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!
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.
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.