Projecters

[family man]

I recently bought a 43" Tosh RPT because I started reading the various threads here. I must say it really is superb!!

I have now started reading the various threads about projecters and had a few question:

What do you project onto, a lot of people are talking about 8ft pictures etc?? (which I must say appeals!!)

Do you just plug your DVD player into the projecter and off you go?

What is the picture quality actually like? How can it possibly be a good picture if its 8ft wide???

What do you need to spend to get one worth having? I know people have mentioned them for about £1200 - £1500, would you really get something decent for that?

I am starting to get worried because once I get an idea of a purchase in my head it haunts me until I get it..........

Please tell me their crap!! My wife would go up the wall if I bought her a projecter for her birthday 'happy birthday love, what.......you dont want a projecter. Well it would be a shame to waste it and the man at the shop said I could never take it back!!'.

Thanks!

[jester]

I have had a Sharp xcv20e projector now for two years and it was worth every penny, I project onto a home made screen (made out of two long dowells and a large piece of blackout material stretched between top and bottom).

I get a very nice picture from it at approx 7-8ft across. Whilst not the best available it is very very watchable and gives a real cinematic "feel".

I feed the svideo out from my Sony 1070 Amp into the back but you can use composite (svideo is better)

Cost
£1050 for the projector
£10 for the screen !

You will not regret buying one but get a demo first.

Hope this helps.

[Bobbler]

A friend of mine has a projector and I must say it makes watching a DVD awesome! He has a EIKI LC-SX3 which he picked up for a song. We just use his wall in the living room to project onto as he cant find a screen big enough for it (I think it throws an image up 10 foot in size apparently) in the right price range.

[LV426]

I have a Sony VW10HT (now superseded by the, I gather, much better, VW11HT). Although it costs more than the amounts you quote, IMHO it was worth every penny.

I use a very pale grey roller blind for the screen. It is mounted on a pelmet in front of a window and is therefore hidden when rolled up. It is 8 feet wide, and, viewed from about 12 feet way, the image quality is excellent; much better than you would expect from looking at a regular TV close up. At this distance, there is no visible structure to the image - no pixels, scan lines, 50hz flicker etc.

The projector is mounted on the ceiling about 12 feet away from the screen, although with LCD and DLP projectors, a coffee-table mounting is entirely feasible if that's what you prefer.

You use a single lens projector much like a slide projector. Connect up your video source, switch on, point, focus and go.

The signal from your sources (VHS, SVHS, DVD, etc etc) are routed to the projector via standard composite, S-Video or Component Video cables (listed in increasing order of quality).

This projector has no sound inputs or speakers - use an AV amp to make the noise.