After a not so thorough research I bought Epson home cinema 880. Boy does that thing impress guests. I’m not trying to start a theater company here. For me, it’s the best bang for the buck
I have the Epson 880 and 1080. They're both fantastic projector and some of the best values you can possibly get, especially in the 200 - $250 range, which is phenomenal value. 1060 is, as I understand it, similar to between the 880 and 1080 so I would absolutely recommend it.
Best you can get is an Epson Home Cinema 880 for around $200 used. I got one for $220 and an Epson Home Cinema 1080 for $200.
I would just push a bit more to get to the $200 mark and then wait for a really good deal on one used and you'll find yourself with a superb bright (3,300 lumen) projector.
You can get a used Epson Home Cinema 880 for around that price if you're patient. Excellent 1080p 3300 lumen picture. Absolutely punches above it's price range.
You don't need 6k lumens for a 200 inch screen. I'd say you need a solid 3,500 lumens a good screen with maybe at least a 1.3 gain, and you need it to be dusk to night time.
To confirm this, I entered in the Epson Home Cinema 1080, which has 3,400 lumens. And entered a 200 inch screen with a 1.3 gain into the calculator. Projector Central's lumen's per square foot estimate came out to 24 fL per square foot, with the manufacturer's estimate coming in at 36. Both of which are adequate for viewing with moderate to high ambient light levels.
Even with a gain of 1.0, the fL worked out to be 18 and 28 for Projector Central's and manufacturer's estimate respectively. Which would be adequate for low to moderate ambient light levels.
Well, my point of reference is my 3,300 lumen 880 Epson Home Cinema projector shining in on my 150 inch screen in my basement. A 200 inch screen is roughly 75% more screen area. But I've blown up the image to almost that range before and it still looked really good to me. But I am a peasant basically.
More lumens can be great, but they can also decrease contrast levels and whatnot.
Sometimes size trumps all, and I think a 200 inch screen powered by a 3,500 lumen projector in the back yard at night would be dope as hell! Even if the picture quality could be better, it's still probably pretty good on dark nights.
https://preview.redd.it/le6x0fiqqt5g1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9ea839b021e536f12271dcb15bd285af02eb49b5
I used to do the full wall thing.
Edit: this is also an Epson.
The Epson hc 880, 1060, and 1080 are wonderful little light cannons and great quality for value.
If I find one at that price I'm buying it for a secondary or movable protector
They still won't compete with the sun but will work well at night/ late evening and they are physically small and easy to move
Personally I love the Epson hc 880, 1080, 1060 etc series. They are very small projectors and are light cannons and very affordable. The 980 looks like a worthy step up from the others with optical zoom and 4000 lumens brightness.
Be aware that they have pretty poor contrast though. I haven't seen reviews for it out since it's so new but I imagine the contrast won't be that great still.
Unless you need the 4000 lumens, consider getting a manufacture refurbished 1080 or 1060 for a much lower price. Or an 880 if you don't need the zoom.
Try to look locally and find a used epson 880/660/1080/1060 or benq ht2050. They're old enough that they're probably around that price used and they have well documented response times. I sold my HT2050 for 250$ on fb marketplace last year.
If you can go up to 500$ you can find an epson official refurbished hc1080 https://epson.com/Certified-ReNew/c/cc?q=%3Aprice-asc%3AdiscontinuedFlag%3Afalse%3AinStockFlag%3Atrue%3AproductType%3APROJECTOR
Maybe try and find a used Epson 880, 1060, 1080, 660. You'll need a lot of light for 200in, those are very high brightness 1080p projectors. Most affordable while still being designed for home theater use (vs office use).
If you can afford 400$, Epson sells factory refurbs for around that much
Agent112517
