We've decided to buy a front projector and screen for our home. Unfortunately, I spent about zero time in the last ten years looking at these products. Do any of you know of useful forums or have personal experience with these products. The projectors we are currently looking at is the Infocus 7200 or 5700, but I could probably be swayed to a comparable product offering at least uncompressed 720i. On the flip side, finding out the sticker price for wall mount screens was a bit of a shock. Screens are incredibly hard to find third party information on, especially finding someone that has owned more than one!

I would really like to make an informed purchase decision, but I really only know one other person with a setup similar to what we desire.

 

You'll get some good opinions here. We had a good HT thread going a while back. But you might want to head over the the AVS Forums which is the place for this type of info: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/

 

Jerry,

I can help you. I'm an active member of AVSforum.com and have spent many hours researching front projectors and screen combinations.

I have a DLP projector myself that I bought over a year ago. LCD was just NOT for me. Anyway, have you thought about the Infocus X1? It's a pretty hot item right now and for good reason: DLP projector for $1k !! Totally unheard of.

Anyway, the hottest screen material that many home theater enthusiasts are raving about nowadays is the Da-Lite HighPower. It's a retroreflective screen that is optimized when your projector setup is table top. However, owners who have ceiling mounted projectors use it as well and are quite happy. There are also other screens that you can consider depending on your budget. Da-Lite company makes cheaper screens in the $100's compared to Stewart Filmscreen. Stewart has a screen called Firehawk that will set you back $2000! People swear by it, but I think it's overkill if you ask me.

Anyways, whatever you do, research it first at www.avsforum.com/avs-vb under "screens" and make your purchase through them! The are also a retailer for your home theater needs and give the best prices to their forum members. Trust me on this one!

Good luck.

 

Just to give you options, you can also head over to http://hometheaterspot.com -- otherwise known as the Spot. Their forums have lots of good info.

 

My question is, doesnt the projectors have a bulb that they run off of? If so when it busts, how much is it replace, and what is the type of maintance on these units, I want something for TV (FOOTBALL!) and movies.

 

Jerry,
I'm a custom installer of home theaters, so I have some experience with the projectors that you mentioned, and various Dalite screen types as well. I've installed a few of the Toshiba MT8 DLP's (made by Infocus and technically identical to the 7200). It projects a gorgeous image, even at 120" diagonal. I would recommend (budget permitting) to go with a DLP with the HD2 chip - you get true 16:9 720p and you'll be ready for all higher resolution formats that are out or coming out. HDTV coming over the airwaves is phenomenal looking, as are a few of the DIRECTTV movie channels. There is also the SHARP Z10000, which makes an equally beautiful picture, while being easier to setup. PM me if you have any more questions .. If you are insterested in the 7200, I will give you the S2KI deal

Drunken_Monk,
DLP projectors still use bulbs - its (generally) a single white bulb that is focused through a color wheel (red, green blue) and reflected off the Texas Instruments DLP chip which consists of anywhere from a few hundred thousand to close to a million tiny mirrors. The bulbs cost in the range of $200-$500 dollars and last from 3000 to 5000 hours.

 

One brand comes to mind Jerry-- BARCO. Case closed.

 

Jerry,
AVS forum is definately a good start for your research. Infocus have won many awards at Cedia show. Quality to performance is the choice.

DaRKCrow

 

I really like Home Theater Forum as well. Its more geared toward the software side of home theater but still has a great hardware side to it.