 year old HP mp3135 DLP projector. It's 1800 ANSI Lumens with a Contrast Ratio of 2000:1. I haven't bothered to measure anything but my throw distance is probably a little too long and my screen is probably a little too large because the picture is somewhat dim. It's watchable and playable, but it's no movie theatre. I'm out of the loop here, but how much better of a projector can I get for $1,000-$1,500? The HC1500 being talked about in this thread has pretty much the same specs. What is your throw distance? I've got my HC1500 at just under 19' and the picture is very bright. I can run it on low lamp mode and it still looks very good.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 30, 2008 19:37
|
|
|
MrEnigma posted:I have a HC1500 running just under 17' throw (from lens to projector), it's insanely bright for me...granted during the day it still isnt' good to look as good but it's definitely usable. Yeah my screen is currently 130". It's too big for the room as my seating is only 12 feet away. I need to switch out my lighting to be able to move my projector closer and ceiling mount it. I plan on going to 110" which I think will be perfect size for the room. I guess I should add that my setup is in the basement in a room with no windows so I have complete light control so that helps with brightness. I'm projecting onto a blackout cloth screen. I believe blackout cloth has around a 1.0 gain.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 31, 2008 16:04
|
|
|
sigma 6 posted:VVVVV HAHHAHA! Now it makes a lot more sense. Definitely not appropriate as giant curtains then. VVVVV Oh but it is actually. it is used as backing to "blackout light" with another material sewn on the front or just hung in front of it as the curtains. I was going to wait and take pics of my entire setup when it is completed but here are a couple of the screen. Please ignore the mess that is my setup at the moment.  Here is the blank screen.  Here is a screen capture. Keep in mind that my projector has not been calibrated and I took this while resting the camera on my bar so it's not the greatest. I don't know if these help you but it really does look very good. If you want to make a 110" or smaller screen, blackout cloth is available in 54" wide sections sold by the yard. I think it's like 6 bucks a yard. Combine that with staple gun, staples, 1x3's and you could make a screen for under 50 bucks. Also, if the BOC is too white and washing out your blacks, it can be painted. Hope this helps.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 1, 2008 04:56
|
|
|
King Hotpants posted:"Too dark to read" sounds fine to me. Agreed. Also, that screen you reference has a gain of 1.8 which is quite bright so it should help too. How many windows are in the room and how large are they?
|
|
#
¿
Apr 11, 2008 15:56
|
|
|
King Hotpants posted:It sounds like your 4805 has a problem. It's not all projectors. You would probably see better results even with a different 4805. I agree. I have an Infocus X1 (4800) which I believe uses the same bulb as the 4805 and at last check it had approx. 1500 hours on it and was still going strong. One thing that can really reduce bulb life is if you don't clean the filter and it gets too hot. Not sure if that could be your problem.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 7, 2008 17:55
|
|
|
TRex EaterofCars posted:At 230 hours, though? The screens were really clean. Well only if you had an extremely dirty room and to be honest, the thermal protection would most likely shut it down before it burnt the bulb up. I had some drywall work done in my last house and the projector didn't get sealed up well enough and it went into shutdown (red flashing light) once the filter got caked with dust. It sounds like you just got a complete lemon and that's unfortunate. My X1 was really a rock for the time that I used it.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 7, 2008 22:06
|
|
|
Malloci posted:My biggest complaint is that even at night time in a dark room, the picture quality is still really dark. What looks just fine playing on my laptop is shadowy when being projected on to my wall. I am asking if this is either A) my lack of screen and poor wall quality, or B) the projector and also bad wall quality. Likely a bit of both. Even a white surface, as opposed to your current wallpaper, will brighten the image significantly. You could hang a white sheet to do some comparison testing. It could also be that the projector bulb is wearing out. How many hours are on the bulb? Also, what is your throw distance currently? The longer your throw distance the dimmer the picture.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 12, 2008 16:15
|
|
|
Khatib posted:Projectors + light Others can probably speak to this as well but in my experience with a projector as bright as the HC1500, the only big problems are light sources shining directly onto the screen. For instance, if you had a window or door directly behind the projector it would be a problem. I can tell you that with the HC1500 you do not need to have it close to pitch dark. I don't have any windows in my theater room but I do have a fluorescent light that is between the projector and the screen. I can have this light on and still see the picture pretty well. Don't get me wrong, it isn't as good as like an LCD but it is more than watchable. If you had blinds on the windows I think you would be fine to block direct sunlight coming in. How many windows are there in this place? Edit: As for your screen material question, I'm using blackout cloth stretched over a 1x4 frame I made. Cost me about $100 and it looks pretty good at 136".
|
|
#
¿
Aug 21, 2008 22:22
|
|
|
TRex EaterofCars posted:So I've got discounts via work on projectors and the HC1600 is cheaper than the HC1500 even though it appears identical except for lamp output. Also, according to the ERP system, the HC1500 is being discontinued. I believe the HC1600 has a 5 segment color wheel instead of the 7 segment color wheel that the HC1500 has. Other than that, I'm not sure of the differences. I do know that the HC1500 is preferred.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 15, 2008 19:54
|
|
|
Projector People posted:Mitsubishi HC1600 versus HC1500 I would be weary of rainbows on the HC1600 with the 2x color wheel.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 15, 2008 21:43
|
|
|
I experimented with the Poly-wall for a bit. I found that with it stock it was too white which resulted in a lot of hot spotting. I ended up painting mine with one of the paint combinations from avs and it came out very nicely. I'd say if you want something "out of the box" that you won't have to paint, blackout cloth is the way to go. Even plain, it results in a pretty good picture and doesn't have the hotspotting that the doable/parklands does. Just my opinion of course.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 24, 2009 07:08
|
|
|
brad industry posted:I have a small (barely bigger than a queen bed) room that is pitch black, no windows. All I want to do is watch xvid files using XBMC. I want to spend as little as possible, I don't particularly care about having a great picture considering the source material, I just don't like watching movies on my laptop. I was going to get someone's old TV off craigslist but figured I would be willing to spend a little more to not have a TV taking up space. Something like an Infocus X1, 4800 or 4805 or an Epson Powerlite S1 or Sanyo PLV-Z1. Those are all older models that are similar. Panasonic also had one in the mix that was a bit nicer, maybe the ax200 or something? I have experience with the Infocus X1 and it does the job pretty well for being a business projector. It's 800x600 resolution and you can flash it with the 4800 firmware so it acts more like a theater projector. I would check some of those older models on projectorcentral.com to see how large of a picture they'll produce at your throw distance. You aren't going to want a 100" picture in your bedroom.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 20, 2009 15:51
|
|
|
CrusaderSean posted:I just got a optoma hd65. It's pretty sweet except I can see some rainbow effects. Apparently this is due to the colorwheel being slower... is this one of those things where if you're sensitive then you're just gonna see it? It doesn't bother me too much but I can spot it pretty regularly. For the most part, yes. I've never had a problem with rainbow effect. Even back with my Infocus X1 where a whole lot of people had issues. I don't know of any way to reduce the effect.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 6, 2009 05:26
|
|
|
King Hotpants posted:Save the extra $200 and get a real home theater projector. You're already close, just hold out a little longer. The payoff is worth it. Couldn't agree more with this. If you get something less than 720p, you'll be wanting to upgrade in a few months and your current projector won't be worth much of anything.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 13, 2009 21:14
|
|
|
I guess I've never understood the whole noise rating thing. I mean maybe I just listen to the volume far too loudly but I can't hear my projector (HC1500) when watching a movie and I think it is loud as hell compared to most. It seems like that would be the last little detail I would look at and it would only sway me if every other specification were identical between two projectors I was comparing.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 8, 2009 10:40
|
|
|
Yeah...that's a good point. My theater is in my basement and it stays nice and cool down there even in the middle of summer. I hadn't thought of that angle, though.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 9, 2009 16:20
|
|
|
greasyhands posted:Is the HC1500 still a good option if I can get it around $500 with a low time bulb? I can't tell you how it stacks up to other projectors on the used market for value. I do have an HC1500 in my theater and I have been very pleased with mine. I've not had any problems with it, it is very bright and the picture is really good. I'm projecting on a 135" blackout cloth screen and it looks very good with both TV and movies.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 12, 2009 00:49
|
|
|
Under My Voodoo posted:So I've been reading this thread for awhile and I've been trying to figure out the perfect projector in my price range.. I'm a college student so I was hoping to grab something for 800 or less. I think it really comes down to how big of a screen you want. The difference between a 40" and a 120" screen is mindblowing. If you have the space and light control for a projector, I would go that route. That is just my personal opinion.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 16, 2009 17:32
|
|
|
John Dough posted:I'm thinking of buying a projector, mainly for movies. I want to hook it up to my PC, since that's what I already use to watch everything on its 22" screen. However, I think my video card does not have a HDMI port. I looked online and I can buy a 10m DVI-HDMI cable on Amazon for about 20 euros. Will there be any loss of image quality if I go this route? DVI works great for my monitor, but I have zero experience with projectors. The loss should be negligible. I ran an HDMI->DVI converter to my upstairs TV and it looked good.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 16, 2009 16:22
|
|
|
Farmer Crack-rear end posted:How do you guys feel about delivered projectors versus picking them up at a store? Is the packing usually satisfactory? Are there certain online vendors with poor reputations for packing? I've bought both of mine online with no issues. Packaging is what you would expect with any electronic device. To be honest, if you bought one from a local place, it probably got beat around just as much since it was shipped there, too. I got my last one from projectorpeople.com and it was a smooth transaction with no issues. I've never had any problems where I had to try to get warranty or anything so I can speak to that.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 30, 2009 23:44
|
|
|
Just wanted to post in here that Tiger Direct has the Optoma HD20 for $999 and you can get 15% cashback through Bing making it $850. No tax and free shipping. Pretty good price on a nice projector.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 29, 2009 21:25
|
|
|
MixMasterMalaria posted:In SW FL I saw one for 475 so it's not hopeless. If you're going to do blackout cloth, just make a simple frame out of 1x4's. They're cheap and when you stretch it tight like a canvas, you'll get a much better picture than if you just have it hanging loose.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 28, 2010 04:56
|
|
|
I don't know if this belongs here but it kind of relates. After 2265 hours, my Mitsubishi HC1500 needs a new bulb. It is rated for up to 3000 but I assume that rating is based on the low output mode. I must say this projector has been rock solid for me. Never a problem and the picture quality, while only 720p, is really drat good even with a nearly dead bulb. If you can pick one up cheap used, I wouldn't hesitate if it fits your needs. Probably the best $500 I've ever spent.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 26, 2010 16:14
|
|
|
Uziel posted:My family asked me to look at setting up a projector in their basement to replace their aging 60" RPTV that's about 10 years old. 94" would be about perfect for that seating distance. 96" is a more standard size screen so that would probably be an ideal size if you ended up buying a pre-fabbed screen. Obviously, it wouldn't matter if you made your own. I can't really give a good recommendation on a projector since I am not up on the latest and greatest.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 1, 2011 01:58
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 29, 2024 03:17 |
|
|
Zas posted:Echoing this question. I could get a used HD1500 for a little cheaper, but would that make any sense? I would no longer suggest the HC1500. Mine has developed color wheel whine and after doing some investigation, the problem is rampant. Seems to pop up after 1500 hours or so. Really unfortunate.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 27, 2011 22:30
|
|