Topic: help me UPGRADE before Wii

[kings x]

Electronics is probably all about luck.  My bad luck with sony has nothing to do with the game division.  I had fun with the PS1, although both broke from no apparent reason, and had other problems (lazy eye lens, disk read errors) within a couple years.  Stuff breaks, that's just how it is -my GC had a disk read error 2 years after the warrenty expired (Nintnedo replaced the whole thing, including controller for free) and a good company can be judged on how those problems are dealt with.  

Thanks for the link Omen.  I haven't decided exactly what I am getting, because of availability, costs, travel just to pick it up, but if I get a rear projection it will be DLP not CRT type and as large as I can reasonably afford (which ight now is that 56" IF I can grab it on sale for the holidays).

[kings x]

Sorry for bumping this up again... I am ready to buy a 57" TV that I found in my price range (very similar to the 51" from earlier in this thread)!  This TV is CRT and I was trying to find DLP but the price for the specs and size is what I am looking for.

But the BIG last minute question is...
HOW BIG IS TOO BIG FOR GAMING?

Is it going to look jaggy from being on such a large screen?  Is Widescreen a 'feature', or is everything resized for the screen?  is there any stretching of images to match the size?

[hudsonhawk]

I think the question is, how big is too big for a 10' x 12' room?

Given that rear projection TVs are at least 2' deep, even if you're sitting with your back to the wall you'll be awfully close to the screen.

I don't think there's such a thing as "too big for gaming" I just think you need to realize how much bigger that thing will actully be once you get it in that room.  

[BigJim]

IMO, "too big" depends on your average viewing distance from the TV.

If you're just sitting 6 feet away from it, 57" is overkill. That's like sitting in the front row of a movie theater. I'm exaggerating a bit, but the point is you start to miss stuff that isn't in your natural field of view.  50" and over is best if you're sitting 10 feet away from it. If you're sitting closer than that, I would scale down on the size. If you're closer to 6 feet away, around 40" (plus or minus a few inches) is a typical sweet spot.

[kings x]

The  main "sitting area" for this room will be almost always very straight on, and anywhere up to 10 feet back.

So there are no worries or issues about picture stretching, jaggies, or anything augmentation of the picture/graphics/video from gaming (or regular tv viewing)?

Thanks to everyone, it's all been very helpful.

[BigJim]

The larger a screen is, the more obvious the imperfections of a standard definition source will be. There's no way to avoid it entirely. TV broadcasts in particular. If the source is high def, then you're gold. In terms of the Wii, using component cables will give you the most help you can get to counter it.

[kings x]

Well, after all the info I learned here, I spent an hour in best buy and decided against any rear projection models.  I picked out a panasonic 42" plasma for around $1300 (a bit more than I wanted to spend, and proper cables will costs a bit more too), as suggested here, and since this is no great sale price deal, I have time to shop around for better prices.  I want to be totally setup for when I get Wii at home.

You guys helped save from from over $1000 worth of disappointment, so thanks.

Now I got to get me one of those new Wii's!!!  ...when I can find one ;/
 

[z64dan]

honestly kings x i am in the same kind of situation as you - i wanted a CHEAP CHEAP home theater setup so i did this:

infocus 4805 projector (480p) - $700 you can probably get it cheaper now (the newer version even - Infocus IN72)
RCA 500watt 5.1 reciever + 5 speakers/sub (HTIB) at wal-mart - $130
unofficial ceiling mount on ebay - $50 (vs $300 for "official" mount, lol - mine hasnt fallen yet!)
various cables - $70 (i did need a 16 foot component cable, costed 40 or so - but you can connect it to your wii with an rca cable splice)

total cost $950-$1000

i know all these audiophiles out there are saying "oh my god how can you possibly hear everything clearly" but a speaker is a speaker in my opinion. and all those videophiles are saying "theres not enough lumens in that to project the image onto the face of the moon" and yes they are correct. I pretty much have to play in the dark, like with many front projectors. i've heard "higher quality" speakers and yes, the sound does sound better and everything, but i just can't bring myself to spend much on an audio setup until maybe i get my own house or something.

if all you wanna do is watch movies and play games, a front projector might be for you (standard dvds are 480p so my projector resolution matches perfectly). i'm personally going to skip the whole 720p and go straight to 1080p in a couple years and get an HD-DVD player or Blu-Ray (if, god forbid, sony wins the hd dvd wars)