Don’t particularly like the giant TV in the living room trend. We have a modest LCD and Sky for regular viewing. However, was thinking of a pull down (or electric even?) screen (not massive, maybe 2-2.5m) and a ceiling mounted projector for our new house for ‘movie nights’.

Are these still considered current tech? My Dad has one in his house but he has had it for years. Any advice, suggestions etc. gratefully received. Assume a decent sound system will be fairly key?
Ta.

I’ve got a dedicated room which has a projector for watching movies and playing xbox.

It’s completely blacked out (which IMO is key).

I just project onto a painted wall and the picture is amazing. Apparently using projector paint or a screen is even better, but what I have suits me fine for the moment.

Completely worth it if you have the ability to black out your room. I notice a marked difference in quality if I have even a little lamp on.

Perhaps expensive projectors work better in bright rooms, but some that I looked at were super expensive that seemed to be aimed at that market.

My brother has one as his main TV, great at night for watching movies but a PITA during the day and when the kids want to play on the Wii etc and can’t see crap (either you have some light and can’t see the screen very well or you blackout everything and can’t see what you’re doing). Basically as poster above – if you can have a dedicated room then great otherwise I personally wouldn’t bother.

This is helpful, thanks. The room is open plan at the other end, so might not be that clever an idea after all. Easy to think it will be pitch black in the evenings at his time of year, but it won’t be soon (thank god). Plus the kids will destroy it.

Thanks – you have just saved me £1k!

I have one as my main telly/XBox/DVD viewing set up. I wouldn’t swap it for a big behemoth of a telly. It’s great.

Stops you watching telly during the day when you should be out doing something less boring instead.

Optoma HD20 here. Full 1080p goodness replacing an old 800×600 projector. I’ve got a cheap pull down screen mounted in front of the curtains. In a fully darkened room it is simply stunning but our house is open plan so quite often that’s not the case. It’s still pretty impressive assuming the image doesn’t have a lot of black so Topgear on a Sunday night is fine, but an action film with lots of dark scenes is less so.
It’s pretty cheap to buy and if you don’t get the use out of it you won’t loose much if you decide to sell on. Do it!!