Home Cinema

[The Dogfather]

Bit of a stretch but I know there's quite a few techies out there anyone able to offer some advice regarding Home Cinema?

I've got a budget of around £1000 and I would like to replace/supplement my current TV with a large screen 40"+.
That kind of leaves two options Rear Projection TV (CRT) and Front Projectors with a pull down screen. My question is: -

Could a front projector realistically replace my TV for watching DVDs, Sky etc, or do I have to go for one of the enormous RPTVs?

The room I use would have lowish ambient light but occasionally the screen would need to be viewed during normal light.......

Is there a gadget buff with the answer?

[Wul]

<drums fingers> .... patiently awaits the arrival of Bonnie Scotland!! ;)

[Starky]

Plasma is your answer Paul as rear screen projectors are mostly pretty poor, I have a 42'' Panasonic Viera (has freeview integrated), which I would recommend, although this maybe out of your stated budget. If you have freeview/sky or a video recorder, you can buy a plasma panel which you can wall mount, which I did, one of the best recommended at the moment on the av forums is the Panasonic PW7, which will come in just above your budget but if you can, go for it, pq is terrific, hope this helps, cheers. :D

[Starky]

Forgot to add SOUND, all you need for this is DVD with surround speakers, which you may already have anyway.

[sleepyrascal]

Makro and Costco have some AWSOME deals at the moment. They are still trying to clear the xmas stock of plasmas etc. Have a look there. I heard there was 60% DISCOUNT ON SOME!!!!

[Starky]

Beware cheap bargains Paul & Sleepy, there are a lot of horror stories on the av forums re. cheapo plasma's, you're best checking out these for yourselves before commiting yourselves to forking out dollops of money. Good place to go (as I did) is John Lewis, you get a superb 5yr warranty and they will PRICE MATCH with any shop (not online), I saved myself £1000 by doing this but narrowly missed out on the free Panny DVD and tv stand which is on offer, still chuffed to bits though. :D

[Gismo]

Given the lighting in your room i would advise against the projector route, on another note i would advise against the projector route any way :p
Plasma is defo the way to go and it's pretty simple, the more cash you've got the better your screen will be.
Don't be tempted by these offers from Tiny and the Computer Shop, the screen resolution is poor to say the least. They will bamboozle you with various figures, like contrast ratio and brightness etc.
What you're looking for is the largest pixel, viewing angle and of course, the standard of the inner parts.

Bear in mind some screens have a tuner (sometimes freeview) installed and others come supplied with a box, so if space is tight then consider that too.

Get some magazines, read the reviews, then decide what price bracket your aiming at, sorry to say, £1000 isn't gonna get you a top 42" model, but, it will provide you with what you want :)

As an example, i have a 42" Sony and have just bought the latest 50" Pioneer, i thought my Sony was good, but, the quality of the Pioneer is absolutely awesome, especially when viewing DVD's or digital broadcast pictures which are due to be beamed at teh end of the year.
You didn't mention sound, but, again, if you're looking for that as well there is no way you can achieve it on your stated budget.
You would benefit from a nice surround Amp and a set of speakers.

I would highly recommend Robert Ritchie in Montrose for advice and prices (ask for young Robbie and mention my name :evil:) You will get fantastic service and free delivery and usually some nice free cabling too ;)
He has a first class shop with viewing areas with all the latest hi fi stuff.
He won't sell you anything you don't need etc

I know you mentioned rear screen and projector, but, trust me, you will be disappointed with the picture in your room.
They are ok in pubs and clubs where you are generally viewing them from a distance and are not worried about picture clarity.

Sorry for rambling, but hope that helps :)

[The Dogfather]

Thanks guys!

Plasma is way out of my budget and to be honest a DLP projector has better picture quality for less than half the price. Not to mention some of the issues regarding screenburn etc.

The projector I was looking at will easily give a 92" screen and costs £700 and the cheapest I've seen a Veira is £2K+ although they are the dogs. PW7 and PW6 cost ~ £1.5k so you can see the price difference is huge.

Re: Sound - I've decided to upgrade my DVD to a progressive scan model (Tosh 340SE) and I've already got a full surround system (Sony Amp and Eltax speakers).

I was in Costco at the weekend nothing on offer at the moment but will see if Makro have the RPTV Samsung I was looking at.

Cheers

[Starky]

Nice (MEGGAAA) one BS, the Pioneer also rates very highly on the av forums along with the Panny's, these would be the ones to go for if you can stretch the budget a little. What warranty did you get by the way?

[The Dogfather]

Oh! the other option is to kit out my spare room as a proper cinema with front projector and to retain the CRT screen in the lounge.

Honest about the projector vs plasma the picture quality is better with DLP, you just need to dim the lights.

[Gismo]

quote:Originally posted by bad dog mini
a DLP projector has better picture quality for less than half the price
Appreciate your concerns Paul, but i couldn't disagree more ;)
Looks like you made up your mind already :)

[Gismo]

quote:Originally posted by bad dog mini
Honest about the projector vs plasma the picture quality is better with DLP, you just need to dim the lights.
You mentioned in your first post:-
"The room I use would have lowish ambient light but occasionally the screen would need to be viewed during normal light......."

Hmm :I

[The Dogfather]

Just can't afford a top plasma, otherwise I would go for one as they are v.cool.

[The Dogfather]

So nobody would consider a RPTV then?

Given the comments about ambient light I think the best option would be to retain the 28" CTV for normal use and have a projector for footie and films. Maybe the projector could go in the spare room and the £300 I save on that goes on a simple all in one DVD/amp for the lounge.

Alan it was good advice but the budget is fixed. Sorry for moving the goalposts!:I

[Starky]

quote:Originally posted by bad dog mini

Thanks guys!

Plasma is way out of my budget and to be honest a DLP projector has better picture quality for less than half the price. Not to mention some of the issues regarding screenburn etc.








Sorry Paul, your way wrong buddy about pq, you have to demo them before making a biiggg mistake:disapprove::disapprove:, re. the screen burn, the pannys have the best burn resist screens going and it aint really an issue unless your going to do something silly :clown:, listen to BS as well, RPTV's are mostly crap :blackeye:. Check out the price of the PW7, it's a lot cheaper than the Viera, I only bought this instead of the PW7 because it was more "wife friendly", (sorry any girls, don't mean to be sexist). Only trying to help buddy but hey, whatever rocks your boat.:p:D

[The Dogfather]

RPTV is out then which is the one unknown.

I have seen the comparison (Pioneer Plasma vs screenplay 4805) and the projector with a darkened room was as good just not as bright.

A projector is £700 (BenQ PE5120 as good as screenplay in review) so it's not a massive amount of money to loose. I can always replace the CRT screen for a plasma later when I've got more dosh, like in couple of years!!!!

[Big Gordy]

And I thought Wul and I were bad with our polish and r/c cars:eek:highcaramba :p:D:approve:

[Scottch]

Paul,

I've recently upgraded from RPTV to plasma.

The RPTV was a good bit of kit, ours was the Sony 44" model and served us well. It was our second RPTV.

The latest RPTV's are a giant leap forward from the days of old - go and see some, I'm sure you may be pleasantly surprised. In fact, McMichael Brothers Sony Centre in Alloa should still have my old set at a mile under your budget, if you want the number drop me a mail. You just need to accept the limitations of the technology.

I do love my plasma though ;)

HTH

Cheers!

Scott

[The Dogfather]

Cheers Scott et all,

I think I'm going to spend the £1k on a DLP front projector but set this up in the spare room with my full cinema amp and speakers. This will run off a new Tosh 340 DVD player eventually (330SD now). This way I can darken the room to get the best picture out of the projector and turn up the volume as this room is away from our neighbours wall.

I'll keep the Sony 28" Triniton in the lounge but add a Denon DHT-500SD combi amp/player unit. I just have to figure out how to run my Sky+ between the two rooms without paying for multiroom.

[Gismo]

Right, ok, if i've read all your points correctly, i get the feeling that you are prepared to accept a slightly less than perfect picture, (plasma will beat RPTV and Projector hands down) then <coughsneezesplutter> the plasma by Tiny and others would suit you

It has a high contrast which means it is bright :D a fairly decent viewing angle (160 degrees me thinks) it is a bit grainy around the edges where shades of the same colour are exposed and at the outer edges, but, the contrast can fool the eye into hidding this by the bright picture, so, if you can handle the bright picture then, go for it.

As for resale, i'm not so convinced you'll recover your money, but hey, you can always hook it up to your games console (like me) and buy another when you've saved up more dosh

[Wul]

quote:Originally posted by Big Gordy

And I thought Wul and I were bad with our polish and r/c cars:eek:highcaramba :p:D:approve:


Gordy - makes me wonder if my Goodmans 28" telly would impress them:I

[The Dogfather]

BS - I had a look and the 'screendoor' effect is quite visable on this one. Plus it's tiny and all the forums say stay well away....

I'd sell the dog <justkidding> and go for the older pany wd6 for an extra £200. Richersounds still have these for £1250 plus £100 for a scart board.

As for recovering money I'm OK with losing £700 over 2-3 years which will allow me to save up for a cutting edge screen in the future. Which will probably be LCD by then!

[Gismo]

quote:Originally posted by Wul
Gordy - makes me wonder if my Goodmans 28" telly would impress them:I
Compared to the wash and polish world that's like washing your car with a gritty sponge :p and one dirty bucket ;)

[Starky]

Whatever you do, don't touch the Tiny plasma with the proverbial barge pole, I've read they are Chinese sourced panels and have a bad shearing effect, if you want to know more technical info, check out www.avforums.com and do a search for what your looking for.

[Starky]

I wonder what Wul would use to clean the screen with, Mmmm...... :D

[Big Gordy]

Hey Wul:D I've only got a 21"Sony:eek:I'm soooooooooooooooooo behind the times :p:D:approve:

[Julz]

quote:Originally posted by bad dog mini
As for recovering money I'm OK with losing £700 over 2-3 years which will allow me to save up for a cutting edge screen in the future. Which will probably be LCD by then!


I've got a reasonable LCD in my kitchen, fab pic from a distance, but close up it starts to scramble a bit, sidey ways is about as good as plasma and from underneath (it sits ontop of the wonderful Philip) it's just black! Hopefully the quality of LCD's will improve over the next few years when I finally get round to buying a huuuuuge one! (no place to put one just now, or so I keep telling myself!:clown:)

[Wul]

quote:Originally posted by Starky

I wonder what Wul would use to clean the screen with, Mmmm...... :D


Pledge?:p

NXT of course :clown:

[Julz]

quote:Originally posted by Wul
Pledge?:p

NXT of course :clown:


NXT is also very good on your bathroom tiles!!;):p

[Wul]

Made my new sprayed silver combi boiler gleam too!! :clown: Apparently very good on Gloos Kitchen worktops too!

[Scottie]

just got to this which is a bot of a thing with us also.

We have a Plasma at the moment 42" Panasonic with Pansonic dvd and Panasonic amp with AE speakers:D

until technology allows for a 42"LCD TV I will keep the plasma but LCD is best just in smaller screen size

[orich]

Have you heard of LCOS technology? It is a flat panel TV that has plasma quality picture at almost half the price. LCOS stands for Liquid Crystal On Silicon. It is a much lighter unit also.
Just thought I'd mention it. Check one out at your electronics dealer. The picture looks great!
Rich

[Starky]

Rich, Lcos is pretty new stuff and very high resolution as a result it's more expensive than Lcd products. (this side of the pond anyway :D)

[orich]

Oh, ok. Here it is cheaper than both plasma and LCD.
cheers!
Rich

[Starky]

I think most electrical goods are cheaper in the US of A than here Rich.