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View Full Version : How good are HD projectors (720p & 1080i)??



hal55
27-06-2013, 07:06
I know this sounds a stupid question, but I've never seen a demo of a HD projector and they are not as easy to find working in a store as you might think. I own an old Hitachi which has seen very little use the last few years snce the display, though of course big, is miles inferior to our home LCD.
Just for the hell of it recently though I plugged my laptop into it for what I call "low fidelity night" playing music videos off Youtube. It was actually a lot of fun to watch them on the big screen while the HD ones, which also offer a higher bit rate, didn't sound half bad either.
So simple question, will a HD projector playing a 720p or better file, have competitive quality to 42" LCD/Plasma? The screen is typical home theatre size, some 2metres or so, and I'm particularly curious if the the trademark "screenmesh" or whatever thay call it quality of older displays will disappear with a HD projector. I'm not after gobsmacking high end picture quality, just a display that isn't so clearly inferior to the TV.

Thanks,

Hal55

MartinT
27-06-2013, 10:18
The best affordable projectors use DLP technology (a matrix of tiny mirrors). They tend to throw crisp, bright pictures as long as you don't expect too large a picture (2m sounds about as large as they should go, for something like a 3000 lumens projector).

It's hard to compare with panels, because of the picture size differences. I still prefer the contrast of a good panel (such as my Panasonic 42" plasma) but there's nothing like a big HD picture in a darkened room with good sound for that cinema experience.

hal55
28-06-2013, 13:25
Thanks Martin, by chance anyone upgraded from an older standard def projector to a more recent HD one and can give a bit of an idea of the real world improvement? Just don't want to spend the cash and still be a bit disappointed.

Hal55

gary
20-12-2014, 11:02
I currently use an epson 6100 with an 8 foot electric screen and the plasma tv hasn't really been used since it was installed, what I have found is that when the compromise would be watching a much smaller screen or accepting the slightly poorer picture quality then the big screen still wins.

Is it as good a picture as my panasonic plasma ? No but its not that far away from it either. The downside is that you really need to have a darkened room or spend a fortune on a specialist screen that can be viewed in brighter conditons and these can cost more than the projector.