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Picked a used projector over a big TV for my basement, and the dark room made the call for me
About 4 months back I had $500 to spend and it came down to a used 1080p projector or a 55 inch TV for my basement. I went with the projector because the room has one tiny window and honestly the walls are already dark paneled. Picked it up off a guy in Cleveland for $280 and spent another $70 on a pull down screen. First movie night the picture looked washed out and I almost gave up, but I swapped in a fresh bulb for $40 and it looked like a whole different setup. Now we watch stuff down there 3 or 4 nights a week and the screen size feels huge compared to any TV I could have bought at that price. Curious if anyone here runs a projector in a room with more light, and how you dealt with it.
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alice_hall1h ago
Four months in and you already learned the one lesson every projector owner learns the hard way, that the bulb is half the machine. My first setup was a $200 Craigslist special in a room with two windows, and I spent a solid month feeling like a genius before the afternoon sun turned my movie into a faded ghost. My fix was a $15 blackout curtain from Walmart and moving the screen to the wall away from the windows, which worked way better than the fancy screen I almost bought. My wife still jokes that our living room looks like a bunker now, but she stopped laughing when we watched the whole trilogy in one night. Light control matters more than the projector itself, so start with curtains before you spend a dime on gear. The $40 bulb swap was the smartest money you spent in this whole thing.
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