Home Projector

[Padjo2007]

Hi.

With this pandemic not likely to change anytime soon I've decided to invest in a home projector for the kitchen to watch all the various sports this winter. I have no clue of what brand or how much to spend etc but some of my priorities would be:
1. That it can be clearly viewable during the day with no need to black out the windows
2. Connects to WiFi and Bluetooth so it can project from mobile devices
3. Has decent in built speakers
4. Is reasonably compact
5. Preferably under €600

Also with a good electrician is it possible to get it wired from the ceiling?

Thanks
P

 

[Leo]

2. Connects to WiFi and Bluetooth so it can project from mobile devices
3. Has decent in built speakers

Focus on wifi, Bluetooth doesn't have the bandwidth for HD.

I don't think any of the decent home projectors will have built-in speakers. Normal use case for those is to be hooked up to a home cinema system with surround and a good projection point for the image is usually a poor one for audio.

Also with a good electrician is it possible to get it wired from the ceiling?

Absolutely, but it will be a painful and potentially messy job routing all the cables, so you might struggle to fine one willing to take the job on for reasonable money.

 

[POC123]

I have the Epson EH-TW650 which is in your price range. It is my second Epson projector. I had the last one for over 10 years with no issues. No problem seeing during the day. It has a built in speaker but very poor and I haven't seen a decent projector with a good built in sound system other than the type that are designed to be portable for business use but their picture quality is just OK. I suggest you invest in a sound bar at the same time that will plug in directly to the projector. To get it wired in and mounted on the ceiling would be expensive. You are better off putting your budget into the projector. My suggestion is to put up a shelf to begin with. Enjoy!

 

[Buddyboy]

And your €600 will mostly be eaten up by the installation cost.
I'd suggest that there is a lot more investigation in your future. I don't think €600 will get you all that you are asking for. So I'd prioritize you list and start from there.
Just looking at Richer Sounds - a decent one is north of £1000.
Also, to get the best of it, a good screen is needed. Which isn't cheap either.

Sorry, POC123 posted while I was typing.
they make a good suggestion for a printer and a sound bar. Oh, and a shelf, pointing at a white wall.

Still, a bit more investigation, with youtube review thrown in.

And then it will be great next summer when you can watch movies outside during Lockdown number 17

 

[gianni]

I bought this:

Optoma HD142X Full HD 1080p Projector (Full Lights on Viewing 3000 ANSI Lumens, x2 HDMI with MHL Support and Built-In 10 W Speaker) - Black

on Amazon a few years ago. It is more towards the budget end of things but I find it perfect for my needs. I stuck a Chromecast into the back of it and stream through that. I can't fault the picture quality. I have it hooked up to a guitar amp as the inbuilt speakers are weak.

It's great for gaming too. I thought that I'd be upgrading it after a while, if I decided that a projector was for me...but, it's more than adequate and I can't justify spending money to get an upgrade.

 

[Alkers86]

Hi.

With this pandemic not likely to change anytime soon I've decided to invest in a home projector for the kitchen to watch all the various sports this winter. I have no clue of what brand or how much to spend etc but some of my priorities would be:
1. That it can be clearly viewable during the day with no need to black out the windows
2. Connects to WiFi and Bluetooth so it can project from mobile devices
3. Has decent in built speakers
4. Is reasonably compact
5. Preferably under €600

Also with a good electrician is it possible to get it wired from the ceiling?

Thanks
P

1. Most projectors will struggle a bit with this, if you have any sort of curtains or blinds it will help a lot, they don't need to be blackout but if sunlight comes directly onto the wall you're projecting onto, it will be very hard to see the screen.
2. Forget this requirement, get a Chromecast which will also mean one less cable to go to the back of the projector.
3. You won't find this either as projectors are small devices, speakers will be low powered and have no bass. If you're using a mobile device anyway, this shouldn't be an issue as you can just use a bluetooth speaker, separate to the projector.
4. Most projectors are compact.
5. It's possible, we have the Optoma HD141X and the picture quality is excellent at 120" screen, assuming you are watching full HD content.

It is quite easy to get it wired from the ceiling, if you're comfortable to lift the floorboards in the room above and drill a hole through the ceiling. Then you don't even need an electrician, you can plug the projector into a normal socket. You will most-likely need to buy a longer power cable, we have a 10m one although we wired it from within the room, along with a long HDMI cable into a HDMI switch to allow us use multiple devices.

One thing you're not considering, is each projector has a range of throw distances that it is suited to, you need to work out which projectors suit the location you're intending to use. There are dedicated websites for this kind of thing. There are even short-throw projectors which you use only a foot or so from the wall and the projector doesn't need to be ceiling mounted either, you can mount them at floor / coffee table level etc.

 

[Padjo2007]

Hi Leo / Poc / Buddy Boy / Gianni / Alkers

Thanks a million to all of you for your responses. Every single one of them was really useful to get the thoughts right in my head. Some things that jump out to me are that:

1. Although projectors have come on leaps and bounds there is still no gaureentee that it will be so clear in the daylight. I have a south facing kitchen that the sun beams into and I've no curtains etc so this is far from ideal

2. From a couple of posts above it's clear that the audio is pretty rubbish on the projectors. There was a suggestion to get an additional speakers but then I'm just adding on extra technology which I didn't really want to do

3. Hanging from the ceiling is a fairly big job and may not be worth the hassle

So after all that I've deceided I'm going to spend roughly a €1000 on a 65 inch TV. I didn't really want a TV in the kitchen but I now think it's a better option than the projector.

Thanks everyone again