we have a home theater in my house and it is painted and ready…. but it has no tv!!! My family and i are arguing about weather to buy a big screen tv with stand… or buy a projector!!! i say that we buy a tv because it could do HDMI to my 360 and i say the sound could probably be better but then the sound depends on the sound system…. and if we were to go with the projector we would have to point the cable control back because it would have to be placed in the back with the projector!! i would like some sugjestions and some personal experiences…. thanks
tv or projector in home theater?
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OK, from personal experience……here is what you should consider.
1. How dark is the room? If the room is able to be completely dark (blackout curtains, a door that closes the room from the rest of the house, etc.) then I would suggest getting a projector. If it’s not a dark room, get a TV…..there is no good excuse to not follow this rule. Projectors are better, they have the movie theater feel, they can produce a spectacular image, they can be mounted on the ceiling so no ones head will get in the way. The only advantage of a TV is that a TV will look good in a room with open windows and sun shining in.
2. Don’t worry about sound, this is completely the job of your sound receiver, it is actually proper to disable the TV speakers when you hook up a sound system.
3. How big is the room? This may limit you to which projectors you can purchase. In my opinion, the best Home Theater Projectors are DLP. However, the LCD projectors typically have better zoom features which work better in smaller rooms. You would probably want to position the projector 10 – 15 feet away from the screen for a 110" screen.
4. HDMI projectors are out there and they don’t have to be outrageously expensive. Heres the problem, I don’t know your budget. So with no knowledge of your budget, you will probably want a 1080p DLP projector. These are still about $3,000. If thats too expensive, I’d suggest the Optoma HD72 (720p HD Projector). This can be found for $800 these days and the reason it’s so cheap is because it has no features other than an absolutely beautiful image. You need to aim, tilt, ect. almost everything manually….so I’d also suggest getting a nice ceiling mount that adjusts and tightens into place very well…..you can spend more to get a projector with features like "lens shift".
5. I don’t know how easy it is for you to wire, but if you get a projector I would suggest getting an infrared repeater. This way you can aim your remote at the screen, then the repeater will send the signal through wires back to your components. You can buy an infrared repeater kit these days for $120 bucks on amazon. Some people actually keep the components in a different room so the indicator lights don’t distract them.
6. This is for TV or a Projector…..Get a sound receiver with a feature called "Anaolg to HDMI conversion"….this way the only plug that goes to the projector is the HDMI cable…..everything else can plug into the back of your receiver using HDMI, components, composites, and S-Video. The receiver will then convert the signal to HDMI and send the image to the projector. I know ONKYO sells a great unit for about $350 to $450 that has this feature.
Buy a screen or paint a screen…..DO NOT play an image on the regular wall. You need a decent screen with a tight black border that fits the projectors image. I actually put black curtains up to cover the letter-boxing when I play the ultra-wide movies on DVD (they are wider than HDTV). This increases the perceived contrast ratio.
well if its a acctual thearter in your house get a projecter for sure but if its just like your main room get a tv
I will say buy TV and Home theater System http://www.surround-home-theater-system.com/ here you will get the latest one.
I’ll try make this a simple answer. I have a hi def sony projector mounted on my ceiling. Since its hi def, it has hdmi, component, and regular yellow video inputs. I have my 360 hooked up to mine with hdmi and its amazing at 80 inches. If your room is big enough you could easily get away with like a 120 inch screen. That’s double what you can get with an lcd/plasma.
So here’s how it works. You mount it on the ceiling, and then run a long hdmi cable and a component cable if you need it. send that to the back of your reciever, and hook up your electronics through your reciever. If you have a good reciever, you won’t lose any video quality.
If you have drop ceilings it will be easier to run the wires. If not, then paint them the same color as the ceiling and run them up there. Since you need to hook up everything to a reciever, you won’t be worrying about what sounds better, because you’ll be using surround sound. Once you have it hooked up, project it on the wall and decide what size screen you want before you buy the screen.
The projector is definetly the best way to go for home theatre, but here is the con. The room needs to be relatively dark. I hope this was simple enough, and go with blue ray if you can.