Someone over on the home theater sub is stuck on this and I've been chewing on the same thing. He's looking at a larger room, seeing 100-inch sets from Sony, Samsung and Hisense in roughly the $1,800 to $2,000 range in the US, and now the projector plus screen route doesn't look like the obvious value play it used to be. Once you add a decent screen, a mount, a long HDMI run and possibly some paint or curtains, a lot of "budget" projector builds land in the same neighbourhood anyway.
My honest take after years with both: the TV wins on everyday use by a mile and loses on the thing you actually wanted. A flat panel doesn't care about the sun, doesn't need a lamp or laser hour count in your head, doesn't need the room dark, and it's on in two seconds when someone wants to watch the news. A projector at 120 inches or more in a properly dark room still does something a 100-inch panel can't, and it's not about resolution, it's about the picture filling enough of your vision that you stop noticing the edges.
So the split I'd draw is by room, not by budget. If the space has windows, gets used for daytime TV and gaming, and the family isn't going to tolerate blackout blinds, buy the panel and don't look back. If you have a basement or a room you control, and the screen is going to be 120 inches or larger, the projector still earns it.
For anyone who went from projector to big TV: did you actually stay, or did the itch come back after six months?
My honest take after years with both: the TV wins on everyday use by a mile and loses on the thing you actually wanted. A flat panel doesn't care about the sun, doesn't need a lamp or laser hour count in your head, doesn't need the room dark, and it's on in two seconds when someone wants to watch the news. A projector at 120 inches or more in a properly dark room still does something a 100-inch panel can't, and it's not about resolution, it's about the picture filling enough of your vision that you stop noticing the edges.
So the split I'd draw is by room, not by budget. If the space has windows, gets used for daytime TV and gaming, and the family isn't going to tolerate blackout blinds, buy the panel and don't look back. If you have a basement or a room you control, and the screen is going to be 120 inches or larger, the projector still earns it.
For anyone who went from projector to big TV: did you actually stay, or did the itch come back after six months?
