Chr8808

iTrader: (1)

I'm in need of a projector for some powerpoint slide shows but realized i also want to use it to project movies and stuff. Any sugestions on a projector that not too expensive (less than $2k?) or any specs i should be looking at?

TIA

c0v3rr1d3

iTrader: (4)

higher the lumen rating the better, but usually the nosier the fan. This going to be for home or in the work place or for travel. You can always build your own PJ for your home. I built for for around 1000 (including the 450 dollar screen) that will do 1280x720 HD.

Chr8808

iTrader: (1)

Its going to be used in a room maybe 30x30. Its not for traveling so portability is not an issue.

astro

it's all about the contrast ratio, moreso than the lumens IMO.

JediMindTricks

i just bought one for my church a few weeks ago.

as mentioned before, lumens is the first thing i looked for (well, after price. we had a max budget of $1200). yea, i guess the higher the better.

i also went to fry's because they had projectors and screens so you can see how bright and sharp each projector was. even when projectors have the same lumens/resolution/etc, they were all a little different.

also, i looked at how the menu screens were. some were easier to navigate and see than others.

we ended up buying an optima for $899 at best buy (came with a $100 gift card too).

JediMindTricks

good point.

mastertl

I would make one. It is cheaper and generally better. Don't go and buy one of those plans from Ebay. Try www.lumenlabs.com.

They have a lot of knowledegable and dedicated people to helping you build (and they also sell their own) which is significantly cheaper than anything else of equal standard in the market. The bulb alone lasts like 6000+ hours which is unheard of in the commercial projector market. I've never bought it before, but I have identical parts of that projector (I built my own)

If you read the forums www.lumenlabs.com/forums there will be plans to build your own and some of the people in the forums have actually made some really nice custom cases that they've decided to custom make for anyone who wants it (with a price of course =( ). In any case, I think lumenlabs is a great place to start even if you just want a little bit of information about projectors. Good luck.

If I had to choose between lumens and contrast ratio, I would go with contrast ratio. You just get a clearer overall picture. But everything equal, one of the other most important factors in getting a good picture is what you are projecting it on. If the light projected is reflecting off a shitty background, your colors will be distorted regardless of how bright or how high a contrast ratio you have. That said, invest in a nice projector screen if you are serious about this. They should be around 100-200 for a fairly decent one.

hornyleprechaun

I am glad that you started this thread. My Dad and I are interested in getting a projector for their new house. Thanks for the info mastertl I'll def. check that out since it sounds like a good deal.

mastertl

no problem. I am not sure if they operate on the same scales, as in I am not sure if they use lumens as a standard, so I would ask them to give a comparison. Throw them an email or something. However, I can only attest for the bulb and I can say that it is brighter than any home projector I've seen.

If any of you guys have questions, throw me a PM and I can give you some pointers.

And just as a sort of cliffnotes for how I did my projector

1. Stripped an 15 inch LCD monitor (doesnt have to be expensive) and took the actual LCD (very thin) and there are a few that are "better" than others in terms of cable placement and there is a list on that forum. If you don't have old monitors lying around, I suggest finding one on Craigslist. I got mine for under 50.

2. Buy a kit from the Store. It will come with a bulb, fresnal, ballast and a few other things you'll be needing

3. Build your own case using the designs (with detailed specifications from the site) or go wild.

4. Get a projector screen.

Overall, if you are starting from scratch, I'd say be prepared to spend around 400+ not including the projector screen. If you are looking to get HD quality, find a monitor with high contrast ratio and it should be at least 17inchs.

hornyleprechaun

Wow that sounds really simple and affordable.. I can't wait to talk to my Dad about this

moeronn

^^ FYI - I think the links above are slightly off. Try www.lumenlab.com and www.lumenlab.com/forums

mastertl

It isn't actually "easy." It is one of those things that are easy to do but requires a lot of work. I can help you out if you have specific questions.

Oh and thanks for correcting my link. I am used to the plural because that was how my friend and I referred to it when we built our projector.

Slinks

presentation projector and movie projector are two different beasts...

presentation, lumens is important because you're typically showing it with the lights on. things like refresh rate mean nothing since powerpoint slides dont move around.

movies, lumens is irrelevant as all home theater projectors are bright enough to display in a dark room...contrast, speed of color wheel (if dlp), resolution are much more important...

i'd suggest go to avs forum, start reading the threads, and check out projectorcentral.com.

Also there's no reason to build your own (unless you want some personal satisfaction), because you won't really save any money -- The packaging is going to be bigger than a digital projector, it probably wont look as nice, there'll be less features, and the image quality wont be as good as a projector that costs the same)..

I havent kept up to date with prices, but an Infocus IN72 can probably be found for 600 if you look around, and it makes a great low-end home theater projector.

mastertl

Slinks, it is true that homemade ones will probably not look as nice although that is not always true. The other problem is upkeep/replacement of bulbs for those smaller commercial projectors. They usually run costs of at least 100 per replacement and they last only several hundred hours. The bulb at lumenlab is only 30 or 40 and lasts thousands.

I guess the features part is pretty on the dot. With a self made one, you are likely going to get less configuration but for what its worth, a movie projector should just project movies. As long as it can focus and gives a great picture, thats fine with me.

That said, it is always nice to have another side of the argument.

Slinks

master, I agree with the bulbs..I checked out that lumen labs website, and a $30 bulb is pretty sweet.

That said, a commercial projector's bulb is set to last 3-4000 hours...Which, for the average person is long enough such that by the time it blows, the projector will be worthless anyways...Now if it blows prematurely (which is possible), most companies don't warranty the bulb for more than a couple months, so there's always a risk that you'll be stick paying $300 for a new bulb 3 months after you bought the projector.

Btw, glad to see you didnt take offense, some ppl have really strong feelings about their DIY projects. If you got the skill, you know it'll come out better for cheaper, or you're into experimenting, the DIY route is always fun.

ChodTheWacko

Cheaper? Sure.
Better? Uhhhh, that's pretty debatable. Maybe in terms of bulb life.
Better bang/buck on the lower end, perhaps.

If you want to watch movies, contrast is more important than lumens.
If you have good light control when you watch movies, you don't need much brightness at all.

If you are thinking long term, you want HDMI.
Blu-ray/HD-DVD (not sure about HDTV) will eventually only play through HDMI.

Figure out where your projector is going to go, and make sure your projector has the lens zoom to show a nice sized image at that resolution. I'd recommend 2.5x screen width back, and work your way to a larger image.

For regular projectors, Lens shift is important if the projector is sitting on a shelf behind you. Otherwise you will need to hang the projector from the ceiling (which is ideal anyway), or it will be in front of you, which probably means a small image.

Biggest problems with a DIY would be contrast ratio (depends on the monitor), and less flexability of where you put it.

At the $2000 price range, you definitely want 720 vertical resolution.

Too bad you just missed the rebate on the panasonic PT-ax100u, how about the sanyo plv-z5?

Chr8808

iTrader: (1)

Any feedback on this model?

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...257&CatId=1759

c0v3rr1d3

iTrader: (4)

Lumenlab is the way i went. I've built 2 projectors so far. Both are 720p widescreen with a res of 1280x800, native 720p is 1280x720 so very minimal black bars top and bottom.

Link to my projecto plog on lumenlab It projects over 120" diagonal image at about 14 feet away. The camera doesn't do justice to the pics at the end of the plog

With homemade projectors its the lower lumens that gets you but with the right screen, you would never know. That forum has a wealth of insight and there are many different ways to build it, i belive the first one i built cost under 500 in parts and less than 600 when all is said and done with wood, screws, etc.

Woot has a PJ for 899 right now, but its only xga but very high lumen output.

As for contrast all u need to do is find an LCD monitor with a high contrast rating, if u want, and you will have a high contrast projector. Most lcds regardless of their contrast rating will have better contrast and allow more light though once you remove the antiglare from it anyways.

Another advantage of homemade PJ as stated above is the cheaper light bulb replacement. A lamp in a homemade PJ will cost 30-50 bucks where as commercial projector bulbs can be well over 100 to replace even on ebay.

hornyleprechaun

Is this any good?

http://lumenlab.com/store/

bent09

iTrader: (1)

If I was looking for a projector for basically watching the games in the back yard would this do?

http://www.infocus.com/Products/Projectors/IN74EX.aspx

SiGGy

If your talking actual measured contrast at the screen I agree. But most of the numbers you find from the manufacturers are just BS. Like some of them are measured inside the projector. Some with the projector full off to full on... I take all the "specs" with a grain of salt. But if someone has an actual light gauge or colorimeter to measure that's different.

Slinks

Back yard as in night time? How big of a screen do you plan on making? Try the Pannasonic AX200. I'd pass on that Infocus. There's much better projectors out there for the price.
LCD -- Pannasonic AX200($1400), Sanyo Z3($1100), Sony AW15 ($1050) -- all 720p
DLP -- Sharp, Marantz have great formerly high end 720p projectors that can be had fo $1500 when found on-sale/on-ebay

I own the Sony...If I was going to buy today, I'd probably go with the Pannasonic (its a really bright projector)

bent09

iTrader: (1)

Thanks for the advice! I am looking for something for my covered padio area and 90% night time. What I like about the projector vs a tv outside is the ability to take it in when I am done with it. The screen really only needs to be 40-55 inches.

I will look at the Panasonic.

Slinks

If you're looking for a 40-55" screen, you're better off buying a plasma/lcd tv -- better quality for the price (unless the mobility issue is huge). The point where projectors become advantageous is over 50" (for flat panels) and 65 inches (for Rear projection) -- since at these sizes the TV prices start to shoot sky high, whereas projector pricing remains constant -- if you buy the Panny AX200, the cost to display on a 40" screen is the same as the cost to display on a 108" screen (except the screen might cost $200 instead of $100)

Honestly, if you're going to have a projector outdoors (or indoors), I'd go with a 92"+ screen, 80" at a minimum. Watching movies on my 92" projection screen is much cooler than watching movies on my 50" tv. And it wows the crowds too.

As for screens, just display it straight onto white/gray wall/surface, or in your case, you could buy one of the pull-up (or pull down) screens, so you can move it from indoors to outdoors as needed.

Slinks

Also, check out Projector Central . They have rankings of projectors by category, reviews, and the 'street pricing' numbers are fairly accurate

Another factor is throw distance -- how far back the projector has to be to create the image you want. One reason I bought the Sony AW15 is because it had the shortest throw of the projectors I was considering (Sony, Sanyo Z5, Panny AX100), and the technology inside of it was newer. The downside to the Sony is that its not as bright as the other projectors (a non issue in the dark, an issue if you want to watch during the day) They all have vertical/horizontal lens shift as well, so it makes it easy to to just place the projector on a table, and turn the dials until the picture matches up with the screen.