Until recently I had an old projector inherented from a university to use for movie nights, but after a rather expensive bulb change the picture started flickering and it is now pretty much unusabe. So I am looking for a new one.

Things I want:

  • HDMI or DisplayPort
  • A standardized bulb of sorts, if possible - changing the bulb in my old projector was very specific and therefore expensive
  • Reasonable brightness - I want to project across the room onto a white wall
  • Somewhat silent - we have the projector behind us watching movies, so it’s good if it’s not very loud.
  • Available in Europe
  • Affordable

Things I do not want:

  • Smart functionality or any form of spyware

It doesn’t need to be super compact, but a smaller form factor is of course an advantage. Most importantly I just want a no-nonsense projector that does the job, is as repairable as possible if something breaks, and ideally doesn’t cost a fortune.

If there’s a projector that’s reliable enough that it can safely be bought second hand that would be great.

Edit: I would ideally not pay much more than €600, and I am not very picky when it comes to picture quality - I just want to watch some movies now and then without having to buy a piece of trash with Android on it. I want a projector because I don’t want a TV in my living room, not because I want a full-blown cinema experience at home. I’m sorry I didn’t make this clear right away!

  • _haha_oh_wow_@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    81·
    3 months ago

    We have an Epson 3200 and it’s been pretty great. You’ll need speakers though. It uses LED bulbs that can be replaced, it’s super bright and the bulbs last thousands of hours.

    • cabbage@piefed.socialOPEnglish
      3·
      3 months ago

      I’ll use a separate sound system in either case, so no built in speakers is more of a feature than a bug. Will check it out, thanks!

      • Thorry@feddit.orgEnglish
        3·
        3 months ago

        Be sure to filter for three chip designs when going for a DLP based system. Nothing more annoying than color fringing and shifting on a single chip beamer. The Epson 3200 is a good suggestion.

    • cabbage@piefed.socialOPEnglish
      4·
      3 months ago

      I should probably have been more precise about budget, but more than a thousand dollars is a bit outside of my price range. Seems like a great projector though, thanks!

  • Blue_Morpho@lemmy.worldEnglish
    4·
    3 months ago

    Price? I got an Epson 3 LCD 6 months ago that I like. My previous color wheel projector was never great. I could always see rainbows on fast moving objects.

    • cabbage@piefed.socialOPEnglish
      1·
      3 months ago

      I should absolutely have specified price in the post - I underestimated how fancy set-ups people get for home use. Paying more than around €600 would start getting painful for me. Maybe that’s unrealistic, but I was hoping there would be some option on the market where I don’t have to pay twice the price in order not to have smart functionality.

      I don’t care too much about picture quality - my old projector was more than 10 years old and more than good enough (except that it was too old for HDMI) - I just want build quality.

      The Epson 3200 3LCD seems to be a popular choice throughout the responses here, but it’s on the expensive side. It also doesn’t seem to be on the market in Europe, which is another difficulty I didn’t forsee. The only affordable-ish Epson 3LCD I’ve found without Android for sale in my country so far is the EB-X49 XGA, and I’m not entirely convinced it’s great.

      • cravl@slrpnk.netEnglish
        2·
        3 months ago

        The color brightness improvement over DLP is night and day difference.

        • _haha_oh_wow_@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
          1·
          3 months ago

          Yeah, my old projector was a 1080 DLP and I was totally blown away going to a 4K LED projector. Mine isn’t even a high end one either.

    • cabbage@piefed.socialOPEnglish
      1·
      3 months ago

      Laser sounds ideal, but all the ones I can find are either very expensive or very cheap and shipping with Android TV. I might end up getting something created for displaying powerpoint presentations in office settings, as the consumer market seems to be perfectly divided between products for rich cinephiles and cheap trash.

  • j_z@feddit.nuEnglish
    1·
    3 months ago

    I was advised to try getting hold of a good screen (there’s some ”level of reflectiveness” measurement if I remember correctly) to project on. Then even a moderately bright projector will do

    • cabbage@piefed.socialOPEnglish
      1·
      3 months ago

      Makes sense! I have noticed there’s a huge difference in lumen, and wondering if 700 a lumen projector is good for anything. I guess if it has high contrast in a dark room on a good screen it can still look fantastic.

      For me though I need it to remain somewhat portable as I move between different countries relatively often, and I also just want something that disappears as much as possible when not used, hence my preference for projectors over TVs in the first place.

  • fourish@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    3 months ago

    It’s far out of spec for OPs requirements however I purchased a Hisense PX3 Pro for home use and have never been happier with a projector even though it broke my budget.

    It’s just amazing and has revolutionized “family movie night” (which has actually been Anpanman movies on Netflix for the last month or so).