Digital Projectors

[txctxc]

Has any one purchased a digital projector within the pasted year for the purpose of presenting PTE Audio Visuals to, say, a group of about 30 ? I am looking for one priced at £1000 to £1500 . That would be slightly more in US dollars, although when purchasing items marked in dollars we seem to pay about the same in GB pounds here in the UK. Any advise would be most welcome.

I am new to the forum, but have been reading the postings for a long time which I have enjoyed.

By the way of introduction I have been active in amateur photography for about 35 years. I still have my own dark room but not used now. Mono and colour prints are now more easily produced digitally. I have several AVs constructed the old way. Recently I scanned the slides of two short ones and reconstructed them with PTE. Also made a new one with digital images.

Look forward to some feed back.

Regards Ted

[LumenLux]

Welcome Ted,

I can not voice on the projector, but I think many would be interested in viewing your slide shows. I presume you are aware of Beechbrook.com where Bill hosts shows or links to your shows?

[gogs]

Hi Ted

I am a member of a local Camera Club and we have always presented a twin projector AV show at our annual exhibition.

Last year we purchased a digital projector as a means of moving forward into digital AV. The projector is an Infocus 4805 DLP, although I think this model may now be superceded. It cost at the time around £1200. The quality is excellent. We used it for the first time in our exhibition in March 2004 when we presented an hours show half with traditional slides and a half digitally with a series of P2E sequences. The response was amazing.

In our search for the projector we considered both LCD and DLP projectors and opted for the DLP which I think projects better onto a big screen (with LCD you can more readily see a grid effect on the screen).

There are lots of differnet makes and models out there so choice is not easy. But I could certainly recommend Infocus.

gogs

[txctxc]

Thanks for the two replies. I have no objections to uploading my AVs,at least the digital one as it not from copied slides. My one concern would be copyright issues of the 6 minute classical music track. I believe there are no such issues if it for personal use and /or not for personal gain. Is this correct?

The current model of the Infocus 4805 projector is for wide screen presentations(wsvga). I have been mainly researching XGA ie 1024 X768. Please tell me gogs whether your Club's Infocus 4805 is wsvga, and if so what size digital images are accepted from members. I am a long time member of my local Camera Club.

Rgds. Ted

[ronwil]

Ted

Have a look at my website (below) and select Information>4. Equipment..... where you will see a Plus U3-1080 Digital Projector (XGA resulution 1024x768) sitting atop the Royale Projection System. I do not know if the projector is the current model, but the system has been and is being used for digital projection at both the International and National AV Festivals in the UK. So it may be one worth considering, but you will have to search the Web for more details.

Ron [uK]

[jgayman]

I have been producing PTE slideshows and presenting them to groups ranging from 100-300 people. I've done some shows with a Toshiba TDP-T3 and more recently purchased a NEC LT245 DLP projector. Both my laptop and projector have a native resolution of 1024x768 and as such, this is the resoluton that I resize all my images for.

These shows are typically season-end presentations for high school sports banquets.

[The oldie]

I have recently got a very nice DLP Projector, which is a Hewlett Packard model HP VP6200. This machine is XGA (1024 x 768) resolution. Very good spec with 2000 ansi lumens and 2000:1 contrast . Very small neat machine with carry handle.Small credit card sized remote which has all the adjustments for colour, contrast,

brightness etc. It also has an eco setting which seems to me to be still very nice and bright. This they say gives the lamp 4000 hours from the standard 2000.

It weighs just 2.8 kg and is very small and neat. You can see the spec on HP's own website. I got it at a very good price from www.misco.co.uk. (Much cheaper than the HP website shop). I am not sure whether you are in UK but Misco probably deal elsewhere.

Hope this helps. Good luck.

Alan in UK

[Gérard de Lux]

I have (as well as several friends) the BenQ 6210 and I'm very happy with it (I have made several projections with audiences of 100+).

I'm member of two camera clubs; one has the Optoma 6150 (1 year old) and another one the Nec HT1000 (almost 2 years old). Both give full satisfaction as well (the Nec having been used for the projections of an international festival).

[gogs]

Ted

The In-focus 4805 we have at our Camera Club is SVGA. AV shows are presented with digital images 1024 x 768 pixels saved in JPEG compression quality 6. The images look superb. I believe the Club also has some sort of licence to cover use of music. I not sure what the position is regarding use of music elsewhere or when uploading to somewhere like Beechbrook. Perhaps others can advise better on that.

gogs

[txctxc]

Thank you all for your replies, two from gogs. It is interesting that no two projectors have been mentioned more than once, and all of you are satisfied with your purchases.

I have spoken to two on line retailers. Projectors getting a mention were the NEC LT245, Plus U5632, Infocus ( I forget which model ) and the Mitsubish XD 400 was mentioned twice.

I am happy to share the above information.Thanks again.

Ted.

[alrobin]

Has anyone had any experience with or knowlege of the new Canon "Realis SX50" projector?

It's SXGA, so would be able to do justice to AV sequences produced with 1200 x 960 pixel images. It also uses LCOS technology which is supposed to provide a high-density range. A little pricey, but the prices are coming down gradually.

[Barry Beckham]

I have a Mitsubish XD 400 and did a seminar in a lecture theatre in March where we projected onto a screen that is normally used for movies.

Its huge and so we made use of the size and flatness of the screen and projected a huge image, The Mitsubish XD 400 worked a treat, very bright and able to create a massive picture on screen, good enough for 200 people to view comfortably.

Barry

[dahol]

Hi I belong to a local Photographic Soc. and we have recently purchased an NEC LT 425 which I have used on a few occassions. It seems to work very well and is easy to set up.

Hope this helps.

[JEB]

Sorry, I can’t provide any info on above other than that available on the web.

However, I am also interested as I will soon be looking to purchase a projector and it seems to me that it may be worth bighting the bullet and going for this or some other 1400x1050 projector, particularly when I read the thread initiated by Igor “Maximum Quality Images for Slide Shows”. It would seem that 1280x960 is gaining support.

Can someone please enlighten me or am I being naïve in assuming that preparing a show in PTE at 1280x960 and projecting it via a 1280x960 laptop with a 1400x1050 projector will give an improved quality over a show prepared at 1024x768 (or, 1280x960 – see above mentioned thread)) and projected with a 1024x768 projector?

[Ronniebootwest]

The Mitisubishi XD400 will take a lot of beating. It has the best 'lamp life' of all of them - replacing a lamp can be a very expensive business for most projectors. Check the life and cost of replacement first!!!

[jgayman]

Can someone please enlighten me or am I being naïve in assuming that preparing a show in PTE at 1280x960 and projecting it via a 1280x960 laptop with a 1400x1050 projector will give an improved quality over a show prepared at 1024x768 (or, 1280x960 – see above mentioned thread)) and projected with a 1024x768 projector?

It really depends on the projector. Even on a 15-foot screen, a BRIGHT 1024x768 projector operating in native mode can produce images that are breathtaking.

The brightness of the projector is almost as important as the resolution. A 1400x1050 projector with 3000+ lumens is going to be VERY expensive.....and large.... and heavy. I really doubt if the image quality advantage will outweigh the incredible cost.

Of equal importance is the color management of the projector. My 2200 lumen NEC LT245 has a sRGB mode which creates images which virtually match what is shown on the laptop screen. However, like most projectors with a similar mode, the brightness is reduced to around 1100 lumens when used in this mode. I didn't realize this when I bought the projector. When I set the projector to normal mode the colors are not nearly as accurate and whites have a tendency to get blown out. Keep in mind the intended purpose of most projectors is for Powerpoint presentations where accurate color is not an issue.

[JDoran]

Hi,

I am also looking to purchase an AV projector. I have read most of the threads on this topic on the forum - all very helpful.

Can someone clarify how important the audio output is? Although an occasional projector has stereo output most are mono and less than 1 watt. Is the audio output not important?

Jane

[Ronniebootwest]

Hi,

Can someone clarify how important the audio output is? Although an occasional projector has stereo output most are mono and less than 1 watt. Is the audio output not important?

Jane

Yes of course the audio is important! If you have excellent video and only average audio, then you have only second best. I agree with you, most projectors have totally insufficient audio capability. For my part, I feed the audio into a separate amplifier and speakers so that I can totally control the output. This is absolutely necessary if you intend to show your slide shows to larger audiences, e.g. at your local camera club.

[alrobin]

Jane,

Did you mean "how important is audio as a feature of the projector", or just "how important is audio in the slideshow"?

The digital projectors we use in our photo clubs don't have an audio capability at all, but audio is provided by connecting the laptop or pc to an amplifier and from there to speakers. When watching a show at home on my pc, the audio is provided through the sound card to my external amp and speakers.

As Ronnie says, though, audio is definitely an important part of AV.

[JDoran]

Al,

Obvious solution - when you think about it!!

That opens up the choice of projector again. Thanks

Jane

[txctxc]

Al,

Obvious solution - when you think about it!!

That opens up the choice of projector again. Thanks

Jane

Hello Jane,

Refering back to my previous post on this topic,I have purchased the Mitsubishi XD400. I have not yet properly used it on the computer side because it is a bit difficult to access my desk top computer. Playing a DVD is fine.

This week I shall decide which Laptop to purchase. There is a far greater choice on wide screen laptops ,not so many on the 4x3 format ie XGA 1024x768. I suppose it is advisable to stay with XGA 1074x 768, but I am advised that it is not essential to do so.

Regarding audio, I shall be looking into the possibility picking up audio from a USB port by use of a USB adapter at a cost of about £30. This by passes the sometimes "iffy" sound card in some laptops therefore giving better audio. All that is then required is powered speakers , which need not be too expensive, thus avoiding the need for a sometimes bulky amplifier. Try a search on Goolge usuing USB AUDIO.

Ted

[JDoran]

Hi Ted,

On the subject of choosing a suitable laptop for displaying av on projector - I was recently advised to get a laptop that enabled a dual display on the monitor.

It was suggested that this would enable the slideshow to be displayed on one half of the monitor screen while the other half of the monitor displayed, for example, a document with speakers notes. (The projector would only display the av)

Do you/anyone have experience of such a facility and what to look for in the laptop spec - is it a function of the video card?

Jane

[apepper]

Has anyone had any experience with or knowlege of the new Canon "Realis SX50" projector?

It's SXGA, so would be able to do justice to AV sequences produced with 1200 x 960 pixel images. It also uses LCOS technology which is supposed to provide a high-density range. A little pricey, but the prices are coming down gradually.

If its the same, our camera group just bought the Canon Xeed SX50. We're very impressed with the sharpness and quality of the image. The only real drawback is that most laptops don't have a resolution that's as high as the projector, so it makes it awkward to "mirror" the laptop screen on the projector - which I imagine is how most people use PTE. We're still learning though!

-Andrew

[alrobin]

If its the same, our camera group just bought the Canon Xeed SX50.

-Andrew

Andrew,

Welcome to the Forum!

That sounds like the one. We have been promised a demo unit to test out at our AV SuperCircuit Festival in November. Thanks for the tip re the laptop. We'll probably use a desktop model to run the shows in order to provide ample processor power.

Hey, the quotes worked this time. I clicked on "Reply" instead of "Quote".

[alrobin]

I noticed that Dell have a new native SXGA projector out now - the 5100MP.

3,300 lumens (pretty bright, but has a power-saver function).

Uses DLP technology; density range: 2500:1.

$4,499 (CDN) - per their latest flier.

Anyone have any experience with this one?