Small home theater short throw projector questions

[Cody Kish]

Before I start this, I'm not sure if purely DIY home theater stuff is allowed in this channel, since for what I'm doing, I won't be using equipment that used to be in a theater of any kind, so please let me know if I'm violating anything!

I'm looking for a projector that can give me a picture 100" or bigger from around 7 feet away for a very small home theater room.
I would like to buy a used projector that's at least 1080p and preferably low latency.
I don't mind dealing with bulbs and I don't care if it's LCD, DLP, etc. I just want it to be fairly cheap to find used.
So far, I'm looking into the BenQ W1080ST, which I've found for 400+ dollars.
Does anyone have experience with a similar setup that could recommend a model or share any knowledge or models to avoid?
Thank you so much!

[Paul H. Rayton]

Hello, Cody -- Nice that you found "us", but I think that the expertise of most everyone here is centered around commercial cinema exhibition (with a few exceptions), on larger screens and with professional equipment, not home systems. I'd suggest you might also try asking the members of the Home Theater Forum ( http://www.hometheaterforum.com/ ), and see if someone there may have the expertise you are seeking..

[Cody Kish]

Yeah I kind of figured, I just thought I would ask because I've already been in this forum for my theater and thought other people might also have theaters as well as a home theater haha
But thank you, I will definitely check out that forum!

[Tj Hopland]

That is for sure a short throw and that is going to limit your options. I'm not an expert on this sort of thing but that short seemed like it was more of a board room unit than home theater so they are not going to have the same specs and features as home theater units. BenQ seems like they made pretty solid and reliable stuff. Since projectors are way less popular now than they used to be and lamp based ones have been out of production for a while now getting quality lamps is a lot harder than it used to be. It doesn't appear that Osram and or Ushio which where the two that used to make a majority of them make them anymore. There does seem to be people making them but the quality and reliability isn't there and many times you are still paying a decent price for junk. Old stock is around for some models but most sellers either don't care to note it or just lie so you really never know what you are going to end up with. If you are really not putting on any hours maybe not a big deal but if you are putting some hours on lamps could be a problem.

[Ed Gordon]

Check out the website https://www.projectorcentral.com/.

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Here is the projector you are considering:

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[Ryan Gallagher]

For that size room one also has to consider if you would just be better off with a large TV instead of projector. Price is gonna be the factor, but you can certainly get 100-120” 4K OLED with contrast and brightness that is gonna handily beat any 4K laser projector screen combo.

if all you want is 1080p there should be used options in both approaches for folks on a tighter budget.

[Tj Hopland]

On the subject of home theater projectors with lamps.... I have always ordered lamps from the same place and until the 2nd to last one they have all been Ushio or Osram. I wasn't specifically seeking those out, I think the site just said something like 'genuine' or 'OEM'. They had all gone pretty close to warranty before getting too dark and flickery. A new one always looks good and I am again impressed with how good the picture is.

2nd to the last bulb that I just took out turns out was a no name. I didn't notice that when I ordered it or installed it and it did look better than the well used one I took out. It was intermittently flickery from the start. I spent a lot of time searching for an old stock Osram or Ushio and found what seems to be an old stock Osram and wow I didn't realize how bad that no name lamp was for color and brightness even when it was brand new.

So the moral of the story is if you are going to still run a lamp based machine be prepared to have to put some extra work and likely money into finding decent lamps these days. The no name lamps sell anywhere from $20 to $200. I think I paid $120 for the old stock one with shipping. I think back when the machine was new lamps were almost $400.

[Ryan Gallagher]

You also have to watch out for 3rd party assemblies that are using genuine lamp elements. Not as bad as the fully 3rd party, but any reflectors or optical filters may be of a vastly different quality.

even 3rd party fan/filter modules are a thing, we had one that the projector detected as clogged due to a finer fiber mesh and it just scrolled through it testing each section and claimed it needed replacing the same day. We air dusted our old one and manually rewound it, cause OEM ones seem unobtanium.

Often there is quite a price premium for genuine OEM parts, which is how the clones make money, the savings are just too tempting.

[Tj Hopland]

Ya I'm sure the 3rd party stuff is often one size sorta fits all with fairly loose tolerances on just about every aspect. I wonder how many different designs there actually were for the actual bulb and reflector assemblies? I'm thinking there likely were not that many especially when projectors were really popular.

I would think that if you were gonna make a projector you just went to the Ushio Osram types and picked something out of their catalog then sort of built the rest of your projector around that. I'm sure there were trends since the light engines were probably a similar part where a TI type comes up with a new one that maybe needs a wider light beam so then Ushio comes up with a lamp so everyone ends up buying that engine and that lamp sort of thing.

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

I'd be thinking along the lines of going with LED panels or a TV rather than a projector. Panels actually do a much better job than an inexpensive home projector. There are also a few sets that are very close to the size you want. The 98" Hi Sense is reasonably priced at $999 (Best Buy). Sony also has one for ~4K dollars that no doubt will look good. I'd call around and find out where they have these set up at, and go see them from the 7 foot distance you want to watch from... BTW, both sets have high ratings.