Fgsilva said:
Hey,
Does anybody have an HD Projector or know of anybody who has them? How well do they work? are they comparable, in terms of picture quality to regular projection TVs? I"d presume you'd need to make the room really dark, but tha'ts alredy the case with my current HD rear projection TV.
Thanks!
They work great *if* you get the right one. Many PJs were designed for business purposes and put out pretty bad pictures for home theater purposes. So don't just rush on over to CostCo and get what they have on sale, even though the specs may look really good at first glance, and the literature boasts about how great football games, video games, and movies will look on an 8 foot wide screen with it. AVS forums have *tons* of projector threads telling you the pros and cons of PJs in general and of specific models. If you don't want to wade through them all and are just looking for a great budget projector on the cheap, though, that H31 Robert mentioned is supposed to be one of the really good ones. Another good one on a budget is Infocus' 4805.
Get a good one and you'll never go back. My cousin, who spent $20k on a top of the line plasma a couple years ago, almost cried when he saw my setup.
I think the the H31 and 4805 are both actually only 480p machines, but are capable of displaying HD resolution source material in near HD quality. From what I understand, resolution hounds are often shocked at how good a picture they put out, swearing on their mother's grave beforehand that it couldn't possibly put out that good a picture w/ only 480 lines - a physical impossibility - and then having to eat a little bit of crow after they actually see it (saying things like, "well, I've got to admit it's a great picture, much better than I'd expected" before saving face with something like "but any *true* videophile would still want at least 720 lines - great for Joe Blow, though"). Contrast and deep, rich colors apparently go a long way in making up for their shortcomings in the resolution dept.
Of course, if you've got a little bit more cash to spend you won't have to sacrifice anything on the resolution side. (Or if you want to go the LCD route, resolution comes cheaper, at the possible expense of contrast; it's an endless debate among DLP vs LCD folk.)
Oh, and the darker your room the better, but it doesn't have to be nearly as dark as many would lead you to believe.