Orfe and Avrij,
I had to laugh out loud when I read your posts above. I knew I'd get some responses wondering why I seem to be nickel and dime-ing on the home theater after seeing my two-channel equipment.
A little history of my foray into home theater is in order.
Three years ago I worked for a bank doing presentations for large groups using a projector. One night at home I was fiddling around with it and found out that it would work with my dvd player. Also I discovered that if I just threw the picture against the wall that it yielded a pretty nice picture. The largest picture I could get along the long wall was 12 ft by 9ft sitting 20 feet away. Very nice picture....all of my guests were wowed by it. Nice and clear with no problems. I just took the framed pictures off the wall every time I got ready to show a movie, and put the pictures back up when the movie was over. I did this for three years.
I finally decided to get myself a real screen that would roll up out of the way and I would't have to take the picturs off of the wall. Mind you, I was content with the picture I got on the bare wall.
When ordering the screen, I was going to get a 12ft by 9ft model. But when I checked the prices, I found out by going to a 16ft by 9ft model, the price made more sense. That would eliminate the inevitable selling of the original screen to upgrade to larger one later. I don't care who you are, everyone always upgrades.
Well of course if the screen is now larger, maybe I'll see how big of a picture my projector will throw cleanly. Well I found out soon enough that at 12ft by 9ft, the picture was very good. At 16ft by 12ft, the picture left a lot to be desired.
Until now, my primary focus has been on two-channel, and I listen to music waaay more than I watch movies. However, I decided to pick the brains of all of you to see what I could squeeze out of what I already have. The $1,000 projector does a good job and I'm not unhappy with it for a 12ft by 9ft image against a wall....and that will improve after the screen is installed. I bought the projector last month only after I quit my job and had to return the other projector to my old employer. The new projector I bought, is a newer version of the old one that I had with twice the light output of the old one.
Forget buying a smaller screen, the 16ft by 12ft one arrived yesterday. The crate was 18 feet long, weighed 175 lbs and it took four guys to bring it upstairs to my place. The freight elevator would only take a 12 foot long item. No way am I about to try and take that monster downstairs again....besides it is a manual roll up screen, I can adjust it to any height that I want to, I can make the screen smaller just by rolling it up.
Anyway, as you can see, I am very new to the high end of video. It took me five years to get where I am in audio. A lot of trial and error. I'm in no hurry to spend wads of cash on video right now. I can live with a 12ft by 9ft image for now.
I don't own a high definition television. My satellite dishs doen't brodcast hi-def either.
I imagine over the next couple of years I will have some professionals here in LA come out and maybe demo a suitable projector for a 16ft by 12ft image. If I'm going take the plunge and spend $6k on the low end for a suitable projector, you'd better believe that I want to see it first. If I can spend $10k for a preamp and $9k for a cd player, I'd probably spend $10k on a projector too if it really kicks ass on a 240 inch diagonal screen and I decide to spend more time watching movies.
Ckorody.....your discourse was very informative and sobering. Thank you....I appreciate your input.
So, it seems like I won't be buying that add-on lens, it seemed suspect anyway. I posted here to see if anyone had used one before and what results did they get.
I guess the $1,000 projector is kind of like having my first 40 watt Sansui model 771 reciever in 1975...man, I was sure it couldn't get any better and I was happy. I'm sure as I venture out into the higher end of video, I will surely er, um, ah...see the light.
I had to laugh out loud when I read your posts above. I knew I'd get some responses wondering why I seem to be nickel and dime-ing on the home theater after seeing my two-channel equipment.
A little history of my foray into home theater is in order.
Three years ago I worked for a bank doing presentations for large groups using a projector. One night at home I was fiddling around with it and found out that it would work with my dvd player. Also I discovered that if I just threw the picture against the wall that it yielded a pretty nice picture. The largest picture I could get along the long wall was 12 ft by 9ft sitting 20 feet away. Very nice picture....all of my guests were wowed by it. Nice and clear with no problems. I just took the framed pictures off the wall every time I got ready to show a movie, and put the pictures back up when the movie was over. I did this for three years.
I finally decided to get myself a real screen that would roll up out of the way and I would't have to take the picturs off of the wall. Mind you, I was content with the picture I got on the bare wall.
When ordering the screen, I was going to get a 12ft by 9ft model. But when I checked the prices, I found out by going to a 16ft by 9ft model, the price made more sense. That would eliminate the inevitable selling of the original screen to upgrade to larger one later. I don't care who you are, everyone always upgrades.
Well of course if the screen is now larger, maybe I'll see how big of a picture my projector will throw cleanly. Well I found out soon enough that at 12ft by 9ft, the picture was very good. At 16ft by 12ft, the picture left a lot to be desired.
Until now, my primary focus has been on two-channel, and I listen to music waaay more than I watch movies. However, I decided to pick the brains of all of you to see what I could squeeze out of what I already have. The $1,000 projector does a good job and I'm not unhappy with it for a 12ft by 9ft image against a wall....and that will improve after the screen is installed. I bought the projector last month only after I quit my job and had to return the other projector to my old employer. The new projector I bought, is a newer version of the old one that I had with twice the light output of the old one.
Forget buying a smaller screen, the 16ft by 12ft one arrived yesterday. The crate was 18 feet long, weighed 175 lbs and it took four guys to bring it upstairs to my place. The freight elevator would only take a 12 foot long item. No way am I about to try and take that monster downstairs again....besides it is a manual roll up screen, I can adjust it to any height that I want to, I can make the screen smaller just by rolling it up.
Anyway, as you can see, I am very new to the high end of video. It took me five years to get where I am in audio. A lot of trial and error. I'm in no hurry to spend wads of cash on video right now. I can live with a 12ft by 9ft image for now.
I don't own a high definition television. My satellite dishs doen't brodcast hi-def either.
I imagine over the next couple of years I will have some professionals here in LA come out and maybe demo a suitable projector for a 16ft by 12ft image. If I'm going take the plunge and spend $6k on the low end for a suitable projector, you'd better believe that I want to see it first. If I can spend $10k for a preamp and $9k for a cd player, I'd probably spend $10k on a projector too if it really kicks ass on a 240 inch diagonal screen and I decide to spend more time watching movies.
Ckorody.....your discourse was very informative and sobering. Thank you....I appreciate your input.
So, it seems like I won't be buying that add-on lens, it seemed suspect anyway. I posted here to see if anyone had used one before and what results did they get.
I guess the $1,000 projector is kind of like having my first 40 watt Sansui model 771 reciever in 1975...man, I was sure it couldn't get any better and I was happy. I'm sure as I venture out into the higher end of video, I will surely er, um, ah...see the light.