Warning, not a typical T3 post and will probably bore the shit out of you.

 

For the past year I’ve wanted to dive into the HDTV world and I was finally able to do it this past month. Of course I had been thinking about it for at least 3 years, but not seriously. I’ve had a non HDTV Sony 36inch Flat Screen Tube TV (biggest Tube TV you could get) for the past 6 years or so and it has worked great, but sitting 17 feet away from it really made the TV look small. What finally sent me into serious mode was watching the 2006 Super Bowl XL at a friend’s house who had just bought a 65inch rear projection LCD TV. That 1080i on a big screen looked a whole hellavu lot better than my 480i “small” screen. From then on I started researching Plasma, LCD, and rear projection LCD TVs.

 

Of course I wanted a 1080p set, and because I would use it for gaming, rear projection LCD TVs were winning the race over Plasma and standard LCD. I was getting close to settling on a 65inch Toshiba or Mitsubishi 1080p set. Then I found “the thread”  . OOOOHHHHHH, front projector home theatre? This looks interesting, maybe I should research that. I started measuring walls, getting placement ideas, and how I’d rig my A/V and gaming systems. It didn’t take me long to throw Plasma, LCD, and rear projection TVs right out the window when I determined I could get a 120inch screen on one of my walls. I just almost freaking doubled my screen size, w00t!

 

Now it was off to the races to determine which projector to get. I started looking at 1080p projectors first. This being the first year where affordable 1080p projectors are coming out and the fact that I didn’t really have anything that could show 1080p images, I started looking at 720p projectors. I’ll probably upgrade to a 1080p projector in 2 years when they should be a lot better and probably much cheaper. I referred back to “the thread” several times as a starting point on where I could research products. After reading many many reviews and looking at the pros and cons of several projectors, the Panasonic PT-AX100U won. Often referred to as “the light cannon”, this thing would work great for daytime football viewing and TV, and really kick ass for movies and games.

 

Since my fellow 2old2play members said http://www.visualapex.com/ was a great place to buy from, I decided to use them to buy the projector and a screen. This projector was priced at $1899, which turned out to be the lowest price I could find at the time, not to mention Panasonic was offering a $400 mail in rebate on this model. Score! I also wanted a motorized screen. Luckily I did my research there too and found that motorized screens often get a “wave” effect on the screen after about a year. Didn’t want to spend the $$$ on that only to have a bunch of waves down my screen. So, I found the CineTension series by EliteScreens which solved that problem all together. I found the model I wanted, but again, visualapex.com was the lowest price. The only thing that worried me was the “all screen sales are final” policy they had. The screen I wanted was $899. Oh well, fuck it. I’ll let MasterCard fuck with them if I run into any problems.

 

I get the projector and screen a week after I ordered it. I start working on mounting the screen to the wall first. I was really impressed with the screens mounting brackets, although I went to Home Depot and bought my own wood screws because I didn’t really trust theirs. Basically, I have 3 L brackets to place wherever I find the wooden studs, then the screen hangs from 3 screws that can be aligned anywhere on the housing to match the placement of the L brackets. This made hanging the thing a fucking breeze, except for the fact that my wife and daughter are too damn short and having them help me hang it was an experience I’d like to soon forget. We finally get the thing up there and the screen comes down fine, going back up didn’t turn out so well. It got halfway there and decided to come back down, not via the motor, but via gravity. Great, the screen is fucked and it’s a damn weekend. I email tech support on Monday morning and get an RMA to return the screen. All they need is the control box, remotes, and end caps for the return. My wife decides to use the broken screen as a cover for her plants in the winter, whatever. In the mean time I use the wall for watching my new projector. About a week later, I get my new screen, a new better model no less, so that made me happy. Hang it up and it works great.

 

I finally got everything the way I wanted it this past weekend, which means 2 new leather recliners, of which mine is dead center to the screen, had arrived and now the new entertainment room is complete. I got myself a Logitech Harmony 880 remote to control everything and everything is working after a few tweaks. I found a wireless Wii Sensor bar (made by Nyko) for my Nintendo Wii and so far that is working great too.

 

Gaming on a 120 inch screen at 720p is kick ass. Watching movies and HDTV is just “how the fuck did I live without this for so many years”.  I can’t wait until football season.