> Hardware that by most metrics is technically better
I think that's a hard one to sell with projectors. Picture quality is substantially worse, and images are substantially less bright, than with TVs. People buy TVs on 3 axes: price, image, and smart features. Here we explicitly don't want the smart features, but TVs are much cheaper and much better image quality (even at that much cheaper price) than with projectors. Brightness matters a lot for where/when you can use them.
Projector image quality is great, what kinds of projectors are you referencing? Image quality per dollar is a win for TVs but it's not that bad. $3k for a nice movie projector isn't crazy especially given the screen size.
And I agree that brightness is an issue but if you "only" want a 65-80" screen then even modest ceiling mount projectors can pump out enough light to compete with daylight.
Projector image quality depends on the surface you're projecting onto, the angle you're projecting at, and the light in the room. Maybe the difference is less around $3k, but that's not most people's budget for a TV. Personally I have disposable income and care about image, and spent A$1k on a TV that I'm very happy with. I don't believe there's any comparable projector for less than twice that price.
I bought a ~700 EUR Projector 10 years ago and I still think the quality is fine @ 100". (870 EUR in todays money)
I do have full light control though. But yes, no 4k, no HDR, fan noise, ~20 seconds startup, cooldown on poweroff. I do wonder how well a 10 year old TV would hold up.
PQ is the problem with all of the supposed solutions in this thread. Computer displays, video conferencing displays, commercial advertising displays, and other "dumb" displays all look like junk for watching video content, and using external devices to drive them from the streaming apps on the other platform introduces another level of uncertainty about whether the picture is being processed optimally.
A nerd friend of mine proudly showed me his dumb TV streaming rig and the picture quality was smoking hot garbage, worse than anything I've seen in the hi-def era. But he sure knew a lot about the software licenses.
Gotta be honest, if we're talking about picture quality where plugging-in a
laptop with HDMI or
using a Chromecast is of unacceptable quality then we've lost the plot a little when it
comes to how real humans consume media.
I think that's a hard one to sell with projectors. Picture quality is substantially worse, and images are substantially less bright, than with TVs. People buy TVs on 3 axes: price, image, and smart features. Here we explicitly don't want the smart features, but TVs are much cheaper and much better image quality (even at that much cheaper price) than with projectors. Brightness matters a lot for where/when you can use them.