Home projectors, thoughts?

I think you will be disappointed with the performance of sub £1k projectors. Nobody cares about the depth of grey/black on a powerpoint presentation, but it matters when watching a film.
 
Domestically, I’d go for a big TV over a projector unless you are set on a cinema
Like Lucid, I started with big CRT projectors that weighed a ton and needed a lot of set up.
I use projectors these days more theatrically so projecting onto weird shapes, fabrics and floors/ceilings.

Sound is way underrated by most projector/ tv buyers.
A decent sound system makes a crap TV /projector ten times better for a relatively small amount
 
Saw a projector on the Gadget show recently which gave perfect picture in daylight conditions at about £1000
 
foxhole said:
Saw a projector on the Gadget show recently which gave perfect picture in daylight conditions at about £1000
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You don't happen to t.remember the model name at all, do you?

I ask because, if true, then somehow they've managed to break the laws of physics. That, or things aren't quite what they seem on TV.

Projecting light means beating ambient light. However, there's always the catch that no matter how bright the highlights, a projector can't project an absence of light, and so the white screen or wall is as black as black gets. If there's ambient light falling on it then it will illuminate the white of the projection surface. For this reason, a projector can't make an image that includes dark portions of the picture that are darker than the ambient light and yet still visible.

There are certain types of light managing projector screens though. These deal with ambient light by either reflecting it away from the viewer or by absorbing it. There are certain restrictions though.

ALR screens - (Ambient Light Rejecting) - require the projector image to strike the screen at a specific angle. There are ones of these that work well with the ultra short-throw projectors where the light is coming from almost directly below.

CLR screens - Ceiling Light Rejecting - do pretty much what it says on the tin. They reject light from above.

These screens are often £1,000 or more.
 
Sorry , don’t remember though you might be able to see the program on catch up tv.
 
foxhole said:
Sorry , don’t remember though you might be able to see the program on catch up tv.
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You're kidding, aren't you?! There are three full series on catch-up. That's 30 hours to sift through not to mention all the damned adverts. I haven't got time for that, particularly when it might well prove to be a wild goose chase.

Youtube had an episode where they tested three projectors, but I'd hardly call the test conditions daylight. It was all indoors, no windows, and just a bit of pub-level lighting.

Sorry, but in the absence of anything more definitive I'm going to say that the Laws of Physics still hold true, and whatever you saw maybe wasn't quite what you thought. If you can at least come back with an episode number and series then I'd be willing to give it a look.
 
DLP is the best option (maybe it's standard now)
Then decide on the media player (I have mine attached to a raspberry pi and its perfect)
Download all content from torrent sites using parrot linux as it provides Tor network with just 1 click (and back again)
Top tip..TOR is slow (for obvious reasons) but if you use TOR to get the magnetic links to the torrent and then jump out of TOR and refresh your torrent client source, you get the full speed again.
TOR let's you get everything and parrot linux makes sure you never catch a cold
 
old duffer said:
where do you get the 4k content? Upscaling HD is not the same lol
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Just for example:

SKY Q
Netflix
Amazon Prime
YouTube
Disney+
Apple Store
Google Play Store

4K Blu-Ray
4K Gaming

Limited selection on iPlayer
Coming soon on Paramount+

...and many more lesser known providers.
 
RandomGrinch said:
Just for example:

SKY Q
Netflix
Amazon Prime
YouTube
Disney+
Apple Store
Google Play Store

4K Blu-Ray
4K Gaming

Limited selection on iPlayer
Coming soon on Paramount+

...and many more lesser known providers.
Click to expand...
all 4k upscaling...not the same as 4k recording.
 
Around next month is a really handy time to have one, there are some Halloween effects videos doing the rounds that look really spooky, you use a projector to show them on your window :)
 
old duffer said:
where do you get the 4k content? Upscaling HD is not the same lol
Click to expand...
I'm not sure where the confusion is, but the list @RandomGrinch provided is accurate.

Sites such as Disney+, Apple, Amazon Prime, Netflix (with the appropriate account level) all routinely provide programming in native UHD (4K) resolution. A lot of it carries Dolby Vision or HDR10/10+ encoding too.

SkyQ boxes certainly upscale 1080i and SD broadcast to UHD resolution in much the same way that the old Sky+HD boxes could be set to upscale all non-HD to 1080i. This is done partly because flatscreen TVs take a couple of seconds to adjust to a new signal resolution. This interruption slows down channel scrolling, so it's easier to just upscale everything rather than have the boxes display the signals at native resolution. The public prefers this even if native would be better with certain TVs and projectors.

However, SkyQ does carry native UHD material too. Most of it is only available as download / streamed content, but it does have sports broadcasting in native UHD resolution. Virgin Media is much the same.

All broadcast and the vast majority of streamed UHD content is reduced in quality compared to UHD 4K content from a disc player. This is THE premium quality source for domestic viewing. However, that doesn't stop broadcast and streaming being true native UHD resolution.

Nomenclature:
Consumer market displays are UHD resolution. 3840 x 2160.

Commercial displays such as digital cinema are true 4K resolution. 4096 x 2160

The consumer market has appropriated the '4K' handle on the basis that many of the TVs can process and rescale / crop 4096 4K to fit a 3840 pixel display.

The digital -film and -cinema industries have given up trying to draw the distinction between true 4K and consumer UHD which has become widely known as 4K even if not strictly correct.
 
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