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Projector recommendations

Junglist Paja

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Hey guy's I'm thinking of getting a projector under $1,000 (1080p/4K)

any recommendations?
 

Gaith

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A subject near and dear to my heart! I'm very satisfied with my Epson Home Cinema 2040 1080p 3D 3LCD Home Theater Projector - I first tried out a DLP one, but got distracted by its subtle yet unmistakable "color wheel" rainbow streaks, which LCD projectors are free of for arcane technical reasons. My projector isn't 4K (which I think is mainly a scam - there might be a slight quality difference, but not anywhere near enough to justify the massive price markups), and the image it throws onto a 100-inch screen from ten feet or so is spectacular. I know that there are much cheaper projectors on the market, and I bought mine years ago, but I can't speak to their quality, as I'm no expert. Hope that helps somewhat...
 

Dr. Chim Richalds

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Gaith said:
A subject near and dear to my heart! I'm very satisfied with my Epson Home Cinema 2040 1080p 3D 3LCD Home Theater Projector - I first tried out a DLP one, but got distracted by its subtle yet unmistakable "color wheel" rainbow streaks, which LCD projectors are free of for arcane technical reasons. My projector isn't 4K (which I think is mainly a scam - there might be a slight quality difference, but not anywhere near enough to justify the massive price markups), and the image it throws onto a 100-inch screen from ten feet or so is spectacular. I know that there are much cheaper projectors on the market, and I bought mine years ago, but I can't speak to their quality, as I'm no expert. Hope that helps somewhat...

How's the 3D on it? 

I'm also a few months away from my first projector purchase and had been considering throwing out a few more bucks ($1500?) for the upcoming BenQ HT3550 which is getting some very good early praise (it's 4k-ish and 3D but is DLP).  I have no idea if I'm rainbow sensitive or not, but reportedly the DLP wheels are starting to improve a lot in terms of speed to the point of minimizing or eliminating rainbow (or so I've read).  My main deal on the 4K is just having it accept 4K signals to "future proof" a little.
 

lapis molari

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Look at Projector Central, they have a great search feature to help narrow down which projector's meet your needs.
One tool of theirs that I found particularly helpful is the "throw calculator": many projectors under $1,000 don't have a powerful zoom, so it's important to buy one that fits your needs for distance-to-screen and projection-size.
 

Possessed

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I have a cheap (around $250) CiBest projector.  (Off market Chinese brand) It is actual native 1080P and it looks pretty great.   BUT.  It only looks great because I put in a fuck ton of effort to make it look great.  There is no zoom,  no lens throwing and the focus/keystone are both extremely touchy. So I had to mount it to the ceiling in THE perfect spot relative to the screen.  This literally involved tearing my ceiling apart (it was paneled so that's not as big of a deal as it might sound but it was still a pain in the ass) and installing extra custom studs to mount it to and then putting the ceiling back together. The end result was great for a bargain,  but I was lucky enough to have a paneled/tiled ceiling. If you aren't willing to do all this,  which in some rooms/setups would be near impossible,  you're gonna wanna she'll out the extra cash for an expensive name brand with a good zoom and if necessary a software keystone, or even better,  lens throwing.
 

Gaith

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Dr. Chim Richalds said:
How's the 3D on it?

Haven't tried it. I tried coming up with a list of 3D Blus I might want to buy that would justify the cost and hassle of getting a 3D Blu player and cords, and, given the rarity with which I rewatch movies in the first place, it wasn't worth it. Ultimately, while 3D can be awesome for a few minutes at a time, Roger Ebert was right when he wrote that all movies are 3D, in that our brains make them so.


lapis molari said:
Look at Projector Central, they have a great search feature to help narrow down which projector's meet your needs.
One tool of theirs that I found particularly helpful is the "throw calculator": many projectors under $1,000 don't have a powerful zoom, so it's important to buy one that fits your needs for distance-to-screen and projection-size.

Indeed. Given that my bedroom isn't too large, my Epson projector actually verges on throwing too large a minimum picture. Also, my walls are so close together that with particularly bright shots, I can see the texture of the screen fabric, and that's distracting; an extra 4-5 feet of distance (with the same size screen) would fix this and make for a more seamless experience. But, when I can stream HD movies from throughout cinema history on a 100" screen in my own room, I'm not going to complain. :p
 

Junglist Paja

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BTW, Harmy has a pretty sweet setup actually.
29594487_10214736024981560_8759497068180315220_n.jpg
 

Dr. Chim Richalds

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Gaith said:
A subject near and dear to my heart! I'm very satisfied with my Epson Home Cinema 2040 1080p 3D 3LCD Home Theater Projector - I first tried out a DLP one, but got distracted by its subtle yet unmistakable "color wheel" rainbow streaks, which LCD projectors are free of for arcane technical reasons. My projector isn't 4K (which I think is mainly a scam - there might be a slight quality difference, but not anywhere near enough to justify the massive price markups), and the image it throws onto a 100-inch screen from ten feet or so is spectacular. I know that there are much cheaper projectors on the market, and I bought mine years ago, but I can't speak to their quality, as I'm no expert. Hope that helps somewhat...

Just wanted to give Gaith a big shout out... This post directed me towards an Epson projector and I couldn't be happier with it.
For the record, if someone is looking for one, we bought the Epson 5040ub via the Epson clearance center. Took a few returns but got a good one and it looks wonderful. (Great price too considering what its msrp is.)

Thanks for the recommendation Gaith!
 

Possessed

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I'm now using a Yaber 1080p led projector. It's cheap and looks great and has digital keystone and zoom.

Btw, if you've got a light controlled room with no windows that you can get dark whenever you want I recommend led over LCD for several reasons. One, predictably the bulbs last muuuuuuch longer. But more importantly in my experience the black levels are much.. blacker in my experience. Actually black. The lcds I've tried, including an Epson that i forget the model of but was recommended, never had good blacks, they always looked grey to me and being used to the dark blacks of an led I couldn't stand it. But i also have the perfect room for an led. The downside to them is the room has to actually be dark for it to look good, so if you're room isn't light controlled and you don't mind greyish black levels I could see LCD working out better.

I really recommend the Yaber one though, I don't think they have more than one 1080p model. It's also good for gaming, Latency is very fair. I can play retro nes and snes games without feeling any.
 

Gaith

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Dr. Chim Richalds said:
Thanks for the recommendation Gaith!

My pleasure! Glad you're happy with your result. Projectors = magic! :D
 

Adabisi

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Gaith said:
A subject near and dear to my heart! I'm very satisfied with my Epson Home Cinema 2040 1080p 3D 3LCD Home Theater Projector - I first tried out a DLP one, but got distracted by its subtle yet unmistakable "color wheel" rainbow streaks, which LCD projectors are free of for arcane technical reasons. My projector isn't 4K (which I think is mainly a scam - there might be a slight quality difference, but not anywhere near enough to justify the massive price markups), and the image it throws onto a 100-inch screen from ten feet or so is spectacular. I know that there are much cheaper projectors on the market, and I bought mine years ago, but I can't speak to their quality, as I'm no expert. Hope that helps somewhat...

I have almost the exact same setup - Epson 2030 to a 120" screen - and I'm very happy with it.
 
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