tasha99

Hi all. Back in 2012 I got some recommendations here and ended up getting an Epson Powerlite Home Cinema 8350 projector. It's been great, but now it's overheating. My husband vacuumed some sort of filter out, which helped for a while, but now a week later, it's doing it again, so it's either broken or might just need a new bulb (we've had a few bulb failures over time, but not the over-heating issue).

Well, he's wondering if we should get a new projector, and to him, this seems like a reasonable replacement:


I am skeptical that you could get a good projector for that price, but maybe I'm wrong. One thing that confuses me is the brightness--this says it's 480 ANSI/15000L, which is brighter than our old one, yet I've read some guides that say this isn't enough for the size we project to.

Our set up is the projector mounted about 10-11 feet from the screen. It's a short room, so we can't go longer and yes, I like to watch with a big picture (maybe 100-110 inches diagonally) even though smaller would be better to most people. When I bought the Epson, latency mattered because my son played video games on it, but all my kids are grown and gone, and we just stream movies. Any recommendations? It's a fairly dark room (dedicated home theater with blackout curtains) and we have a sound bar. How cheap can we go? I'm okay with not getting 4K--to me, the Epson was plenty good enough. Are the cheapo projectors any good? I have this feeling that the rave reviews on Amazon are probably fake.

Any advice greatly appreciated. Plus, what are the odds just changing the bulb would fix our old projector? Thanks

PerryD

Yeah, I would stick with name brands, and there are plenty of options with current models from Epson, BenQ, or Optima in all price ranges. I'd recommend spending as much as your budget allows though which will increase the likelihood that you'll be super impressed by the quality improvements. When I upgrade my 10 year old 1080p Sony projector to a new JVC 4K model both around the same price point (~$5K), the experience was 10x better, not just the resolution, but brightness, contrast ratio, colors, black levels.

tasha99

Thanks, PerryD. We managed to watch a movie last night without it turning off--so maybe we'll wait a while. I've discovered lots of Youtube videos explaining things like throw ratio and lumens (which are so deceptive), etc. We actually might go with a well reviewed cheaper type projector since we aren't looking to improve the theater, just keep it going, It's strange since I'm on this forum, but I actually reach a "good enough" level for my home theater that is far far lower than I'd imagine the average DVDTalker's to be--I rent movies in standard definition sometimes, made a my own screen out of a framed blackout curtain, and have a soundbar instead of good speakers, for example. Your theater sounds like it would be amazing! Ours will likely remain fairly mediocre but I'm okay with that as long as it has a reasonable looking large picture when projected in a dark room.

Edit: Well, it crashed again, so ended up buying a new one. We went with a Yaber K2s for about $400. Will we be filled with regret? Probably not, because the plan is to get it set up right away, and if we don't like it, we'll return it immediately.

Paul_SD

So how did you like that Yaber?

jpcamb

What is a good price point for a projector that will most likely only be used at night? We moved back in April and have a large-screen TV (65") but have felt no desire to watch TV or set it up even as of yet. We figure winter in VT will be a different experience but dont want to have a massive TV. So what is a good price point for a projector and screen and such? If there is a better thread to ask in let me know. thanks!

tasha99

We like it! It projected a dark spot when we first got it, but we cleaned the lens and that fixed it. I'm not a connoisseur like I'd imagine many members are here, but for us, its plenty sharp and bright (we have a dedicated theater room with blackout curtains--not sure it would do well in a bright room). I've been watching Foundation on it and it is awesome to see it on a big screen.