Best projector?

[Frank Weeks]

Can anyone suggest a good home theater projector.

Ideal projection size 10-11 feet wide (not diagonal). Price ceiling $4000 us.

This is not for editing or grading. Just for fun. Mainly sports and movies.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

 

[donatello b]

10-11ft across is alot of light to put on a screen..
can you control the light in the room ( make it complete dark) ?

read the reveiws over at http://www.projectorcentral.com/
many times they give screen suggestions depending on ambient light in room etc...

 

[Greg M]

http://pro.jvc.com/prof/attributes/category.jsp?productId=PRO2.2

 

[Frank Weeks]

Thanks Donatello. Yes the light can be controlled. I will check out http://www.projectorcentral.com/

and http://pro.jvc.com/prof/attributes/category.jsp?productId=PRO2.2 ...Thx digitalfx

 

[Frank Weeks]

FWIW, I am inquiring for a friend. He has a 10' wide screen in mind but if smaller screens would offer better results. I'm sure he would consider them.

Is there a Minimum lumen level that anyone would recommend for screens over 100 inches?

 

[Frank Cueto]

If you are planning to screen future theatrical releases, then you should make sure u get at least 16FtL out of that scree+PJ. get a 1.0 gain screen, and a JVC RS20 PJ.

 

[Dominic Jones]

You should definitely have a look at the Panasonic PT-AE3000. That's a killer 1080p projector.

Minimum lumen level is really relative to ambient light levels, but for a decently darkened room sporting a 100" screen you want to be looking at >1000 lumens, give or take. Pretty much the more the merrier, of course!

The JVCs are very good also, as mentioned above - get yourself (or your friend, more importantly) down to a good AV shop and do some side-by-side tests, there's no "best" projector, all have strengths and weaknesses and in the end it will come down, in part, to personal preference...

HTH,
Dom.

 

[Steven Caesare]

Movie cinemas are spec'ed to have a minimum of 12 foot lambetrs on screen. A survey of many cinemas indicates that in practice this is not univrsally met, and 8-10 foot lamberts is not uncommon.

So, if you have light control, then 12-16- foot lamberts is quite doable for movies. Many people (myslef included), find even brighter than that is perferable for sports and some TV.

Foot lamberts on the screen is determined by:

((projector_lumens)/(screen_area))*screen_gain


Notes:

1) The calibrated lumen output of a PJ is often well below it's max rated output.

2) Projector lamps dim with age... it's not uncommon to for a lamp to lose close to 50% it's brighness at it's half life... often with a significant portion of that within the first few hundred hours

3) Screen gain reduces the viewing cone, and also can be variable based on the type of screen material and viewing angle.

I have a 10' wide screen (~56 ft^2), a projector rated at 900 lumens, and a hi-gain screen that's has a max gain of 3.2. Using those #'s, I'd calculate 51.4 foot lamberts at the viewing sweetspot. Given the factors mentioned above, I'd bet I have more like the hi 20's or low 30's.

-sc