An important thing to remember when building a front projection system is to keep
your expectations reasonable. For example, it's natural to assume that when combining
a high definition projector with a state-of-the-art theater room that all viewing
materials are guaranteed to look stunning. This is not always the case. Digital
projectors can look stunning with the right source material, but the quality of
the source material is paramount in obtaining a movie theater-like performance
from any projector
Here is a brief overview of what to expect from different video sources when
viewed with a front projector.
Standard Over-the-Air Broadcasts (NTSC): If you opt for an old antenna
to view standard definition television, your viewing experience is going to
depend entirely on your reception. You can expect a fairly good image if you
receive a strong signal, but this is rarely the case at all times. Because
over-the-air analog signals are so prone to interference from a number of
factors ranging between weather to sunspots, receiving a quality image at all
times is difficult, if not impossible. When the reception is poor, ghosting,
snow and a host of other problems can occur, and "blowing up" these eyesores to
sizes of over five feet in width only exacerbates the issue. In short, if using
an antenna, don't expect too much out of your projector.
Cable Television - Analog channels: Cable television is obviously the most common video source for any video display. The thing to remember is that even with digital cable, all channels below 100 are still analog. How well these analog channels will look varies widely based on how far away you are from the point of transmission and how well your particular cable company is at shielding signals on the way to your home. Generally these channels tend to be of rather low quality. Expect snow, ghosting and an assortment of other problems that are only maximized when viewing them with displays larger than 35 inches diagonally. As with over-the-air broadcasts, expect the image to look worse than it would on your smaller television.
Cable Television - Digital channels (NTSC): Digital cable channels - those over channel 100, will appear bright, sharp and colorful regardless of the projector resolution you choose. Hopefully the proliferation of digital television will speed cable companies' conversions of the most popular analog stations to digital.
Analog Satellite Television (NTSC): There are still many of the old-style, larger satellite dishes around rural America. If you are still using an analog satellite dish, expect the same type of results as with over-the-air and analog cable broadcasts.
Digital Satellite Television (NTSC): Newer digital satellite services offer 100% digital television. Most of the more common stations still originate from an analog source, but are converted into a digital signal before being transmitted to your home, vastly reducing, but not eliminating, problems with an analog transmission. Expect similar results as you would from digital cable channels, although channels that were originally analog (such as WGN, WTBS, etc.) can have some quality issues.
VHS: VHS players/recorders are analog and very low resolution. Even if you have a higher resolution S-VHS player, don't expect a wonderful image from a front projector. We suggest avoiding VHS players of any kind as your primary source for theater viewing materials. If you do have older tapes that you want to view or want to set up a VHS player for the kids to watch, we suggest purchasing a VHS player with an S-video output and using only the highest quality cable to ensure that you're getting the best image possible. We also suggest that if you have a large library of camcorder videos on tape, get them converted to a digital medium as soon as possible.
DVD: DVD players are digital devices whether or not they actually have digital outputs. DVD will look great on any projector. Expect clear, colorful, vibrant images. Just how clear, vibrant and colorful will depend on the projector.
High Definition Television (HDTV): Obviously HDTV is going to look great regardless of the source or what projector you buy. Exactly how good it looks can depend on a few factors including:
- How close the projector resolution is to that of the HDTV signal. The less the projector has to scale an image down, the better.
- How much compression was used to transmit the signal can greatly affect the overall image clarity. Compression rates vary with each cable and satellite company, so results can vary across the country. There are many internet forums that discuss each company's merits if you'd like to research your cable or satellite company before going to HDTV.
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