OT Advice Sought on Projectors

[bert]

Anyone in here have any experience in this field. Looking at budget up to £500 for use in a meeting room holding 60 - 70 people. Screen is approx 3 metres wide, Projector will sit about 4 metres away. Used largely for Powerpoint presentations and pictures. Not for home movies or 3D. There just seems to be zillions of manufacturers and models. Two have been recommended by one supplier Acer P1510 TCO and INFOCUS IN2126a. The latter has a lot of onboard capability so doesn't always need a laptop to drive it. To be portable not fixed. Any help appreciated

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Why would any need a laptop to drive it? They are basically AV devices so should work from any suitable video signal.

[Martin Brown]

Main thing to consider are brightness (and price of the lamp) and noise level when run at full brightness if it will be used in daytime. I have found one or two otherwise good and bright projectors spoilt by the incessant and distracting whine of the cooling fan.

Worth looking through a few reviews to see which would best suit the usage that you have planned for it. Brightness and low acoustic noise would be the things that I would look at for a general purpose one.

The odd one includes a built-in DVD player or USB/sD media port and can operate in stand alone mode with no external signal input needed.

[charles]

I remember researching for a big projector some 10 years ago. I'd seen shots of the Union Jack projected onto the Tower of London. "Ah - that projector was about the size of a Mini - and twice as noisy."

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Do you remember the early TV projectors as used in the studios many years ago? Eidophor?

There were several B&W ones in the UK - but IIRC, only one colour one in Europe. Think it needed a three phase supply. Pretty good, though.

[Gordon Henderson]

The laptops, running powerpoint, etc. generates the video signal to feed into the projector to project into the big screen...

My wife's recently bought one - InFocus is the brand. Cost her under ?300 IIRC. It has a built in speaker - which is OK, but she usually takes a set of powered PC speakers with it.

She used it today in a village hall of 60 people without any issues.

It's a basic unit, but has VGA and HDMI input - it's 720p via HDMI as far as I could make out (when I plugged a Raspberry Pi into it just to check!)

I've seen posher units and posh driver software from laptops, etc. wi-fi connectivity, etc.

Gordon

[Martin Brown]

I recall there was one in our newest university lecture theatre and ISTR that it relied on rotating oiled disks and that you could often see the odd defect in the resulting projected image.

Monochrome only - a sort of pale blue green if memory serves.

[charles]

I think they need a special screen. Used by the BBC in public places, tto, like Trafalgar Square.

[charles]

Any laptop ought to be able to drive a projector, provided they have compatible input/output signal types. Older laptops tend only to have SVGA; mine 3 years old also has HDMI. New laptops sometimes only have HDMI. So look for a projector that has both. Our village Hall has just got itself (with grant-aid) a projector from InFocus (IN3138) which seems to perform very well. It can take both video standards. It's about 4 metres from the screen which is about 5 m wide. The hall is a bit biggerthan yours since it can seat 120 people.

[bert]

In message , charles writes

Probably just outside the budget I fear - although I could have bought the Mini in 1959 I think

[bert]

In message , "Dave Plowman (News)" writes

I don't think our local library has 3 phase. Maybe when we move to the new Lifestyle centre.

[bert]

In message , Gordon Henderson writes

Thanks Gordon. The ones I'm considering have higher resolution, Brightness is 3000 lumens Also USB connectivity.

[bert]

In message , charles writes

Thanks Charles I'll look it up The laptop is a new Acer with various outputs HDMI, USB Bluetooth Ethernet etc

[Bruno]

My personal preferences in order:

1. Bell & Howell
2. Bolex
3. Rank Aldis

hth.

[js.b1]

Generally pretty simple...

#1 - Resolution to ideally match your source, eg, if laptop XGA (1024x768) or WXGA (1280x800 etc).

Having the two different can get tedious re WYSINWYG in terms of your lapto p screen and the projected screen and realise the bigger the image the chun kier the pixels get.

Also realise "downscaling" such as 1024x768 shrunk down to 800x600 can be p retty awful - so go by genuine resolution rather than any tricks with your bar charts etc.

#2 - Display technology re LCD DLP etc

Simpler technology can be cheaper re capital & bulb consumables, but poorer image quality.

#3 - Brightness is a huge factor

Bright image in a daylight lit room is still expensive, reasonable image in a darkened room much less. This directly affects size / cost / bulb price & longevity. Simple projectors use a cheap bulb, not so good colour, low lu mens and reasonable life (even LED projectors) - step up to high lumens and the BULB will cost more than the cheap projectors and has a short life.

#4 - Size/Weight/Noise

Ultralight compact LCD Daylight SXGA is going to cost a lot more than a che ap LED unit, but is a different market.

Read the Amazon reviews carefully and consider the actual usage.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Like a DVD player? Or STB?

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Yes - that's the sort of principle they used

The TV ones were a reasonable B&W. I only ever saw the colour one at IBC - projecting HD pictures on to the same screen in a medium sized cinema as a

35mm projector. Before the days of LCD etc units. I believe it cost a fortune.

[meow2222]

Yes, Kalee brand IIRC. The carbon arc lighting needed frequent adjustment, the rods don't last long, and you need a ducted fan to remove the toxic fum es. And be careful with the huge mercury rectifiers. Ah, powerpoint, maybe not.

NT

[dennis]

Since when could you annotate the slides when using a DVD player? If you want to do the same thing repeatedly then a DVD player or a USB stick is fine, usually there is more to a presentation than that. If there isn't then just distribute the DVD and do something more useful than presenting it.

[John Rumm]

3000 Lumen is quite usable in subdued daylight. Some years ago we did a rear projection setup for an estate agent's window using a 3K lumen projector (an Optoma IIRC). Since it was a slightly sheltered location we found we could run it in eco mode (about 500 lumen down on max brightness) even in full daylight: