If PC = 1080p and PJ = 720p then Display quality = ?

[ragingsamster]

This is the deal breaker for me. I need to be able to use the projector as a PC monitor. My big concern is with the scaler. I need the screen real estate that 1080 provides, but I want a clear, non flickering display. If anyone could ease my concerns by their experience running a PC in 1080P through a 720P projector I would be able to run out and grab the Benq W500 right now, I don't need absolute crystal clarity, but I do need to be able to surf the web, read emails, compose documents - normal PC stuff. I am very pumped to get a projector and am drooling to play WoW and TF2 on a 100" screen. I just need to know that I can use the projector as my only monitor.

Thanks in advance

[brucek]

Well, my laptop has a 1080p HDMI output that I use to my new office 26" Toshiba 720p LCD HDTV and it's very, very good. The TV has very little problem scaling the 1080p down to its native mode. Can't say I know anything about projectors though (but I don't see why it would be any different).

Firing up a PJ everytime you want to use your computer seems a bit unusual.

brucek

[Blaser]

brucek wrote:

Can't say I know anything about projectors though (but I don't see why it would be any different).
brucek

Because of size! SDTV can look excellent on 26" monitor, but could be hardly watchable on a projector. But in this case, if the FP accepts 1080p, downscaling to 720p should still give very good results as you said.

[ragingsamster]

Thank you for the response!

I take courage from your experience. Although not as pricey as a 1080p unit, ~$900.00 to plunk down on something that doesn't work would be frustrating. However if it works, I will have a steal of a deal on a huge monitor.

I normally use the PC for gaming, movies, and TV watching in my cave, (when my wife is watching the Hitachi) I think lamp life may be an issue, but luckily the lamps are fairly cheap

My experience with running my PC through my 720P Hitachi was less than acceptable. Text was not readable at 1280 X 720. The display made movies sing, but for email, surfing and gaming it was just too blurry. Being a ardent WoW player I do spend many hours in front of the screen, I would like to have the raids be truly "epic" in nature. Playing Team Fortress 2 and UT3 on such a grand scale should be quite rewarding.

[ragingsamster]

blaser wrote:

Because of size! SDTV can look excellent on 26" monitor, but could be hardly watchable on a projector. But in this case, if the FP accepts 1080p, downscaling to 720p should still give very good results as you said.

I can testify to that! We had to give away all of our VHS tapes when we bought the Hitachi 57" in fact some SDTV signals are unacceptable, (the cheaper channels on cable that use less expensive recording equipment.) 480P DVDs are very acceptable on the large screen and I figure they will be still acceptable on the projector - although I think a blue-ray player may be in my future too.

[Blaser]

Correct!

[basementjack]

Don't even think of that.

if you really need to use the PC on your projector for mail and web, either see if you can live with 720p native, or buy a 1080p projector.

(also be aware that you can run multiple screens from most PC's so you could run 720p to a projector and also drive a separate 19" screen for web browsing - this might be a good alternative for you cost wise)

ragingsamster wrote:

This is the deal breaker for me. I need to be able to use the projector as a PC monitor. My big concern is with the scaler. I need the screen real estate that 1080 provides, but I want a clear, non flickering display. If anyone could ease my concerns by their experience running a PC in 1080P through a 720P projector I would be able to run out and grab the Benq W500 right now, I don't need absolute crystal clarity, but I do need to be able to surf the web, read emails, compose documents - normal PC stuff. I am very pumped to get a projector and am drooling to play WoW and TF2 on a 100" screen. I just need to know that I can use the projector as my only monitor.

Thanks in advance