Between my parents and I we owned 3-4 DLP between early 90's and 2000's. I always thought they were really high quality and it was awesome to rock a 50-65" TV during that time. I'm interested in seeing what kind of results your going to get with the projector setup. With a little bit of luck you may get a good picture. You can always upgrade components as time goes on.

i'll update this thread when i'm ready to rock n roll.
i never had a projector before, only watching movies on my 28"/32" tv.

i'm trying to find a cheap projector with plenty of lamp life left, buying new HQ projectors are very expensive and I feel that i don't want to waste money on such things.
if i manage to find a cheap non full HD or a cheap full HD projector, i will first try this projector without a scaler to see what kind of pic i will get??
then i'll probably go hunting for a scaler trying to improve pic quality

I view projectors as a double edged sword. They can be really awesome and give an unrivaled sized picture if done right, or they can be the absolute worst setup. When "average" people see my home theater room, they often will ask if I recommend that they upgrade to a projector in their system. I usually say they shouldn't in 90% of the cases. I tell them that if they want a picture better than what they get from this simple and cheap wall mounted flat screen, they will need the following:

* Complete ambient light control in the room. Even the slightest ambient light will destroy the picture. They can forget about watching Sunday night football with a lamp on in the room.

* Very cheap (sub $1k) projectors have terrible picture. It's not just resolution as almost all new projectors are at least 1080p, but rather the true contrast ratio. Every cheap projector I have seen has terrible black levels, I have not seen one sub $1k projector with what I would consider "good" picture quality. Cheap projectors have worse picture than cheap TV's compared to higher end models of the same class. Go with at least a mid-range projector if you are going to get into this, it can be a little bit older and used to save money, nothing wrong with that.

* Don't skimp on the screen. I know people that are projecting onto their regular white room painted walls or using a bed sheet. The screen is extremely important if you want good picture.

* How big do they want to really go? Yes, a projector will get you a very large potential screen size, but if you are viewing in a small room or sitting very close to the TV, you may be able to get away with a flat panel TV for less money and less fuss.

* Most important, do they really want to spend the money and hassle on the above criteria? Most people simple don't care about picture quality, viewing angles, contrast, etc... they are happy watching their ultracompressed low bitrate cable television in which case the picture is going to look like s**t regardless of what they are watching it on. But, they may perfectly happy with that.

Again, after all these, maybe 10% is a candidate for a projector setup.

it will be a used projector for my wallet, a few years old but a HQ one
i hope i can find one with low lamp-hours at an affordable price?

i'm curious of this model, it recieved good reviews.
http://www.projectorcentral.com/Panason ... E4000U.htm

That looks pretty good to me.

how much minimum Ansi lumens is necessary to play a projector in a not fully blacked out room?
is 1600 Ansi lumens ok for this to be played in daylight?

The honest answer is that without a fully blacked out room, you are going to have major problems regardless of projector brightness. It's not the projector but rather the nature of the screen which is designed to throw back as much light as possible. You have to go for complete ambient light control with the setup. If you have windows in the room you can get complete black out curtains that you can apply to the window with black tape to eliminate any bleed-through.

i hear you.
it's lots of things needs to be done to get the best out of it.
one miss will screw up a lot

Yup, that pretty much sums up my experience with projectors.

will update what happens when i get all my stuff.

thanks for all info

Getting back to the original question - a few years ago a lot of schools were throwing out fairly good roll-up screens because they began to use touch or pen-sensitive interactive whiteboards instead. It might be worth checking if any school in your area is making this transition and has some spare screens to dispose of.

it's a good idea but i think every school has upgraded their media accessories long time ago?
i'm still waiting for my screen to show up.

a few days ago i receive a weird email from this ebay seller which i bought my screen from.
in this email seller tells me that Royal post which is from UK, Royal post has lost several packages from this sellers and many buyers never received their goods.
why would Royal mail lose packages, this ain't right?
it makes me wonder if this seller is a scammer selling non existing items on ebay trying to make easy money on buyers?
when i paid this ebay seller through paypal, i wrote in the message box that i want to have a tracking number for secure delivery, they never send me a tracking number.

i have to wait a few more days to see what happens?!

ebay seller contact info shows he is registered in HK but ebay auction is listed from London.
why would they have different registered location?

this is the seller:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/100-inch-16-9 ... SwUdlWcnru

i never received my screen from ebay seller.
i got a full refund from them.

now i'm back to square one, having to find another screen.
watch out from this ebay seller i linked before, they don't ship out their stuff, many disapointed customers gave them negative feedback because they never got their goods.
sellers lame excuse is Royal post lost their goods in shipping!?

i'm happy i got my money back

Glad to hear your got your money back. That sucks. Take a look at Elite Screens. They are really good and not that expensive.

thanks man.

i checked elite screens
one of the sellers on ebay wants $526USD in shipping, that's too rich for my blood

Elite Screens is sold by regular dealers, you don't have to go to ebay. They have screens in all price ranges. I was able to buy their 150" pulldown screen for $300 with shipping (granted a few years ago). I think I bought it from Visual Apex. Check them out, really good customer service.

problem is that i have to pay steep customs taxes if i place an order from US of A.
finding something similar to Elite screen for less money I have to buy the screen from Germany or UK?
Germany always has the best prices on everything compared to swedish shops and their steep pricetags.
including shipping cost Germany will still be more affordable to buy from than buying from Sweden.

Oh damn... I forgot you are not in the US. Not sure how much shipping/customs is from the US. Out of curiosity I looked on Visual Apex and you can get an Elite Screens 100" pull down for $115 plus shipping (which is $50 in the US so I'm sure a lot more to Europe but may still worth checking). How is it that they don't have local sellers, people buy projectors in Sweden as well so you would figure they have roughly equivalent prices except without the large shipping costs?

there are different brands for screens, i think one of them is named Kingpin or something?
buying a screen and projector is an expensive hobby when or if I'm broke n blue.

people buy projectors in sweden, but these have very high prices if they are good HQ projectors, lower end projectors fetch a cheaper pricetag.
you get what ya pay for!

Good point. It's certainly not cheap.

Is there a local used market? In the US we have a website called craigslist, it's basically free for people to post goods and works on the concept of local sellers vs shipping goods.