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I'm looking to go with a 90-100 inch projector in our basement. My HDTV is about to kick the bucket.  Is anyone really against projectors?

 

Does anyone have any projectors they would recommend? What about screens? I'm looking for a projector that I will watch tv on every night (sports, shows, movies) and also do some gaming but not a ton.

 

Looking for advice, recommendations, specs, anything I need to know before I make this purchase. Educate me!

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is there a rough budget you are looking to spend, you can get good reliable projectors for $1500, you can get badass 4k and play on almost any surface for $5500...

looking for 4k? (if not - why not?)

you can skimp on the projector and spend more on the screen or spend on the projector and screen wont matter much.. 

old school projector specs make lumens the key spec of a projector, basically the brightness it projects meaning the better it will show during the day or with the lights on. but that has slightly changed, sort of how tv manufacturers make the color ratio like 10,000,000,000,000:1 which isnt really the case, some projectors have lumens off the charts and still poor quality.

the ONLY downside to projectors i know of is the bulbs.. especially for an everyday watching system, bulbs are a few hundred bucks last time i checked(5 years ago) but its also one of those crap scenarios that by the time it burns out the bulb price will drop, so you can have an extra on hand for $300 now, or by the time it burns out in 2 years its only $120, but you know that bulb is gonna burn out sunday morning right before the bengals game.....then what?

 

 

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8 hours ago, GoBengals said:

is there a rough budget you are looking to spend, you can get good reliable projectors for $1500, you can get badass 4k and play on almost any surface for $5500...

looking for 4k? (if not - why not?)

 

I don't want to go low end on the projector but I also don't want to go to the high end either. The only reason I wasn't really looking at 4k was because not much is streamed or broadcast in 4k at this time. I know about the bulbs but my thought process is a projector should last me many more years than a TV does. This TV I have now is only 4.5 years old and it is fading fast. I want a larger screen as the current tv at 60 inches looks way too small in our basement. Even my wife made a comment that we need a bigger tv (which was possibly the coolest thing my wife has ever said).

The lighting in our basement can be very bright when we have it on so that is something I need to take into consideration. I'd say 50% of the time we watch tv with the lights on and 50% of the time we don't.

Should I definitely get 4k? Will this actually become the common stream/broadcast soon?

What can I fairly ballpark the life expectancy of my projector to be?

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4k is a tough call(perhaps not with the price difference). i think depending on your primary source of video 4k may not matter, if you are always watching cable or directv, you are probably 5 years from "most" things being broadcast in 4k, hell its only about 70% broadcast in HD currently. so its up to you, more and more netflix is ultra HD, and blu rays are lots of 4k. so your entertainment source will tell you the answer to that option.

From what i see now judging off what i researched a few years ago, a solid, reliable, good quality 1080p unit is probably $1300-1800, a 4k unit probably $2300-4000(you can spend like $15,000 if you get crazy). if you are a heavy blu ray user or something, might be worth it, if not, i cant imagine the grand or more difference is worth it..  

back to the screen, I wanted to point out you dont NEED to get a screen, they make paint that reacts just as the screens do, so if you have flat(non textured) walls, you can paint the space crystal white, some people frame the wall area to make it LOOK like a tv screen on the wall, some paint the whole wall, so whatever.. thats what i WOULD have done, had i gone with a projector..

a few other things to look for and good places to get a good in person experience. be sure to check the ideal distance for viewing at 1080p, some will have an ideal distance if its blown up to 100" at like 22 feet, if you are closer it will look pixelated/blurry.

ironically, the best place to get an experience, is best buy, id swing by the nicest biggest best buy within a reasonable distance and hit up the magnolia department. it appears sony is making most of the high end 4k projectors, heard good things about epson for the normal ones, but it may be worth $15 for a month of consumer reports to read up o longevity and projector reviews to explore other brands.

.....and now i wish i had a projector again...

 

 

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2 hours ago, GoBengals said:

.....and now i wish i had a projector again...

 

 

Thanks for all the info. I will definitely look into that. Also will hit up the AVS forums too even though most of those dudes spend more in a month than I make.

What is the normal lifespan of a projector?

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10 hours ago, TimKrumrieFan said:

Thanks for all the info. I will definitely look into that. Also will hit up the AVS forums too even though most of those dudes spend more in a month than I make.

What is the normal lifespan of a projector?

honestly not sure since i never ended up getting one. bulbs apparently last about 2,000 hours of watching. so if you watch 3 hrs a day thats just under 2 years i think. 

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46 minutes ago, GoBengals said:

honestly not sure since i never ended up getting one. bulbs apparently last about 2,000 hours of watching. so if you watch 3 hrs a day thats just under 2 years i think. 

3 hours? ruh roh. lol 

Bulbs won't be a big deal to me. The issue is I'll want the actual device to last a long time. I'll have to do some digging on that.

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3 minutes ago, TimKrumrieFan said:

3 hours? ruh roh. lol 

Bulbs won't be a big deal to me. The issue is I'll want the actual device to last a long time. I'll have to do some digging on that.

lol, so maybe a bulb a year for you... but i dont really see much in terms of units themselves going bad, just the bulbs going out, so id be surprised if the unit craps out before youre ready to replace it for 4k or some other reason many years down the road.. 

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1 minute ago, GoBengals said:

lol, so maybe a bulb a year for you... but i dont really see much in terms of units themselves going bad, just the bulbs going out, so id be surprised if the unit craps out before youre ready to replace it for 4k or some other reason many years down the road.. 

If I drop 2300 on a 4k unit and get 5 years out of it...that is $460 a year. If I get 7 years $328. That is probably pretty reasonable

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38 minutes ago, TimKrumrieFan said:

If I drop 2300 on a 4k unit and get 5 years out of it...that is $460 a year. If I get 7 years $328. That is probably pretty reasonable

i would be shocked if you didnt get 5 years out of any decent unit. 

gotta give some pics once you get it in, always like seeing peoples setups

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1 hour ago, GoBengals said:

i would be shocked if you didnt get 5 years out of any decent unit. 

gotta give some pics once you get it in, always like seeing peoples setups

Will do. The couches we had built just came in a couple weeks ago. Next up is projector and screen and then reconfiguring my sound system down here.

IMG_8655.JPG

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