Page 1 of Cheap DLP Projectors

Hi all

Does anyone have any info on where I can acquire a cheap DLP projector (or an LCD one if the quality is good)?

endamc

Quote:
Does anyone have any info on where I can acquire a cheap DLP projector (or an LCD one if the quality is good)?


You need to decide what you want it for, Home Cinema or presentations.

LCD still has the edge for presentation work, but DLP outstrips it for home cinema applications.

Average I`d say just now for a half decent DLP projector is about £1300 upwards, and there`s a nice HP one at £999+VAT, but whats putting me off is the 2000 hours lamp life....

Jimbo : oÞ
(DLP expert, btw <grin>)

Going with the magazines the best home use buy at present is the Hitatch Illumina PJTX-10.

Recommended price is 1,100 quid, but if you shop around on the net, you can get it for just on the 900 pound range, that what I payed for mine.

The quality and definition is excellent at 4m distance and will give you an 8 foot by 5 foot picture ( 2.4M by 1.5M ), By putting it on CINEMA mode gives a great screen picture, but does sacrifice about 10% of the lamp life.

It has a very quiet cooling fan. With a quick cool down period of about a miniute before switch off.

Price for lamp at the moment is around 150 to 200 quid, lamp life is adequate as long as your using it for film use only, (not as a TV unless you have won the lottery and lamp life don`t matter).

I project my picture directly onto a wall, so no projector screen required.

Only thing I found about projector home cinema is that you need a decent quality DVD player as the picture quality produced is magnified by the big screen.

I ended up having to buy a decent JVC combo unit (DVD & 4 head Video player) to cut down on wiring and switching scarts, plus it gives sound output to a music system on both DVD & Video. A lot of combos dont do that for the video setting, just DVD only.

The projector itself only has a one watt mono speaker for conference use, not much good for 5.1 music.

Video is OK on the screen (some of you DVD fanatics cringing) but not quite as perfect as DVD, which is to be expected.

Hope that helps others to decide, as the above bottom of the range unit is a cheaper alternative to a Plasma TV at present, untill they come down in price and get BIGGER.

Plus you get the big movie right in your livingroom, pass the popcorn :D

Edit - PS forgot to mention the 3 year warrenty scam

Some companies will offer you the extended warrent for an additonal sum, from 200 to 500 quid extra. There are a few that give you the extra years for FREE, so watch out.

This item was edited on Wednesday, 31st March 2004, 01:07

Try the ThemeScene H30 (simaler to the well reviewed H56) £1200 or hang about for the ScreenPlay 4805 at about £1300 (tentative). The later should be a stormer.

All the best,

The 42%er.

Your optimistic eyes seem like paradise to someone like me.