2. home-theater
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Projector comparisons

So my wife recently noted that our 65” Panny plasma is too small, and if I wanted I could look for a projector.  I keep up with most things in home theater and am trying to find a site that lays out a comparison of various projectors including discontinued ones. I see the merits in typically going used as a few years old top of line projector now costs what the entry level model does, with typically a better lens and more features. However I’m not 100% clear on how important HDR and other things are relatively speaking for my first projector.  We do a fair amount of Netflix and amazon and typically I purchased Blu-ray if cheap or I want the movie and have an oppo 205 to play them. The room for watching has no windows. I’ve been looking at some of the discontinued Sony models like 385 and the 1100 which sold for 28k. Looking for suggestions on how to work through this and any good websites that lay out features and comparisons to make ruling things in and out simple. Let’s say budget will be 4-7k. 
Thanks!
esthlos13

Showing 2 responses by auxinput

auxinput
2,920 posts
 
My information is about 10 years old and I've been out of the market for a long time, but I did a real close analysis back then.  The two big players were JVC and Sony.  DLP was made by several manufacturers, but had problems because of the spinning color wheel.  I did not have enough budget to get a true 3-element DLP. 

The JVC D-ILA technology had excellent black levels, but after viewing several options, the JVC just did not have images that "jumped".  Color was good, but image was just dull in comparison to the Sony.

The Sony had excellent color and images jumped out at you and were very exciting.  So I went with Sony SXRD technology.  If I had to do it again, I would probably go with Sony again (like your 385).  But I don't know what has developed in the last 10 years.

This is a good site to get detailed reviews:

https://www.projectorreviews.com/sony/sony-vpl-vw385es-true-4k-home-theater-projector-review/

Here's another one that has specs:

https://www.projectorcentral.com/Sony-VPL-VW665ES.htm

The Sony 695 might be an option as well.
auxinput
2,920 posts
 
It really depends on what you're trying to do.  I don't think anyone on this forum knows enough about this particular subject to recommend.  You also have features such as HDMI 2.0 and Dolby Vision / HDR that your particular laptop may not support.

As far as laptop power goes, I would think that core i5 and 8 GB of RAM should be fine.  It doesn't require a lot of processing power to just playback 4K video (either from streaming or a bluray disc).

The PowerDVD software (which supports 4K) has minimum requirements here:

https://www.cyberlink.com/products/powerdvd-ultra/spec_en_US.html

Hope that helps.
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