Home Theater/Game Room Thread

I mean hell, you can get good quality 70" LEDs for just over a grand nowadays, not sure why anyone would go with a projector unless you literally have a movie theater-sized screen in your home (like 50ft x 20ft) or unless my room is so large that I'm sitting 20+ feet from the screen. I'd listen to arguments for projector vs LED if your sitting distance is 15-20 feet(but I'd still lean LED, personally) and 15 feet and in, projection is just a dumb choice at that point. 65-70+ inch LED all the way when under 15 feet.

joeboo_sl said:

I mean hell, you can get good quality 70" LEDs for just over a grand nowadays, not sure why anyone would go with a projector unless you literally have a movie theater-sized screen in your home (like 50ft x 20ft) or unless my room is so large that I'm sitting 20+ feet from the screen. I'd listen to arguments for projector vs LED if your sitting distance is 15-20 feet(but I'd still lean LED, personally) and 15 feet and in, projection is just a dumb choice at that point. 65-70+ inch LED all the way when under 15 feet.

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Ya think?

I'm having trouble finding anything with good gaming performance (0-45ms input lag) at the 70-80inch mark coming in at $1500. Mind pointing me at one? Because honestly I'd love to just go with a nice big LED TV instead of fiddling with a projector. Mind you, the idea of playing some of the more atmospheric titles coming out next year (No Man's Sky, Warhammer: Total War, Distance, Wild, Need for Speed) on a 120 inch screen is pretty alluring.

Heck, I'll even bump my budget for a TV up to $2000 because a projector would have related costs (screen, mounting/calibration, decor, furniture).

Thoughts?

Amazon.com: VIZIO E70-C3 70-Inch 1080p Smart LED HDTV - $1329: Electronics

has 40ms input lag according to the measurements in the review here

Vizio (E70-C3) Review

You might check out the chart at the bottom of this article...has a ton of TVs & model numbers listed with their input/response times
The Best Gaming TVs of 2015

joeboo_sl said:

I mean hell, you can get good quality 70" LEDs for just over a grand nowadays, not sure why anyone would go with a projector unless you literally have a movie theater-sized screen in your home (like 50ft x 20ft) or unless my room is so large that I'm sitting 20+ feet from the screen. I'd listen to arguments for projector vs LED if your sitting distance is 15-20 feet(but I'd still lean LED, personally) and 15 feet and in, projection is just a dumb choice at that point. 65-70+ inch LED all the way when under 15 feet.

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Five years ago, no. Today, with all of the new tech, yes. My projector and movie screen are collecting dust in storage. I still haven't sold them, because I'm trying to think of something cool to do with them.

Thanks man! That looks quite adequate.

So is the idea here that any LED is going to beat a projector in picture quality?

Input lag. Is it really that critical for playing video games? What are we talking about, the difference of 50-150ms here and there? (0.05 - 0.15 seconds)

Most HT setups like mine also route through an AVR for surround sound. You are adding even further lag there and mine is completely imperceptible. I have gamed like this for years without issue.

Jysin_sl said:

Input lag. Is it really that critical for playing video games? What are we talking about, the difference of 50-150ms here and there? (0.05 - 0.15 seconds)

Most HT setups like mine also route through an AVR for surround sound. You are adding even further lag there and mine is completely imperceptible. I have gamed like this for years without issue.

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My sensitivity to put lag starts to kick in around 0.05sec. 0.1 is an almost unplayable nightmare for me.

Quaid_sl said:

Thanks man! That looks quite adequate.

So is the idea here that any LED is going to beat a projector in picture quality?

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Define quality. I retired my projector because I wanted something that could be used for long periods of time. Projectors have high upkeep, in terms of installation, and maintenance. Many flat tv's are rated at 100,000 hours. Projectors, visual quality degrades if you are using it like a TV. As the effective lumens go down as life goes on, pic quality gets worse and worse.

This weekend, I played an MMO the whole time, while the TV ran non-stop. Don't expect that with a projector, unless you want to keep replacing the bulb. In the past, I would have never let the kids use the projector for cartoons, games, Twitch, etc. But with the TV, I'm OK with that.

Lyrical_sl said:

Five years ago, no. Today, with all of the new tech, yes. My projector and movie screen are collecting dust in storage. I still haven't sold them, because I'm trying to think of something cool to do with them.

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Definitely talking about now, rather than 5 or 10 years ago. Heck, I almost bought a projector about 5-6 years ago. But since then, TV prices have dropped like a rock, and projector prices really haven't as significantly. Replacements bulbs aren't an insignificant cost either, usually in the $50-$100 range for good projectors.

5+ years ago, comparing a 70" TV (probably $3000+) to a good projector ($1000 + replacement bulbs) seemed reasonable. But now that those TVs are 1/3 the price they used to be, and projectors are only maybe 30% cheaper, it's not a slam-dunk anymore, unless you are needing extremely huge screen sizes. a 70" TV is going to be plenty big for 99% of the general public.

Mick_sl said:

I bought that TV atCOSTCOthis weekend for $1089 and so far it is great.

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Yeah... not such a great price here in the great white north...

Vizio® E70-C3 70-in. Smart 1080p LED TV

Compare that to...

BenQ HT1075 1080P 2200 ANSI Lumen 3D Full HD Home Theater Projector: Amazon.ca: Electronics

I could get a projector, the screen, and a very respectable 5.1 system for the same price as just that Vizio e70. From what I'm reading, the Vizio e60 panels are far superior to the larger ones in almost every respect, and the 65/70 inch panels get lackluster reviews.

I've never owned a projector, but this seems like a value proposition to me. Unless of course, the cons outweigh the pros. How much better (clarity, brightness, sharpness, colour fidelity etc) is an LED panel's picture than a projector? Is a projector a huge pain in the ass to own? Perhaps they take forever to power on, or need to be recalibrated frequently? I'd love to know.

Don't get a projector if you plan on using it more than 10-15 hours a week. If all you're doing is watching a handful of movies per week, its fine. If it's something you're going to want to use for multiple hours every day, it's a bad idea.

only 3-4 hours of use per day and you're burning through a $100+ bulb every year

Quaid_sl said:

Is a projector a huge pain in the ass to own? Perhaps they take forever to power on, or need to be recalibrated frequently? I'd love to know.

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My projector cost me about $1.2k to have installed and calibrated (it may have been a little higher, because I had a 7.1 setup put in also). They also had a heck of a time getting power to where it was on the ceiling. Bulbs on it were $350 a year to replace. If you use it heavily, the lumens get dark and quality goes to crap. The screen is a 94" Firehawk. Contrast that with an 80" TV, that was 3D capable, it only cost 300 to mount and doesn't need replacement parts as much.

I'm the type of guy that likes to play MMO's and have movies running in the background, so the TV made more sense. Saturday I played MMO's from 9AM to 9PM, while I watched movies. You can't do that with a projector very often, before you see a lowering in quality. I remember we had a marathon session of Rome, and by the time it got to the end, you could tell a difference. If you run a bulb more than three to four hours, you see a drastic drop in quality that can only be fixed with a new bulb. Most bulbs are rated at 5,000 hours, but if you watch more than a few hours a day, it's not going to last that long. It will be so dark that you won't want to keep it.

attog_sl said:

Lyrical nice Atari and EQ posters. I do all my gaming on my pc and the theater room is strictly for movies, so I can't help much on the gaming projector question.

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Thanks, allposters.com has just about every nerdy thing you'd want on a wall. Wait for the 40% off sales. I always mount them on wood frames from there, with a light acryllic cover.

I've set my room up to be a mancave, so I do game on the 80 inch. I played Forza 6 a bit this weekend on it.

I redid my basement about 6 years ago and installed a home theatre, its not a dedicated theater space like attog's but it works for me.

Screen is 106"

Projector: Epson Pro 7500 UB
http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/j...u=V11H587020MB
I think this is the current model, haven't kept up on their model # changes.

Receiver: Integra DTR-6.9
http://www.integrahometheater.com/Pr...urce=prodClass

Front, Center, and Surrounds: Revel Concerta (F12, C12 & S12)
http://www.revelspeakers.com/product.../concerta.html

Sub: Velodyne MiniVee
http://velodyne.com/minivee.html

Bulbs run around $250 for my projector, I can find them cheaper ($60 range) but the cheap ones have been known to last all of 10 minutes. I currently have ~4600 hours on this bulb and while it may be dimmer than a brand new one the difference isn't that noticeable. That being said this is my second projector as the first one developed a red band on top and bottom of the screen within a 1000 hours or so. It was under warranty and Epson replaced the unit. I believe I'm on my third bulb in this projector, one exploded at ~600 hours and the other lasted around 1600 or so. Epson replaced both of those bulbs for free as well, although they were sure to tell me not to ask for any more free bulbs.

Just like any other TV once you get a projector calibrated it stays that way, every once in a while I have to re-focus the lens but that takes all of 5 seconds (Low ceilings in my basement) and powering on takes all of a minute. The most important thing when using a projector is total darkness as any ambient light will affect the brightness of the picture.

Do you guys have any advice for a room that is imperfectly shaped? I posted pics. There are too many areas where sound gets caught. I know there are gaps in the sound, one where you enter the room from the stairs, and the other where there is a partition where the pool table is. I had an installer come out and tell me the only thing they could do is move speaker placement around. Would a receiver with Dolby Atmos help, or does the movie/show have to be encoded?

I've caved in (no pun intended) and called professional installers for a consult.

I've lived in houses where my setup sounds flawless, where the room was perfect. The room is not perfect now. I bought in an area where the Real Estate prices are the highest in the state, so I'm not moving again. My house value has gone up 100 k in the last year and a half (sounds great, but the other luxury homes have gone up just as much). I need to make do with what I have.

I figure it like this. .. no matter what the size or shape of the room, there's only going to be one small area where the sound is perfectly balanced. Make that the spot where you sit the most, and let the rest be. You can't balance your sound to sound perfect in the front corner AND back corner of the room, it's just not going to happen.

Most of the guests that come over won't know the difference anyway. Most won't know what the difference is between 2.1 and 7.1 so why worry about having the perfect setup for them?

joeboo_sl said:

I figure it like this. .. no matter what the size or shape of the room, there's only going to be one small area where the sound is perfectly balanced. Make that the spot where you sit the most, and let the rest be. You can't balance your sound to sound perfect in the front corner AND back corner of the room, it's just not going to happen.

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I'm saying in the one area of the room where we watch movies, that using an Audyssey EQ mic to calibrate, the sound is off. I had a professional installer come by a month ago, and he said it wasn't a hardware issue, but a speaker placement issue. He said he would place the speakers on the ceiling above us, to push the sound down, instead of having it on the sides. He said the job wasn't large enough for his company to make the 40 minute drive, but ran the consultation as a courtesy to me.

Ever been in a room where the sound is wonky, even though the system is nice? In other houses, it sounds like heaven.