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Thread: Any Suggestions |
    
New member Username: Hogwild
Post Number: 4
Registered: Aug-05
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| Posted on Thursday, August 11, 2005 - 11:46 am: |
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I'm setting up a basement home theatre.
The drywall is next - so I need to define my projector and placement.
I have little to no experience with home audio or theatre.
I had a look in a couple of showrooms.
In Front Projectors I've seen a high end LCD Marantz (loved it but $19000.00) a mid level DLP Runco $7000.00 (hated it) and a Sony vplhs51 LCD $5000.00 (loved it).
All were in ambient light controlled showrooms on Stewart Screens.
Having seen the Runco DLP, and only two LCD's, I have not been impressed by the DLP technology.
So far - I would be happy with the Sony.
Do you have any suggestions for other projectors I should look at - comparable to the Sony. |
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Silver Member Username: Ziggyzoggyoioi
Outside Philadelphia,
PA
Post Number: 105
Registered: Jun-05
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| Posted on Monday, August 15, 2005 - 06:05 pm: |
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The best resource for reviews and comparisons is http://www.projectorcentral.com
I found that the Hitachi PJ-TX100 Ultravision is every bit as good as the Sony, and gray-market Ebay prices are ~$1300. While I normally wouldn't support gray-market sellers, the disparity between MSRP ($3995) and their prices makes it a no-brainer, even if I would have to pay for repairs out of pocket.
Others seem to like the Panasonic AE700U but I found it to be pretty dull compared to the Hitachi and others. Sharp makes a fairly inexpensive DLP that's supposed to be pretty good, but I have not seen it to compare. Good luck. |
New member Username: Hogwild
Post Number: 5
Registered: Aug-05
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| Posted on Tuesday, August 16, 2005 - 07:33 am: |
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Thanks for the information.
It's really hard to find a showroom to view these.
I live just east of Toronto Canada and travelled 60 miles to view the sony.
If anyone has a setup near me I'll bring the beer. |
Silver Member Username: Ziggyzoggyoioi
Outside Philadelphia,
PA
Post Number: 108
Registered: Jun-05
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| Posted on Wednesday, August 17, 2005 - 05:42 pm: |
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Rob, that is a problem. Even in my large metropolitan area (philadelphia) there are only about a dozen places showing projectors, and only a handful have more than 1 or 2. And even those typically only had 1 under ~$5k US. Here's a pretty good comparison article of 4 of them (Sony, Hitachi, Panasonic, Epson): http://www.soundandvisionmag.com/article.asp?section_id=3&article_id=802&page_nu mber=1 |
Unregistered guest |
| Posted on Tuesday, September 06, 2005 - 05:00 pm: |
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Rob, since you live in Ontario. I have found this site that has very cheap prices for projectors (gray market). They are located in Hamilto, Ontario. I don't know how risky it is to deal with them, but the prices are very good. Check this:
http://www.eastporters.com/index.htm
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| Posted on Sunday, September 11, 2005 - 01:19 am: |
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Grey market=NO WARRANTY=More money=UNSATISFIED. Buy only from authorized dealers and you can be sure of what you are getting and be protected by the manufacturers warranty |
Silver Member Username: Ziggyzoggyoioi
Outside Philadelphia,
PA
Post Number: 132
Registered: Jun-05
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| Posted on Monday, September 12, 2005 - 08:38 am: |
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Anonymous, that is a generalization that is simply not true in all cases, especially when the projector has a vastly lower list price in its home market. As I said re: my Hitachi projector (which works perfectly by the way), my purchase price was 1/3 the US retail price. The lowest price I could find from an authorized dealer was $3299 - or 2.5 times what I paid for mine. I would never buy from an unauthorized dealer to save $100 - in that case it's NOT worth it. But to save $2000? Any day of the week and twice on Sunday. That $2000 will cover a lot of out-of-pocket repairs. |
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