Neophyte seeking suggestions

[Duke of Dorkdom]

I'm looking for a projector for under $1000, and, of course, the less the better. Its for casual viewing of movies, and portability is a plus. The source will, at first, be a Apple Mac mini, so 1080i isn't an absolute necessity. Heck, I don't think there are any sub $1000 1080i projectors. Guess the top priorities are compatibility with the Mac and price.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

[Hdale85]

Optoma HD20, full 1080p and a very high 500:1 ANSI Contrast Ratio. Extremely bright can easily light up a 130" or bigger screen. It's getting quite good reviews. Only down side is the black level isn't the best but it's not bad either from what I've been told. It costs 999, there was a place that was giving away a free screen with it but not sure who it was.

[jbreezy5]

I'm looking for a projector for under $1000, and, of course, the less the better. Its for casual viewing of movies, and portability is a plus. The source will, at first, be a Apple Mac mini, so 1080i isn't an absolute necessity. Heck, I don't think there are any sub $1000 1080i projectors. Guess the top priorities are compatibility with the Mac and price.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

Would probably recommend consider placement a priority too. If portability is a consideration, placement probably w/b also. DLP typically need to be properly centered, LCDs have keystone correction which gives more placement flexibility. Should be able to find an affordable Sony LCD projector in your range.

The most affordable projectors I've seen are InFocus, which have a good reputation for picture quality but are DLPs; they can be had on the cheap, though, but the most affordable ones w/b for DVD-quality not HD.

-JBreezy-

[George Bellefontaine]

According to the specs,the Optoma has no lens shift and has a 116" offset, so placement will definitely have to be a consideration.

[Spanky Ham]

What JB and George said. If placement is going to be a concern, then DLP may be out of the question. That being said it sounds like price is your overriding concern. I would look at 720p pjs, as there are a lot of decent pjs below $1k. Also, look at videogon. Digitals can be a crap shoot on the used market, but can net you a good bargain. I have a line on a Sony Pearl for less than a grand. I may just buy it. If you push your budget, then AVS was blowing out JVC RS2s for like $2200.

You are very fortunate, as Seattle seems to be a big HT area. If you buy the Vivitek 1080p, then Darinp2 on AVS is willing to modify it for better performance. Even if you don't, you should contact Darin and ask to see his HT.

[Hdale85]

Yeah I suppose if you have strict placement requirements then the Optoma may not be the right choice, but if it can work then the Optoma, Vivitek or BenQ budget models are all excellent options. There is also the new Mitsubishi HC3800 which is said to be quite a step up from the other budget models (the ones that are out anyways) and it's MSRP is 1499 and expects to street for something like 1300.

[Spanky Ham]

Doogie,
Based on what? Have you seen these pjs? I mentioned to Darin over the weekend that these pjs might be ok for there price. He thinks that they might not be that good based on the chip there using and the size of said chip. I know a guy in Dallas who compared a lot of pjs and found that his 720p dlp was better than most of the low price 1080p pjs.

[Hdale85]

Better in what regards? I've been researching quite a few PJ's lately and the HD20 has an ANSI contrast ratio of 456:1 which is very good. The highest Projector Central has ever measured was the BenQ W20000 which did 550:1 ANSI CR. Also on a screen that size 1080p is a huge plus. Not to say 720p won't look nice but I'd have a hard time believing that a 720p model was better in all regards. Maybe it had better black levels which is believable but black levels aren't everything. Sounds like he plans on using it in his living room which is more then likely not 100% light controlled so the black level issue shouldn't be that big of a deal. I generally trust Projector Central reviews as they are generally truthful. The HD20 and HC3800's aren't top end performers I agree but most of the 720p models left now are older designs and surely aren't going to perform on par with most of the 2K or more 1080p projectors right now either. Which 720p DLP does the guy in Dallas have?

[Spanky Ham]

Doogie,
The guy in Dallas has the Optoma HD 7100, I believe. He owned a CRT before that, so he knows what a good image looks like.

projector central, are you serious? They are so bad that I won't even capitalize their name. There are a lot of factors that play into a good image not just resolution. I won't go into them, but ANSI is important (if pjc even knows how to measure it) depending on the room. If you don't have a dark room then high ANSI really isn't going to mean a whole lot. On/off will mean more in a light room than ANSI. What you are also missing is that these new low cost dlps are using old chips, the dark chip 2. On top of that, they will be using inferior quality optics due to the price. How about this, would you rather have this new Vivitek 1080p or say a used Yamaha DPX-1300 720p? The Yamaha was considered one of the best pjs like four years ago by Greg Rogers of Widescreen Review. It has superior optics, dark chip 3 and a Realta VP. Outside of resolution this pj will be superior to these low cost dlps.

Finally, just so everyone doesn't think that I don't appreciate resolution. I spent some time with the JVC 4k at Cedia this past weekend. With 4k material it was best in show. With upscaled bluray, I am not sure if it was better than some of the others, but with 4k it looked incredible.

[Hdale85]

Well from what I've seen Projector Centrals measurements usually match up pretty close to others like Art from Projector Reviews and what not. Either way I'm sure the HD 7100 looks nice and in some cases the extra resolution may not be noticed I suppose it all just depends. I was just throwing some info out there to the guy as he was under the impression that he couldn't get 1080i (believe he meant 1080p) for under 1k.

[Duke of Dorkdom]

Thanks for the advise so far guys. Guess I need to supply some more information. The pj will be used in the living room. We have an extra room that is my "man cave" for 2 channel audio, which is a higher priority to me than video. The portability was a just in case the wife decides that the pj should go in the man cave too, but that scenario is not that likely since she doesn't like going in there and she likes watching movies.

We are not videophiles by any stretch of the imagination. Currently using an old JVC 27" CRT l'art and content with the picture quality to give you an idea of where we stand. The projector is more a space issue as we plan to have a screen attached to the ceiling that is retractable.

[George Bellefontaine]

To me sounds like one of the cheaper lcd PJs with a zoom lense, and vertical and horizontal lens shift would be suitable for you, Duke. Most of the lcd PJs offer a pretty good zoom range so placement shouldn't be a problem.