Halp Me [Projector]

Chanus

Hey buddies.

I've been tasked at work with buying a projector. I know nothing about projectors beyond light goes in, light goes out, you can't explain that.

This will be for a conference room , so it doesn't have to be too robust or fancy. Low end that's not going to break in a year is fine. Will need to be able to hook up to a laptop, though I imagine that's a standard feature.

Any suggestions?

Bartholamue

What's your budget?

Chanus

Whatever it costs, I suppose, though glancing at prices around the internets, I'd say probably under $500?

bowen

http://www.amazon.com/Optoma-HD20-Theater-Projector-Version/dp/B002G0CWSU

$500 is probably a wee bit low if you want quality of any kind. Although I really have no idea what I'm talking about but there's a lot of them of varying reviews and lumens and all that.

Chanus

Quality is not really as important as "does it work" and "will it break in a year".

We'll probably use it four times. It's one of those "boss has a wild hair" kind of things. I just don't want it to be a piece of crap.

Djeet

What will it be used for? For movies I'd do a 1080P projector. But for presentations (ppt, pptx) it seems like 4:3 aspect is the norm and 1024x768 res is better for legibility. I don't know why, but it seems like every ppt been presented to me is still in 4:3.

Rderdall

Check this website out. They're our go-to site for information on projectors. Looks like option 2 in this top 10 list is within your budget.

Bartholamue

You could probably get away with a $500 projector, though the resolution will be XGA (1024x768) or 1280x720. 1080p resolution projectors go for over $1000.

bowen

Yeah if it's not for HD level stuff, XGA will be fine and $500 should do ya. You'll probably also want to grab a screen for it too.

Chanus

Djeet wrote: »

What will it be used for? For movies I'd do a 1080P projector. But for presentations (ppt, pptx) it seems like 4:3 aspect is the norm and 1024x768 res is better for legibility. I don't know why, but it seems like every ppt been presented to me is still in 4:3.

Yeah, mostly ppt stuff I would think.

Rderdall wrote: »

Check this website out. They're our go-to site for information on projectors. Looks like option 2 in this top 10 list is within your budget.

Cool, I'll give that a look

Bartholamue wrote: »

You could probably get away with a $500 projector, though the resolution will be XGA (1024x768) or 1280x720. 1080p resolution projectors go for over $1000.

Low res probably isn't a big deal. It'll be used in a room against a wall that's at most maybe eight feet away from someone.

hsu

In general, the biggest cost in a projector is how bright it is. That's what you end up paying for. A cheap projector tends to be only usable in dark rooms.

Djeet

Here are a few options:
brightest for the money, but not great bulb life (bulbs are expensive)
bright for the money, but decent bulb life
bright and half as loud as the other BenQ

These are all probably cheaper on Amazon, but the linked site provides all the tech specs while Amazon is usually spotty on that.

Also you might want to visit ProjectorCentral.com. They have a cool calculator that shows projected image size and estimated brightness for a given throw distance.

Edit: ProjectorPeople looks to have the same throw/diagonal calculator as a link in the specs for each model, just didn't see it.