okedoke. so im gonna get one, can anyone reccomend whats yhe best make and value for money?

need to hook it up to a pc and a sky HD box, oh and a 360

cheers

I can recommend the Optoma HD65, it's a 720 DLP projector, Dixons are knocking them out for about £420 with a discount code.

If you are going for DLP best go for a demo just in case you are prone to rainbows.

Picture quality is brilliant, Sky HD and Bluray look excellent, it also has plenty of user controls to get the best out of it. Ordinary TV looks very good too as does DVD. The PJ is very bright and even works well with just the curtains closed during the daytime, but it's only in a darkened room when it comes to life. Colours are very natural and the images just jump out at you from the screen.

You can use the PJ in various ways, desktop, ceiling front/rear projection.

Lamp life is about 3000hrs and cheap to replace, £95.

Screen choice is also important, I use a 1.1 gain screen from Beamax. Positioning is critical as well as there's no lens shift, so working all the distances out can be a headache, there is a distance calculator available from projector point that really helps.

It's a fantastic PJ for very little money.

There is a thread over at AV Forums dedicated to this PJ, it has loads of user comments and plenty of screenshots that will give you an idea on what this PJ can do.

http://www.avforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=747144

thanks for your info mate

one more question, what sort of distance does the PJ need to be from the screen? is 3/4 metres to short?

thanks again sir.

oh, and rainbows? ? ?

and what size screen would u recomend?

ive found this on ebay



80'' ELECTRIC MOTORISED- HD PROJECTOR PROJECTION SCREEN
ULTRA HI-GRADE- GLASS BEADED - HD READY - UK STOCK -NR

is that any good? like i said before i should be able to get the projector around 4 metres away from the screen.

all help much appreciated.

You can use this to calculate screen size for various projectors given the throw (distance between screen and PJ). This is invaluable so you know the PJ you buy will give you the screen you require in the space you have.

It's not just a case of how big the screen is, you have to account for seating distance as well, this roughly translates to 1.5x the dia of the screen. How far will you be sitting?

For 80" dia screen with the HD65 you'd need to position the PJ 2.88m (9.5ft) away from the screen.

If you have upto 4m then you'd be able to throw an image of 112" dia.

Not had any experience with any of the screens off Ebay, they look OK. I purchased mine from a dedicated supplier in Sweden, it took two days to deliver and cost me £150 delivered. It's not an electric screen only a manual. The quality of the casing and screen is very good, it's very well made.

Rainbows can be a side affect of DLP, all depends on the speed of the colour wheel, how many segments and colours used. They are generally worse on single chip models, those that use two/three chips and higher speeds tend to be a lot better.

You may be susseptable to rainbows you may not, it doesn't affect everyone. Some can put up with them where others can't, with some it brings on headaches and a feeling of nausea.

Best to get a demo, would be nothing worse than setting it all up to find the pictures are unwatchable.

Those who suffer badly from the rainbow effect normally opt for LCD, these can be prone to the screen door effect.

More on the rainbow effect.

http://www.projectorcentral.com/lcd_dlp.htm

Hello again!

Ok right, i will be sitting 3.5 metres away from the screen, definatly no more than that.

How do i go about getting a demo sorted?

SOrry im confusing you i can tell.

the furthest point i can mount the PJ from the screen is 3.5 metres away.

The HD65 will give you 98" dia screen @ 3.5m.

Seating distance of 3m - 4.8m (10' - 16').

The unit has a zoom lens so you should get 100" screen out of it, that shouldn't degrade the image in any way.

okedoke, so if i bought an 80" screen i would have issues yea?

Also.

Im going to be wiring the sound up to a Crossover which then runs into a 2.5KW QSCRMX Power amp which then runs into 4 x 15" 600watt bass bins and 2 x 500watt mackie mid/top cabinets.

Will the picture run out of sync with this amount of gear for the sound to run through when the imagine only has to run through Laptop>PJ>Screen, as appose to the sound going thru Laptop>Crossover>Amp>Speakers.

however i can setup a delay using VLC so its not too much bother.

but yea main question is now can i still buy an 80inch screen, i dont think a 100" screen will fit.

So long as you can position the PJ @ 2.88m from the screen no, it will fill an 80" screen.

yea i need the widescreen jobby

am going to order this thing this week,, will put screenies up if anyones interested.