P5 panels or a TV for video matrix, which way would you go?

I run a 3x2 array of P5 panels behind my mega tree and the brightness at night is hard to beat, but I paid for that with alot of wiring and a power supply that needs its own dedicated circuit. The panels look crisp from the street, though, even at 60 feet away, and they hold up in heat without complaint. My neighbor went the TV route two winters ago with an older 55 inch in a plywood cabinet with a clear acrylic front, and honestly it reads fine after dark. Where it falls apart is dusk, when the screen is still not bright enough to punch through ambient light, so his show looks weak until the sun fully drops. He also learned the hard way that a cheap TV will cycle its backlight settings on its own and you cannot lock it down, so half his sequences run dim. If I were starting over at your scale I would probaly still build panels, but I would buy them in stages, four panels one year and add more later, so the cost sting spreads out instead of hitting all at once.

I've got a 65 inch TV in a weatherproof box on my display and honestly I don't think I'd go back to panels. I built the enclosure out of a couple of sheets of insulated foam board and 2x4s, with a clear acrylic front cut to size. The TV was a cheap off-brand model I got on clearance, and I keep a small vent fan running off a thermostat strip inside the box to pull hot air out during the summer months. That's been the difference between it surviving and cooking itself.

The thing that surprised me most is how good it looks from the road. My setup sits about 45 feet back and the image reads fine once I bump the brightness up and pick content with high contrast. Where it falls apart is during dusk and the hour before, when the panel can't compete with the sky. My bullet matrix carries that window, then the TV takes over once it gets properly dark. One thing to check before you buy anything: make sure the TV you pick has a menu option to keep it on at all times and skip any sleep timer nonsense, because some models won't stay on without a signal. I also power it through a smart plug so it wakes with the rest of the show. My only real regret is that I cheaped out on the acrylic and it hazed after a season, so I'd spend a bit more there.

I have to push back on the claim that P5s 'hold up in heat without complaint.' Mine cook in direct afternoon sun every summer and the panels nearest the top fade noticeably faster than the bottom ones. Heat is exactly why I'd be careful with any of this gear, not just TVs in a box. Maybe your setup gets shade, but mine doesn't, so I'd factor in how the sun hits your yard before picking either route.

That dusk problem is real, I saw it with a buddy's setup too, but the bigger issue he ran into was glare off the acrylic front. He used regular clear sheet at first and every car that turned onto the street bounced a reflection right across the screen untill he swapped in the anti-glare stuff. Cost him maybe twenty bucks extra and made a huge difference from the road.

I ran a projector for a couple seasons before switching to a small panel array, and the thing that killed the projector was ambient light too. My media player was the real fix in the end, a cheap box that let me disable every auto picture mode so the screen stopped dimming itself halfway thru a sequence. If you go the TV route, check wether your model lets you lock picture settings before you buy, that's the part that bit me. From the street at night a TV can look surprisingly decent, but I'd test one outside after dark before committing to building the whole enclosure.

One thing I'd add from running a TV out front is the cold side of it. Mine gets sluggish when it dips below freezing, the screen takes a while to warm up and the colors look off for the first little bit. Not a dealbreaker here since our snaps are short, but if yours hits hard freezes you might notice it. Also, has anyone tried mounting panels on a slight angle instead of flat? Wondering if that helps with the dusk washout.