Home Theater Projectors (vs Wide Screen TVs)

This was a major decision for us when building our own home theater. We spent countless hours at the video store comparing projectors with a screen to Big Screen TVs. Of course we wanted the largest possible screen size we could afford. Back when we were shopping the projector and screen totalled about $10,500 while a 65" widescreen TV was less than $5000. Additionally, we discovered that the bulbs in the projector itself last about 200 hrs and based on our expected usage would need replacing every 18-24 months to a tune of $500. Yikes! We went with the Mitsubishi WS 65819, 65" widescreen TV for these reasons:

• a lot cheaper
• less maintenance expense
• could be used for regular TV viewing without wearing out the bulb too much
• fit better into the decor of a home theater/family room

 If you're looking for the largest image possible then the projector and screen are your best option. You can get an image from 70" to 120" diagonal. WOW. We settled with a 65" widescreen TV (to eliminate the black bars on movies that I hate).

If either choice is really an option for you, our best suggestion is to visit your favorite video store (and perhaps several of them) that has demo rooms setup to show you the differences. Besides the sticker price, you'll want to consider these factors:

• overall screen size
• viewing angle (how far to the side you can stand and still see the image)
• light reflecting off the screen
• image quality with lights on in the room
• physical size of necessary equipment (TVs take up more room than projectors)
• screen aspect ratio - 16:9, 1.85:1 and 4:3 (this is where a widescreen TV makes up for regular big screen dimensions)

Our widescreen TV has the ability to project the image in widescreen, zoom, or standard formatting. This means we can watch regular formatted shows on a wider TV but gray bars will appear on either side. I find that annoying also. We opt to watch regular TV in the widescreen format. You might think this makes everyone really fat on screen, but our TV is set to vary the stretching according to location. So pixels in the middle section are normal size and the image doesn't begin stretching until you head toward the outside edge. I don't even notice the stretching anymore and I have a constant comparison with the 4:3 regular formatting on our other TVs.

For a true home theater enthusiast (especially if you opt for theater style seating) you'll want to get a projector. The good news is they are coming down in cost and are compatible with High Definition just like big screen TVs.  It does present an incredible overall shock factor, too, when your guests first walk in and see a huge movie screen with their favorite action film being shown in front of them. It almost makes you want to charge admission.

Another big factor when we were looking at home theater projectors was the image reaction to other light in the room. In our case it didn't matter as much since we don't have windows, but if any room lights were on, the image faded out enough to make it a much less "cinematic" experience. The bright colors and sharp pixels were obliterated until the lights were off again. Since our theater doubles as a family room environment (where the lights are sometimes on) we didn't want the image to fade away.