The big move and my new want..

[Birdy]

As I am moving on the 5th of April to a big new shiny flat of my own with very high ceilings I have decided I would like to myself a projector to attach to my PC to use for games and DVD's.

I would only wish to spend around £150 on it as im not loaded atm but would like something reasonable.

If you have any ideas or know some one who is trying to get rid of one then I will be all manner of interested in your proposals.

 

[Ronin Storm]

I have a memory that projector monitors can be problematic for games but I honestly don't have any evidence to back that up. Perhaps another can report...?

 

[T-Bone]

I think the cheapest projector your gonna get that wont be behollox is gonna be around 300. Think you're screwed there hen.

 

[Traxata]

My friend uses a projector with his X360, it runs fine, there's no real reason why it shouldn't work ronin , they're not limited to certain FPS, and resfresh rates, like a normal monitor ( at least I don't think they are... mind you all the projecters I play with are cinema sized )

 

[thatbloke]

Having had a little look on a few webbly sites the cheapest *new* projectors I saw were at around the £300 mark...

It may be worth saving up for a bit and going for a new one, as I really don't know if I would trust a 2nd hand projector......

 

[BiG D]

A used projector should be fine, but be warned that you'll potentially need a new bulb in the near future. That alone would probably run you around £150.

I think the cheapest projector you can currently buy is that tiny little thing that 3m makes. It's around $300US, I think. But it only projects at 640x480, so probably not good enough for what you need.

 

[oobermybeer]

hi, have had, cheap projectors arnt worth it, i live with gizmo and gunboat, and basically twas awesome for a bit, a bit fuzzy, but then the damn thing set on fire, was bloody loud, need major light proofing, cheap ones have shit contrast, need a screen, also have to work out distances etc and be hung from a roof, then if you use a wii it wont work cos of distance from player to reciver back to wii and all sorts, so if you going for it get an expensive one (ie £800 plus) the £300 ones jsut dont cut it

Edit] : any questions jsut ask, cos i build a screen, and get the pc and xbox up and running on it, changed bulbs etc, feel free to pm me
Edit2]: also i am moving to new flat as well, but sticking with big tv rather than projector, at least untill they really drop in price

 

[[THN]Buffalo_Hunter]

As Big_D pointed out, the cheap projectors are all low resolution - 800x600 is probably the best you can hope for, so although you may get blazing fast frame rates, the picture quality will be pretty poor, getting worse as the picture size increases. For £150 you're probably better off with a good 22" LCD monitor.

 

[VibroAxe]

I have a memory that projector monitors can be problematic for games but I honestly don't have any evidence to back that up. Perhaps another can report...?

The problem here is one of downscaling. The native resolution is usually very low in these devices whilst the accepted resolutions are usually very high. The downscaling on these devices can make them somewhat unsuitable for high resolution gaming.

Beware also at this point however the new HD projectors. If there is any HDMI processing in the video path, you get CAN get a very large delay between the computer and your display (lots of ms). On a console, this isn't usually an issue, a) because reactions are often slower anyway, and b) console games encounter this regularly and so have the appropriate calibration. PC games are not like this, and have come to expect lightening fast uncalibrated reaction speeds, particularly in FPS's. Running this over a projector might find you being killed before you have a chance to even react

DVD's on the other hand are a totally different kettle of fish. Assuming your just watching normal PAL dvd and not HiDef blueray or HD-DVD then a cheap projector can be fine. Working up to HD content means an HD projector, which is often using HDMI (see gaming problems above) however watching movies on this setup will be no issue, and hopefully they will look stunning!
So beware...