[mythtv-users] Re: Frontend for home theater

[Tom Lichti]

Grant Emsley wrote:

> On 11/4/05, Michael Tiller <michael.tiller at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>>
>> At work we just got a $700 computer projector that looks fantastic. I
>> hooked my laptop up to it while watching a widescreen DVD and it even 
>> seems
>> to support the widescreen format quite nicely.
>>
>> So, I'm thinking about getting one of these for my basement. My plan 
>> would
>> be to mount it on the ceiling and project it against a wall. I'd also 
>> like
>> to hook a very simple MythTV frontend up to it. My plan would be to have
>> only a DVD reader, small hardrive (if necessary), network and video 
>> card in
>> it (i.e. no tuner cards and no direct live TV feed to the 
>> projector...only
>> live TV from a backend over the network).
>>
>
> The only thing I'd caution you about a projector is bulb life/cost.  I 
> know the newer projectors have a longer bulb life than they used to, 
> but last time I was looking into it replacement bulbs were at least a 
> couple hundred dollars.

Good advice. I bought an older projector on ebay for about $200, 
thinking I was saving money. It was only after I got it and realized 
that the bulb is well used that I found out the replacement bulbs are 
$325...luckily it hasn't gone on me yet, but I'm on borrowed time already...

In hindsight, a new $700 projector would probably be a smarter purchase. 
Some of them use overhead projector bulbs that cost about $12.

Tom