At what screen size does a projector become cost effective?

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ControlD

Diamond Member
Apr 25, 2005
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I understand the ideas behind it, but I'm good with it. I just spent months of my time and a fair bit of money on this room. I'm happy with it for now. Maybe that can be a future project! Compared to what I had before, this is a HUGE improvement.

I also have more of the basement to go. I'm gonna call this room done for now so I can move onto the next project.

Sweet setup purbeast!
 
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SLU Aequitas

Golden Member
Jul 13, 2007
1,252
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Hey Dave, it's a 126"D AT screen, really happy with it. It's technically too big for the viewing distance, but I think it's perfect.

Also I like your colors purbeast. Definitely agree that, anything non white, even gray will help. I also know sometimes it's good to just take a break and enjoy what you've done :)
 

ControlD

Diamond Member
Apr 25, 2005
5,440
44
91
This past weekend I finally found one downside to watching everything on a 120" screen. DVDs really don't like as good as I once thought. When we were watching everything on a 46" TV the difference between Bluray and DVD really wasn't that noticeable.

We watched a movie on DVD for the first time on the projector and the difference from Bluray is instantly noticeable. It is still watchable but all of the sudden my huge movie collection doesn't seem so impressive anymore.
 

sdifox

No Lifer
Sep 30, 2005
100,234
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This past weekend I finally found one downside to watching everything on a 120" screen. DVDs really don't like as good as I once thought. When we were watching everything on a 46" TV the difference between Bluray and DVD really wasn't that noticeable.

We watched a movie on DVD for the first time on the projector and the difference from Bluray is instantly noticeable. It is still watchable but all of the sudden my huge movie collection doesn't seem so impressive anymore.

what are you using to play it? good scaler can make it more bearable :)
 

ControlD

Diamond Member
Apr 25, 2005
5,440
44
91
That's a good question (meaning I'm not exactly sure).

It is a LG 3D Bluray player. I should dig into the menus and see if it offers any scaling options.
 

SLU Aequitas

Golden Member
Jul 13, 2007
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Projectors and receivers can also have scalers, I know both my Denon and Sony have them (sony's is pretty good)
 

purbeast0

No Lifer
Sep 13, 2001
53,637
6,521
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This past weekend I finally found one downside to watching everything on a 120" screen. DVDs really don't like as good as I once thought. When we were watching everything on a 46" TV the difference between Bluray and DVD really wasn't that noticeable.

We watched a movie on DVD for the first time on the projector and the difference from Bluray is instantly noticeable. It is still watchable but all of the sudden my huge movie collection doesn't seem so impressive anymore.

the difference between 720p and 1080p is also very noticeable. they both still look good, but there is a noticeable difference for sure.

you think that looks bad, we put on a dvd copy of a transferred vhs copy of the 1982 redskins/cowboys nfc championship game last weekend on my 120" screen. now THAT looked terrible lol.

EDIT:

that is a big reason i rarely stream movies from amazon prime or anything in general, because the quality is noticeable. and don't get me started about the sound quality on streaming vs bluray. hell many of my buddies have all these latest screeners of the movies out now that i really want to watch and i refuse to watch them because they aren't 1080p with HD soundtracks.
 
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ControlD

Diamond Member
Apr 25, 2005
5,440
44
91
the difference between 720p and 1080p is also very noticeable. they both still look good, but there is a noticeable difference for sure.

On the flip side, I can now actually appreciate just how good BR looks.

I remember some years ago when BR first came out and we were at Sam's Club. They were showing some animated Pixar type movie and my daughter and I just stood there (three feet away from the TV) and marveled at the picture quality. I never really had that experience when I bought our first BR player and I was actually fairly disappointed.

Now that I have a big screen, I sort of have the initial feeling again. BR looks so good now. It just takes the proper screen size to seating distance ratio to work.
 

purbeast0

No Lifer
Sep 13, 2001
53,637
6,521
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On the flip side, I can now actually appreciate just how good BR looks.

I remember some years ago when BR first came out and we were at Sam's Club. They were showing some animated Pixar type movie and my daughter and I just stood there (three feet away from the TV) and marveled at the picture quality. I never really had that experience when I bought our first BR player and I was actually fairly disappointed.

Now that I have a big screen, I sort of have the initial feeling again. BR looks so good now. It just takes the proper screen size to seating distance ratio to work.

yep. to this day i still love watching finding nemo bluray on my setup. it just has so many mesmerizing looking scenes with all of the colors and visuals. avatar also has some incredible looking scenes. i think my all time favorite scene to watch on repeat in that movie is when he rides the dragon for the first time. such a great scene, visually and audibly.
 

KentState

Diamond Member
Oct 19, 2001
8,397
393
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We are buying a house with an unfinished, but studded basement. Plan to do something similar to Dave's and Purebeast setup once we move in. Really appreciate all the advice and ideas in this thread!
 

sdifox

No Lifer
Sep 30, 2005
100,234
17,895
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We are buying a house with an unfinished, but studded basement. Plan to do something similar to Dave's and Purebeast setup once we move in. Really appreciate all the advice and ideas in this thread!

4k projector :awe:
 

Kaido

Elite Member & Kitchen Overlord
Feb 14, 2004
51,540
7,233
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the difference between 720p and 1080p is also very noticeable. they both still look good, but there is a noticeable difference for sure.

I don't notice as much difference between 720p & 1080p (especially if the screen is 100" or less), but man, after eyeballing the LG 4K OLED's for awhile, it's really ruined 1080p for me. I was perfectly fine with 1080p up until then, now all I see is how much detail is missing in the picture :D
 

BarkingGhostar

Diamond Member
Nov 20, 2009
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And how close to the LG 4K OLED were you to know what you were missing? You had to cross some threshold to resolve what your eyes are capable of. For a 16:9 aspect that would be about 1.5x screen width (2.67x height) for 1080 line pairs. Increasing the horizontal lines decreases the sweet spot needed to resolve the resolution.

For instance, if one had a 160" WIDE 16:9 aspect screen for 1080P then one would expect that sweet spot to be 1.5x160" or 240" from the screen. If the horizontal resolution doubles you need to halve the distance. When the resolution goes up it doesn't mean your ability to resolve does, too.