Projector Help

[Viva La Grinch]

The other day at work, I noticed that my boss was throwing out our old projector since he bought a new one. It is a Sharp XR-30X and all that it needs is a new bulb. He went and bought a new one rather then pay the $200ish for a new bulb. I quickly snagged it, and am now confused on what to do with it.

 

My current home theater setup uses a 60 inch Pioneer plasma TV, so I am not looking to replace that. My thoughts are to use this projector in the bedroom. I have never been a huge fan of the picture quality of projectors, so I am not sure if this is a wise investment. My bedroom is 18 feet in length, so is that enough space for a good size screen? Also, any tips of what kind of screen to purchase? The bedroom is very dark, so watching it during the day should not be a problem.

[JoeHova]

18 feet is more than enough space to get at least a 96" diagonal screen in there, at least in my experience. Try projecting it on a wall first to get an idea of how big a screen you can use, then go from there.

[ajgodson]

Whatever you do....don't touch the bulb with your hands. The oil from your fingers will ruin it. My idiot college roommate found that out the hard way about 3 times before he got wise.

 

For an old projector, somewhere dark sounds like a winning idea.

[pitchleague]

joe, he can't try projecting it on a wall until he gets a bulb and I think he wants to know if he should invest the $$$ on a bulb or not.

 

I, too, think it should have plenty of room. Are your walls painted? Or they just white? Are they textured? I would think you could probably just project an image onto the wall. Or a better idea that I've heard about is getting one of those big foam-boards (almost like poster board but thick with foam in the middle) and use that as your screen. You can actually get those pretty large if you look around.

[Katuluu]

You will want something white, seamless, and non-textured for the best possible picture. You can actually make your own screens for relatively cheap, but you want to be in as dark a room as possible for the projector. Any ambient light will mute the image significantly, which is why most people use projectors in basements.

[JoeHova]

joe, he can't try projecting it on a wall until he gets a bulb and I think he wants to know if he should invest the $$$ on a bulb or not.

 

 

I know, my advice was in two parts- get the projector working, than see what size screen to get. I should have made that more clear.

[Viva La Grinch]

To clarify the situation, my room does have all white walls. Since I work late nights, I have made it a point to make sure that the windows are covered and little light gets in so I can sleep in during the mornings. Here are a couple more questions. First, I have about 9-10 foot ceilings. Will this allow enough room to see the whole screen from my position laying on a bed(I am thinking of the bottom scroll on ESPN). Also, the projector screens that I have looked at are around $200ish, but some come in a widescreen format..is that necessary? Finally, since I am looking at $400-500 for bulb and screen, would I just be better of getting a 50 inch HDTV for the bedroom in the long run?

[JoeHova]

That depends on how dark you like it to be while you watch TV. If you like to watch in the dark, the projector will probably be cool because of the gigantic picture and also because it can save space (assuming you mount it on the ceiling or out of the way somewhere and have a roll-up screen). I personally don't like to watch television in the dark, so I would go with the regular TV. If its not totally dark in a room, the picture is going to be washed out.

 

 

 

One last note- if you like playing video games, go with the projector. Playing a racing game (especially) on a 100 inch screen is pretty cool. Really any game is cool on that large of a screen.

[Ralph Wiggum]

I have a projector (older Hitachi model) set up in me living room. I love it.

 

As for a screen, give your local school district or college a call. Many aer switching over to interactive white boards, and are getting rid of their overhead projector screens. I got a nice big one (about 7 feet across) for free. It's the pull-down model, so when we aren't watching it, it goes up and out of the way.

 

I love my projector...one of the best purchases I've made. It does get a little washed out in daylight, but nighttime is awesome. We put heavy shades over the windows, which basically solved the problem. The only problem with projectors are the bulbs, though. They are expensive (although they do last a very long time.) Most projectors are also HD compatible. The picture quality isn't what you get from a plasma/lcd screen, but I think it's better than a regular tube television. It isn't far off. I have my projector hooked up with surround sound through a Pioneer receiver, and it feels like I'm in a movie theater. A 96 inch screen is very nice, and instead of paying about $10,000 for that size of LCD, I payed just over $400.