Good Questions: To Project or To Not Project?

Amy from SF had this question for us:

Hey guys! My boyfriend and I have been debating whether or not to go the projection route for quite a while now. We've heard a high definition projection setup is pretty cheap these days, especially if we're looking to use it as our main movie watching setup - the bigger - the better! Still, we're a bit concerned about daytime TV watching, which seems sorta impractical if it's too big. What should we do? Buy both? But that costs too much! Please help us!

-Amy

Edit: Link fixed!

Hello Amy,

Well to start things off, we'd like you to differentiate for us your setup. Is it going to be a dedicated home theater (a separate room altogether) or a combination of a living room/family room that's used to watch movies on occasion?

If it's a family room, we suggest sticking to a smaller LCD HDTV set - 42 to 46-inches should be just about right. However, if you guys really want to go all out with the projector, make sure the room is somewhat "detached" from the main living space. We say "detached" because this way, you won't have a 100-inch screen consuming an entire wall in your room, right in the open for every one of your guests to see. To be frank, this look is ugly and you should avoid it at all costs.

Your other option could be mounting your TV and having a retractable screen that goes over it when you pull it down. This may be a little bit more expensive, but you'll be getting the best of both worlds. A great example can be found here. You can also turn it into a piece of art if you so wish, or keep it completely retracted until in use. You can see this pulled off quite well in Bert's setup featured last week.

Have any other suggestions for Amy? Let her know in the comments!

[Image: Xpeakers]

Comments (10)

Coming from a guy who used to use a Projector... they are practically useless during the day, but they are great for night time. There are some projectors on the market that will do a decent job of projecting during the day, but you will pay for them. You get what you pay for so if your expecting a bargin projector to do the day time job I suggest looking into a Plasma (I like Plasma much more than LCD; better colors, deeper blacks). You can shave some money from the budget to add to the projector by using "Blackout Cloth" for your screen. Just frame it and your good to go. You can get it from almost any fabric store. Its the stuff that goes behind curtains, however your max width of the screen is going to be 54" (less after stretching around a frame).

If you have the garage space you could always do a DIY job like this:

http://www.electronichouse.com/slideshow/category/5945/909

Hey, we can all dream right? Also, check out the DIY scene on projectors and screens. There is a lot out there and not a bad route to go if your trying to pinch pennies.

We've used a projector for a couple of years now & love it. This fits us just perfectly because:
-we don't watch anything during the day (nor do we wish we could)
-we primarily watch movies & its fantastic (no going back to smaller sizes now!)
-we don't have cable (save money there), but do use our laptop/projector to stream TV shows (hulu.com) or TED talks
-no TV to be the "focal point" of our living room or take up space
-we just use our wall (its whitish) and don't need a screen (although this leaves us with a blank wall right now...but we could have a piece of art that we remove when we use the projector). We haven't noticed the need for an actual screen, but it could be because our projector is pretty high res.
-extra fun for giant wii games!

@Amy: projectorcentral.com not only has great projector reviews they also have good walkthroughs of what you can expect with a projector. It's great learning material.

If you have no ambient light control and a very bright space, then a projector isn't a great idea. If however you have some control over the light in your area it can be a satisfying experience. My first panasonic projector six years ago put out a reasonable image during the day in a room with the shades drawn down. The newest ones are much much better and significantly brighter.

The effect of an 80 inch screen is impossible to recreate with Plasma or LCD. I encourage anyone who wants to play with one to do so...and as hazel8 says, it is possible to even project against a blank white wall, although a screen does significantly improve things by providing contrast of border and better light reflectivity (brightening the image even more).

If you want true HD, 1080, which is a good idea for such a large screen then that will cost ~$2000. I would recommend a very large plasma. I think a high end plasma or even lcd has a comparatively better picture the projector's picture at the local AMC. And unless you live in a cathedral a 50-60 inch tv screen in plenty big.

$2000 aint bad. But if you want a 100-inch screen.. ya know which direction to go..

Ignore the people like Baxatax that say you need 1080p for a projection sized screen. I have a 720p projector on an 80 inch screen and it's great.

I have a semi controllable light situation, so if I really want to watch it during the day I can-but it's not great. To get around this I simply picked up a slingbox solo for about $125 and can watch cable on my laptop & soon my iPhone as well. This has been a great option since now I can watch TV anywhere in the apartment and we don't have the designated monolithic TV area. Also the quality on it has been great.

But when we are ready to watch a movie or something we can do it in an enormous fashion. One additional note you should get ready every time a big DVD comes out or sporting event is taking place since you will suddenly start hearing from friends like you won the lottery.

We have been using a projector for a couple of years now. We can control the light in our room so we don't have problems with watching TV during the day (not that we do that very much). We project it on a wall that is very white so we don't use a screen.

If you are considering a projector due to cost, remember to factor in the cost of the bulb. It will only last so many hours. The one thing we did before purchasing was to make sure to purchase a service plan that includes the bulb replacement. Depending on the bulb it can be a hundred to six hundred dollars. The bulb last about 1 1/2 years for us but so far it has been free under our service plan.

@Benji: Agreed. My first projector was 1/4 HD and looked beautiful.

@Luxeport: 1 for remembering the point about bulbs. A lot of deals I have seen over the past six months include a second bulb in the price, but this is always important to consider.

@Benji: The issue of a sling box is another topic.

The picture above should answer any questions about using a projector to watch during the day.

The thing to do is think about when you do most of your viewing. I bought a LCD so I could watch tv in my sunny apartment but now I kind of regret it because I usually only watch movies at night and that's when I want better picture quality. Other things to consider, as previous posters mentioned is replacing bulbs and also how long a projector takes to start up. If you have the means I think a large plasma is the most versatile and the best buy.