Page 1 of Looking for a Projector for under £1000

Hello,

I am looking to buy a projector and screen and have a budget of up to £1000, i would prefer to pay a bit less if possible.

My current setup is a Pioneer PDP-508XD plasma and i would like something as impressive with good blacks and excellent picture quality.

I don`t know much about projectors.....

Can i get a good projector within this price range?

Cheers.

This item was edited on Sunday, 5th December 2010, 18:25

With careful shopping, I reckon you could get a decent HD one for that price. Personally I prefer DLP to LCD.


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The Epson TW3200 sounds like a decent projector but i have never seen a decent movie projector running, only seen crappy projectors that my previous work place used to use.

It`s LCD though, personally I prefer the look from DLP. That said LCD`s aren`t anywhere as horrific as they used to be. In fact I`m sure I saw an Epson HD projector a few years ago that was very impressive, however I couldn`t tell you how much heat it kicked out.

I think due to the fact LCDs are less light efficient than DLPs, they tend to run hotter.

I`d recommend seeing it before you buy it.


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DLP tend to give better colour definition than their LCD counterparts, or at least they did a couple of years back when I was into them.
Depends on the chip you get though as the low end DLP were nowhere near as good as the top end, but the top end were in the 5 grand-ish area.

You could get a damned good HD DLP for a grand back then, think mostly Optoma IIRC.
Another thing to take into consideration is what you can personally see. I can see horzontal lines on a LCD unit and could pick up most of the pixels on it, but it didn`t detract too much from the experience.
DLP on the other hand I could see what is referred to as the "Rainbow Effect"(which is also mostly incorrectly referred to being only on the early generation chipsets, I could see it occasionally on scene changes from dark to light...not always, just occasional) which is like everything on the screen suddenly having a multicoloured aura for a millisecond or so... again, didn`t detract from the experience one little bit.

I`ve always preferred DLP, always will. If I had the cash I`d have a DLP projector in a heartbeat.
Probably the main point between both now will be price, as if it`s still the same LCD were generally cheaper for similar spec than DLP counterparts but if you`re spending up to a Grand I don`t think that`s going to be a consideration as both technologies have excellent unit in that price range.

Probably worth dropping by a Sevenoaks to get a demo on both that might help make your mind up.

Jimbo : oÞ

"Making Teenagers depressed is like shooting fish inna barrel"

Thanks for the info!

I`ve got an Epson TW-3200. It`s superb and was £1000 on the dot.

Part of the reason for wanting LCD was the colour fringing effect which I could see when I demo`d a couple of DLP projectors. I`m no expert but apparently this can be an issue with DLPs.

The room I`m using it can be pretty much sealed off from all light, so getting it dark enough to get good contrast isn`t a problem.

As for a screen, I haven`t got the room to set up a permanent arrangement, so we have a portable screen that rolls up from the floor (or actually from my TV stand, just in front of my TV, to avoid blocking the centre speaker). It was £80 from Richer Sounds and is 80 inches on the diagonal - plenty big enough for my viewing distance.


What I`m listening to...

Also...not wanting to draw away users of this site, but there`s a very decent amount of info on projectors on avforums.com. I certainly found it useful when making my choice.


What I`m listening to...

I had a look in AV forums about this projector and people seem to be very impressed with the picture quality but just as i was about to add the projector to my cart, i had another quick look in the forum and someone was saying the black and overall picture quality was average looking.

I am sure the projector is not set up properly but i am waiting for his response after the advice he got to set it up before i buy.

What do you think of the black levels?

Honestly Skirpy, before you part with that kind of money on a projector go and look at them in operation.
If you have a Sevenoaks nearby they have demo rooms set up that usually have a couple of different models on the go to check.

And let us all know what you end up with (ya lucky git :p lol)

Jimbo : oÞ

"Making Teenagers depressed is like shooting fish inna barrel"