Good Projector for Classic Gaming?

[Syfo-Dyas]

I'm in the market to pick up a projector to play my classic game systems on. I am looking for something that has both RBG and VGA input and something that will not burn out after a couple months of use.

 

Any suggestions?

[gooch3008]

I am also interested in something like this.

[SlowCoder]

How large do you want to project? If not more than 40", maybe just consider getting a nice cheap flat panel TV to hang on the wall. You can get them sub-$500 these days. And no need to change bulbs or replace projector every 1000 hours or however long they proport to last these days.

[Syfo-Dyas]

The side of a house...

 

I wonder if these bulbs are expensive?

[Reaperman]

The side of a house...

 

I wonder if these bulbs are expensive?

projector lamps vary greatly in price, brightness and lifespan. My first projector took ~$6 halogen bulbs (from dentistry or DJ lighting), the lamps for my current unit are still pretty reasonable at ~$350. However none of the 3 projectors I've owned have had an independent RGB input, so I cannot recommend any of my hardware given your requirements.

 

If you're going to do the side of your house, I recommend a projector with lens shift or at least *physical* keystone correction. Otherwise getting a square image will drive you nuts and setup time will go through the roof.

 

A CRT projector would probably be the most ideal for classic gaming (I've never owned one), it's also probably the least ideal for outdoor use--they're very large and the brightness level of their display is very low. I've heard rumblings of light gun games working with some of them, though.

Edited March 10, 2011 by Reaperman

[Blur2040]

For the record, a CRT projector is amazing for classic gaming.

 

Essentially, you get the crispy, pretty picture of a CRT tube TV, but with a zillion times larger than any standard tube TV could offer. I loved mine.

 

Alas, they're huge---as in you might not be able to lift it by yourself, can take DAYS for an amateur to set it up properly and generally aren't very user friendly.

 

The all should have RGB input though.

 

So, hrm.

 

CRT projectors are great, but really really really really really don't buy one.

Edited March 10, 2011 by Blur2040

[Video]

New Egg has some nice ones in any range of prices you could want to payk as does Amazon. I would look into getting one with a 3+ watt LED in it, they are very bright and should last for thousands of hours, though they aren't replaceable so you basically chunk the projector when it burns out, but being in the 2-400$ range should make up for that a bit.

 

There are some nice HD projectors out there now, in the 800-1200$ range (I think I even saw one in the $600 range) but they bulbs in some of those can cost several hundred dollars each.

 

For projecting on the side of a house, you probably want a better projector, as the chepaer ones, even with real bulbs aren't very bright as you get the bigger image.

 

There are some toy projectors you could get in the sub $100 range, but mostly these are cheap junk, however, they are still cool to mess with, and some will even give you a good image for watching DVD's, though most of these are in the 320-240 resolution range and uh, yeah, kinda fuzzy. Also their half watt LED typically isn't very bright at any decent size, you'd be better sticking with a cheap TV instead (and you could probably get a good CRT cheaper anyways )

[Syfo-Dyas]

CRT it is! Thank you all!

[Reaperman]

CRT it is! Thank you all!

I just hope that someday you will be able to bring yourself to forgive us for our hesitant recommendation of 1970's bowling alley technology.