Always fancied having my own cinema but the missus won't let me buy one.
So after years of going down the big TV route I decided to try out a projector.
Bought a relatively cheap one, £57, from Amazon, and could not try it out properly until it got dark by I am wowed by the results.
I have achieved a excellent picture that is 8 feet by 5 feet and because I fed the HDMI through my amp I have 7.1 sound with it (the built in speaker is, as you would expect, not very good).
So today I am painting the wall white. I was going to go for a screen but the results I had last night with a beige patterned wall were amazing. Don't see the reason in spending another £80 for a screen.
Anyone else got a projector? I am also having to move the furniture around and am of course keeping the TV for day time use but I shall be buying some black out curtains for when I fancy watching a movie or some sport during the day.
No but I am very interested in how you have managed to do this relatively cheaply. My mate has one fancy dan one (all wired in behind the walls and a remote controlled massive screen) and I assumed that this sort of kit cost a grand or more.
Every time I watch a film on a projector system I am amazed at how much more immersive it becomes.
I bought a cheapo one as part of a ghost projection kit for Halloween last year. Besides the fact it was bloody brilliant at projecting ghosts onto very thin and see-through material hanging inside doorways, I also had a cinema night projecting Dredd onto a white wall in my living room. Great fun!!
Quote from: Tiplodocus on 04 October, 2017, 09:44:17 AM
No but I am very interested in how you have managed to do this relatively cheaply. My mate has one fancy dan one (all wired in behind the walls and a remote controlled massive screen) and I assumed that this sort of kit cost a grand or more.
Every time I watch a film on a projector system I am amazed at how much more immersive it becomes.
First, spend a quarter of a million pounds on a house with a big enough living room...
Well, my house only cost £165,000 but luckily I have one plain wall (it was a light beige, it's now had one coat of white paint).
The projector I bought is this one https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B06XXH2T7T/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
For £56.99.
The blu ray was plugged into the amp which is plugged into the TV so it was just a case of moving the HDMI out of the TV and into the projector. I would like to get it a bit closer to the wall as the picture bleeds off onto the door frame at the moment by a couple of inches but I need a longer power lead to move it the foot or two.
I've got SKY, Amazon fire stick, and a Kodi box all plugged into the amp too so whatever I want to watch it's just a case of switching the leads. I have bought some black out curtains today at the cost of £40 to cover the patio doors and they will be arriving tomorrow.
So the total outlay, for new stuff, is £110. I would not want use the projector without the amp as the sounds is pretty horrendous through the projector.
I now have the amp sitting under the TV along with the blu ray player, Kodi box, and SKY box with the amp under that.
I'm truly surprised at how good the picture is and wanted to spend the whole night sitting up and just changing discs and watching movies but the missus wouldn't let me so we watched Skyfall on it last night.
I've got one and I just project it onto a white wall. Sadly my room is not very wide so the picture is pretty small. Howver in my older gaff I had it about 20-15 feet away from the wall and the image was massive. I never used a fancy screen - plain white wall works just as good I thought.
That's the route I've gone, painted a wall white and it's a very crisp picture.
The size I've settled on is about 150 inches diagonal.
Just ordered a bracket so I can attached it to the ceiling along with a couple of 10 metre cables (power and HDMI).
Well look at Mr. Fancy Pants over here ... ;)
I'm pretty jealous .. all I'm getting at the moment is maybe 40 inches ...
I bet your wife is crap at parking too. ::)
My wife, is not the issue here! I hope that someday my wife will learn to live on her allowance, which is ample.... ;)
Quote from: Rara Avis on 09 October, 2017, 07:24:21 PM
Well look at Mr. Fancy Pants over here ... ;)
I'm pretty jealous .. all I'm getting at the moment is maybe 40 inches ...
That's all she was getting too! ;)
Tbh, that's the reason why I went the projector route looking at the prices of TV's 70 inches or more.
Having just watched an episode of The Walking Dead on the projector we are all well happy...And that's including the Wife who just said, and I quote, 'I like it big.'
I kid you not.
It kind of defeats the purpose of having a projector if you don't have the space for it but I'll have to make do at the moment.
Mine gets really hot, really quickly and I've had it for a few years now so the bulb will be due to be replaced soon although due to aforementioned spacing issues it hasn't had much use lately.
Your wife is a lucky woman etc :)
The only downside of having a projector is that I have been roped into decorating the living room by stealth.
I painted the wall white and bought some black out curtains and she casually mentioned that I need to paint the baton the curtains will hang on.
Next thing I know she has bought paint (macadamia, if you're interested...It's what I would call brown) for the remaining 3 walls...
So that's what I'm doing at the moment.
The bracket and the 10 m HDMI lead arrive tomorrow.
Still, it's worth it and to be fair we have lived in this house for 11 years and I've not decorated the living room in that time. In fact that was one of the reasons we bought it, because it did not need decorating. However, our slobby behaviour means it needs doing.
Still, it'll look nice for Christmas.
Well played MrsMattofthespurs .... She saw an opportunity and just went for it. Macadamia is a pretty hot colour right now .. apparently these are your palettes for accessorising ..
(https://i.pinimg.com/236x/b3/06/f1/b306f1cbb55a29bdf6731424dab288e1--outdoor-paint-living-room-paint.jpg)
(https://i.pinimg.com/736x/e9/7c/d3/e97cd3edea671041ad635d2a82cc21bb--home-paint-colors-paint-color-schemes.jpg)
Also might be an idea to frame some 2000AD related art it and throw it up while you're at it?
That sounds like a plan :D
'Schoolboy Blue'. I remember when you had to go to Amsterdam to buy tapes like that.
:lol:
If you have a fairly small room but still want a large image look for short-throw projectors. They used to have a bit of distortion at the edges of the image but I think they're much better now. You can pick up decent ones for a few hundred pounds.
Quote from: TordelBack on 11 October, 2017, 11:49:19 AM
'Schoolboy Blue'. I remember when you had to go to Amsterdam to buy tapes like that.
These days they're likely to lock you up for tapes like that! :o
Quote from: TordelBack on 11 October, 2017, 11:49:19 AM
'Schoolboy Blue'. I remember when you had to go to Amsterdam to buy tapes like that.
Browsing a shop window in Amsterdam and I thought "Oh, some of these films are on a new DVD format called DVDA."
Why did I google that? ::)
I can't work out the topology there at all. Ah well, a puzzle to keep the mind active over teabreak now I've finished the sudoku.
Right, that's the room painted and the black out curtains installed.
I've never put up a curtain rail before, despite being a home owner for over 25 years. They have either always been with the house we've bought or I've put up a curtain pole instead.
I puzzled over the instructions for a good 30 minutes not quite understanding how the damn things would work and in the end decided to just go with the instructions and not worry about the internal machinations of the thing.
And work they do. The curtains are very good too. I was quoted £150 in a curtain shop for 66 inch (x2) width and 90 inch drop but got some off Amazon instead for £32.99. I wasn't expecting much but they are great.
Now my living room looks like Castle Dracula if Dracula had decided to go with the macadamia instead of the stone look.
Quote from: TordelBack on 12 October, 2017, 10:42:58 AM
I can't work out the topology there at all. Ah well, a puzzle to keep the mind active over teabreak now I've finished the sudoku.
I couldn't figure it out either thinking the 'A' must be for adult.
Having looked it up I've realised what I sheltered life I lead...Thank goodness.
Made my eyes fair water.
I used to have that as a joke in my act. The 10% of the audience that laughed, laughed hard. But it left 90% of the audience going "Wuh?" so I had to drop it.