HD Projector Selection for Home

[ashvin]

Great website. Fantastic forums with excellent members with superb information.
I would like to pass a huge thank you for all the backstage members and administrators who are making HIFIVISION happening.

I am from Hyd and am looking for a decent HD projector for home usage
I narrowed down on the following

1. Benq 1060/1100 - 90K/1L
2. Optoma HD20 - 95K and
3. Epson EH-TW - 3600 95K

Sony. JVC and Panny were expensive. Infocus, I heard that its being merged with a big company (not sure). NEC and Sanyo are either over priced or not with the specs. Considering the after sales and local servicing part of things, I ended up with the above 3 brands and models

Please can anyone help me to sort out the correct prices, brands and models

I heard that optoma has some issues with lines and flicker
Benq has servicing issues in hyd

Please suggest better models/brands if not these. After sales and spares is also a high priority with pic quality

 

[rajadeep]

1st of all welcome to Hifivision & congratulations on choosing to go down the projector path... Its a choice you wont regret... Now coming to your issue of which projector you should select... Well 1st of all pls do tell us if you have a dedicated Home theater room (dark room) or are you gonna use it in the living room with ambient light... If you have a dedicated HT room then you have numerous choices but if you are gonna use in the living room then your choices are limited... Right now as far as 2D projectors go there are only 2 good VFM choices in India... 1st as you mentioned the TW3600... But the best price I got for it in Mumbai was approx 80k + shipping charge to ship anywhere in India... The other choice is Mitsubishi HC4000 for approx 80-82k in Mumbai... The TW3600 performs well in bothe a HT room as well as the living room whereas for the HC4000 needs a dedicated room... But as far as pure performance goes HC4000 is by far the best according to every website on the web... Mind you the TW3600 is almost as good... Another plus point for the TW3600 is that Epson is giving a 2yr warranty as opposed to a 1 yr warranty from Optoma & Benq... I have heard Mitsubishi is offering a 2yr or 3yr warranty but not sure on that front... Also Mitsubishi's service network is not that great... So best choice is TW3600 in 2D projectors... If you want 3D then Epson has launched the TW6000 at a fantastic price in India... You can get it for around 1.05-1.10 lacs with 2 x 3D glasses... This is also a very good choice & you get to be future proof... A few members have gotten this projector & quite happy with it...

 

[lipimanas]

i bought optoma hd20 from pooja electronics, mumbai for 58k. quit satisfied with the performance. this is without bill and warranty. took a chance.

 

[KalyanVizag]

I have heard from one of my friends that Optoma HD20 uses plastic lenses and that in one case 20% of the lens melted out for whatever reason.

 

[sranjan]

what about Epson TW 4500 and full HD version of Mitsubishi ...

 

[pallav_gupta]

Go for TW8000. You will make a great investment.

 

[Staxxx]

Hello poster. I know there is a SIM2 projector service centre in Hyderabad and I can highly recommend their projectors. However, I am not sure what their models cost - perhaps check out the new Lumis models. These are 3 chip DLP projectors which do not have a colour wheel and therefore all the artifacts that comes with it. They are a little more expensive than the single chip machines.

 

[rajadeep]

Hello poster. I know there is a SIM2 projector service centre in Hyderabad and I can highly recommend their projectors. However, I am not sure what their models cost - perhaps check out the new Lumis models. These are 3 chip DLP projectors which do not have a colour wheel and therefore all the artifacts that comes with it. They are a little more expensive than the single chip machines.

Yes yes Sim2 is an excellent projector (have demoed it at Avenue sound's Mumbai shop)... Go for it... It only costs a cool 8 lacs or so ...

 

[abhilash220]

All the three you mentioned are great projectors for the price.

Benq and Optoma are DLPs. A point to note is that Benq is brighter than HD20 if you are planning to use it in your family room rather than a bat cave. HD20 has a better contrast.
On the other hand Epson is an LCD projector and it comes with better warranty and slightly better black levels than the other two. It is less noisy compared to DLPs since no color wheels. Epson has better contrast as well. On the con side you will need to change the lens filter once in a while.

If you can get Epson 3010 for less than 1.1 Lk, that will be a great investement.

SIM2 3 chip is in the range of $20K and up and I don't think you will be interested.

 

[manoj.p]

Yes yes Sim2 is an excellent projector (have demoed it at Avenue sound's Mumbai shop)... Go for it... It only costs a cool 8 lacs or so ...

Doubtful that Sim2 Lumis goes for 8 lacs. Its retail price is $35000 in US alone. and prices in India are sometimes almost double of US. It could be a different Sim2 projector though.

 

[Staxxx]

I just wanted to mention that a shop I know in Europe has one used Sim2 C3X 1080p projector for sale at about 2L as there is just no market for used projectors. I remember it wasn't used too long. You can get a readout of the hours the bulbs have been used and if they need changing they can be done here. That with shipping and duty added will probably bring the price to under 4L, which is not bad for a model that is usually about 3 times as much, I believe. Of course, I do realize this is more than the original poster's budget, but thought I would mention it in case someone was possibly interested, given there is a full service centre in India. The picture quality is breathtaking.

 

[abhijeet309]

how is benq ep5920.....its cost is 800$ only and seen some gud reviews online.......

 

[rajadeep]

Abhijeet the Benq ep5920 is good but the Acer H6500 in the same price range is better... The H6500 has this psuedo iris thing that though is not as good as Actual auto iris, still beats the rest of its similar price range competition in black levels... Has a nice pop to the image... A frnd recently got the H6500 from the US & I really liked it picture quality... If someone is getting it from the US both the BenQ & Acer have touched $700 several times ...

 

[abhijeet309]

Abhijeet the Benq ep5920 is good but the Acer H6500 in the same price range is better... The H6500 has this psuedo iris thing that though is not as good as Actual auto iris, still beats the rest of its similar price range competition in black levels... Has a nice pop to the image... A frnd recently got the H6500 from the US & I really liked it picture quality... If someone is getting it from the US both the BenQ & Acer have touched $700 several times ...

Thanks Rajadeep..... I will definitely look for ACER H6500 as well.....

 

[prosenjit]

Yes yes Sim2 is an excellent projector (have demoed it at Avenue sound's Mumbai shop)... Go for it... It only costs a cool 8 lacs or so ...

:lol::lol:
same as JVC hi ends....:sad:

 

[prashant141986]

After doing lots of research and took much demos,

I might not the great technical person to comment but.
We 3 guyz visited lots of cities for demos in India.

Visualized Black Levels /Contrasts / Whites (lumens) / Sharpness / Skin tone
and came to the following conclusion...

A) 3D Projector : - There is none which suits your pocket (1-2 lac range) Epson TW8000 was best amongst coz atleast it was bright enough. Ghosting was still there :sad:

B) 2D Projector :- Panny 7000 > Epson TW 8000 > Sony 30ES > JVC X30 > Optima HD33 > EMP-TW-9000W > EPSON TW 6000 > Optima HD20 > useless to look below this.
Above order from top quality moving downwards , including features and picture quality.

I myself choose TW8000 for 1.4 lac, even if my budget does not permit to go beyond 1 lac. Because contrast and black certainly will make difference after you will get used to projector.

Hope this helps.

 

[Sid_b]

After doing lots of research and took much demos,

I might not the great technical person to comment but.
We 3 guyz visited lots of cities for demos in India.

Visualized Black Levels /Contrasts / Whites (lumens) / Sharpness / Skin tone
and came to the following conclusion...

A) 3D Projector : - There is none which suits your pocket (1-2 lac range) Epson TW8000 was best amongst coz atleast it was bright enough. Ghosting was still there :sad:

B) 2D Projector :- Panny 7000 > Epson TW 8000 > Sony 30ES > JVC X30 > Optima HD33 > EMP-TW-9000W > EPSON TW 6000 > Optima HD20 > useless to look below this.
Above order from top quality moving downwards , including features and picture quality.

I myself choose TW8000 for 1.4 lac, even if my budget does not permit to go beyond 1 lac. Because contrast and black certainly will make difference after you will get used to projector.

Hope this helps.

Hi prashant,
Thanks a lot for your inputs. But was just curious for 3d gaming and essentially movies usage thati am looking for, ive been pushed for the 6000 by most demo guys. Wanted to know what what made u choose 8000? I am also looking to setup my HT. my room dimensions are 22' x 10.5'... And I'm pretty confused by the choices. My budget was 1lac but is stretchable... The major diff that I was told was the 2d to 3d conversion that the 8000 offers. Also if u could share if u got the 3d glasses along with the system. Would really appreciate your help,

Thanks,

Sid

 

[prosenjit]

Hi prashant,
Thanks a lot for your inputs. But was just curious for 3d gaming and essentially movies usage thati am looking for, ive been pushed for the 6000 by most demo guys. Wanted to know what what made u choose 8000? I am also looking to setup my HT. my room dimensions are 22' x 10.5'... And I'm pretty confused by the choices. My budget was 1lac but is stretchable... The major diff that I was told was the 2d to 3d conversion that the 8000 offers. Also if u could share if u got the 3d glasses along with the system. Would really appreciate your help,

Thanks,

Sid

same here if you can specify what factor make you choose 8000 over 6000.....it will be of great help.except 3d point.just the picture quality in 2d content.

 

[arnprasad]

Sorry to side step. Just a curious noob question when it comes to projector.

what kind of projectors do the cinema halls use? I was wondering just like people have Gramaphones - is it possible to get an old used projector from single screen cinemas and have it at home. I know it takes up a lot of space and the spools themselves are bulky. and not sure if the screen needs to be 200 feet away for projection. Just wondering - will be a good novelty to have even if we only have one film movie spool to show off -

 

[rajadeep]

Well there are a few problems with that... 1st of all These are light cannons & would require a much bigger screen(500-600 inches) to be watchable & the distance between the screen & the projector cant be ur normal 15-30 ft,but much larger than that... Secondly u cant play DVDs or blu rays off them... You can only run Movie reels... Anyway if a person is rich enough to do all that than he would be better off joining this elite club that they have... It costs tens of lacs in membership fees & you are able to watch every movie that is released on its release date sitting in ur home... This service is mostly used by VIPs , whose family members just cant go to the local multiplex coz of security reasons...