What do you think about those projector TVs?

[Fedorgasm]

I'm buying a new house soon and have found quite a few that have a theater room with a projector hanging from the ceiling behind where you'd sit. And it's projecting onto a wall with some kind of screen painted on.

I have zero experience with this kind of setup. Is it good?

Are the projectors 4k?
Do they look as good as a nice TV?
Do the bulbs burn out and cost a fortune to replace?
Do they use a shit ton of electricity?

 

[BlankaPresident]

I used to have an Optoma projector in my apartament. In my current house there is no place suited to use it, so I sold it. It was excellent under the right circumstances.

Are the projectors 4k? Mine was 1080p but current ones are 4k.

Do they look as good as a nice TV? Yes, If the room is dark and the screen / wall paint is good. But blacks are not as good as OLED tvs.

Do the bulbs burn out and cost a fortune to replace? I think most modern projectors use LED lighting that last way more than bulbs. I never had to replace mine but I guess that once they fail, replacement must be expensive.

Do they use a shit ton of electricity? Varies a lot with type and luminosity but this you can easily research and compare with TVs of a similar size to your intended projection. I don't remember mine being too electricity hungry.

 

[IDGETKTFO]

That would suck having to buy blackout curtains to watch tv.

 

[Kowboy On Sherdog]

You sound rich. You can keep your Sherbro card

 

[Cielo_]

You’re looking at multiple houses with theater rooms and asking us if projectors are good?

While I’m eating ramen and playing ps5 on a 12 year old Sony TV?

But to answer your questions in order

Yes
Yes
I don’t think so, I would guess around $300
No

 

[suprah]

I'm buying a new house soon and have found quite a few that have a theater room with a projector hanging from the ceiling behind where you'd sit. And it's projecting onto a wall with some kind of screen painted on.

I have zero experience with this kind of setup. Is it good?

Are the projectors 4k?
Do they look as good as a nice TV?
Do the bulbs burn out and cost a fortune to replace?
Do they use a shit ton of electricity?

The 4k projectors that are true 4k are very expensive. I had a 4k that uses pixel shift to get 4k and I think my 1080p benq throws a better image than the 4k. I prefer my 150 inch image at 1080p than my 70 inch tv at 4k.
Projector bulbs do wear out and need replaced so check the bulb hours before you buy one. Laser projector bulbs last longer but are more expensive.
My projectors in the past didnt use more electricity than my 3d 60 inch but these newer tvs dont use as much. Theres eco settings on projectors to cut down on whats used.
Best kinds to get are epson benq and optoma but ive had 2 optomas and didnt like either.
You can get a great 1080p projector for around 600 what size tv can you get for that. I paid over 1500 for the optoma 4k and wasnt happy.

 

[Fedorgasm]

You sound rich. You can keep your Sherbro card

You’re looking at multiple houses with theater rooms and asking us if projectors are good?

While I’m eating ramen and playing ps5 on a 12 year old Sony TV?

LOL, not rich unfortunately. But I'm moving to an area where almost every house has a finished basement. Some people make them into game rooms, or man caves, or exercise rooms, but I've seen several where they've made it into a theater room.

Like this one below. This guy doesn't seem rich.

 

[Dinkin_Flicka]

I've used an Optoma 1080 projector in our den for years on a 110 inch pull down screen and it looked great. I bought it back in 2010 and never felt the need to upgrade to 4K. When covid hit I took it down to use it outside for outdoor movie nights in the summer and invite friends but could still distance ourselves. My outdoor screen was 3 pieces of plywood that I painted white to make 12' x 8' screen got me down to about 160" viewable image with a 16x9 ratio, and it still looked great.

I upgraded last summer and wanted to get a short throw protector model, but the 4k models were more expensive than I wanted to spend on summer movie nights, so went with a 1080 model and I've been super happy with it. My old projector needed like 15' to get the image, but the short throw only needs like 4', which really helps with my outdoor set up. Playing games in 4k on my PC is a nice jump, but for movie watching, I feel like 1080 is just fine.

They have ultra short throw models that do like 120" at 6" away. Really wanted to go this route, but read that the set up is pretty intensive due to the laser projection, and since I would be setting it up for every use I didn't think it work for what I needed.

I'd recommend going into a hifi shop if there is one near by to check out their set ups.

 

[Jack Reacheround]

Some projectors are 4K, and some are not. It depends on when they were made and which model they were.
Projectors are great. I doubt it they use any more electricity than a tv. But I don’t know.
The drawback is that you can’t have any light in the room. So, if it isn’t a dark room then they won’t work.
Other than the fact that they project onto a screen far away from the projection device, I don’t know that there is much difference between them and TVs. At least none that would affect your viewing. Though I assume since they don’t need a back light the picture is more consistent across the entire frame. Whereas with most TVs. Unless they’re OLED, you have backlights and the screen can appear darker in places not directly in front of the backlights, which does drive me nuts, I will admit.

 

[Thepaintbucket]

Projectors can't compete with TV brightness nor contrast ratio of OLED. If you can accept this, then projectors are awesome.

What you are looking for is the word native 4k. Not pixel shifting, not upscaling, native 4K Texas instrument DND chip.

The cheapest native 4K projector is around four or $5,000, Sony or JVC.

 

[emefer]

I’d go with a laser projector as they can last for tens of thousand of hours.

 

[NickNick]

I set up a theater room in a place I used to live, it's a decent amount of work, more than I thought it would be. There are more things you have to account for versus a normal TV; mounting the projector, running cables, sound system (likely needing a receiver), universal remote, projector screen, etc etc. You can cut corners with some of that stuff like using a white wall versus an actual projector screen but it won't be as good.

If I had to do it again these days, I would 100% go with a TV instead.

 

[dc007]

We have one at the brewery and it's pretty dope. Although I think our 75" LCD in the private tap looks better.

 

[Slobodan]

Some projectors are 4K, and some are not. It depends on when they were made and which model they were.
Projectors are great. I doubt it they use any more electricity than a tv. But I don’t know.
The drawback is that you can’t have any light in the room. So, if it isn’t a dark room then they won’t work.
Other than the fact that they project onto a screen far away from the projection device, I don’t know that there is much difference between them and TVs. At least none that would affect your viewing. Though I assume since they don’t need a back light the picture is more consistent across the entire frame. Whereas with most TVs. Unless they’re OLED, you have backlights and the screen can appear darker in places not directly in front of the backlights, which does drive me nuts, I will admit.

TVs with local dimming zones, usually called Mini-LED help to mitigate this problem. Not as good as OLED but it is another option. They do have the disadvantage of blooming though but this can also be mitigated depending on how many dimming zones the TV has.

 

[Contempt]

I'm buying a new house soon and have found quite a few that have a theater room with a projector hanging from the ceiling behind where you'd sit. And it's projecting onto a wall with some kind of screen painted on.

I have zero experience with this kind of setup. Is it good?

Are the projectors 4k?
Do they look as good as a nice TV?
Do the bulbs burn out and cost a fortune to replace?
Do they use a shit ton of electricity?

They are just never as good as a proper TV. If you want top quality, go for an LG OLED TV.

I've got the 77" gallery series but there is up to 83" that I've seen. If you value quality, scrap the projector.

 

[suprah]

They are just never as good as a proper TV. If you want top quality, go for an LG OLED TV.

I've got the 77" gallery series but there is up to 83" that I've seen. If you value quality, scrap the projector.

lol wrong. Projectors show a good image if you get the right one and how much do you think you would pay for a 150 inch tv or even 100. I prefer my 1080p projector image over a tv that costs thousands but you can see the nose hairs on it. When I read about people paying all that money for oled I think man they watch too much tv. But if thats what they want to spend their money on go for it.

 

[Contempt]

lol wrong. Projectors show a good image if you get the right one and how much do you think you would pay for a 150 inch tv or even 100. I prefer my 1080p projector image over a tv that costs thousands but you can see the nose hairs on it. When I read about people paying all that money for oled I think man they watch too much tv. But if thats what they want to spend their money on go for it.

Wrong?

Show me a single reputable source that would state that the quality of image on a projector, much less a 1080P one would remotely compare to the top OLED TV's.

 

[BlankaPresident]

No currently affordable tech comes close to OLED when it comes to image quality.

Only micro LED is better but the price is still astronomical.

 

[666]

Sounds lame. You could just buy an 80 inch 4k TV.

 

[suprah]

Wrong?

Show me a single reputable source that would state that the quality of image on a projector, much less a 1080P one would remotely compare to the top OLED TV's.

I said you were wrong about quality. Some projectors give off great images and 1080p is good enough for me to watch most stuff. If I want to watch something with better quality I watch my 70 inch samsung 4k but I really dont watch it much.
Have you ever had a projector? Ive had 5 and 3 4k tvs.
I prefer sitting in front of 150 inches that blow me away instead of something way smaller that has insane definition.
If you dont thats fine but I think youd be surprised at how good a picture some has.