What's it like living with a projector?
 

I was all set to buy a 30" LCD screen, but just to check things out
I've borrowed a PJ from work (Sanyo PRO-X multiverse) and it was
pretty damn good considering that it is a cheapy and not especially
well set up.
The point of my question is, what is it like to have a PJ as the only
way of watching TV? Doeas the fan noise annoy? Does the warm up time
annoy? Does it show too many transmission artefacts too well?

Please can you folks out there with PJs let me in on the reality of
living with one.

"Geoff Winkless" ] wrote in message
. net...
Nick Webster wrote:
In article ,
says...

what is it like to have a PJ as the only way of watching TV?

Crap, you need to have the room quite dark.

This is true of a normal TV too. Yes, you need to have it darkER than you
would with a CRT, but not by much.

We shut the curtains at home and, while it's better at night, it's
perfectly
watchable.

Please can you folks out there with PJs let me in on the reality of
living with one.

IMO you need some sort of TV as well.

We've had just the Infocus X1 (highly recommended, btw) for three months
and
haven't once thought "wish I had a normal TV".

Geoff

I agree you only get the best out of a pj with good darkness. It depends a
lot on the pj technology - the X1 is DLP so has much better contrast than
similar priced LCD pjs. I've got an LCD pj (Sanyo PLV-Z1) and TBH I can't
watch it for long without black out curtains closed (behind the normal
curtains) - the picture is great then, so watching it in daylight seems
awful in comparison. For my sins, day-to-day I use an old 21" Sony CRT. That
way it also means that when you DO use your pj, the whole thing is more of
an event - if that kind of thing makes you happy ;)

FWIW If I had the money I'd have a plasma *and* a pj...!

The other thing to bear in mind is that normal TV broadcast quality is sh*te
compared to DVDs, so watching sport, say, on a 6'/7'/8'/whatever size screen
is far from great IMHO. Others may disagree on this, and it really is up to
you what you want to do - there's no one right answer of course.

If you can borrow the pj for a bit longer that would be a great way to
decide if you can live with just a pj.

Cheers,
James
--
www.felston.com
"Felston DD340 digital audio delay for home cinema lip sync issues"

"Geoff Winkless" ] wrote in message
. net...
Nick Webster wrote:
In article ,
says...

what is it like to have a PJ as the only way of watching TV?

Crap, you need to have the room quite dark.

This is true of a normal TV too. Yes, you need to have it darkER than you
would with a CRT, but not by much.

We shut the curtains at home and, while it's better at night, it's
perfectly
watchable.

Please can you folks out there with PJs let me in on the reality of
living with one.

IMO you need some sort of TV as well.

We've had just the Infocus X1 (highly recommended, btw) for three months
and
haven't once thought "wish I had a normal TV".

Geoff

I agree you only get the best out of a pj with good darkness. It depends a
lot on the pj technology - the X1 is DLP so has much better contrast than
similar priced LCD pjs. I've got an LCD pj (Sanyo PLV-Z1) and TBH I can't
watch it for long without black out curtains closed (behind the normal
curtains) - the picture is great then, so watching it in daylight seems
awful in comparison. For my sins, day-to-day I use an old 21" Sony CRT. That
way it also means that when you DO use your pj, the whole thing is more of
an event - if that kind of thing makes you happy ;)

FWIW If I had the money I'd have a plasma *and* a pj...!

The other thing to bear in mind is that normal TV broadcast quality is sh*te
compared to DVDs, so watching sport, say, on a 6'/7'/8'/whatever size screen
is far from great IMHO. Others may disagree on this, and it really is up to
you what you want to do - there's no one right answer of course.

If you can borrow the pj for a bit longer that would be a great way to
decide if you can live with just a pj.

Cheers,
James
--
www.felston.com
"Felston DD340 digital audio delay for home cinema lip sync issues"

Gary Lightfoot wrote:

If you want to take advantage of the contrast ratio a pj has (less
than a CRT), then you need very good light control. The black of the
image will only ever be as dark as the room allows, and contrast will
suffer too. If you watch with a lot of light, a grey screen can help
reduce the effects. Always being in a dark room to watch tv can get a
bit tiresome after a while as well, so you may need a much brighter pj
to combat the light, as well as a grey screen to make it more
watchable.

On the flip side, I setup a video conferencing room for a company I once
worked for. We used a Sony VPL-PX20 and a Stewart Greyhawk 72" screen.
This gave an outstanding picture even when there was considerable
natural light in the room (brighter in fact that the tv next door). I
think the contrast was definitely helped by the screen material which
was reflecting so much of that light back into the room, even though it
was expensive.

Of course, this was setup for a business use and the projector wasn't
one of the "home cinema" types, however it does show that having
blackout conditions isn't always completely necessary.

Gary Lightfoot wrote:

If you want to take advantage of the contrast ratio a pj has (less
than a CRT), then you need very good light control. The black of the
image will only ever be as dark as the room allows, and contrast will
suffer too. If you watch with a lot of light, a grey screen can help
reduce the effects. Always being in a dark room to watch tv can get a
bit tiresome after a while as well, so you may need a much brighter pj
to combat the light, as well as a grey screen to make it more
watchable.

On the flip side, I setup a video conferencing room for a company I once
worked for. We used a Sony VPL-PX20 and a Stewart Greyhawk 72" screen.
This gave an outstanding picture even when there was considerable
natural light in the room (brighter in fact that the tv next door). I
think the contrast was definitely helped by the screen material which
was reflecting so much of that light back into the room, even though it
was expensive.

Of course, this was setup for a business use and the projector wasn't
one of the "home cinema" types, however it does show that having
blackout conditions isn't always completely necessary.

Gary Lightfoot wrote:
wrote:
I was all set to buy a 30" LCD screen, but just to check things out
I've borrowed a PJ from work (Sanyo PRO-X multiverse) and it was
pretty damn good considering that it is a cheapy and not especially
well set up.
The point of my question is, what is it like to have a PJ as the only
way of watching TV? Doeas the fan noise annoy? Does the warm up time
annoy? Does it show too many transmission artefacts too well?

Please can you folks out there with PJs let me in on the reality of
living with one.

I agree with Nick, and think you should have a tv or similar as well.

The two main reasonswhy I say this is that if you watch the pj as much
as you now watch tv, you'll need new lamps every 6months to a year. At
between £300 and £400 per lamp, it works out very expensive.

That implies between 60 and 120 hours of TV per week. If you're watching
that much you need a psychiatrist, not a second TV.

I watch maybe 24 hours a week, including a DVD or two at weekends. A 4000
hour bulb (even assuming the last 1000 will be pretty unusable) will
therefore last me two and a half years.

My other reason is that I think movies should be larger than tv, or
they lose their impact. Can you imagine seeing Coronation Street twice
the size of a blockbuster like Gladeator or Independance Day?

That's just a silly argument.

If you want to take advantage of the contrast ratio a pj has (less
than a CRT), then you need very good light control. The black of the
image will only ever be as dark as the room allows, and contrast will
suffer too. If you watch with a lot of light, a grey screen can help
reduce the effects. Always being in a dark room to watch tv can get a
bit tiresome after a while as well, so you may need a much brighter pj
to combat the light, as well as a grey screen to make it more
watchable.

It doesn't have to be dark - you can have recessed or low-level lighting
that doesn't shine on the screen and makes little difference to the
contrast.

G