Large screens for the private fan mile
For the best Euro 2024 experience at home, get your gear now! High-quality projectors and big-screen TVs are available at great prices for a limited time.
(Image: TCL)
Private public viewing is great fun on a big TV or with a bright projector. Giant televisions are currently on offer, as are bright projectors. We show you what you should look out for when equipping your private public viewing and which hardware you can use to watch the games.
Large televisions
If you want to cheer on the European Championships on a large TV, now is the time to strike because the prices for Smart TVs are lower than ever. Even the inexpensive smart TVs have built-in tuners for DVB-S2/C/T2 and apps for the ARD and ZDF media libraries. So you are already well-equipped for the European Championships. You should also keep an eye out for devices from the previous year: These are often much cheaper, but not significantly worse than comparable brand-new models. OLED TVs regularly fall to almost half their original price in the first few months.
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With LCD TVs, the discount is not quite as steep, as they usually start at a lower price. But even here, 55-inch TVs with a 1.40 meter diagonal are a third cheaper after a while. 75-inch sets with a 1.90 meter diagonal are available from as little as 750 euros, 85-inch sets with a 2.15 meter diagonal for less than 1000 euros - in both cases, of course, these are not high-end sets.
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For TVs with a liquid crystal display, you can also pick up a discounted display item, provided it doesn't show any scratches or similar. For OLED TVs, however, we strongly advise against buying a demonstration set. Dealers set up the TVs in the showrooms to be as bright as possible, slightly oversaturated and do not regularly carry out the cleaning cycles required for OLEDs. As a result, such sets are more likely to show shadows in the picture due to burnt-in demo videos. LCDs are recommended for the soccer festival anyway, especially in the lower price range, as they are brighter, and their picture quality is sufficient for use during the European Championships.
However, you should not be tempted by the lowest price, but consider what you want to use the TV for later: If it is to be placed in the living room, a huge display can really overwhelm the room, as the TV is a big black hole when switched off. There are measures to counteract this, such as screensavers with a fireplace or aquarium, but on the one hand they are not everyone's cup of tea and on the other hand the large screens for the supposed saviors require a lot of energy. Such screensavers are not suitable for OLED TVs due to the risk of burn-in.
Keep your distance
In most German living rooms, the distance between the sofa and the TV screen is around 3.50 meters. TVs with a screen diagonal of 1.40 meters, i.e. 55 inches, are recommended for this distance. The ergonomic sitting distance to the TV is based on the idea that you can take in the picture content with two to three eye movements without moving your head. The following rule of thumb helps with the calculation:
Viewing distance [m] = 2.5 - display diagonal [m]
If you want to watch movies on your TV, you should pay attention to rich colors and high contrasts, such as quantum dots for color saturation and local dimming in the backlight. Information on this can be found either in the data sheet or on price comparators such as Geizhals. If you also wish to use the TV for fast gaming, you need a 120 Hz panel and special features such as automatically reduced latency (ALLM). There are many 60 hertz displays among the particularly inexpensive devices, which also lack the necessary peak luminance for HDR content in Dolby Vision format, for example.
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Bright projectors
The soccer picture only gets huge with a projector. It should be sufficiently bright, as many of the German team's matches start at 9 p.m., i.e. before sunset. Projectors with a brightness of 3000 lumens and Full HD resolution are available from 400 euros with LCD or DLP (Digital Light Processing) technology and conventional halogen lamps. Projectors with LED lamps are significantly more expensive or decidedly too dim. Inexpensive devices are sufficient for soccer, but they do not deliver home cinema quality. They usually show rather dull colors, do not achieve rich blacks, do not calculate intermediate images - and their fans make a lot of noise. This is not distracting when watching soccer, but is extremely annoying in a quiet living room.
Some users may also be bothered by the so-called rainbow effect: The projection of DLP projectors breaks up into RGB partial images that are projected onto the screen one after the other if you move your head quickly to the side or look at the screen from the corner of your eye. If possible, you should check in advance with friends or immediately after purchasing online whether you are susceptible to this. Many viewers will not notice the effect. As an example, we have selected three bright projectors that are available for less than 500 euros and work with DLP technology (Acer and Optoma) or LCD technology (Epson).
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Projection surfaces
Cloths can be used as a screen, such as firmly stretched awnings in front of a wall. Single-colored roller blinds from the local Swedish furniture store are also suitable as a projection surface. Professional screens with a 100 inch diagonal (2.20 m wide) and 16:9 format are available from online retailers from around 100 euros. The so-called gain, in which the screens focus the light towards the audience, should not be less than 1, for outdoors it should be slightly higher. Outside, it is also advisable to hang the screen from the side with dark cloths or, even better, to move the projector under a canopy, carport or similar. Unprotected hanging projection screens are exposed to the wind, so interference is inevitable.
Ready to receive
The TV signals are streamed to the large screen on the move. ARD and ZDF broadcast all the German team's matches, the semi-finals and the final on free-to-air TV. The unencrypted TV signals can be received in the traditional way via satellite, cable or aerial, for example with a compact DVB-T2 receiver. They can also be streamed as an IP data stream via an app with an internet connection using inexpensive players such as an HDMI stick. No external players are required for the large TV, as it already has the tuners built in and also offers various streaming apps. Just in time for the start of the European Championships, we will measure the delays that occur on the various reception channels.
Streaming sticks and receivers
The best way to receive TV signals is via a satellite dish, as this is the fastest way to get the TV signals onto the screen. If you don't have a dish or simply want to be mobile, use a DVB-T2 receiver instead. The DVB-T2 signal can mainly be received in metropolitan areas. You can find out whether you live in a DVB-T2 reception area with the DVB-T2 HD reception check.
Good DVB-T2 receivers with a built-in Irdeto module are available from around 45 euros, passive rod antennas for 10 euros. If reception is too weak, an active antenna can help. The receiver is connected to the TV or projector via HDMI. The Irdeto module is required for decoding the private channels of ProSiebenSat1 and the RTL Group; a receiver without such a module is also sufficient for ARD and ZDF.
As an alternative to DVB reception, streaming sticks such as a FireTV or an Apple TV can also be connected to the display via HDMI. Then all you need is a stable Wi-Fi signal to receive the IP data stream and your private fan mile can begin.
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Mit Ihrer Zustimmmung wird hier ein externer Preisvergleich (heise Preisvergleich) geladen.
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(uk)
