My boss has too many toys...

[Nubb]

So my superior (in theory mind you) has recently setup a home theater. He has a very nice projector and is enjoying HDTV/movies at 93" (diag).

He's also a FPS gamer. Last night he was asking about what's "hot" in FPS games. See, he wants to kill 12 year olds while enjoying it all on a screen the size of some of the women that live around here (shipyard town).

I was like, "Hrm, well I don't know diddly about projectors and gaming. I know people do it. I just don't know how practical it is."

So, I figured I'd post here looking for opinions. He's interested in a new box, which I can put together for him -- keeping in mind his goal is gaming via his projector (and using an LCD monitor for more "mundane" tasks).

Here's a link to the spec sheet on his projector:
ftp://ftp.panasonic.com/pub/Panasonic/Drivers/PBTS/brochures/S_PT-AE900U.pdf

I only breifly glanced over the specs, and will start poking around for reviews/info on how this might perform using input from a PC. Looks like the projectors resolution is 1280x720 (16:9 aspect ratio), sorta oddball, but I'm sure with some video card settings (custom res) monkeying I can make a custom resolution to utilize that odd res. Refresh I'm guessing would be around 50-60, which is definitely good enough. (Aspect Ratio is 16:9, if I remember correctly). Anywho, what's your views on the "do-ability" of this. It's my hunch that he's not so concerned about overall video quality (settings), as in just being able to game on a freaking HUGE display, with decent image quality.

Thanks,
Nubb

p.s.
Yes my co-workers are as stupid as me!

[rabb1t]

paahhahahahaha 93" with a max rez of 1280x720 16:9 and 960x720 4:3
hahahah *points to screen* hey look, it's 1999 all over again, but it's 10 feet tall. (1/8" big pixels.)

hehehe *wipes away laughing tears*

Aaaah what good fun peeps are who think bigger in size is better who don't look at their actual clarity. (Looks pretty decent for DVD / TV viewing though.) So sad he didn't consider the Dell 30". 4 of his projectors max res, a way better experience. :rolleyes:

Aaahhh... ok what was the question again?

Yeah, that would be totally doable, but extremely limited by the game industry (not the hardware). See, he didn't do his homework in researching how much support games would have in 16:9 resolution. Early on wide screens for the PC were 16:9, but they rapidly transitioned to 16:10 aspect. Thus, most of the current games which actually do support wide screen only support 16:10 aspect ratios, not 16:9. (And I've only seen 1 or maybe 2 that support both.)

Of all the games I've played, I have only known Half-Life 2 to offer 16:10 and 16:9 aspect ratios, and Price of Persia 3 to support 16:9 only. The others have been 16:10.

It wouldn't take a lot of power to run it. Somewhere around a 3 gig 32-bit system (or 64-bit equivalent) with a 6800 GT would do fine (though you will likely want to go with a 7600 GT since they are due out soon and may have more power at a higher availability.)

Like I said though, he’s going to be far more limited by his 16:9 aspect setting than he will any other kind of compatibility.

Honestly, if he really wants to enjoy that, I'd highly recommend you convince him to forget PC gaming with it and hooking it up instead to an Xbox 360. The consoles are designed for 16:9 aspect HDTV and will have no compatibility issues.

[Lord_Vyper]

Heh, what rabb1t said... that projector will suck for computer gaming.

[Nubb]

Yup I have to agree, I'll talk him into an Xbox360 per rabb's suggestion.