I'm in the process of buying a house that has the basement finished with a home theater in it. We tried to negotiate also buying all their equipment which is installed but they were charging WAY too much, so I'm gonna need to get a new projector, screen, surround sound, etc.
I've never looked into HD projectors for TV before, but based off of my quick research, why aren't more people using them? Seems like the only downside is you need to have the room very dark (in my case the home theater is in the finished basement with no windows so I'm good there). But even if it isn't in the basement, wouldn't it make sense for more people to be using them as their main TV and just using dark window treatments to cut down on natural light while watching? From a cost/screen size perspective it seems like a no brainer to me.
Is there anything I'm missing? Again, I'm completely ignorant on this and just checked a couple articles out on pros and cons.
1. "RE: Home Theater Projectors" In response to Reply # 0
A good place to research is AVSForum.com
If you have light controlled environment the only downside I can see is having to replace the projector bulb after a while. They can be spendy. I bought a cheap LED 720p projector about 3 years ago. Supposed to have a 10,000 hour lifespan. Can't wait to upgrade to a nice 1080p projector in the near future.
3. "RE: Home Theater Projectors" In response to Reply # 0
I have a 110" screen innovations black diamond screen and Sony hw55es projector as my main TV. It's incredible. Just have black out blinds. But everything is more than watchable even with the blinds up. It looks incredible when it's dark though.
There was a time about 6 years ago I was doing research every day on getting a projector. Might have even made a few posts here. Never got around to pulling the trigger unfortnately. But seeing one at a friends house made me realize that I didn't have to sacrifice video quality for size like you have to with some TV's. From what I've seen, when you get to 65" and up there aren't many models that look very good. You're essentially paying for size.
Now I'm not saying these projectors at 100"+ will beat an LG LED at 55" on picture quality, but it can get close. And in some cases for the same price. There's an Optoma HD projector that's $1K that I've been following around in forums that's getting favorable reviews. That coupled with a solid screen ($500) and you have a great start to a home theater.
See, now I'm back looking again. Hopefully I pull the trigger.
10. "Update: I'm mad I waited this long to do this." In response to Reply # 0 Wed Nov-11-15 10:12 AM by soulfunk
I did my research on thewirecutter.com.
Went with the BenQ W1070 projector. (Actually started out with an Epson HC2030 but it started showing red lines after the first week so I swapped it for the BenQ.)
The screen is a Silver Ticket 100 inch fixed frame. Way easier to put together and mount than I thought.
For audio I'm running a Bose Acoustimass speaker system because the previous owners already have the wiring in place for it. Powered by a Denon AVR-S510BT receiver.
Here's the theater seats. My original plan was to get four with a couple rows of two seats, but I realized I would need a platform for the second row which would make the space less flexible in terms of moving the seats around if we are entertaining in the basement. So I have two now. I'll probably get one more and with them on furniture sliders they should be easy to move around.
And in the back of the room I put a couple 50 inch LGs on the wall. One duplicates what is on the projector, and the other has a separate Apple TV and cable connect:
13. "thanks for the update" In response to Reply # 10
that's a real nice looking basement. that bar is huge. I'm definitely looking into a projector as soon as I buy a house. I'm starting to look at houses and always think about the theater room. Real estate prices in the SF bay area be crazy though!
It's a short throw, HD projector. Great image and you can project bigger sizes from short distances. I have over 100" projected from my coffee table around 4 feet away from the wall. I love this thing.
******************************************** "If you think you're too small to make a difference, try sleeping in a closed room with a mosquito."
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