Ideas about projection/projector

[Darrell KSR]

I know some of you probably use these things regularly, but I don't. I will have a presentaton in a few weeks where I thought it would be good to have a powerpoint presentation prepared. This facility probably has a projector I can use, but if not, I may want a backup projector myself.

I wouldn't use it much, so I wouldn't want to spend much on it. Plus I'd love for it to be fairly portable (would be great if it could just "ride" in a briefcase. With those two restrictions, the third "wish" is probably the difficult one; I'd like it to be able to project brightly, clearly, crisply, etc.

Any ideas? This may be something I buy soon; may be something I never buy. I think if I had one, I might use it for other things, though, in connection with my work. (I use projectors at the two schools in which I teach, but they have their own and I need nothing other than my wireless pointer.)

[dan_bgblue]

Likely more than you wish to spend, but I can highly recommend this one. I have used one for presentations for 3 years and it blows my previous one out of the water for clarity, brightness, ease of use and small light weight size. It is truly impressive how much projector they put in such a small package.

https://www.amazon.com/Casio-XJ-A142-Slim-Multi-Media-Projector/dp/B00LD00ANS

[PedroDaGr8]

Unfortunately, I don't know of any affordable ones that do a good job. Most of the affordable ones that I have seen are low resolution.

[KentuckyWildcat]

Portable, bright, decent sharpness does not equal affordable.

You can get new some Epson and Panasonics, I think 3500 lumens with 1 hdmi for about $800. (I pay $620 I think with educational pricing and can get you in touch with a Panasonic rep if you have educational account you are hoping to use?)

I'm scared of it, but my friend has bought some nice looking projectors on wish.com. Ebay might best your best bet.

[Darrell KSR]

Good info. I may see if I can get the place I hang my hat to get one I can use, I. E., spend their money.

It's a little more than I want to spend, but I figured close to that for anything, so that wasn't completely out of the question. But better if somebody else spends the money.

[CitizenBBN]

I hear good things about the Casio model series that Dan referenced, at least among the ultra portables.

I haven't had to use a portable in a while, but I had a casio and it did great. I got a Ben-Q for clients for some time but for the gallery I went with a Hitachi. Mine is likely way too big for you to use that way, but I mention it as a benchmark b/c it's 3,200 lumens which I found to be acceptable but not amazing, and it's ultra short throw so it's right up on the 6' screen and doesn't get in the way of the gallery space.

The point being that you need to look at throw ratio, which is how far the projector is from the screen for a given screen size. That proportion can be adjusted some on any projector, making the image larger or smaller, but they all have a range and you can pick which range you want. This one has a huge optical lens to get it that short, but I get a 6' image in just a few feet from the projector.

I always start with lumens and throw ratio. Lumens is a big deal if you're in bad light, but so is the contrast ratio, but IMO not like lumens.

Now the important part. For any comparisons use this site, THE site for projector research: www.projectorcentral.com

it is UNREAL how good this site is for picking projectors. Incredibly detailed and it even includes a built in throw calculator to figure out your distance for a given size screen. Includes about every model both current and discontinued.

So go there to get your answers, but also go there to get reviews and narrow your search by category. They have a whole section on pico projectors, another on pocket projectors, etc.

Can you tell I love their site? You just dont' find resources this thorough very often for a category.

[KentuckyWildcat]

Lumens is priority IMO As Citizen said, 3200 is a good start. Especially since you can't really control the lighting in most situations if this is "portable".

A true short throw is nice for light, but they are more $$$$ and can be hard to work with.

[CitizenBBN]

Lumens is priority IMO As Citizen said, 3200 is a good start. Especially since you can't really control the lighting in most situations if this is "portable".

A true short throw is nice for light, but they are more $$$$ and can be hard to work with.

It helped to amplify the lumens to have the short throw IMO, but it was as you said touchier to set up. A lot less forgiving on alignment and getting it squared up. Worth it for me, my ringmen can walk that area and no way they can disrupt the image but honestly for portable needs it's too close. usually you set up on the same table with your projector and computer, and that would be right at the screen.

I've been using these since 1,000 lumens was a really powerful portable so for me 3,200 is really way better, but I can see where more is still better. I still had to take out lights right around the screen, etc.

one other thing we haven't talked about is the technology and the benefits and life differences between DLP and LCD, etc. one thing I loved about the Hitachi I got was the 3 year warranty b/c the LCDs are really reliable.

[CitizenBBN]

BTW, mine has a great option that isn't too common (becoming more so), which is it works over wifi and hardwired and then the software on the computer sends the screen data over the network, so no VGA/hdmi cable. The benefit for me is distance, I can put the computer anywhere that drives it, after 15 feet or so the signal loss on video requires special cables, and IMO I still get much better quality with the digital network feed. I saw lines and a slight waviness in the image over video, it's solid as a rock using the network and software.

[KentuckyWildcat]

Have you seen the laser models? Had one demo the other day. Super sharp image at 5000 lumens. I feel in love. It had instant on and off with no cool down. 20,000 hour life.

But not cheap!

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G900A using Tapatalk

[KentuckyWildcat]

Also Epson sells a pretty small model that will auto keystone. Makes setup a breeze. I think the education price is around $800-850. So probably near $1,000 for consumers. I can find out if you need me to.

I'm sure others offer this feature. We have had good luck with Epson so that is mostly what we use with a few Panasonics mixed in.

[Darrell KSR]

Much appreciated.

Hey CBBN--that site you linked--they have some projectors that are very low cost, but SVGA. I assume they'd look horrible. What if the thing being projected was a simple powerpoint presentation, mostly text, a few graphics, no video. Would that be ok for that kind of thing?

Great site. But reminds me of the camera wars. I get lost in it :).

[CitizenBBN]

You can definitely get lost in that site. You can compare about anything on it and they have every projector ever made on there. it's a lot.

For simple business graphics SVGA is fine. Most projectors out there in use are still SVGA and for text and basic stuff it's fine. It's only if you get to video that it really matters IMO, and people have run video on it for many years and gotten by OK.

it would matter more about the lumens and contrast ratio of the projector itself, the SVGA wont' be your bottleneck for business type displays. HDMI is better of course, but not necessary. The best I've gotten by far is the over the network I use now, it is better than SVGA or HDMI.

[KentuckyWildcat]

Sharpness becomes an issue with Word and Excel documents. PowerPoint done correctly should be fine.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G900A using Tapatalk

[KeithKSR]

Much appreciated.

Hey CBBN--that site you linked--they have some projectors that are very low cost, but SVGA. I assume they'd look horrible. What if the thing being projected was a simple powerpoint presentation, mostly text, a few graphics, no video. Would that be ok for that kind of thing?

Great site. But reminds me of the camera wars. I get lost in it :).

It would look fine. I use the Epson in my classroom as a big screen TV and the picture looks great for video.

I have an Epson Powerlite 95 in my classroom, the last one I ordered for another teacher is this one: https://www.cdw.com/shop/products/Epson-PowerLite-98H-3000-Lumens-LCD-Projector/3605211.aspx?pfm=srh

3000 Lumens, HDMI, SVGA, plus RCA video inputs.

[KeithKSR]

Much appreciated.

Hey CBBN--that site you linked--they have some projectors that are very low cost, but SVGA. I assume they'd look horrible. What if the thing being projected was a simple powerpoint presentation, mostly text, a few graphics, no video. Would that be ok for that kind of thing?

Great site. But reminds me of the camera wars. I get lost in it :).

Most projectors are still connected with an SVGA cable. I also connect my DVD player thru an RCA video cable, no problems with sharpness.

My projector sees heavy use. It is on all day, every day and the picture is great.

[Darrell KSR]

Great suggestions, Keith, and excellent comments from all. Thanks much.

[KeithKSR]

Great suggestions, Keith, and excellent comments from all. Thanks much.

Avoid projectors with extremely high replacement bulb prices. I typically get Epson replacement bulbs off Amazon for about $50.