NE1 Used a Front-Projection?

[quantumstate]

Am considering a front-projection TV, and the more I read about it the more I like it.

TVs these days have just gotten out of hand (as far as size) and this seems like a great solution.

Zenith makes one with 800 lumens, but it only has 7" CRTs, which I gather isn't big enough to render HD detail.

"Runco" makes two with DLPs at 1000 and 2500 lumens respectively, but I never heard of Runco, and I'm getting a whiff that DLP may not give the resolution of polysilicon, and the machines are monstrous. (too big for ceiling-mount)

Great thing is Runco's has a xenon arc lamp, and they claim it draws only 15 WATTS! Very doubtful, though it would be nice. (isn't there a warm-up period?)

Is it advisible to use a data projector, like Viewsonic, for TV? Is the LCD too slow? Will it have any kind if life?

[Vlady Dady]

If you are looking for a HD front projection monitor consider your budget and do not get caught on the numbers game specially lumens (brightness). Consider the key element of contrast ratio. This is the different between the back and white specturm usally at 130. The larger the number the more gray scale a projector can produce. This means you have a varity of color tone that will jump you out of your seat not to mention a good sound system. I have a Sony HD ready VPL-W400Q rated at 400 lumens projected on a 10' wide screen. This is best viewed on a dark room. I mounted accuators (damper speaker) on each sofa with a crossover of 100 hz. The sofa vibrates at 100 hz. while watching Twister without blowing your ears using sub-woofer.
Nothing beats a CRT projector to produce a "film-like" images. I heard NEC is getting out of the CRT tubes business and goint to DLP "Vortex Technology".

[comlinenet]

I have the zenith and it does a good job with HDTV. If you have questions on it email me.

[quantumstate]

Thanks for the responses.

Am suspicious of lumens. Believe some lumens are more "ANSI" than others.

Contrast ratio seems like a good test of the CRT's quality, but it too can be jiggered. Screen-reflected light is also a good measure (very dependent on screen, though all testers will use the best) but it can be fudged. Do know that scan freq. must be at least 33.75 kHz for HD quality.

Ambient light is a concern, as I won't always have control over light in the room. This means the desirable light (picture) must be =much= stronger than the incident light to overcome. (signal-to-noise ratio) The brighter the better.

DLP picture is plenty bright by any strandard, especially compared with a Sony CRT proj I saw. But DLP has two effects that are undesirable: "screen door", where you see picture broken into tiny squares,(mostly a problem with single-chip models) and "black-is-gray" where the deepest black you can get is a dark gray. Saw a Marantz single-chip proj that was as small as a dictionary and had bright picture, but had above probs. No 3-chip out from them yet.

Found the cheapest 3-chip DLP ever at tawow ($14k) but they are VGA res. Most 3-chips are >$40k... for a TV? No f-in' way.

Am turning my attention to CRT projectors. Hear that 7" just doesn't do it for HD, so looking at 8" minimum. 9" tubes are nice and render great detail, but the machine is as big as a bus & 390 lbs!

Seems I'll find what I need from the usual suspects: Zenith, Vidikron, Runco, or Electrohome.