Best projector for watching sports?

[jhanseling]

I've read alot about projectors, both on this site and projectorcentral.com, and have learned quite a bit. One question I have, however, is if any sport's fanatics out there like myself have a personal favorite? I watch movies from time to time, but 90% of my viewing is for sports and regular TV. I plan on putting my projector in a basement setup, with little to no ambient light, but want to be able to watch sports without having to turn off all the lights to get a decent picture.

This is my first projector purchase, and I'd like to spend around $1,000. Some of the models I've looked at so far have been the Sanyo Z5 and the Mitsu 1500. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[Rodny Alvarez]

I have a Z3 and a HDTV tuner box ( local channels)when I played movies the lights really need to be off but when watching sports with the HDTV tuner I can have the lights on and the picture its really good, I think the Z5 will be a good choice, Sanyo has a 3 year warranty, Quick Repair Program (QRP)

[tonyvdb]

I agree the Sanyo line is great for the price. The one big advantage is the lens shift as it eliminates the hassles of perfect projector alignment. Idealy a projector that is 720p or 1080p would be best as sports has alot of movement and interlaced video looks poor compared to progressive.

[jhanseling]

Excellent, thanks for the input guys. I'll give the Sanyo a solid look.

[Exaneo]

I have the AX100U - i'll be watching the bills/pats game this sunday night in HD - i'll let you know how it looks. The AX100 is probably one of the best choices for all day viewing for times you don't want to sit in the dark because it's one of the brighter(est?) HT projectors. I like it a lot so far.

[jhanseling]

Sounds good. Let me know what you think.

[<^..^>Smokey Joe]

THere is a calculator at projectorcentral which is actually very good for selection of light conditions and placement. It is interactive which helps the understanding and fine tuning of conditions.

Projection is really about no ambient lights. But if you must have some lights on you need to know how much light by measurement. A cheap $20~$30 camera light meter is good enough for light readings.

Use these readings with the calculator above to help tune your projector choice and lighting levels together.

A 720p based projector type would suit best with 90% of your viewing to be on 480i/p, 720p and 1080i source.

Try at all times to get the foot lamberts (fl) to 16fl~18fl as a starting point. As the bulb ages the lightout drops alot, since you plan on watching TV based material the hours can rack up quickly and you will find yourself getting eye strain trying to watch in mismatched conditions.

I would advise not getting to carried away with screen size so as to keep light output up throught the bulbs life.

Play with that calculator it really is worth playing with so you understand the realtionships.