Anybody have a front-projection home theater? I just ordered a Sony VPL-HS10 (amazing price/performance on this guy) and I'm trying to decide what screen I should get ... Obviously pretty low gain and preferably acoustically transparent. I'm thinking in the 8 foot range. Anyone have any recommendations?

That does look like a sweet projector (if the one I found on Google is the same). It had it listed at $3000. Mind telling what you paid for it? According to that site, it said it was capable of 300 inches. [homer]Mmmm...25 foot television...[/homer]

Alan seemed to know a great deal about front projection when I met him in Cincinnati. Perhaps someone should give him a holler.

$2476.95 at J&R www.jandr.com (they beat the next best price I could find). Because of limited availability, you have to call them to place an order. After my order, they said they only have one left in the first shipment. It should come out "any day now"... I think it was actually supposed to be out a couple weeks ago but got delayed.

I'll post on here when I get it and test it out ...

ms

Incidentally, at 25 feet, I wouldn't bank on the brightness or resolution being too hot I'm hoping to run it at about 8 feet. We'll see.

However, it's nice to know that if you want to project on the side of your house, you can

I read the reviews of this projector over on the avs forum, it sounds pretty nice:) I can't really comment on screens other than that you prob don't need any gain. You need to determine if your going to be viewing 16:9 only(dvds or hdtv) or 4:3 only(desktop or games) or a combination of the two using some kind of masking system or 2 screens.

Alan

I love www.projectorcentral.com for information about projectors. They don't have too much in the way of reviews on that one though. But you can search based on features you want.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=b4223bc4b7973e69454dbef2df9ad3e2&threadid=197156

More info than you ever wanted on the HS-10

What happens if you connect a "normal" laptop, running at 1024x768 up to this thing (with its 1366x768 resolution)? Do you get vertical bars? Also, is there a VGA input? The various web sites seem unclear on this point. I'm considering this projector for the aforementioned shiny computer lab.

I'm going to be buying this same projector in the next few weeks. I currently have a CRT front pj but I'm tired of it's constant need for convergence.

You probably want a gray screen to maximize contrast. The Stewart Firehawk and GrayHawk screens are very expensive. I believe it would be $1500+ for a 96x54 screen which is also the size I plan to use. My current plan is to build my own screen using fabric stretched across a home built frame and use www.goosystems.com for the surface. Everything I've read about the screen goo is positive. I expect it to be comparable to the Stewart screens for a total cost of under $200.

-Dylan

I would expect it has the option to display vertical bars or stretch the image. If your laptop has a Radeon or GeForce chipset it can likely be configured to output custom resolutions using PowerStrip from www.entechtaiwan.com .

The HS10 has a proprietary input port and the US version comes with a component adapter for that. To get VGA I believe you need to order a special cable for about $50. I don't know the availability of the cable in the US.

-Dylan

There does seem to be a VGA attachment for it .. I don't know if it black-bars or not... One of the posts I made on this topic has a link to an Index on AVSForum all about the HS10 -- One of them is a FAQ, which I bet talks about it. If I find any info out, I'll respond on this thread ...

I've also read good things about goosystems ... I'll let you know what I ultimately decide. I'm going to wait for the projector to come in, get the picture the size I want, and measure exactly the dimensions rather than buy a screen first and hope it does what I want....

That's what I plan to do also. I currently have a 100" diag 4:3 1.3 gain white screen. I'm going to get a feel for the projector first on that screen and then decide what size, color and gain I want.

My wife just agreed to a $10k budget to upgrade the theater. Now comes the fun!

-Dylan

Wow ... Nice on the $10k I'm also looking at the Denon 4802 Receiver. Not sure what replacement speakers I want to get yet ... I probably won't buy all of it right now (since I'm still recovering from my house and my Mini Cooper ), but that's my plan anyway. Let me know what you end up getting and how you like it.... I'd be interested to hear.

ms

I'll post on here when I get it and test it out ...

Any update? I'm in the market for a projector and screen, so I'm interested in your comments on your experiences with the VPL-HS10.

Annoyingly, and if you can believe it, my HS10 is still on backorder from J&R. Normally I would have cancelled my order by now and ordered a Japanese version (which seem to not have availability problems), but I got a really good price (compared to what you find now), and rumors are that Sony will be able to clear their backlog by June (which means I should be a lot earlier than that since I've had an order in for so long).

However, I spoke with one of Tony's friends and he bought one off eBay that day and should have it by now. Maybe Tony can convince him to hop on here and post some comments ....

ms

Wow. That's some dedication. From what I've read so far I've pretty much already made up my mind that the VPL-HS10 is the model I'm going to end up getting. I just like to read all the feedback I possibly can.

However, I spoke with one of Tony's friends and he bought one off eBay that day and should have it by now. Maybe Tony can convince him to hop on here and post some comments ....

"Commori" here on the BBS. It didn't ship until a couple of days ago, he's expecting to get it the beginning of the week sometime. Maybe he'll hop on here after he gets it and has had a chance to play with it.

stoped and checked out some projectors today.they are really nice.they said that a white screen is the way to go for home theater.there getting the projector you ordered in a couple of weeks.cant wait to see it in action.He said it's really nice.

It sort of depends on the projector as to the type of screen you should get ... for instance, for an LCD projector (like the HS10), they recommend a gray screen. I think white is best for a CRT projector, though.

This may be a stupid question, but with front projectors, will you still burn the screen with different aspect ratios?

From what I've read, digital projectors don't suffer from screen burn-in while CRT's do... I don't know why, though.

Correct, digital projectors don't suffer from burn in. The lamp in a digital projector operates at a fixed brightness. That light is either blocked or reflected away from the lens to achieve varying levels of projected brightness. These parts that block or reflect aren't subject to uneven wear. The lamp's performance will change over time but it's consistent across the image.

A CRT projector uses an electron beam to excite phosphors so they glow. These phosphors wear over time and become less bright. So ones that have been used more are dimmer.

-Dylan

This may be a stupid question, but with front projectors, will you still burn the screen with different aspect ratios?

This depends on the type of projector.

If the projector uses cathode-ray tubes (some do), then yes you will still get burn. If the projector uses DLP or LCD, then it won't burn.

See, the whole thing is: "Burn" is a misnomer to begin with. The correct technical description should be "uneven aging of the phosphor material".

The phosphor on a CRT is a consumable. It gets dimmer the more it's used. So if you constantly watch TV with black bars in the same place on the screen all of the time, then those areas of the screen won't "age" as fast because they're not being used much. Similarly, if you watch the same TV station with a bright white logo bug in the same spot on the screen all of the time, those particular pixels will age faster than the rest of the screen.

And honestly, if manufacturers would just use gray bars instead of black bars when letterboxing or side boxing, and if TV stations would move and change the logos often enough then you wouldn't even burn the CRTs either.

I think the use of gray bars would cause a decrease in the enjoy of the 'movie experience' by creating too much ambient light. I am just now getting to enjoy the awesomeness of front projectors. I bought one on ebay a couple of weeks ago for 365 US. Both the HV and the switching power supplies required repair but with the use of an oscilliscope and about 5 dollars worth of parts I now have a CRT based front view projector. It's awesome. You guys are right about the CRT's. I was lucky enough to buy one with no burn. The blue CRT does have a very slight amount of wear on it but it is so little that unless you look for it you don't see it. It is in no way obvious. I purchased a tensioned dalite model B matte white 80 X 60 that I am very happy with. On the subject of burn, as I understand it. This is a process of degradation that happens over the long term. Since I intend on using this projector for movie viewing only, in all aspect ratios I doubt I will see much in the way of burn as long as I don't move the projector in some manner that would require the use of more of the phosphor area than it is set up to use now. As these tubes are rated for between 10,000 and 15,000 hours and have about 3000 hours on them now I would expect that they will work fine for the life of the projector. The only thing I would wish is that I could get more light out of it. CRT's are predominately less bright and it must be used in a darkened room.

I hope you get your projector soon. They are awesome!

And honestly, if manufacturers would just use gray bars instead of black bars when letterboxing or side boxing...

My Hitachi rear-projection HDTV does exactly this. It was weird in the beginning, but I don't notice it any more and I always use the side-bars when I'm watching vanilla 4:3 TV. The anamorphic stretching modes are awful.

My Hitachi rear-projection HDTV does exactly this.

So does my Mits RPTV. The only problem is... When you tune in to HBOhd and they're showing 4:3 material on the channel, HBO broadcasts black side bars. Watch enough episodes of Six Feet Under on HBOhd, and you've got burn. Also, my HDTV decoder box has a nice feature where it upsamples NTSC pictures from my satellite dish, but it too uses black side bars to do that. So even if your TV does gray side bars, some of your other equipment and/or broadcasters might not.

I think a cool feature of a CRT projector would be to detect black bars and just overlay them with gray ones.

The anamorphic stretching modes are awful.

Unless of course you're watching an anamorphic DVD, in which case they're awesome.

Hey! Two against one thats not fair! . I can understand why that would be desirable on a rear projection system. The projector I have is used only for movies and not everyday. Burn is not something I'm real worried about. I just want the best movie experience I can create. Dark room, great sound, popcorn and a soda!!