i would love a projector but theres one thing holding me back - lamp/bulb life. can you guys tell me roughly how often you have to change your bulbs and if there are any particular projector manufacturers that are cheaper to buy bulbs for. i have heard they only last for a short period and dont want to be bunging out on a regular basis for them. any advice suggestions welcome, thanks
Gewt yourself a Panasonic L500/AE500 or Le700/AE700 as it has something in the region of 4000 hours lamp life. If you do get one of those i can run you through the absolute best settings for home cinema.... Lamp life on it, with watching atleast one movie everyday....about 4 years mate.... Chris
No probs, glad to help. Before you buy one, run it past me first because i am quite knowledgeable on them... Chris
hi, it will be several months before i actually buy one but wanted to do research into the topic before i spend any cash. a few general questions though: the distance from seating to screen will be 10ft, i want to mount it overhead, so how much control will i have over the image size? i was thinking about 180cm? lcd or dlp?
p5yco - from 10 feet you will be able to project a screen size of around 180cm, give or take 30cm either way. There will be info on the Panasonic website with regards to this, mine is only about 6 feet away from me and i am projecting 80". Also, there is a lot of research to be done, but you'll probably still be confused after it lol, there's just so much out there. DLP's are a whole different ball game as well...though i personally prefer an LCD to a cheap DLP anyday. Once you get into the HD2+ chip 8 segment colour wheel DLP's though, the image is awesome.... trock0002 - as you are probably aware, you can control a lot of the contrast and quality of image you are getting, through the use of a good screen. If you can afford the money, id get yourself a draper screen, they start at around $250 or so. It doesnt have to be that make, there are many quality screens out there. However, if you are building one, i would recommend getting quality material specifically designed for paint to be applied to it. Then get some grey (helps contrast) screen paint. When building though, use a good wooden surround and staple gun the bottom middle part of the material in place. Pull the top middle into place and staple gun it. Then the middle parts of the sides. Make sure to keep it taught. Once done, you can then do the corners and paint. There are some good guidelines over on the AV Science forums, which have very technical fellas that could help you more. Chris
oriphus, could you tell me what the minimum and maximum lens ratio actually does, and what affect it has on image quality. also can the projector be positioned on a shelf 6ft high and the adjust it so a 5.5ft width screen image will be 3.4ft from the floor(bottom edge of screen)? cheers for any replies
Hi, the lens ratio, or sometimes called the zoom ratio, is the ratio between the smallest and largest image a lens can project from a fixed distance. The higher the ratio the more flexibility a user will have. THe Panasonic is pretty standard in this respect. The larger an image is, with an LCD projector, the greater the affect of SDE (Screen Door Effect). An example of this can be seen below: Note the image is magnified a lot and this can only really be noticed when close up to the screen: The reason for this is the Low Fill Factor that is associated with LCD Porjectors. Don't let this put you off LCD though, it really isnt noticeable unless you go for a very large screen and sit very close to it. As for the height....well, its not ideal to project and image downwards or upwards, even slightly, as in your case, it can cause the bottom of the screen to be slightly wider than the top. You can correct for these with the Panasonics in built software. This is called Keystone Correction, which in effect removes some of the pixels from the image to create a perfect rectangular image again. SO in response, it can be done, its just maybe not ideal... Hope this helps, Chris
thanks for the reply, if i was to ceiling mount a projector it would still need to be fired downard slightly wouldnt it, resulting in the same thing as i mentioned before on a shelf? so what is the ideal height for a projector? ive just measured the distances and room length is 11ft x 8ft. i am aiming for a screen size of 165cm x 93cm (16:9) exactly because i already have a screen of this size. if i mounted at 6ft i mentioned earlier with a similar size image as before firing straight how far off the floor would the bottom edge of the screen be? p.s your answers are very helpful oriphus, cheers
Hi, it really depends on what level you zoom in on with the lens. To be honest, i doubt it will matter much. The levels of picture bending are only really noticeable on extreme screen sizes, so for a screen of the size you mention, i doubt it would be noticeable to an effect that it would degrade the picture quality. Also, it is worth noting that some bulb/lenses are angled at a certain direction anyway. Another method you could emply, is having the screen that the image is projected on to slightly angled upwards to compensate. The degree of compensation needed is only likely to be a degree or two, and would not be noticeable to anyone, and would eliminate any need for Keystone correction and/or mounting the projector lower. Im not entirely sure what height the bottom of the screen would be as i would need to calculate the distance the projected image is from the screen, the angle the light is coming out of the projector at, and take into account the height the projector is off the ground, and for me - it would take a while to work that one out lol... Hope this helps Chris
Currently i have the following: Panasonic PTAE700 Projector Marantz SR7500 A/V Receiver Pure Digital DAB 702ES Tuner Marantz DV8400 DVD player - using a Pioneer DV575a DVD player though - amazing Arcam CD192 CD Player Speakers: Monitor Audio S6i Front Left/Right Monitor Audio SLCR Centre Channel Monitor Audio SFX Surrounds x 4 Monitor Audio FB212 Low frequency Effect Sub Its a good 7.1 set-up i have to admit, i recently changed my SR5400 for the SR7500 and the difference is phenomenal. However, if your loaded, the Lexicon has to be the way to go.... Have a look at Lexicon.com and dream on lol Chris
that sounds like a good setup too! at the moment i only have 5.1 but would love 7.1 - but thats way into the future!
7.1 is nice, but not necessary i suppose. I've seen a Yamaha 9.1 system demoed before, awesome performance: http://www.av-sales.com/html/yamaha_dsp-z9.html It has: Front Left ------- Centre ------- Front Right Surround Left ---------------- Surround Right Left Rear Surround ------ Right Rear Surround Left Centre Surround -- Right Centre Surround -------------- LFE Subwoofer ---------------- Also, saw a 9.2 with a LFE Subwoofer >22Hz - 80Hz and whats called a LFE Room Shaker at <22hz - around 16Hz or lower. Chris
No real picture quality disadvantages, except the space factor. In fact, i have mine table mounted. The only real disadvantage is the hight issue, from the point of view of people walking in front of it. If its higher up then it doesnt matter if people move about, when its low down, you cant sit directly centred to the screen to watch it, since the projector will be there. There further you are sitting from the porjector, the wider you essentially have to be from the centre of the screen so as not to get in the way of the image. Chris
Projector is sitting about 4 feet high and the screen is set to match it. No angle on the projector - it points directly to the middle of the screen. Image size from 7ft is 82"
