I have a fairly small apartment, or at least it's small enough that my traditional 32" television is potentially going to eat up half of my living room because of it's huge backside (don't worry, I learned how to navigate sensitivities about big backsides from your mom. Or moms, I suppose.) As a result, as soon as I lift myself out of my current financial crisis, I think I need to take time and invest in a new television.
So looking at my apartment, I'm considering the possibilties.
1) Flatscreen TV: I could just do what people normally do in my situation and shell out for a flatscreen. I'm assuming that for my living room, which is about 13 feet long (estimated by my laying on the floor, marking the distance, and then caterpillaring to that spot to check how many body lengths my apartment was)...I could properly have up to a 96 inch screen. But that's fucking ridiculous, so I'd probably end up with something like a 42 inch. I don't know how much that runs, but I assume if I want to get one that will last as long as the TV I have now (I remember watching Ace Ventura on VHS in the basement of our old house in Michigan on this television while my brother or mother hit tennis balls against an indoor tennis net), then I will probably have to shell out over a $1,000? This is the easy way to go. Let's call this plain vanilla.
--Pros: Simple. Tested. Slightly Cheaper (maybe).
--Cons: Still takes up much more space in an already small apartment. Smaller.
2) Projector: Or I could pay slightly more and invest in a projector and screen goo my white walls. It looks like I could pick up a comparable (720) projector for somewhere in the same price range. Here is the model of projector I am considering:
And here's the wall I am considering:
Now you might be very legitimately wondering what the holy fuck I am doing. And the answer is that I'm giving you an idea of how big the wall is. 
Assuming that the Vitruvian Man (left) is not full of shit, and my wingspan is the same as my height, then that would mean that the wall is just over 6' wide. Although it looks little bit small in the photo, I assure you it is bigger than it looks. (That's what, uh, the other guy said to your mama.) This would mean that I could have a very large screen approaching 70 inches without having to jack up my budget per inch like I would for a television. (yeah yeah, your mom jacks up how much she pays per inch yada yada yada.)A cooler (pipe) dream, which is probably not allowed, would be to paint a huge screen directly on the brick wall (after plastering of course.) I think that would be cool looking, but I don't think there's enough space for a large screen to be projected.
--Pros: Saves a lot of space. No idea how it will go. Much larger screen.
--Cons: Gotta buy an independent sound system (though I kinda like that). Maintenance. Have to mount the projector. Have to paint the screen. I would have to tape my wii sensor to the wall. That would look very stupid.
--Pros Revisited: But it's just so awesome!
The bottom line though is that I really don't know anything about projectors, so I'm asking you what you think about the plan. Is there something I'm missing that should steer me away from getting a projector? Do I actually need to go 1080 HD if I get a projector? Any one have any friends that went the projector route? Any other considerations or ideas?
h: I outright reject whatever projector methods you used at the Chouse, though I do suspect you have some expertise otherwise...which would probably be offered enthusiastically with an air punch or something like that.
OH...and the Financial Crisis, right. I am posting links on the RIGHT SIDE of the blog which I think are excellent excellent bits about the current crisis. I would call these these things indispensable to anyone or at least utterly fascinating to anyone with the slightest interest in what's happening right now.
1) Collapse of Bear Stearns: I didn't really understand how everything unwound at Bear Stearns except that they basically got blindsided and fucked over by a market panic. This article from Vanity Fair is a tight, interesting behind the scenes look at what actually happened. It includes fiction-like descriptions of the phone calls, events, feelings, and personalities behind the collapse. It also includes fantastic moments like J.P. Morgan execs telling Bear execs that their defenses to the rumors were no longer going to fly, and ultimately declaring "This is bullshit. We're defaulting you." While I admit that the declaration sounds a little dry, it actually amounts to a "Fuck You Asshole! I'm gonna fuck you up! You're Dead Motherfucker! Dead! " Except, unlike two thugs in a street...these are the modern day titans who move mountains. The story's angle is actually trying to look below the surface of what happened, because there are also signs that Bear Stearns didn't actually "fail" but was "murdereed." Which is cool.
2 & 3) Fine, you do not give a shit about Bear Stearns or about the financial crisis: I get it. BUT the other two "Giant Pool of Money" and "Another Frightening Episode About the Economy" are legitimately amazing. They are two episodes of "This American Life" which explain the entire financial crisis in entirely layman's terms. If you haven't really understood or followed the crisis, these two episodes will blow everything wide open. There hasn't been a single person who I have passed them to who haven't come back and said something similar to what I hear your mom say. (e.g., "Wow" "That was amazing" "Oh my god!" "I never knew exotic derivatives and credit default swaps were so interesting.")
But then again, if you don't give a shit...I totally understand.
In any case, I will continue to post links of genuinely worthwhile articles and other pieces I stumble across on the right side of the blog. I will not post any crap up there, so if I put it there...I believe it's worth your spare time. Likewise, if you come across similar things, please let me know...because it's a great thing to find new things that just illuminate dark corners of knowledge you never knew you didn't have. (And if I get rick rolled, I will FUCKING KILL YOU.)
7 comments:
My only experience with projectors has been on a 720p @ work. If you want good picture quality you should really do some homework (look for reviews online or summat) to make sure you're getting good contrast and color saturation- deep blacks are important in a projector as they tend to turn gray. Also consider the ambient light of the room, if you have windows there (esp on opposite wall) you'll want heavy shades or a flat-out curtain.
For sheer size you can't beat a projector, but I'm a fan of HD LCD and DLP. Both can be gorgeous with the right settings and quality. There are some deals out there to be found, my roomie bought a 56" Samsung 1080i for under 2 g's. It's DLP so the depth footprint is kinda big, but we can deal with it in our space. My one qualm is that it doesn't support progressive scan.
You should be able to find a Sony BRAVIA (their second highest quality echelon) 1080p LCD 42"er for under 1200. If you're wondering what their highest-end is that would be the QUALIA line. I witnessed the majority of these products at the SONY showroom in Tokyo and made my britches all dirty with ecstasy juice. ... ... Like that last time with your mom. What a fucking sight to behold. Hands down my choice for home theater if I find myself wiping my ass with Benjamins. Mmmm... OrganicLCD... Anyway this looks reasonable and blasts 1300 lumens: http://www.nextag.com/SONY-Bravia-VPLAW10-LCD-548580676/prices-html
As to if 1080 is necessary, well... Not right now unless you plan on getting a bluray player. But pretty soon everything will be available drenched in that sweet sweet 1080p nectar. By which I mean to say it would extend practical longevity.
Wish I could offer more but I'm beat.
...Yer mom has practical longevity.
Wow. Dude, that was definitely an awesome response. Upon further reflection, my biggest concern with the projector became ambient light. I'm the type of person who loves nothing more than spending a Sunday afternoon cleaning, relaxing, and putting a movie on in the background. I'm definitely NOT a guy who wants every single television and movie experience to be an "event"...so it seems like the projector is out until I have a single room to devote to a home theatre. It was a nice dream. Now I just can't give up on the sidecar.
Looks like I'm gonna be sniffing around the mid 40's for an LCD rather than the DLP, mostly because getting myself involved with anything deeper than your mom would no longer be worth it...having explored the space.
Yeah, ambient light really sucks with a projector. Charles and Thacker have a ridiculously huge projector/screen setup, except that their living room is basically one giant 360 degree window. Thus, their shit is absolutely unwatchable during the day (they have no curtains for some reason), and at night, for it to really look good, they have to make it so dark that it's basically treacherous to walk around.
I'd go with LCD or DLP as well...plasma looks better, but according to dad (who actually has a good deal of technical knowledge about this), plasma degrades and fades a lot quicker. Depends on how long you plan to keep the TV. Like getting a plasma in 1080p probably wouldn't be that practical, since by the time you'd have a lot of 1080p content, your TV would be on the decline already.
Anyway, yeah, unless you get a PS3/bluray player, you don't need 1080p yet. HD broadcast isn't in 1080p, and your Wii only goes up to 720p. You don't strike me as the video quality-freak type anyway.
I've just been through this a month or so ago, and I would definitely recommend 1080p and a PS3. Here's why:
Pretty good HD programming is available through Comcast, and at anything above approx. 42 inches (ours is 46), then you'll start to see a wee difference between 1080p and 720p. We're planning on keeping our TV for a long while (like it sounds like you might), and Blu-ray is just going to keep getting more widespread and cheaper. Better to go high on resolution; the media (there's already tons of it out there already) will catch up.
PS3: Best blu-ray player out there. That's great and everything (blu-ray is awesome, in fact), but here's what pushed it over the line. It streams content from your computer to your TV wirelessly. Let me repeat that: it streams all those movies and TV shows (plus pictures and music) to your new big-ass TV wirelessly. Not to mention the integrated browser just had a firmware update which allows you to surf to Hulu or NBC.com or whatever an watch all those online videos, again, on your big-ass TV. Also, since it's essentially a really powerful computer (DOD bought a bunch just to rip out the innards to use for computer modeling), Playstation continually updates the software -- it has some of the best DVD upscaling (making DVDs look like HD) out there, and software upgrades will continue to make it better in the coming years.
Here's the stuff we bought (incidentally, since you'll be rolling in cash, at least as much as I was last summer you might want to buy a stereo system to hook up to the TV. It makes movies better. We have surround sound now):
Samsung LN46A550. Not the top of the line, and only 60Hz refresh rate, but 1080p, good contrast ratio (which can be bullshit-ized, so I don't consider it wickedly important), and much less expensive than the next two steps up (which I don't think are worth the money). What you need to be looking for is connectivity (enough HDMI ports, S-Video, Component video, USB, whatever you're looking for), response time (5ms or less), refresh rate (120Hz is best and they'll tell you necessary for non-blurry fast movement like sports, but I haven't noticed anything at all bad with the 60Hz rate) and contrast ratio (15,000:1 minimum).
I f-ing love our TV. Samsung is trusted, and definitely makes good stuff. I have tons of links to other TVs I was considering, articles about how to pick a TV, etc. that I can send you if you're interested.
Bottom line: LCDs have caught up to plasmas in terms of quality, with none of the drawbacks (burnout) of plasmas. They're pretty much on-par in terms of price. DLPs are good, but take up space. I'd say no go on the projector until you have less light. Note: LCDs are going to have some reflective/low light issues as well (plasmas less so), but buy some curtains and it will be fine.
If there's one other thing I'd recommend, it'd be the PS3. Seriously. Best decision ever. That and the new speakers I bought.
Best place for research/reviews/etc.: CNET.
Best place to buy: Amazon (free shipping, wicked discounts (my TV is even cheaper now than when I bought it), and no tax (for some reason -- maybe it was just a Tennessee fluke).
Damn fellas, thanks. At least the projector idea is dead...now is a matter of seeing what happens in the HD market in the next 3 months.
The PS3 is definitely a sell though.
Vitruvian has mislead you. See current Dwight Howard commercial (McDonald's?)- around 7 feet tall, but 8 foot wingspan.
Buy a tape measure?
-Joey
Dude, you picked a freak of nature to make your point. That's like using me as an example of the wrongness of small Asian penis syndrome. (ask your mom)
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