Anyone into home theater? I have a mid-level projection setup consisting of Paradigm Reference Studio in 7.1, Onkyo AV receiver, Sony BluRay, and a Mitsubishi 720p projector. It looks and sounds pretty good. Also have a second DVD player. Need to add a subwoofer and upgrade to 1080p projection. I would have gone to 1080p projector already, but prices were not in line with quality and none of my friends machines did not look all that good. Who wants to see smeared-looking images due to buffer lag and resolution that mostly reveals pimples. The weakest thing about the Mitsubishi was not the 720p, that was ok, actually it was the black & white contrast performance which has dramatically improved in the latest generation of projectors. They are hitting 50,000:1. Light output has gone up too, 2000 lumens or so. Just using a large photographic paper stretched across a frame for a screen.

 

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Me, 46" Samsung HD LCD TV 1080p and whatever sound comes out of the speakers if fine with me.

 

I bought a new 42" Sanyo HDTV in 2006 and that piece of junk quit after 13 months right out of warranty. That was it for me and TVs- haven't had one since. The larger ones (50" or so) work alright for home theater. I prefer the life-sized image from a projector with a screen diagonal of over 8'. My speakers are somewhat overkill, but I also use them as a phonograph. I also hook my laptop up to this system and watch streamed content sometimes, mostly videos form Netflix. They have hi-def streaming now which makes the projector useful for that. The sound is actually most of what makes a system good in my view. That and some comfortable lounge chairs.

 

Without a dollar figure this is a tough question....

If the 4000-5500 range isn't out of the budget, look at JVC's projectors. They really are just plain crazy. the only competition in that range is the Sony projector.

Sure there are better but then you are looking at 15K+

I haven't looked in a couple years so the "current" model escapes me. The "RS1" was the custom model and there was a consumer version for the range I stated.

What type screen do you have?

Also, check out the new OnKyo equipment...They have 3 HDMI 1.4a (3D) which are quite affordable and really rock. the upper 2 have Silicon Optics chips for Video conversion!

 

I was going to just pick one of the top 3 off of ProjectCentral's Editors List, and $5k is a bit out of my range. Not by much though. I see one JVC projector on that list but I don't have that much money right now being unemployed. A couple of beers and I doubt it matters very much.

My research on screens tells me the only thing you get with more money is better reflectivity. In other words, if you have a dim enough room you are fine. There are some pretty good screens out there for a few hundred bucks. For a few bills you can get a retraction motor. I have a framed photographic-paper screen I made in the garage and it is most of what an expensive screen is without the added ambient light performance. A lot of people just use the wall with good enough results.

Onkyo makes great AV equipment and I have one of their machines. It has HDMI ports and 7.1 surround sound. If 3D is worth the money, please let us know. You are an early adopter! There can't be that many titles available but maybe there will be in a few years.

 

...I wish I had the new receiver! I don't even ahave an HDMI on my onkyo....

Still rocks though.

With some searching and if you are ok with an older model you can probably get the Sony (100?) or a two year old JVC (older bulb tech mostly) for a bit less with some searching.

If you have a dedicated room that can be dark, you probaly can get away with a lessor screen. Eclipse used to make some affordable screens that still looked great! (the one I saw was under 500 bucks)

 

I love my 55 inch LED Samsung, 1080p. Samsung BluRay player. No fancy sound system, because it's in my bedroom.

 

What ever happened to plasma? I remember 10 years ago that was all the fuss.

 

Well, it's cheap now. It has a lot of glare from windows / sunshine. It uses a lot of energy, and produces heat. It has limited lifespan.

In between LED and plasma is LCD.

 

Well my insider advice from Sony is to not buy Sony! - overpriced and outperformed by the rivals now and they know it. Panasonic's considered the best for visuals, not sure about the speakers.

Don't forget the low-slung comfy sofa


The advantage of plasma was that lcd tv's couldn't work well in big sizes. Which is why sony put most of their R&D into plasma, unfortunately lcd is almost as good quality now for large sizes and much much cheaper. Sony got it wrong and is still playing a painful game of catchup with lcd's.

Sorry for the thread drift but I don't have any info on projectors!