Do you play PC games using your TV/Home Theater setup?

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: shaolin95
YOyoYOhowsDAjello,

The 4805 scales down larger resolutions. It looks great when it's scaling down HD because it just takes 1 out of every 3 pixles out from a 720p signal and that changes it to 480p. I think that's called 3:2 pulldown, but I could be wrong.

Yep, you are very wrong...3:2 pulldown has nothing to do with scaling is the process of making 24 film frames fit into 30 fps...here is a link: http://www.dvdfile.com/news/special_report/production_a_z/3_2_pulldown.htm

SDE is a problem for LCDs... you'd have to be very close to a DLP image to notice it. Rainbows are the problem with DLP projectors.

SDE is a problem of both technologies...normally it will be more visible in a LCD compared to a DLP with the same res but in the case of a Panasonic ae500 or Sanyo Z3 the screendoor will be more visible in the 4805...that to say sitting distance for the 4805 should be between 1.60-2.00 (most recommended but I like 1.75) x screen width. With the aformentioned LCDs you can probably sit 1.5 x width. Still, I too have the 4805 and it is awesome...the incredible contrast, color and detail surpasses even more expensive PJs. It even comes precalibrated at 6500K and here is for real not some bogus claims like other displays. And ISF calibration costs $300 so having it come calibrated from factory is superb.
Regards

Yeah, I really wasn't sure on the 3:2 pulldown for the name, so I'm glad you told me what it really was. It's been a while since I looked at specifics behind projectors. I don't want to get upgradeitis from learning about a lot of great stuff that's coming out

Even when I was sitting at about 1.5 screen width with my 4805 I really didn't notice SDE. Now I'm at about 2.0 screen width with my different room.
Maybe I need a new prescription for my glasses, but I need to be closer than 1.5 screen width for the SDE to be noticable for me.

 

[nakedfrog]

My living room PC isn't quite up to par for modern games, so it mostly gets used for emulators and such. Have a Gamecube and Dreamcast too.

 

[shaolin95]

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Originally posted by: shaolin95
YOyoYOhowsDAjello,

The 4805 scales down larger resolutions. It looks great when it's scaling down HD because it just takes 1 out of every 3 pixles out from a 720p signal and that changes it to 480p. I think that's called 3:2 pulldown, but I could be wrong.

Yep, you are very wrong...3:2 pulldown has nothing to do with scaling is the process of making 24 film frames fit into 30 fps...here is a link: http://www.dvdfile.com/news/special_report/production_a_z/3_2_pulldown.htm

SDE is a problem for LCDs... you'd have to be very close to a DLP image to notice it. Rainbows are the problem with DLP projectors.

SDE is a problem of both technologies...normally it will be more visible in a LCD compared to a DLP with the same res but in the case of a Panasonic ae500 or Sanyo Z3 the screendoor will be more visible in the 4805...that to say sitting distance for the 4805 should be between 1.60-2.00 (most recommended but I like 1.75) x screen width. With the aformentioned LCDs you can probably sit 1.5 x width. Still, I too have the 4805 and it is awesome...the incredible contrast, color and detail surpasses even more expensive PJs. It even comes precalibrated at 6500K and here is for real not some bogus claims like other displays. And ISF calibration costs $300 so having it come calibrated from factory is superb.
Regards

Yeah, I really wasn't sure on the 3:2 pulldown for the name, so I'm glad you told me what it really was. It's been a while since I looked at specifics behind projectors. I don't want to get upgradeitis from learning about a lot of great stuff that's coming out

Even when I was sitting at about 1.5 screen width with my 4805 I really didn't notice SDE. Now I'm at about 2.0 screen width with my different room.
Maybe I need a new prescription for my glasses, but I need to be closer than 1.5 screen width for the SDE to be noticable for me.

SDE is viewer dependant so thats cool for you at 1.5x I use to have my old Sony W400 projecting a 8' wide screen sitting at 11' and there was no problem. If i had to sit 2 x width from the screen to me it wouldnt make sense to buy a projector then...

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Yeah, my projector came with a free 76" screen so I've been using that. Otherwise I'd have a 100"+ screen going at this distance. I'm kind of limited for seating options right now, but once I get out of this basement back home from college and back on campus, I'll be able to get up close again .

 

[coolred]

I still can't figure out how I am gonna hook this stuff up. For instance I need a way to get the audio out from my PC and into the receiver. The PC has optical in and out on it, it is located back near the projector, the receiver is at least 10 feet away. The longest optical cable I have found so far is 12 feet which wouldn't be long enough. And I imagine even if they have longer cables, they are probablly crazy expensive. Any other good ideas. Cause as it stands right now, my projector is basicallly useless. Since I can watch DVD's on it that are played from my PC, but I get no audio. Or I can watch the DVD's on my XBox with audio, but that is connected to my TV.

I mean there has to be a solution for this, obviously many people have had projectors before me, so there has to be something I am missing, or at least longer cables out there. But I would prefer not to spend as much on audio/video cables as I did on the projector itself.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

?

 

[coolred]

Doh!, I didn't even see those and I looked at cablesforless. Is that the best option to buy a coupel 12 foot optical cables and one of those?


Actually, i don't know how good they are, but i just found this place that has 50 foot optical cables for around 30 bucks, less then I expected.


I just am impatient and hate to wait fro stuff bought online to arrive. I like to be able to go out and buy it now, guess I can't have everything though. I do need to get me a longer cat5 cable though so I can get the PC back on my network.

 

[coolred]

Also i think I figured out why SDE wasn't a problem for me. I just actually measured to see what size screen I was shooting. Its approximately 57.5" in width, which should be a diagonal of like 66 or 67 inches. And I am seated probablly 10 feet away, so pretty close to the recommended 2x width distance. I had no idea that I was shooting such a small screen, it seems huge. Unfortunatly thats about the best I can do right now, since thats the biggest space of clean wall I have.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

I haven't used a coupler like that, so I don't know if they work well... as long as you get a signal though, I don't think the quality of digital cables really matters... it either works or it doesn't.

 

[coolred]

Yeah I may just look into longer cables, but I will keep the coupler in mind. I figured 20' plus long cables would easily run over 50 bucks or more. If I can get 50 foot cables for 30 bucks, I may just go that route. Then I also will need a longer set of ocmponent cables and an adaptor for them to couple them with the lines coming out of my xbox. And then maybe Svideo for hooking up my SDTV cable box.

I am also considering getting a PCI HDTV tuner card for the PC. But have just started looking into those.

 

[coolred]

I am wondering if maybe I shouldn't just move my reciever and xbox back onto the bookshelf with the PC and projector. That would put a lot mor enoise/heat producing stuff back by where we are sitting, but I know it would be cheaper/easier to run longer wires fromt he receiver to the speakers, then getting component and optical cables that can run from the PC/projector to the receiver and xbox.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: coolred
Yeah I may just look into longer cables, but I will keep the coupler in mind. I figured 20' plus long cables would easily run over 50 bucks or more. If I can get 50 foot cables for 30 bucks, I may just go that route. Then I also will need a longer set of ocmponent cables and an adaptor for them to couple them with the lines coming out of my xbox. And then maybe Svideo for hooking up my SDTV cable box.

I am also considering getting a PCI HDTV tuner card for the PC. But have just started looking into those.

Yeah, my component cables were pretty darn cheap.

Does the xbox need an HD pack or something to get component output?

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: coolred
I am wondering if maybe I shouldn't just move my reciever and xbox back onto the bookshelf with the PC and projector. That would put a lot mor enoise/heat producing stuff back by where we are sitting, but I know it would be cheaper/easier to run longer wires fromt he receiver to the speakers, then getting component and optical cables that can run from the PC/projector to the receiver and xbox.

Yeah, that would be a good way to keep cable costs down.

My PC is a pretty noisy POS even with the 7v mod on my fans, so I wanted to keep it a little farther away from the seating position.
The basement is already really loud though, which is pretty annoying at times.

 

[coolred]

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Originally posted by: coolred
Yeah I may just look into longer cables, but I will keep the coupler in mind. I figured 20' plus long cables would easily run over 50 bucks or more. If I can get 50 foot cables for 30 bucks, I may just go that route. Then I also will need a longer set of ocmponent cables and an adaptor for them to couple them with the lines coming out of my xbox. And then maybe Svideo for hooking up my SDTV cable box.

I am also considering getting a PCI HDTV tuner card for the PC. But have just started looking into those.

Yeah, my component cables were pretty darn cheap.

Does the xbox need an HD pack or something to get component output?

Yeah I bought the component set of cables for the xbox, got it for my PS2 as well, but don't use them any more since it is hooked up to a composite only TV. Although maybe if I can get my kid a new DVD player for his room, then maybe I will move it downstairs as well. Although I think I only have 2 component inputs on my receiver, and one on my TV. I guess all I need is 2 though, forgot I am using VGA for the computer, so it would just need an optical cable out to the receiver.


Yeah if I can put the PC, receiver, and xbox all in the same rack with the projector, I wouldn't need very long cables at all, and maybe be able to get by with what I already have now. Although I would need some more speaker wire, but thats relatively cheap, so I can handle that. JUst trying to decide if I can fit all that stuff on the shelf the way I have it now. I may have to rearange some furniture.

I actually want to move my living room around so I can use a bigger wall for the projector, so I can shoot a bigger image, but I am not sure how I can do this. If I have the projector shooting onto the wall about my TV then that limits the screen size due to the distance from the top of the TV to the ceiling, so no matter how wide the wall is, I couldn't really get any bigger of a screen as the TV would be in the way. Now if I have my TV where it is now, or maybe even somewhere else, and I shoot the projector onto a differant wall, then I have the problem of figuring out how to arrange the seating so we could easily watch either the projector or the TV without having to move furniture.

 

[coolred]

What guage of speaker wire should I get if i buy more? I just have an Onkyo HTiB system HTS 760 I think. Its a good system for the money, but not top of the line. I know it has really small wires in in now, so I would think anything would be better then whats in it. I was planning on getting 18 guage since its about the cheapest I have seen. But I think on the lowes or home depot site, it ssaid 18 guage was good for like 10-25 watts per channel, I am prettys ure my system is 100 watts per channel.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Speaker wire info

 

[coolred]

Yeah I found that site in a search myself, although I am not sure of what ohm rating my speakers are, so i don't know how to figure out the guage I need.


Uh nevermind, I just realized it is liste dont he back of the speaker, they are 8 ohm speakers. So if I need 30 foot runs or so, I should use either 18 or 16 guage wire?

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Originally posted by: coolred
Yeah I found that site in a search myself, although I am not sure of what ohm rating my speakers are, so i don't know how to figure out the guage I need.


Uh nevermind, I just realized it is liste dont he back of the speaker, they are 8 ohm speakers. So if I need 30 foot runs or so, I should use either 18 or 16 guage wire?

yep

I got a pretty good deal on some 12 gauge wire a year ago that I'm using.
I cut them in 50' lengths so I'd be able to keep reusing them for a variety of configurations. That leaves me with a lot of extra wire laying around, but whatever. I kind of gave up on making things neat.

 

[coolred]

So for anybody that has thier projector hooked up to thier computer, what settings are you running?

I hooked mine up and at 1024x768, the desktop looks okay, and I can read the icons and large or extra large font settings(don't recall which one), but I think I am near sighted, so i can't see stuf far away, and the text for websites like anadtech, while looking great is still a little hard for me to read.

I can make it readable by holding the Ctrl key and using my mouse wheel to increase the size, but then the text from the My Menu bar tends to spread over into the actual forums area and can overlap some of that text. Other sites are basically the same way. I assume there probablly isn't much i can do since sites are built to run at certain resolutions. But if anybody has any suggestion fro better web browsing from a projector, let me know.

And as soon as I get some insurance(pretty soon)I will likely go get my vision checked, hopefully that will help a lot.

 

[coolred]

Also what HDTV tuner cards are available for the PC, or am I better off buying a set top box type of tuner, or getting HDTV through my cable provider? I don't want to spend much on it, since I am not sure how much I will benefit from it or how often it will be used. So the cheaper option the better.

 

[777php]

check them out here.

 

[coolred]

Any idea how well the ATI HDTV wonder plays with Nvidia cards? I have heard its a great bundle for the price, but that it can cause some problems during instalationa nd getting it to work right, and also may not like nvidia cards very much. I have an ATI car as well, but it is an 8500DV, which is pre DX9.