Home Cinema
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I'm progressively moving forward on my idea to one day consider eventually changing my TV setup (in other words: I think about it every now and then but can never actually get to do something about it), and I'm totally lost in the bazillion of different things that exist, so let's start a new thread to get conflicting, useless and pedantic advice!
My main goal is to get a system that is visually un-intrusive when unused, I don't want to see a huge TV screen hanging in my lounge all the time. Incidentally, if a roll-up screen like the one demonstrated in last CES ever becomes really available at a reasonable cost, I would probably love that because of that aspect.
So I have two ideas in mind: either wrapping the TV in some kind of custom TV cabinet with doors (kind of like these), but that will still always likely look like, well, a huge piece of wood hiding a TV, or a projector projecting directly on the white wall (I guess my clean white wall would be good enough, but maybe I would need to at least repaint it with a specific finish?).
I saw at a friend's house a setup with an ultra-short throw projector, and that looked quite nice because it means I don't have to run cables across the room and mount stuff on the ceiling, and with a picture quality etc. that's very much enough for me. That's about as far as I can go with some degree of confidence in describing what I want, and I'm not even so sure that's really what I should go for.
So now you can go wild with suggesting various models, or which technical aspects I should watch for and which are pure marketing fluff. Assume a mid-range budget if you want although since I haven't decided anything I could consider splurging if that's really worth it.
Also, the projector (if that's what I'm picking in the end) is only part of it. I would need some sound system to go with it, I assume there would be at least one subwoofer plus some standard speakers (again, I don't care about getting a Dolby Surround Max eleventy.1 TrueSound Gobbledygook system, I just want decent sound for TV watching and the occasional movie).
Also also and because this is TD
, you can safely assume the dumbest and IoT-less the system is, the better. It's unlikely to even get plugged into the wifi (unless I really, really have to), given how crap the broadband is and how useless "smart" stuff is.
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@remi said in Home Cinema:
(I guess my clean white wall would be good enough, but maybe I would need to at least repaint it with a specific finish?).
We use a wall at work and it's not fantastic. I think one of the projector paints would probably be a good idea, or at least a very matt finish.
So now you can go wild with suggesting various models
We've had a few here and I really like Optoma's stuff. Works really well, the Sony one we had was crap.
Edit: I'd also prioritise lumens over resolution personally.
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@Cursorkeys Resolution-wise, I guess it should be at the very least full HD, and maybe even 4K in order to be future-proof (it's unlikely I'll change it before it dies, hopefully more than 2 years from now...). But that's not a very high bar when it comes to projector, I think.
Luminosity is indeed something I'm worrying about, there is some natural light (and it will stay this way). But I have no idea how many is a good value there. Could be that in practice, anything will work reasonably?
I'm also wary of looking at office projectors because of the noise. What's negligible or tolerable in a business meeting might be far too loud in a quiet home (heck, even just the humming of the AC in my office would drive me mad at home). And again, while some projectors (not all!) do list some noise values, I have no idea how much is "reasonably quiet", nor how reliable the measurements are.
Repainting the wall doesn't bother me too much, especially since it's something I could do later if needed. So unless it's an absolute must-do-before-starting, I don't really care for now.
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As I understand a good projection surface is a greyish silver, so not exactly a nice living room wall surface either. Since you also mention a roll-up screen, a dumb roll-up screen with a projector on the other side of the room may be an idea?
Since a projector is on the other side of the room from the screen, you will always have wires going to the other end of the room.
As I understand foldable smartphone screens are coming really soon now - quite possibly less than a year. For TV-sized surfaces, the cost may increase linearly or faster with screen area - but it may not. Hard to say.
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@PleegWat said in Home Cinema:
As I understand foldable smartphone screens are coming really soon now - quite possibly less than a year. For TV-sized surfaces, the cost may increase linearly or faster with screen area - but it may not. Hard to say.
As was mentioned, they had a demo at CES of an OLED TV that rolls into its base. No word on availability or pricing yet, but it's probably "later" and "way too much"
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@remi said in Home Cinema:
Resolution-wise, I guess it should be at the very least full HD, and maybe even 4K in order to be future-proof (it's unlikely I'll change it before it dies, hopefully more than 2 years from now...). But that's not a very high bar when it comes to projector, I think.
That sounds sensible, ours is 1080p and that seems good.
@remi said in Home Cinema:
Luminosity is indeed something I'm worrying about, there is some natural light (and it will stay this way). But I have no idea how many is a good value there. Could be that in practice, anything will work reasonably?
The one we have is 4200 lumens. That's barely acceptable, IMHO, on a bright day outside with no direct sunlight (corner office).
@remi said in Home Cinema:
I'm also wary of looking at office projectors because of the noise. What's negligible or tolerable in a business meeting might be far too loud in a quiet home (heck, even just the humming of the AC in my office would drive me mad at home). And again, while some projectors (not all!) do list some noise values, I have no idea how much is "reasonably quiet", nor how reliable the measurements are.
Probably is wise to steer clear of non-home ones then if noise is that much of a factor. You take a light-output drop though on the home ones by the look of it, I guess precisely because they can't cool the lamps as aggressively.
You could also look at laser projectors, they're the fancy new tech for projection. Big money, but very bright and very quiet (29dB!, it'd be practically inaudible):
https://www.projectorpoint.co.uk/epson-eb-l400u.html
Edit: If A/C noise would bother you (as a reference level) then I think you'd probably want to stay under about 45dB. That's about the level of a normal home PC for you when you're at the desk.
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@remi Will you be able to run the cables through the walls if needed all the way to the other end of the room? What's the upper limit on your budget?
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@stillwater That wasn't perhaps very clear in my initial post, but I am specifically looking at ultra-short throw projectors, i.e. projectors that sit less than 50 cm away from the screen (or wall, whatever).
The main reason I'm considering those is to avoid the wires issue. I could probably run cables in the ceiling and up to a convenient location to anchor a ceiling projector above my sofa, but it would be either an ugly job, or a very tedious one (there is a false ceiling in my lounge, although I don't know how thick it really is, so in theory I could just make a hole at entry/exit points and then spend hours fumbling around to manage to drive a cable through...).
I know, or at least I guess, that ultra short throw will mean some compromise on image quality (distortion, luminosity, homogeneity of picture etc.) but from the one I saw at a friend's, and it wasn't by a far a top-of-the-range model, it's more than enough for my needs.
So yeah, everyone, have you got feedback on ultra short throw projectors?
Budget, as I said, no clear upper limit. I'm not going to spend millions and I just want something comfortable, but on the other hand since that would be a purchase that I hope would last me quite some time, I am ready to invest a bit more. At this stage, I'm more trying to get an idea of what is important and how price plays with that, I'll pick an exact price range later.
@PleegWat said in Home Cinema:
As I understand a good projection surface is a greyish silver, so not exactly a nice living room wall surface either. Since you also mention a roll-up screen, a dumb roll-up screen with a projector on the other side of the room may be an idea?
I might indeed end up with having a roll-up screen, but again this is something I can easily change after having installed my initial setup, if I realize that the blank wall isn't satisfactory, so it's not a major issue for me.
@hungrier said in Home Cinema:
As was mentioned, they had a demo at CES of an OLED TV that rolls into its base. No word on availability or pricing yet, but it's probably "later" and "way too much"
Yeah, actually that video was one of the things that motivated me to start looking again. I know that practically speaking (i.e. even if it gets into production it will be much too expensive!) that thing is not going to be in my living room for years, but the idea really, really appeals to me a lot.
@Cursorkeys : thanks for all the advice. I'll keep the lumens/dB values somewhere as some rough guide points. Laser projectors look nice, and they do seem to exist as ultra-short throw ones. Combining both criterions I get a nice short list. But wow, that's expensive! Minimum GBP 2500, more like 3000... and that's obviously without the sound system on top of that. I could spend that if I really wanted to, but do I...?
