AH I see your point, It will serve him well but he won't need all the extras as you would want for one in a family room, My friend got one for around $3000 1080p and has it on a huge wall and he recently ordered a 135 inch (I think) screen for it.
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PP Mguire
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Ok, if he is like any other teenager or around that age then I'm guessing his room is rather dark most of the time? I from the time I was 12 to now an adult I keep everything dark and blacked out because I have a chronic headache issue where ambient lighting can't change a lot when I'm on the computer. (In case anybody was wondering, I'm not a dark cave hermit rofl).
This being said, you can do with a low lumens projector. What this means is, if the room is darker you wont have to have a crazy high quality high lumens projector to have perfect picture quality in the light or day time.
A good 1080p projector will cost between 700 and 1200 here in the US, and I'm guessing prices will be about the same only converted over there. Optoma, Emerson, Sony, and InFocus make good cost effective projectors in both 720p and 1080p (plus 3D in some).
To make things a little more cost effective for you, you technically don't need a roof mount or screen. Depending on the color of his walls you can project that bad boy right on the wall and it'll look fine. I'll give some examples of me playing Forza 4 during the day with only curtains blocking my sliding glass door. Pardon the phone camera quality. I should also mention, I have a cream/tan colored wall set.
My screen area is 120" at 1080p with a ghetto "roof" mount type system. There are ways of getting around a roof mount by using things from your local home improvement store. I can elaborate on that more if you want later.
Another thing to be very careful over is native resolution on a projector.
To give you an example of what I mean, a 720 projector will say native resolution or simply "resolution" at 1280x720 or 1280x800. If they say 720 or 1080 and the native isn't just that, then that means the projector will accept higher res signals and they will be downscaled. I made an example of the projector you linked.
Here is a projector that is 1080p native.
INFOCUS SP8600 Full HD Home Cinema Projector Deals | Pcworld
It is quite like mine actually.
See the major difference in price? It comes with a huge difference in quality too.
There are many many myth-truths with projectors for regular use.
#1 is bulb life. People claim bulb life is terrible. It isn't. Your projector will last "forever" as long as you take good care of it, keep it cleaned out (every 6 months or so dust it out like you would a PC), and replace the bulb. Most good projectors have a 3000-4000 life span now. I'm barely capping 500 and I have used mine heavily since August. Think about it this way, 649 for a projector then say, 200 for another bulb in 3-5 years. Or spend more on a TV that isn't as big and if it dies hope like hell it's in warranty or buy a new one at same cost or more. Makes sense to go projector.
#2 You need a completely dark room for good picture. No, you don't. I just proved you don't. The blacks aren't perfect but IMO if you wanted perfection and had the cash needing a dark theater room wouldn't be a problem. I can watch light shows like The Big Bang Theory, Pokemon, or whatever with a light on in the same room no problem. Movies I can watch during the day easy as long as no lights are on in the immediate room.
#3 You absolutely need a screen and roof mount. Again, no you don't. I just proved it. Sure to get the opportune picture you want those but you can get your good quality projector now and get the rest later if you feel you want it. That's what I'm doing.
#4 You can get an equally as big TV for the same price. Complete and utter BS. My projector will do 300" at around 20ft of throw. Last time I checked, no consumer LCD 300" 1080p TVs in the market. Right?
#5 You can't plug everything in to it. Sure you can! I have my PC, Wii, and 360 hooked up to mine right now. Ever played Zelda Skyward Sword on 120+"? I have and it's amazing. So is any racing game as well as Halo.
An easy way to do this to reduce cable clutter is get a cheap HDMI capable A/V with passthrough. All signals in one box, one HDMI cable goes to your projector for video.
I hope this explained a bit about projectors to you. I absolutely love mine, and anybody who comes over to my home wants one. Simply because they are amazing and the closest "theater" like experience you'll get at home. TVs can suck it
BTW sorry about the wait. Valentines day and all.
This being said, you can do with a low lumens projector. What this means is, if the room is darker you wont have to have a crazy high quality high lumens projector to have perfect picture quality in the light or day time.
A good 1080p projector will cost between 700 and 1200 here in the US, and I'm guessing prices will be about the same only converted over there. Optoma, Emerson, Sony, and InFocus make good cost effective projectors in both 720p and 1080p (plus 3D in some).
To make things a little more cost effective for you, you technically don't need a roof mount or screen. Depending on the color of his walls you can project that bad boy right on the wall and it'll look fine. I'll give some examples of me playing Forza 4 during the day with only curtains blocking my sliding glass door. Pardon the phone camera quality. I should also mention, I have a cream/tan colored wall set.
My screen area is 120" at 1080p with a ghetto "roof" mount type system. There are ways of getting around a roof mount by using things from your local home improvement store. I can elaborate on that more if you want later.
Another thing to be very careful over is native resolution on a projector.
To give you an example of what I mean, a 720 projector will say native resolution or simply "resolution" at 1280x720 or 1280x800. If they say 720 or 1080 and the native isn't just that, then that means the projector will accept higher res signals and they will be downscaled. I made an example of the projector you linked.
Here is a projector that is 1080p native.
INFOCUS SP8600 Full HD Home Cinema Projector Deals | Pcworld
It is quite like mine actually.
See the major difference in price? It comes with a huge difference in quality too.
There are many many myth-truths with projectors for regular use.
#1 is bulb life. People claim bulb life is terrible. It isn't. Your projector will last "forever" as long as you take good care of it, keep it cleaned out (every 6 months or so dust it out like you would a PC), and replace the bulb. Most good projectors have a 3000-4000 life span now. I'm barely capping 500 and I have used mine heavily since August. Think about it this way, 649 for a projector then say, 200 for another bulb in 3-5 years. Or spend more on a TV that isn't as big and if it dies hope like hell it's in warranty or buy a new one at same cost or more. Makes sense to go projector.
#2 You need a completely dark room for good picture. No, you don't. I just proved you don't. The blacks aren't perfect but IMO if you wanted perfection and had the cash needing a dark theater room wouldn't be a problem. I can watch light shows like The Big Bang Theory, Pokemon, or whatever with a light on in the same room no problem. Movies I can watch during the day easy as long as no lights are on in the immediate room.
#3 You absolutely need a screen and roof mount. Again, no you don't. I just proved it. Sure to get the opportune picture you want those but you can get your good quality projector now and get the rest later if you feel you want it. That's what I'm doing.
#4 You can get an equally as big TV for the same price. Complete and utter BS. My projector will do 300" at around 20ft of throw. Last time I checked, no consumer LCD 300" 1080p TVs in the market. Right?
#5 You can't plug everything in to it. Sure you can! I have my PC, Wii, and 360 hooked up to mine right now. Ever played Zelda Skyward Sword on 120+"? I have and it's amazing. So is any racing game as well as Halo.
An easy way to do this to reduce cable clutter is get a cheap HDMI capable A/V with passthrough. All signals in one box, one HDMI cable goes to your projector for video.
I hope this explained a bit about projectors to you. I absolutely love mine, and anybody who comes over to my home wants one. Simply because they are amazing and the closest "theater" like experience you'll get at home. TVs can suck it
BTW sorry about the wait. Valentines day and all.
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That's alright. They do sound great, and there's not many things better to a straight male than a massive TV, except the obvious hotel room with a stranger, but I just don't know, I'll definitely get one for my son though. Hit the nail on the head there, his room is smallish-medium size and he has one large blind covering the windows, so light is minimal and maximal when needed, and his room color is light-ish blue. You say I don't actually need a Screen though? Because that would be fantastic. If I only need a Projector or if I could at least get HD I'd maybe stretch to £250-300 But nothing more. So overall is the Projector that I linked to you good? For resolution, I don't really know if 800x600 is good or bad, and what quality will the Projector display that I linked?
On second thoughts, on the website Aria I found the Optoma DS211 Projector for £219.99, it supports 1080p Video Input but only whatever RBG video output is, would you mind reviewing this?
http://www.ebuyer.com/264491-optoma...g01gc1e?utm_source=google&utm_medium=products
On second thoughts, on the website Aria I found the Optoma DS211 Projector for £219.99, it supports 1080p Video Input but only whatever RBG video output is, would you mind reviewing this?
http://www.ebuyer.com/264491-optoma...g01gc1e?utm_source=google&utm_medium=products
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jasonalwaysready
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it accepts 1080 input, but it outputs 800x600. you probably wont like that downgrade in signal.
a screen isn't required but will be your best bet for the best picture, but you can buy special (meaning expensive) paint that is optimal for projection and tape a rectangle on the wall. seems like a really easy DIY, google it FMI.
a screen isn't required but will be your best bet for the best picture, but you can buy special (meaning expensive) paint that is optimal for projection and tape a rectangle on the wall. seems like a really easy DIY, google it FMI.
PP Mguire
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Yes you don't need a screen. Like I said, my picture looks damn good and I have a cream/tan textured wall which means it has bumps. When you are watching you can't notice at all. Like I said, if you want a screen for the perfect picture that's all fine and dandy, but it really isn't needed. Especially if you aren't trying to make a perfect theater or anything. That's why I called those "myth-truths" because they are true but a myth as they are overly exaggerated. I have never used a screen and I have owned 2 projectors with this current one being 1080p DLP 3LCD.
It says right there Resolution: 800x600. Think of a computer with 800x600 or watching old TVs at 640x480. It's kind of like that. My first projector was 1024x768 and even though it was cool I kind of had a "slightly" hard time with HD images. It just took a lot of tinkering with to make the image look good. I did eventually get it to look right. Here is the Xbox set to 1080p in the settings outputting via VGA. This one I measured as 132".
I suppose if this is going to be put in your sons room you should ask him if he would want something like a 32" 1080p TV or something with a giant screen. Sitting 10ft away 1024x768 still looked good so it's up to you guys. Remember, those in that price range have been 800x600.
This projector is 1024x768. I know it's slightly more than 300 but worth it. 2700 lumens (which is bright) and 3D capable. 5 year warranty, up to 5000 hours in normal mode.
http://www.ebuyer.com/344634-infocus-in114-2700-ansi-lumens-xga-projector-in114
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Well I guess since I don't really know what 800x600 resolution would look like, so I guess the real question is would my son and I be disappointed with the Projector that I linked in my previous post? I think it displays 120" But I could always buy him an 84" Projector Screen in the future. I'm all for fun but one thing that concerns me is that his room is about half the size of the room shown in your picture, and even 84" might be very damaging for his eyes. I'm going to give him an old 32" LCD TV that was my brothers for Xbox use, but I'd mainly like to buy him this Projector so he can link it up to his computer and watch his movies and stuff, I just don't want to spend £300 on a Projector that turns out to be awfully crap when he might as well stick with his TV that I'm going to give him. I know that it's like anything, you spend less, you get lower quality, but £300 isn't exactly a small amount of money, even 720p would be lovely.
PP Mguire
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Well neither of these projectors are 720p as that is more expensive. THe one I linked at the bottom of my post is only 17 more than your original 250-300. I don't recommend buying him an 800x600 but the 1024x768 doesn't look that bad. His room is probably about as small as my current living room (apartment) so it should be fine. Remember screen size (big) is dependent on throw or how far away the projector is from the other wall. If you have only a 10ft throw the screen wont be that big but you also have what's called digital zoom. By default it's 100% but you can make it smaller to accommodate for a shorter throw.
He can play Xbox on the one I linked easy. I did it for months and I'm pretty positive once he tries it on the projector he wont want to play on a TV again lol.
As I promised I would elaborate on the DIY roof mount. It isn't technically roof mount but much cheaper. Take note, I only have duct tape there on mine because our downstairs neighbors slam their doors a million times a day and I don't want it to even be possible to slide off. This works just as good as a roof mount in two ways. You can technically make a bolt on contraption to mount the projector upside down under the shelf or you can set it on top like mine and just tilt it up (depending on how high the shelf is).
You can make it more fancy or easy on the eyes than this, but I already had this shelf setup from our old house and reused good materials.
I also want to elaborate further, the pic in my previous post is a 130" screen with a 1024x768 projector and it was only 12 feet away from the wall sitting on a shelf behind the couch pictured.
He can play Xbox on the one I linked easy. I did it for months and I'm pretty positive once he tries it on the projector he wont want to play on a TV again lol.
As I promised I would elaborate on the DIY roof mount. It isn't technically roof mount but much cheaper. Take note, I only have duct tape there on mine because our downstairs neighbors slam their doors a million times a day and I don't want it to even be possible to slide off. This works just as good as a roof mount in two ways. You can technically make a bolt on contraption to mount the projector upside down under the shelf or you can set it on top like mine and just tilt it up (depending on how high the shelf is).
You can make it more fancy or easy on the eyes than this, but I already had this shelf setup from our old house and reused good materials.
I also want to elaborate further, the pic in my previous post is a 130" screen with a 1024x768 projector and it was only 12 feet away from the wall sitting on a shelf behind the couch pictured.
I guess that's alright, when you say not too bad, what do you mean exactly, 480p?
And gosh no I'd say smaller, I'll measure his room if I can tomorrow so you can get an exact idea. I'd have to shuffle his room around though, and buy him some new furniture etc, I'll take a picture tomorrow and upload it if I can
And gosh no I'd say smaller, I'll measure his room if I can tomorrow so you can get an exact idea. I'd have to shuffle his room around though, and buy him some new furniture etc, I'll take a picture tomorrow and upload it if I can
PP Mguire
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No larger than 480p. 480 is 640x480, and the last one I linked is 1024x768. It's not 720p due to it not being wide, but still better than 640x480.
Look at the last projector pic I posted. I have the Xbox set to 1080p in the settings so it's sending a 1080p signal to the projector and downscaling it. If you bought him the projector I linked it'll look just like that minus the size. This is the one I'm talking about:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v701/pp_mguire/DSCN1890.jpg
That is on a 1024x768 projector (you can change aspect ratio output). That was also in our old 5bdroom house in the living room but the throw was only about 12ft or so. By that I mean, the projector was 12ft from the wall it is projecting on. My current projector is 15.5ft from the wall and 6.57ft high on that shelf. That would be the Forza pics I showed earlier. (I just measured).
So as you can see by the other pic 1024x768 looks good enough to play Xbox on. Unfortunately I don't have any pics showing a movie on there but they looked pretty decent too. Obviously, 720 or 1080p will look better but you just can't beat the immersion of a huge screen you can't get out of a TV.
Look at the last projector pic I posted. I have the Xbox set to 1080p in the settings so it's sending a 1080p signal to the projector and downscaling it. If you bought him the projector I linked it'll look just like that minus the size. This is the one I'm talking about:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v701/pp_mguire/DSCN1890.jpg
That is on a 1024x768 projector (you can change aspect ratio output). That was also in our old 5bdroom house in the living room but the throw was only about 12ft or so. By that I mean, the projector was 12ft from the wall it is projecting on. My current projector is 15.5ft from the wall and 6.57ft high on that shelf. That would be the Forza pics I showed earlier. (I just measured).
So as you can see by the other pic 1024x768 looks good enough to play Xbox on. Unfortunately I don't have any pics showing a movie on there but they looked pretty decent too. Obviously, 720 or 1080p will look better but you just can't beat the immersion of a huge screen you can't get out of a TV.
Everything looks great! Except for the Integrated graphics and the memory. 1333MHz RAM is really slow for a desktop. I have 4 GBs 1333MHz RAM in my two year old, going on three, bone stock laptop.
Check Desktop Computers Gaming Lifestyle at TigerDirect.com For good prices and good computers, they ship international too.
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