Get a used projector or am I unhinged insane?

[venomtail]

A friend of mine got the Samsung Freestyle so I'm trying it for a week. In not the best settings and looking at reviews the Freestyle getting slammed, I know it's only a 100 inches which is said to be small but I'm still so damn impressed. I might be a size king ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

 

I'm legit considering a projector. In the living room the TV's only on ever at evenings.

 

Max budget would be £1500~ yet seeing what's on eBay, there are name brand models used going for about £500-1000.

 

Is looking at used projectors sensible or am I completely detached and likely to get a dud cause people only sell projectors when it dies?

[da na]

Why specifically the Freestyle and not a high-end large venue projector? 
I bought an Optoma EH501 large venue projector for $300 used a few months ago and I couldn't be more happy with it.

 

Used projectors are typically fine, only thing you have to worry about is changing the lamp sooner.

[SpookyCitrus]

As long as the lamp life is good, usually used projectors are fine. You can sometimes snag some crazy nice ones for dirt cheap.

[venomtail]

1 hour ago, da na said:

Why specifically the Freestyle and not a high-end large venue projector? 
I bought an Optoma EH501 large venue projector for $300 used a few months ago and I couldn't be more happy with it.

 

Used projectors are typically fine, only thing you have to worry about is changing the lamp sooner.

The buddy of mine got the Freestyle as a gift. I think it was bundled for free for someone who had to buy something and they just had no use for a projector. I'm not considering the freestyle myself. I've got a soundbar. I don't need portability. The money can go elsewhere. Jack of all trades but not great at any.

 

24 minutes ago, SpookyCitrus said:

As long as the lamp life is good, usually used projectors are fine. You can sometimes snag some crazy nice ones for dirt cheap.

I'll have to look up more of what means what to the point where maybe I have to buy a fully fledged projector. A lot of the projectors on sale are office ones not for content. But this is definitely on my radar now.

[da na]

18 minutes ago, venomtail said:

The buddy of mine got the Freestyle as a gift. I think it was bundled for free for someone who had to buy something and they just had no use for a projector. I'm not considering the freestyle myself. I've got a soundbar. I don't need portability. The money can go elsewhere. Jack of all trades but not great at any.

 

I'll have to look up more of what means what to the point where maybe I have to buy a fully fledged projector. A lot of the projectors on sale are office ones not for content. But this is definitely on my radar now.

Replacing the lamp is a $40-100 job that takes 1-3 minutes, and typically has to be done every 2000-4000 hours on modern halogen/xenon projectors. In the past 5yrs the industry has mainly switched to laser but I doubt you'll find a good laser projector for under $500.

In general I don't recommend buying from a listing if they don't list lamp hours, or if the lamp hours are zero. (If they're zero, that means someone most likely reset the timer to pass off the lamp as being new, when in actuality it has a few hundred or thousand hours on it, and if run too long, those lamps can explode.)

 

Just to drop a link here... I've personally worked with these projectors before, absolutely love em. Listing says it needs a new lamp so that's like $80 on top of the projector cost and $250ish is a great price for 5000 lumens 1920x1200 - and if things go awry, seller accepts returns.

Hitachi CP-WU8450 3LCD WUXGA 5000 Lumen Large Venue Projector | eBay

Just a little suggestion. Venue I work at has this exact projector for a ~240" screen, looks gorgeous for movies. Just make sure your room is long enough to accomodate the throw ratio...

(edit: Throw ratio is the magnification power of the lens. Higher throw ratio = less distance from wall required to make a large image.)

[venomtail]

@da na @SpookyCitrus
Let's say I do spend big and get a new projector? 3 have caught my eye after looking up specs and reviews. Any stand out?

 

Short term they're likely gonna project at a light brownish wall off axis so need to recalibrate positions. Thoughts?

[Stahlmann]

2 hours ago, venomtail said:

@da na @SpookyCitrus
Let's say I do spend big and get a new projector? 3 have caught my eye after looking up specs and reviews. Any stand out?

 

Short term they're likely gonna project at a light brownish wall off axis so need to recalibrate positions. Thoughts?

What do you mean with spend big? At some point you're in the price region of big TVs, which will almost always deliver a better picture and less setup work.

[da na]

The Xgimi looks the best out of the comparison you linked but its 1,500 lumen brightness is incredibly scummy - certainly inadequate for 300" projection size. 

[venomtail]

12 hours ago, Stahlmann said:

What do you mean with spend big? At some point you're in the price region of big TVs, which will almost always deliver a better picture and less setup work.

£1500~ would be spending big. Ideally around £1k. Nice sized TV's like 85'+ start costing a lot. Ideally OLED is best but if that's not an option right now size is 2nd place. I just went to a TV store after 3 movies nights with a projector not up to par for the job and meh, was surprisingly unimpressed with even the £3-5k TV's cause I'm having size withdrawals I think. TV's are still an option but I'm feeling like I want to experiment and dive head first into projectors.

 

11 hours ago, da na said:

The Xgimi looks the best out of the comparison you linked but its 1,500 lumen brightness is incredibly scummy - certainly inadequate for 300" projection size. 

No no, I think I can display something like a 150" screen at most whilst leaving no margin. Let's just round it off to 130 I hope. I did quick maths. Projector would be kept at some 2-2.5m distance from the wall. I'll look into projector wallpapers if they exist, currently wallpaper's not optimal. Not sure about projector paints if I'll allowed those and those projector screens at this size would cost too much. At that price I would just get like a 90" OLED.

[Stahlmann]

A few days ago RTINGS posted this article, might be worth a read:

 

Low brightness, poor contrast: Even the best projectors we've tested are outshined by budget large-screen TVs. - RTINGS.com

 

Conclusion:

Spoiler

Although limited in scope, we've developed a test bench that is the start of our projector reviewing journey. Our goal was to cover the essentials of brightness and contrast to ensure that they could be objectively compared to TVs as much as possible for consumers to make informed purchase decisions. Our two main tests show that projectors have poor brightness compared to TVs and that their native contrast will always be worse. That's just part of what one should consider if they're considering replacing a TV with a projector, as we didn't get to evaluate other criteria like fan noise or the rainbow effect on DLP projectors. We will expand our testing in the future to evaluate other projector performance criteria like picture quality, motion, etc.

 

Beyond this, sometimes projectors shouldn't be compared to TVs, even if the end goal is to watch shows or movies. Projectors inherently offer more flexibility with their varying throw ratios and compact sizes while being more affordable past a certain projection size than a similarly-sized TV. You'll also likely have an easier time setting up a projector in your basement than getting a friend to help bring a 115" TV down there.

 

Our main takeaway from developing our projector test bench and testing our first 20 projectors is that the marketing can be misleading and, unfortunately, makes it a daunting task to compare projectors before purchasing, especially regarding brightness and contrast figures.

 

From now on, we've got your back regarding projector reviews and seeing through the marketing shroud. We're eager to hear your thoughts and suggestions for how we should expand this new review category.

 

-RTINGS

 

[venomtail]

9 hours ago, Stahlmann said:

A few days ago RTINGS posted this article, might be worth a read:

 

Low brightness, poor contrast: Even the best projectors we've tested are outshined by budget large-screen TVs. - RTINGS.com

 

Conclusion:

  Reveal hidden contents

Although limited in scope, we've developed a test bench that is the start of our projector reviewing journey. Our goal was to cover the essentials of brightness and contrast to ensure that they could be objectively compared to TVs as much as possible for consumers to make informed purchase decisions. Our two main tests show that projectors have poor brightness compared to TVs and that their native contrast will always be worse. That's just part of what one should consider if they're considering replacing a TV with a projector, as we didn't get to evaluate other criteria like fan noise or the rainbow effect on DLP projectors. We will expand our testing in the future to evaluate other projector performance criteria like picture quality, motion, etc.

 

Beyond this, sometimes projectors shouldn't be compared to TVs, even if the end goal is to watch shows or movies. Projectors inherently offer more flexibility with their varying throw ratios and compact sizes while being more affordable past a certain projection size than a similarly-sized TV. You'll also likely have an easier time setting up a projector in your basement than getting a friend to help bring a 115" TV down there.

 

Our main takeaway from developing our projector test bench and testing our first 20 projectors is that the marketing can be misleading and, unfortunately, makes it a daunting task to compare projectors before purchasing, especially regarding brightness and contrast figures.

 

From now on, we've got your back regarding projector reviews and seeing through the marketing shroud. We're eager to hear your thoughts and suggestions for how we should expand this new review category.

 

-RTINGS

 

Looking at TV's there's only LG within my budget, two models. Small choice. The LG 86UQ91003LA and the LG 86UR78006LB. Even though they're far smaller than what a projector could do, how are these like?

 

I'll look more into the rtings reviews.

[Stahlmann]

9 hours ago, venomtail said:

Looking at TV's there's only LG within my budget, two models. Small choice. The LG 86UQ91003LA and the LG 86UR78006LB. Even though they're far smaller than what a projector could do, how are these like?

 

I'll look more into the rtings reviews.

When comparing them these differences stand out:

 

The UQ model is from model year 2022 instead of 2023, so uses a slightly older UI and might not receive firmware updates as long, but has 120Hz instead of 60Hz native refresh rate and 1 more HDMI port. The UR is one year newer but i didn't spot any advantages over the older model. I can't find any brightness information about both of these models, but since they're IPS panels i'd say contrast is in the range of 750:1 to 1000:1 which is low for TV's but higher than any projector RTINGS has tested so far. Peak brightness will probably only be around 300-400 nits aswell but again, higher luminance than any projector they've tested.

 

I don't have any real-life experience with these. But chances are your local electronics store has them.