Survey: Are 1080p Projectors As Good As Their LCD/Plasma Rivals?

Setting up a home theater of your dreams with high definition everything has always been at the top of the list of things to buy (of course, when we get the money), but we often forget that 1080p projectors are starting to enter the market and are technically - way cheaper than their LCD and plasma screen counterparts if you look at their screen-size to dollar ratio alone. Though we haven't had the chance to them out head-to-head, we thought we'd open it up to our readers for some insight.

Photo courtesy of fyngyrz.

Comments (8)

Well I actually don't have any 1080p anything to compare it to - but I have a 720p Mitsubishi at a modest 104" and love it - blu ray looks great. I've been doing front projection for about 6 years now and I don't know if I could go back. Other sets look so small. One of my brother-in-laws has a top of the line 50" pioneer and the other has a 50" LG and while they look great it just seems they are a bit small. Me and my wife love the theater experience. We have netflix and watch tv and movies from there almost exclusively. I do a lot of gaming on it also. Only minor drawback is the size of the screen when not in use - it looks a little awkward. Here are a couple pics of my setup:

projector

http://picasaweb.google.com/thestallion/HousePicsApril208/photo#5191430479036999778

screen

http://picasaweb.google.com/thestallion/HousePicsApril208/photo#5196624725914086642

It just depends on the environment you are hosting it in and the uses you want for it.

Projectors in general are not nearly as bright and almost all of them require some degree of light control to dim the room a little for optimal viewing. That's never the case with a rear-screen projector.

I've owned both and size wise you cannot beat a front-projector; and the quality is phenomenal. Well worth the compromises you may have to make.

Is it really possible to stretch a high-def image to 200 inches and still say it looks good from anything other than 20 feet back?

I doubt it.

Although I've "settled" for a 720p projector, let me say once you upgrade to a projection system, it's hard to go back (especially when you're switching back and forth from a 40" HD LCD to a "moderate" sized 92" pulldown projection screen). I can only imagine a full 1080p setup would only look that much better considering our current setup was the singular reason my girlfriend is now obsessed with watching pro hoops and HD content. An immersion of experience is what you're purchasing when moving from a large 50-60" LCD or plasma screen to the territory of 100" screens.

What happens with large projection screens is the "Immersion Factor" a term I just coined... this trumps the detail factor almost any day of the week and is the reason most people like to watch movies on projector set ups. Personally, I cant stand watching regular tv on a projector, so I dont. We have a projector which we have been using for years to watch movies and it is seriously awesome, even projected on the wall (which is a light lavender color).

I hear if you build a huge canvas and gesso it really well, you can use that as a screen on the wall; building two will let you switch out art and a movie screen on the fly!

I have a 1080 projector and for a while just projected onto a white painted wall. I recently upgraded to a proper piece of projection fabric and it is making the huge difference that places the setup into better than LCD territory for me.