Thread: Front Projector Help for the Renter

Originally Posted by tigerfan33

I would like to know the brightness level comparison of a calibrated plasma and a calibrated fp.

The plasma wins every time (well unless you want to get up to 10s of thousands of $ in a projector). Projection needs a dark room. You can watch with light, but the picture will wash out much easier than with a plasma. A plasma essentially works with any artificial light. A plasma will of course wash out in direct sunlight. A projector needs controlled light (i.e. no light shining on the screen). Best results for a projector is no light in the room.

Of course you can see the image and watch it with lights on in the room, but you will not be fooled in any way shape or form that having the lights out would be much better.

figure 9-16 fL on a FP, figure 30-40 fL on a properly setup plasma.

it is hard to compare the 2.

FPs need light control. a FP will have 2-4 times the viewing area so it will occupy a much larger percentage of your field of view. This is a reason why it can be much dimmer.

You can watch a candle in darkness and not have to strand your eyes. As soon as competing light sources are introduced the candle will become dim.

Keeping direct light off your screen and setting up the right screen for your environment is key to getting excellent performance from your PJ. Sports can tolerate a lot more ambient light than most movies so being able to control the light in the room is important.

Gregg is right though, you really can't compare a flat panel to the front projector cinematic effect.

Unless you really could not care less about the size of your screen, a projector properly setup is going to become your favorite viewing method. You will kick yourself for not doing it sooner.

I have a 92" screen myself but only because I run my PJ in a 12 foot square room so I can't get the PJ back any farther to shoot something larger like 120" or even 135".

The picture looks even better than what you see here, but here are a couple examples from my setup:


Optoma HD70, 720p, 92" painted on the wall screen - EasyFlex-06 Formula -
Late afternoon with the shade down on the floor to ceiling window, no direct sunlight



Later in the evening - the room has a 4 foot wide walkway into the room on the opposite side as the window seen above. The lights are on in the next room and viewers are not sitting in total darkness but can easily read if they prefer to:

The PQ of the Favre pic is sick!

We are used to dim viewing, because I have one florescent daylight bulb in a lamp in the corner, and then just my backlight.