Digital Projectors

One family's LCD TV alternative.

Michael Desmond

When Rod Murphy of Columbia, Maryland purchased an ELMO EDP-S10 digital projector for his business two years ago, he knew he was getting a steal. After all, at $1200, the lightweight digital projector cost about half that of comparable products at the time. What Murphy didn't know was that the projector would transform his newly finished basement into a home theater.

"I think I just asked off the top of my head, would this thing take an input off a TV?" recalls Murphy. "When I found out it was going to work I almost jumped out of my skin with excitement. My son Tom was speechless. He came home from school and there I was looking at this monster screen, and he literally was not able to talk, he was so excited."

For people not ready to cough up money for a LCD TV, digital projectors and a clean wall can accomplish the same end. Companies such as Dell have even gone as far as marketing certain projectors as LCD TV substitutes. The company sells what it calls "entertainment projectors" starting at $899. Its biggest LCD TV (30 inches) goes for $2500.

Today, the Murphys watch DVD movies and sporting events on a massive 100-inch screen painted on a large, open wall. The projector has also gotten a lot of extra work from the Murphys' two sons--ages 20 and 17--who use it to display Xbox games. The EDP-S10 even gets used at parties, displaying graphics and lyrics from the family's karaoke machine. It helps, of course, that the projector takes up very little space.

"If you want a big TV it is going to take up your whole room," Murphy says. "But this thing takes up no room, literally."

Murphy mounted the EDP-S10 on the ceiling, running cables behind a wall to the DVD player and receiver. The ceiling mount keeps the projector out of traffic, while the wide throw means it doesn't have to be set back far from the wall--reducing the chance that people will walk in front of the lens and block the image.

The ELMO has been an unqualified hit, but Murphy looks forward to the next generation. While the 800-by-600-pixel resolution of the projector is better than a typical TV set, it falls far short of the resolution required for HDTV. Murphy would also like a more powerful unit that delivers a brighter display. The ELMO, rated at 800 lumens, doesn't perform well even in indirect sunlight, forcing the Murphys to draw the curtains and turn off the lights to get the best picture.

Perhaps the biggest concern in using a digital projector as a TV substitute is the cost of replacing the projector bulbs, which can run $600 or more. That cost can turn a minor nuisance like leaving the TV on overnight into a major issue.

"Once in a while a kid will fall asleep in the armchair and leave the projector on all night," Murphy says. "Then I go ballistic, so it doesn't happen too often. The way we use it, the bulb should last a couple of years."

By that time, of course, the Murphy household may have moved on to a whole new projector.